Amazon AI scammers blew millions on Lake Como wedding and cars, FTC alleges
Lake Como in northern Italy’s Lombardy region.
Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images
John and Roman Cresto made millions of dollars selling themselves as e-commerce “experts” who could teach regular consumers and investors the secret to selling success on Amazon and Walmart, for a price.
They splashed lavish vacations and high-end cars across their social media account, creating a multimillion-dollar image of success that federal regulators now say was fueled by falsehoods and deception.
The case is the latest example of the Federal Trade Commission cracking down on deceptive e-commerce consultancies that target consumers and fledgling online businesses. A robust industry of consultants and agencies, often referred to as “coaches” or “gurus,” have emerged as retailers increasingly move online and marketplaces on sites such as Amazon and Walmart flourish. These coaches often claim to have struck it rich in e-commerce and will pass along their expertise to users who pay for expensive courses with no guarantee of success.
The FTC on Tuesday asked a judge to bar the Cresto brothers from doing business temporarily, in connection with a lawsuit the agency filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
The Cresto brothers “promised to expertly manage the operations of automated online stores” on both Amazon and Walmart through their companies, including Empire Ecommerce, doing everything from finding products to fulfilling orders, the complaint says. They charged consumers anywhere from $10,000 to $125,000 for the initial investment, and $15,000 to $80,000 in additional funding as working capital, the FTC alleged.
The Cresto brothers also took 35% of any profits from their “partners'” e-commerce stores, the complaint says. By June 2022, less than 10% of Empire-managed stores generated sales, the FTC alleged. By October 2022, Amazon had either suspended or terminated most of those stores for violating its policies around intellectual property and a business method called dropshipping, where companies never actually have the inventory they’re selling, and instead order products through a manufacturer after a shopper makes a purchase, the complaint says. The majority of Empire’s storefronts on Walmart’s marketplace were either never activated or terminated for policy violations, according to the FTC.
Despite the suspensions, Empire for years continued to falsely promote the success of its Amazon businesses by recruiting affiliate marketers to post splashy videos online claiming they made “significant passive income” through Empire’s automation services. Empire was able to lure more than 60 new clients through this affiliate marketing scheme and netted over $1.5 million in commission fees, the FTC alleged.
“In truth, most of Empire’s clients lost money and virtually none made the advertised amounts,” the agency wrote in its complaint.
The suspensions left Empire’s clients deeply in debt, the FTC alleged, “because Empire typically had its clients pay for inventory on credit cards.” Empire refused to refund victims tens of thousands of dollars that victims had paid out to Empire or for goods sold, the FTC alleged.
The two brothers made more than $22 million from their clients, the FTC alleged.
The millions that the Crestos diverted for themselves were spent on high-end cars, vacations and even a luxury wedding in Italy, according to the FTC complaint and social media posts.
At the beginning of this year, after selling Empire, the Crestos spun up a new business called Automators AI, which claims to teach consumers how to use artificial intelligence to become online sellers making “over $10,000 per month in sales,” and use popular AI chatbot ChatGPT to create customer service scripts, the FTC alleged. The scheme is ongoing and defrauding consumers of tens of thousands of dollars, according to the FTC.
Amazon and Walmart did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
A fire sale exit
As the clock ran down on Empire’s alleged fraudulent behavior, the Cresto brothers attempted to pawn off their businesses to another operator, Daniel Cohen.
Cohen is now suing the Crestos, alleging that they deceived him about the true state of the business and used him to deflect blame from themselves.
In October 2022 — the same month the FTC alleged most of Empire’s working Amazon stores had been suspended — the Cresto brothers approached Cohen, a Florida businessman, about buying their empire. Roman Cresto showed projections that suggested his business was strong and highly profitable.
Cohen told CNBC in an interview that the Crestos first messaged him via Instagram and that they met over Zoom later that month. John Cresto assured Cohen in that Zoom meeting that Empire was not facing any litigation or major concerns, beyond a “couple” of unhappy clients.
“It was something I asked them, because I do know this industry,” Cohen told CNBC. The Crestos also offered him projections that claimed Empire collected up to 50% of profit from the thousands of stores they supposedly operated.
