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.
* The only person criminally convicted across the Agora-network matters in this file. The plea record refers to four co-conspirators; they are not named in the public record, and this file is not aware of charges against them.
** FTC order: defendants neither admit nor deny the allegations; SEC: contested court judgment after trial; Oregon release: states no admission. In Australia, Port Phillip Publishing and its former director admitted the promotion's statements were misleading (ASIC 19-235MR).
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, Inc., its subsidiary Pirate Investor LLC, and Frank Porter Stansberry on April 10, 2003 (LR-18090) over emails selling "inside information" about a stock. After a bench trial, judgment was entered Aug. 1, 2007 (amended Oct. 2, 2007) against Pirate Investor and Stansberry only: $1,002,000 disgorgement plus $310,620 prejudgment interest, jointly and severally, plus civil penalties of $120,000 each, $1,552,620 in total (about $1.55 million). Judgment was entered for Agora, Inc.; the parent was not liable. Affirmed, 580 F.3d 233 (4th Cir. 2009). A court judgment, not a settlement.
Public review platforms carried complaints about Money Map Press products and the MOBE affiliate program years before any enforcement action against either.
A temporary restraining order was entered June 5, 2018; the FTC charged three individuals and nine businesses over a 21-step business-coaching system with a $49 entry fee that, the FTC alleged, took more than $125 million from consumers, targeting service members, veterans and older adults. In February 2020 the founder, Matt Lloyd McPhee, agreed to a stipulated judgment of $318,512,336, suspended after he surrendered more than $16 million and his foreign real estate interests, with a permanent ban. The MOBE settlements were stipulated orders; the founder's order states he neither admits nor denies the allegations. MOBE settlements totaled more than $17 million. Arrington participated as an affiliate.
Australia's securities regulator began proceedings Dec. 20, 2018 (18-393MR) against Port Phillip Publishing, Agora's Australian publisher. On Aug. 29, 2019 the Federal Court of Australia ordered penalties, proposed jointly by the parties, of A$600,000 against Port Phillip Publishing and A$50,000 against its former director, Kristan Sayce ([2019] FCA 1483; ASIC 19-235MR). The company and its former director admitted that statements in the promotion were misleading, deceptive and false, and that client testimonials were misused.
In October 2019 the FTC sued Agora Financial and affiliated health publishers, alleging deceptive health and money-making promotions aimed at seniors, including a diabetes "cure" and a government-checks pitch. The court granted the FTC's preliminary-injunction motion in 2020, though the injunction was more limited than the FTC requested; the defendants then settled by stipulated order in February 2021 for more than $2 million, without admission of liability, with bans on the challenged claims. In November 2021 the FTC sent $2,052,868 in refunds through 34,893 checks and PayPal payments.
Federal case, D. Md. (RDB-19-0264), over unauthorized charges on his employer's corporate card while working as the SEO specialist inside the Money Map Press unit. Indicted on one count of conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud and four counts of aggravated identity theft; pleaded guilty on Feb. 3, 2020 to one count of wire fraud conspiracy. He was employed about 2011 to August 2018; the unauthorized charges ran from at least January 2015 through August 2018. Sentenced May 5, 2021 to 30 months in federal prison, followed by 12 months of home confinement as part of three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $4,142,435.31 in restitution. The only person criminally convicted across the Agora-network matters in this file. Supervised release terminated early on April 1, 2025.
On June 18, 2020, the Oregon Department of Justice announced a $141,499 settlement with Money Map Press, the conclusion of a joint investigation with the Pennsylvania Attorney General. The settlement alleged that offers were represented as free when they were not, that testimonials were false, and that subscription billing terms were not disclosed, including in the "Big Tobacco MUST Pay" publication. Baltimore's complaint dates this settlement to 2016; the Oregon DOJ release is dated June 18, 2020.
On March 5, 2020, MOBE affiliates agreed to orders totaling more than $4 million, with permanent bans. "Affiliates should take note that the FTC will hold you personally and financially accountable for false or unsubstantiated marketing claims" (Andrew Smith, Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection).
Filed June 9, 2026 (C-24-CV-26-004112). The City alleges violations of its Consumer Protection Ordinance and civil conspiracy, naming nine companies, including the holding company and the shared-services affiliate, and ten individuals, including 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. The claims are allegations; the case is pending.
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.
Nine company defendants and ten individual defendants, 19 in total. Money Map Press, where Chad Arrington worked, is not a defendant; MarketWise acquired its assets effective Jan. 1, 2024.
Independent of any characterization, these are the underlying records. Every archive document was opened and checked against its label.
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 terminated April 1, 2025 as satisfactory, "warranted by the conduct of the released defendant and the interest of justice."
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 FTC settlement was entered without admission of liability, and the company kept operating. The only person criminally convicted across the Agora-network matters in this file 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 was filed in October 2019 and settled by stipulated order in February 2021 for more than $2 million, without admission of liability. Money Map Press separately resolved allegations with the Oregon and Pennsylvania attorneys general; the Oregon DOJ release is dated June 18, 2020.