The FTC has now decided, on a full evidentiary record, that OTA's evidence did not support its old claims — and has rewritten OTA's future marketing. Anyone still being shown pre-2020 OTA sales material is being shown what the FTC has already prohibited.
1. The claim they sold
Online Trading Academy (“OTA”) sold multi-day “investment training” programs priced at up to roughly $50,000 per enrollment. Sales decks, radio infomercials and seminars taught consumers that OTA's proprietary “strategy” could reliably identify high-probability trades and that graduates could realistically expect large, recurring profits. Testimonials and instructor bios pointed to claimed trading success. Salespeople were styled as “education counselors.” When students signed up on financing and then asked for refunds, OTA's form contracts included clauses discouraging or restricting negative reviews and communications with regulators.
2. The record
On September 15, 2020, the FTC announced a stipulated final order resolving its case against OTA and individual defendants Eyal Shachar (founder), Darren Kimoto, and Samuel R. Seiden, among others. Under the settlement, OTA is required to offer debt forgiveness to thousands of consumers who financed their enrollment; OTA and the individual defendants are prohibited from making earnings claims without written substantiation; the company is barred from calling salespeople “education counselors” or misrepresenting that instructors are active, successful traders; and the company is barred from using non-disparagement and gag clauses.
The stipulated order includes a $362 million monetary judgment, which is partially suspended due to inability to pay; the unsuspended cash and assets turned over by the principals total between approximately $5 million and $9.1 million plus vehicles (including, per the FTC press release, a Cessna 400 airplane, a Bentley, and other items) assigned to consumer redress. The full suspended portion becomes immediately due if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.
This is a stipulated civil settlement, not a criminal adjudication. The order's allegations are deemed true only for purposes of the civil proceeding; no criminal case is documented in the public FTC record reviewed here.
3. What it means for a buyer
“Stipulated” means the defendants agreed to the order without admitting or denying the allegations (except as to the court's jurisdiction), and the judge made it binding. The legal effect for OTA is real: a federal court order controlling how OTA can market and what it can claim. For a buyer, the practical lesson is that the FTC has now decided, on a full evidentiary record, that OTA's evidence did not support its old claims — and has rewritten OTA's future marketing. Anyone still being shown pre-2020 OTA sales material is being shown what the FTC has already prohibited.
4. Current standing
OTA continues to operate under the FTC order. Per the FTC's refund program, in 2021 the FTC mailed approximately $5.4 million in refund checks to affected consumers.