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LaShonda Moore and Marlon Moore, who own Blessings In No Time, have asked the court to protect them from FTC depositions.
For those who don’t know what a deposition is, it is a part of the discovery phase of a case.
In a deposition, a witness gives sworn oral testimony outside of court. Depositions that were recorded or typed up can be used later on in the case.
According to the FTC’s complaint from June 2021, the Moores ran a gifting scheme called Blessings In No Time (BINT) (right).
The FTC wants to question the Moores as the only officers of BINT.
The Moores say they can’t afford to hire a third-party representative for their business, so they’ve asked the court to protect them from self-incrimination.
The Moore Defendants hired criminal defense lawyers at the start of this case.
The Moore Defendants started to use their Fifth Amendment rights to prevent being forced to talk against themselves.
In a declaration, LaShonda Moore explains how the Moores say they are doing financially;
As of the date of the FTC’s complaint, June 16, 2021, BINT’s only assets were cash on hand or held in financial institutions totaling about $175; merchandise (hats, t-shirts, etc.); and various intangible assets with little to no market value.
As of today, BINT’s assets still only amount to about $175 in cash on hand or in bank accounts.
On the other hand, BINT’s debts amount to about $90,000.
This includes about $45,000 in credit card debt and about $45,000 in taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service.
Marlon DeAndre Moore is my husband. Both of us are broke on our own.
All of our assets don’t add up to more than about $25,000, if that.
We don’t have our own house. We don’t even have a lot of money in our cars.
We asked about a trade-in price for one of our cars a little over a month ago, but we were “upside down” by about $8,000.00.
We currently have two minor children who depend on us.
As of today, my husband and I owe more than $540,000 to different lenders, including lines of credit.
As of right now, I don’t have a job, but I’m actively looking for work and I’m confident I’ll find one.
The Moores’ lawyer says that even though BINT was a plan to give away $29 million,
Tens of millions of dollars were not given to the Moore defendants. Most of the time, these amounts are moved between the participants themselves.
So far, what we know about the Moore defendants’ compensation is that it was of a very different kind, and, more importantly for this motion, it was either spent or used to pay down the Moore defendants’ huge debt.
On September 14, the Moores put in their request. At the time of publication, the Court had not yet made a decision.
