This is every documented case, side by side, drawn only from public filings and authenticated records. It asserts no motive. It sets the outcomes next to each other and leaves the conclusion to you.
Same marketing economy, same era, same toolkit of funnels and traffic. Here is how each was resolved, as a matter of public record.
Figures as stated in the filings and contemporaneous reporting. The counters animate as you reach them.
Each entry is a public court filing or government action, in order. The sequence is the argument; no motive is asserted.
The SEC sued Agora, its subsidiary Pirate Investor, and Frank Porter Stansberry over emails selling "inside information" about a stock. After trial, judgment ran against Pirate Investor and Stansberry only, roughly $1.55M in disgorgement and penalties, affirmed by the Fourth Circuit in 2009. Agora Inc. itself was found not liable.
Public review platforms carried complaints about Money Map Press products and the MOBE affiliate program years before any enforcement action against either.
The FTC acted against MOBE and its principal over a coaching ladder that took more than $125 million from consumers. Resolved without admission of liability; the program closed. Arrington participated as an affiliate.
The FTC accused Agora and affiliates of deceptive health and money-making promotions aimed at seniors, including a diabetes "cure" and a government-checks pitch. Settled for $2 million, without admission, with a bar on false or unsupported claims.
Federal wire-fraud case, D. Md. (RDB-19-0264), over charges on his employer's corporate card while working as the SEO specialist inside the Money Map Press unit. Sentenced in 2021 to 30 months and ordered to pay $4,142,435.31 in restitution; the only individual criminally convicted across these matters. Supervised release terminated early, as satisfactory, on April 1, 2025.
The City alleges violations of its Consumer Protection Ordinance, naming the holding company, the shared-services affiliate, and multiple editors, and argues the network's shifting affiliates let it evade responsibility. Agora denies the claims, cites the First Amendment, and moved to dismiss on July 30, 2026.
A documented contrast in public attention: the individual's case was named and covered widely; the institutional settlements drew comparatively quiet coverage. Relative, illustrative of the pattern the reporting describes.
The City names the parent, the shared-services arm, and the operating affiliates as defendants, the structure a former employee's own 2019 research had already mapped.
Independent of any characterization, these records are authenticated. Email exhibits carry passing DKIM signatures from the sending domains.
April 11, 2011, confirmed in a 2016 supervisor email.
A 2016 email from the company's own mail system: "trail blazer in the industry," "partner and friend."
A 2018 thread on an outside consultant, copied to multiple staff, showing supervisory awareness.
IRS 1099-K forms, tax returns, a business EIN registration, 2013–2016 PayPal history.
Supervised release ended April 1, 2025, "warranted by the conduct of the released defendant."
Carfagno v. Money Map Press (M.D. Fla., 2019); Ingram v. Money Map Press (N.D. Cal., dismissed 2024).
The complaints were public for years. The institution settled, without admitting fault, and kept operating. The one person criminally convicted was a marketing employee. Was accountability applied evenly?
Itemized. Where a URL is long it is trimmed to its stable stem; all resolve from the domains shown.
Note: FTC v. Agora Financial charges were announced in 2019 and the $2M settlement finalized in 2021, without admission. Money Map Press separately settled with the Oregon and Pennsylvania Attorneys General in June 2020.