KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ A Kansas City sweepstakes that never had a winner now has its latest loser. The group behind the operation will forfeit $30 million to the Federal Trade Commission and the Missouri attorney general to settle a civil lawsuit.
The FTC announced that Next-Gen and a series of affiliates are now banned from the prize promotion business and will turn over millions of dollars in assets that include luxury vacation homes, a yacht and a Bentley automobile in what the commission calls the largest forfeiture order obtained against a bogus sweepstake operator.
The full settlement amount is $114.7 million, but the FTC agreed to suspend the total amount as long as the defendants forfeit $30 million in cash and assets.
The FTC sued Next-Gen and others in 2018, accusing the companies of targeting older people with deceptive mail that told its recipients that they had or probably would win up to $2 million if they sent in a fee of $9 to $140.
Other mail invited recipients to play what was described as "games of skill" for a fee that were difficult math problems that the FTC said few, if anyone, could solve.
The lawsuit alleged that Kansas City businessmen Kevin Brandes, William Graham and Charles Floyd Anderson were behind the swindle that started in 2013.
The settlement agreement has a court-appointed receiver in charge of winding down the companies and liquidating assets belonging to the defendants. The proceeds would then go to victims of the scam.
