Miami Beach

Victims Of $26 Million ‘Scam' May Recover Fraction Of Losses

The 70-foot yacht has been repossessed.

The Swiss bank accounts emptied.

And the seven-bedroom waterfront Miami Beach mansion is for sale.

These are the outlines of the financial fall of a once-high flying former car salesman and mortgage broker who ran what the Federal Trade Commission called a $26 million invention-promotion scam.

Scott Cooper, founder and CEO of World Patent Marketing, has agreed to turn over about $1 million in his remaining assets – including equity from his home, now listed for $3.5 million – in exchange for the FTC suspending $25 million of the $26 million judgment that is being entered against him in US District Court.

Whatever money remains after expenses will be used to pay back the company’s victims, many of whom spent tens of thousands of dollars each seeking patents and promotion of their inventions. They are likely to recover only a small fraction of their losses.

Under the agreement with the FTC, Cooper and his company neither admit nor deny wrongdoing. But he agreed to never again enter the patent promotion business.

A federal judge found enough evidence to permanently freeze his assets, while the FTC and a court-appointed receiver tried to identify and seize whatever proceeds remained.

Calls to Cooper and his attorney seeking comment on the resolution of the case were not returned.

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