A federal lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump and his family of promoting a pyramid scheme will finally go to trial on Jan. 29, 2024 – at the start of a presidential election year.
The lawsuit, which was anonymously filed in Oct. 2018, alleges that the Trump Corporation promoted a multi-level marketing scheme — or a pyramid scheme — through the company ACN Opportunity, LLC, which operates under the name American Communications Network,
Law & Crime reports.
The four plaintiffs claim that Trump should be held liable for lending his and his children Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump's names to a pyramid scheme that broke state and federal laws around "racketeering and conspiracy to racketeer."
The Trump family falsely endorsed and promoted ACN by insisting that the enterprise "offered a reasonable probability of commercial success" and even embedded advertisements on the show, The Celebrity Apprentice. In exchange, they allegedly received millions of dollars in secret payments.
The former president also personally endorsed the company under the guise of a "renowned entrepreneur and multi-billionaire," the suit alleges.
The lawsuit also says that the Trump family's promotion of ACN encouraged the plaintiffs to invest hundreds of dollars into the company, but they never reaped any benefit from the investment.
The case will finally see a jury roughly six years after its initial filing. It encountered repeated delays after Trump's attempts to dismiss the case and to publicly disclose its plaintiffs.