WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission and the state of Florida are taking action against a scammer they allege has been preying on minority-owned small businesses seeking pandemic relief.
The complaint alleges that Grant Bae and its owner, Traeshonna P. Graham were a fictitious grant-writing service that scammed each business out of thousands of dollars with false promises of easy access to “guaranteed” grant funding and COVID-19 economic benefits that did not materialize. In response to a complaint filed by the FTC and the State of Florida, a federal court has temporarily shut down the company and frozen the defendants’ assets, according to the FTC.
According to the allegations, Florida-based Grant Bae violated multiple laws, including the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act, the FTC Act, and the Florida Deceptive Unfair Trade Practices Act by targeting minority-owned small businesses with claims that they could access millions of dollars in grant funding if they paid for the company’s services.
False Claims Made
According to the complaint, C Lee Enterprises LLC and Graham, who refers to herself as “The Grant Bae,” marketed grant writing and consulting services to minority-owned small businesses through the Grant Bae brand. The false claims about the company’s services and Graham’s own background have been pitched on Facebook, Instagram, and in the Clubhouse audio app where Graham joined social media influencers, according to the FTC.
The complaint further alleges that a “handful of influencers and their close associates were the only people who actually received money from Grant Bae.”
The FTC said its investigation found that since at least October of 2020, Graham has deceived consumers about nearly every aspect of Grant Bae and her own qualifications as part of an effort to convince minority-owned businesses she could secure grant funding for them.
Additional Allegations
The complaint alleges that these deceptions, which cost small businesses thousands of dollars, included:
- Falsely promising significant returns. Grant Bae’s marketing has included multiple misleading guarantees of the amounts that businesses would receive from using their services. Grant Bae has claimed that all minority-owned businesses qualified for grant funding of at least $25,000. It also has falsely guaranteed returns based on the package purchased, including claiming that a business buying the $6,999 “Elite” package would receive at least $250,000 in grant funding, and that all customers would receive at least four grants in the first year.
- Misleading customers about grant status. The defendants have provided customers deceptive messages through their online portal that grants have been “awarded” or were “pending.” According to the complaint, the money was never actually sent to customers, and customers often realized this too late to request chargebacks for the upfront money they paid to Grant Bae.
- Deceiving customers about access to grants. Grant Bae has claimed in marketing that it had access to $268 million in grant funding to “disperse throughout all our great clients,” even though no such funds existed. It also has claimed to have secured grant funds from major non-profit foundations and government agencies to distribute to clients.
- Lying about prior success. The defendants’ marketing falsely leads businesses to believe that Grant Bae is a successful enterprise and had provided tens of millions of dollars in grants. Graham also falsely holds herself out as having eight years of experience developing the “gift” of grant writing, but her last known employment was in 2018 at a Krystal fast food restaurant, where she pled guilty to two felony counts of theft for stealing from the restaurant’s cash deposits.
- Failing to provide promised refunds. The complaint alleges that while Grant Bae offers a “money-back guarantee” to the businesses who bought their service, the company often goes silent and blocks contact with customers when they complain about losing money.
The Very Best in CU Reporting. For You. For Free. Or Your Money Back.
Don’t forget to check your Spam/Junk email folder if you haven’t been receiving your free, popular and daily CUToday.info news headlines.
And if you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time.
CUToday.info has received very positive response from readers following the move to an improved provider of the daily headlines, but many also noted they did need to go to their Spam/Junk folder and mark it as safe.
The new email solution has not only improved every reader’s delivery experience, but it also features a fresh, new format that is easy to read, especially on mobile devices.
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com.