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Dave Ramsey is facing a $150 million lawsuit from listeners over his timeshare exit group promotion.
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Red Hine offered to get paying customers from timeshares deals but often failed to do so.
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Lawyers say Ramsey was paid $30 million to upgrade Red Hein over six years.
Christian radio host Dave Ramsey is facing a $150 million lawsuit from 17 listeners who claim he played a role in defrauding them by promoting a timeshare exit company.
suitin April v. Ramsey and marketing firm Happy Hour Media Group in Western Washington District Court, argued that the radio host promoted Timeshare Exit at the financial expense of its listeners.
The lawsuit was first reported by Religion News Service.
Ramsey provides financial advice to millions of listeners on his radio show Using teachings from the Bible. Listeners will contact, asking for advice on managing their finances, to In May, a couple sought help with their $760,000 debt.
The suit said Ramsey was paid millions by advertising for the timeshare checkout team, which is operated by Red Hine & Associates of Kirkland, Washington. Lawyers say Ramsey received $450,000 a month from Red Hine for his services, which came to $30 million in total.
Reed Hein promised to get clients out of the timeshare agreements, but often failed to do so, according to the lawsuit.
In 2017, the timeshare operators initiated successful legal action against the company. In 2021, it was Red Hein ordered to stop its deceptive practices, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson said, and to pay $2.6 million to be used to compensate victims. The company subsequently ceased trading.
Each of the 17 plaintiffs in the April lawsuit says they paid thousands for the time-out team’s services after listening to Ramsey’s promotions. They say they were often advised to negotiate their settlements with their timeshares, and usually found it impossible to contact Reed Hein.
Ramsey promoted Red Hein between 2015 and 2021, and only stopped when the company stopped paying him, according to the lawsuit. During that time, he is said to have received thousands of letters from listeners who said they were unhappy with the company’s services.
In the period when Ramsey promoted Red Hine, the company is said to have received $70 million in fees from clients referred to it by the radio host.
Lawyers argue that as complaints mounted, Ramsay became more combative about his connections to the company.
“Instead of admitting to deception, Ramsay recorded a nine-minute radio segment in which he lashed out at anyone he felt responsible for the ravages of Red Hein,” the suit said. Those parties included the timeshare companies and the Washington state attorney general.
“Ramsey never returned any of the tens of millions of dollars Red Hein and Happy Hour Media Group paid him with his listeners’ hard-earned money. Instead, Ramsey chose to profit from his listeners’ money,” the lawyers say.
Ramsey and Happy Hour Media Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider, which were made outside of normal business hours. The Religion News Service also failed to obtain responses from Ramsey or Happy Hour.
Read the original article at Business interested
