From the Performance Marketing Insider archive. Originally published September 2011. Revisited October 2026.

Jesse Willms Assets Frozen

A federal judge froze the money behind the free-trial empire, some of it already sitting in Cyprus. The affiliates who drove the traffic were never in the dock.

By Pesach Lattin

This post first ran on Performance Marketing Insider (performinsiders.com), the affiliate and lead generation trade site Pesach Lattin published from 2011 to 2020. The original text was lost when that site went dark. This page sits at the same address the old links point to, keeps the original headline and date, rebuilds the subject from the public record, and says what happened next.

On September 13, 2011, a federal court in Seattle entered a preliminary injunction against Jesse Willms and ten of his companies and froze their assets pending trial. The FTC announced it nine days later. The court found that substantial funds had already moved offshore, including to holding companies in Cyprus.

What the FTC said the machine did

The FTC had sued in May 2011, alleging the operation took in more than $450 million from nearly 4 million consumers through "free" and "risk-free" trial offers for acai weight-loss pills, teeth whiteners and similar products. Consumers who paid a few dollars for shipping were typically billed $79.95 a month afterward. The agency also alleged false information was given to merchant banks to keep card processing alive.

The part this site cared about most was the distribution. Per the FTC, affiliates drove the traffic through banner ads, pop-ups, search ads and spam, and were paid for every consumer whose card got charged. The offer was the product. The affiliate network was the sales force.

How it ended

In February 2012 Willms settled without admitting wrongdoing. The $359 million judgment was suspended once he surrendered bank funds, his house sale proceeds, a Cadillac Escalade, a fur coat and artwork. He was permanently banned from negative-option marketing and required to monitor his affiliates, which tells you where the FTC thought the problem lived.

How it aged

The case became the template for how the FTC treats affiliate-driven continuity scams: as one system, including the lies to the banks and the duty to police the affiliates. Fifteen years later the offers have new products and the same plumbing. The asset freeze was the news in 2011. The lesson was that the money moves faster than the enforcement, and the people paid per sign-up are rarely the ones who give it back.

This page rebuilds a September 2011 Performance Marketing Insider post whose original text is not available. Facts come from the FTC's September 2011 and February 2012 releases; the settlement included no admission of wrongdoing. The author co-founded LeadsCon. See also the 2010 IndustryPace coverage of SwipeAuctions.