"Passive investment income" from AI storefronts, and a $21.7m judgment
The FTC banned the owners of Automators AI in February 2024 over promises of passive investment income from AI-powered Amazon and Walmart storefronts. The vast majority of clients did not make the promised earnings or even recoup their investment, and the platforms routinely shut the stores down for policy breaches.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $21.8 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- E-commerce automation and business opportunity schemes, Job and task scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-07
The facts, as recorded
- The FTC announced the settlement on 27 February 2024.
- Defendants were Roman Cresto, John Cresto and Andrew Chapman, and their companies including Automators AI, Empire Ecommerce and Onyx Distribution.
- The scheme claimed to offer passive investment income through AI-powered online storefronts, promising high returns from profitable e-stores and a proven system for Amazon and Walmart.
- The FTC found the vast majority of the defendants' clients did not make the promised earnings or even recoup their sizable investment.
- Amazon and Walmart routinely shut the stores down for policy breaches.
- The monetary judgment was $21,765,902.65, partially suspended based on claimed inability to pay, becoming immediately due if the defendants misrepresented their finances.
- The order permanently prohibits them from offering e-commerce business opportunities or coaching services, from making unsubstantiated earnings claims, and from using contract provisions that prevent negative customer reviews.
Why this case matters
It is the same scheme as Click Profit, a year earlier, with different names — which is the point of including both.
Automators AI, February 2024. Click Profit, March 2025. Between them, Operation AI Comply in September 2024 charged three more: Ascend Ecom, FBA Machine and Ecommerce Empire Builders. Five operations, one template, eighteen months.
The template
A real business model. Third-party management of Amazon and Walmart storefronts is a genuine service that genuinely exists.
An impossible promise attached to it. Passive investment income, high returns, a proven system.
“AI” as the explanation. It is what makes the impossible part sound mechanised rather than implausible — and it is why the FTC’s September 2024 sweep was named Operation AI Comply, with the Commission stating plainly that there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books.
A large upfront fee, in the tens of thousands.
And an outcome the operators cannot control. Amazon and Walmart shut the stores down for policy breaches. That is the detail that recurs in every one of these cases, and it is structural.
Why the platforms shut the stores
This is the part that makes the whole category unworkable, not merely dishonest.
Amazon and Walmart restrict how many accounts one operation can control, what can be sold, and how listings are sourced. An operation running hundreds of stores on behalf of hundreds of clients, using similar suppliers, similar listings and shared infrastructure, is doing something the platforms actively detect and prohibit.
So the stores get suspended — not because the operators were unlucky, but because the model requires doing at scale exactly what the platforms are designed to stop. The customer is left with a suspended account and an unrecoverable fee.
The review clause, again
The order permanently prohibits contract provisions that prevent negative customer reviews — the same term the FTC charged in Click Profit under the Consumer Review Fairness Act.
Two separate operations, both suppressing reviews by contract. That is not a coincidence: in a business where the product is a promise about future earnings, the only information a prospective buyer has is what previous buyers say, and removing that is the difference between a scheme that runs for a year and one that runs for three.
The judgment
$21,765,902.65, partially suspended for inability to pay, becoming immediately due if the defendants misrepresented their finances.
The pattern across this whole site: the headline states what was taken, and the collectable amount is much smaller.
Sources
- FTC Action Leads to Ban for Owners of Automators AI E-Commerce Money-Making Scheme. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-07. Supports: The 27 February 2024 settlement, the defendants and companies, the passive income and AI claims, the finding that most clients did not recoup their investment, the platform shutdowns, the $21,765,902.65 judgment and all the ban terms.
- FTC Announces Crackdown on Deceptive AI Claims and Schemes. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-07. Supports: Operation AI Comply, the September 2024 sweep against comparable AI-boosted business opportunity schemes, and the FTC's position that there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books.