Anthony Clavien Scottsdale David vs. Goliath, But Goliath Won.
Recently I stumbled across the interesting case of Anthony Clavien Scottsdale Arizona. Anthony had been named as a defendant in a broad FTC case, and if you read the FTC press releases at face value, one would conclude that Mr. Clavien was complicit. This is the problem with making judgment calls, after only reading a two-line snippet in Google search results, or limiting one’s inquiry to a one-page press release from the FTC’s public relations department, who needs to testify their existence with exciting news of so-called prosecutions, or should I say persecutions?
Something didn’t smell right, upon closer investigation it appears that the Washington DC Goliath, that is the FTC, squashes little people indiscriminately, and has a trophy case full of toothless “press releases” to justify the existence of its bureaucrats.
So what doesn’t add up? When a conspicuous public press release boasts about millions of dollars in fines and penalties for an individual, but is not balanced with payments, or any other public records of wrongdoing, or other punitive activities, and then seals the records, then I smell shenanigans.
Truth be known, it appears that Veritas, a credit card processing company that at one point employed Mr. Claviens, was merely tarred with the same brush that the FTC should have more appropriately focused on the actual merchants. These culpable merchants were simply using Veritas as a payment processing vendor. Mr. Clavien’s involvement appears to be as far removed as one might imagine a hamburger cafe owner, who moonlighted with some other grey-market activities. Imagine if the burger-guy used his credit card processing facilities from Wells Fargo to sell somthing that is frowned upon by the FTC, alongside with hamburgers and fries. How would Wells Fargo know what was happening in the store-front, and why should they be punished?
About the Author:
Michael Roberts is a Licensed Private Invetigator, Journalist, and Digital Forensics Expert.
Phoenix, AZ, 85028