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Amazon Home Warranty settles with Arizona AG after fraud allegations

GAVEL
Posted at 8:42 AM, Dec 01, 2021
and last updated 2021-12-01 10:42:57-05

PHOENIX — Hundreds of Arizona home warranty buyers will get restitution as a result of the latest settlement in a series of cases targeting false claims.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a consent judgment in which Amazon Home Warranty will pay $105,000 in customer restitution, as well as $35,000 in civil penalties and $10,000 in attorneys’ fees as well as paying $15,000 to disburse the restitution.

The judgment, which is pending court approval, comes as the result of allegations that Amazon and officers Harry Bailey, Marc Abady and Leo Kassin violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by posting bogus five-star reviews and lying about how long the business had been operating.

Brnovich said the fake reviews were often copied or repurposed from reviews that had been posted about competing companies. The original complaint cited at least 20 such reviews posted to the Better Business Bureau’s website on a single day in October 2020.

The AG’s office also said the company misled customers about the identities of its officers to hide the fact that Bailey, its primary owner, had a substantial connection to a prior failed home warranty company whose business authority was revoked by the state of New Jersey, where the lawsuit listed Bailey, Abady and Kassin as residents.

Read more of this story from the Phoenix Business Journal.