Opinion ID: 2833600
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Robert J. Meyer

Text: 10 Professor Robert Meyer testified that the Federal Reserve Bank has concluded that 10% return rates are prima facie evidence of fraud.10 Meyer Decl., JA 1636 ¶ 11.b. Here, the return rates “rang[ed] from 30% to almost 90%[.]” Id., JA 1636 ¶ 11.a. In addition, Professor Meyer pointed to FTC enforcement actions and these telemarketers’ products and services to conclude that the telemarketers operated “schemes designed to obtain victims’ bank account information by deception and to use that information to debit victims’ accounts as quickly [and] as often as possible before the victim understood what had occurred.” Id., JA 1634-35 ¶¶ 8-9. According to Professor Meyer, telemarketers NHS/PHS, the Platinum Benefit Group, Vexeldale (also known as Market Power Marketing Solutions, Sourdale, and ZaZoom), RxSmart, Low Pay, and Group One Networks offered a variety of products that were either valueless or significantly devalued. Id., JA 1633, 1639-40 ¶¶ 6, 19. Although there was some variation in the manner in which the unauthorized debits were accomplished, Professor Meyer concluded that they had the same components of deception: (1) each was obtained from a first party at a small or 10 The defendants contest this statement, noting that “[t]here is no law or regulation supporting this contention.” Appellee Br. at 47 (emphasis in original). Professor Meyer, like Investigator Blake and Reyes, who also refer to the Federal Reserve Bank’s prima facie evidence of fraud, fails to include a source. The record presented, however, does contain an unrelated complaint quoting an unnamed Federal Reserve official as writing that a 10% return rate “would likely be regarded by bank supervisory agencies and/or law enforcement agencies as prima facie evidence that your bank knew or should have known that your [third-party payment processors and/or merchants] had engaged in fraudulent activities.” JA 1695 ¶ 64 (alteration in original). Despite whatever dispute the parties have regarding the Federal Reserve Bank’s position on return rates, neither party disputes that the vast majority of U.S. banks have rates of returns that are close to (or actually are) zero, while here, that number is 30% to 90%. 11 negligible cost; (2) all were used to debit consumer accounts for exorbitant amounts, (3) none of these items conveyed any net value to the consumers, and (4) all were sufficiently complex, initially concealing their fraudulent nature to the victim. Id., JA 1639-40 ¶ 19. Professor Meyer based his opinion on his review of “telephone scripts and web landing pages used in the marketing of the products and/or programs, internal e[-]mails, and tables of ACH return rates for the programs[.]” Id., JA 1633 ¶ 6.