Under the terms of the DPA, which the parties submitted to the district court in Denver on Jan. 19, 2021, Epsilon agreed to pay a total of $150 million, with $127.5 million of that amount going to compensate victims of the fraudulent schemes that used consumer data sold by Epsilon. Epsilon also agreed to implement significant compliance measures designed to safeguard consumers' data and prevent its sale to individuals or entities engaged in fraudulent or deceptive marketing campaigns. Further, the DPA requires Epsilon to maintain a procedure for consumers to request that it not sell their information to others.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, with its principal sales office in Westminster, Colorado, Epsilon used sophisticated data modeling to identify consumers most likely to respond to its clients' marketing solicitations. As part of the DPA, Epsilon admitted that, from July 2008 through July 2017, employees in its Direct to Consumer (DTC) Unit knowingly sold modeled lists of consumers to clients engaged in fraud. In particular, Epsilon acknowledged that the DTC Unit sold consumer lists to a number of mass-mailing fraud schemes that sent false "sweepstakes" and "astrology" solicitations to consumers. Those solicitations stated that each consumer recipient had won a large prize or individualized psychic service that they could obtain by paying a fee. In reality, the solicitations - as known to DTC Unit employees - were mass-produced mailings and victims who paid a fee received nothing of value. As reflected in the consumer lists sold by the DTC Unit to perpetrators of the fraud schemes, the schemes disproportionately affected the elderly and other vulnerable individuals.

The consumer data sold by the DTC Unit to fraudsters came both from other fraudulent clients and from legitimate Epsilon clients, including non-profit and charitable organizations. DTC Unit employees continued to sell consumer data to clients engaged in fraud despite knowing that those and similar clients had been arrested, charged with crimes, convicted, and otherwise subject to law enforcement actions for false and misleading practices. Epsilon admitted that the DTC Unit sold more than 30 million consumers' data to fraudulent schemes.

Investigators began digging into the financials and learned that where the actual money went was not consistent with what the documents said.

The family collectively lost more than $700,000. Much of that was the woman's parents' retirement accounts, and some of the funds belonged to the original victim herself and her young adult children.

The impact was devastating. While the younger victims will have time to recover financially, the woman's parents are now deceased, and they lost their entire retirement savings. They'd hoped to pass those funds on to their children and grandchildren.

Additionally, Van Auken claimed to be paying taxes on the family's funds, but he never did. So the surviving relatives are also dealing with tax debt, Sampson said.

Van Auken pleaded guilty in January 2020 to wire fraud, money laundering, and filing a false tax return. In May 2020, he was sentenced to 28 months in prison.

[B]etween 2016 and 2020, Vuuzle and Flynn raised more than $14 million from individual investors using a boiler room of salespeople employing high-pressure tactics, based primarily in the Philippines.  According to the complaint, Vuuzle and Flynn promised investors that Vuuzle was a legitimate and growing company and a "pre-IPO" investment opportunity when in fact Vuuzle has never made a profit and has never made a public offering on any stock exchange.  As alleged, only a small fraction of investor funds went towards the online streaming business.  The complaint further alleges that Flynn misappropriated $4.9 million of investor funds for his personal use, including by using it to pay for jewelry, luxury flights and hotel stays, subscriptions to dating websites, and nightclub visits.  Vuuzle and Flynn also allegedly used at least $5.5 million of investor funds to sustain the boiler room and pay commissions to Flynn and others for recruiting investors.  The complaint also charged Richard Marchitto with aiding and abetting Flynn and Vuuzle's fraud by allegedly acting as their U.S. corporate and financial presence and maintaining a U.S. bank account, corporate credit cards, and a New York office address for Vuuzle.