“I’m not sure where they got their projections from,” Cohen told CNBC. “Maybe at some point they did have a store that performed well, and maybe they just used that result for everybody, but I believe most of it was likely made up.”
Cohen agreed to buy the Crestos’ business Nov. 7, 2022, wiring them $100,000 the following day. Two days later, the Crestos revealed five ongoing “legal disputes” being handled by their defense firm, Stubbs Alderton & Markiles.
“I paid Roman 490k total for 6 stores … between LLC set-ups/fees, credit card feeding, virtual store fees, their software on several that they told me would push my stores to the top, etc, etc, they scammed me for well over $525k total,” one email from a client read, according to Cohen’s lawsuit.
Dozens more complaints were languishing in an inbox, detailing alleged negligence or “shady” dealings by the Cresto brothers.
“I paid you guys $65k for a experienced store. Since starting my store has done no where near the projections. Now my store has stopped having any sales at all. I need to know why this is and what happened. I am starting to feel like I was scammed and I need to get my lawyer involved,” read another email cited in Cohen’s lawsuit.
Cohen also told CNBC that Stubbs Alderton & Markiles agreed to serve as his law firm, before firing him as a client and telling Cohen that they would now represent the Cresto brothers.
“From a moral perspective. It just doesn’t smell right,” Cohen’s present attorney, Nima Tahmassebi, told CNBC.
Attorneys at Stubbs Alderton & Markiles did not respond to CNBC’s inquiries about their handling of the cases. The Cresto brothers did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks alongside U.S. President Donald Trump to reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on May 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
At Tesla, vehicle sales are slumping, profits are thinning and revenue from regulatory credit sales are poised to dry up due to Republican-led policy changes.
In the past, CEO Elon Musk’s futuristic promises have convinced investors to look past top and bottom line numbers.
Not now.
Following another fairly dismal earnings report this week, Musk told analysts on the call that Tesla’s electric vehicles will soon become driverless, making money for owners while they sleep. He also said Tesla’s robotaxi service, which the company recently started testing in a limited capacity in Austin, Texas, will expand to other states, with a goal of being able to reach half the U.S. population by year-end, “assuming we have regulatory approvals.”
It didn’t matter.
Tesla shares plummeted 8% on Thursday as investors focused on the immediate challenges facing the company, including the rapid rise of lower-cost EV competitors, particularly in China, and a political backlash against Musk that harmed Tesla’s brand in the U.S. and Europe.
Automotive sales declined 16% year-over-year in the second quarter for the EV maker, with weak sales numbers continuing in Europe and California. Musk said there could be a “few rough quarters” ahead because of the EV credits expiring and President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The stock bounced back some on Friday, gaining 3.5%, but still ended the week down and has now fallen 22% this year, the worst performance among tech’s megacaps. The Nasdaq rose 1% for the week and is up more than 9% in 2025, closing at a record on Friday.
“Look, we love robotaxis. And robots,” wrote analysts at Canaccord Genuity, who recommend buying Tesla’s stock, in a note after the earnings report. “Over time, Tesla is well positioned to benefit from these future-forward opportunities.”
The analysts, however, said that they’re focused on the profit and loss statement, writing: “But we love growth too, in the here and now. We need the P&L dynamics to turn.”
Analysts at Jefferies described the earnings update as “a bit dull.” And Goldman Sachs said Tesla’s robotaxi effort is “still small” with limited technical data points.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Musk, who has previously called himself “pathologically optimistic,” has been able to sway shareholders and send the stock soaring at times with promises of self-driving cars, humanoid robots and more affordable EVs.
But after a decade of missed self-imposed deadlines on autonomous driving, Wall Street is watching Tesla fall behind Alphabet’s Waymo in the U.S. and Baidu’s Apollo Go in China.
In Tesla’s shareholder deck, the company said the second quarter marked the start of its “transition from leading the electric vehicle and renewable energy industries to also becoming a leader in AI, robotics and related services.” The company didn’t offer any new guidance for growth or profits for the year ahead.
Regulatory hurdles
Business Insider reported on Friday that Tesla told staff its robotaxi service could launch in the San Francisco Bay Area as soon as this weekend.
But Tesla hasn’t applied for permits that would be required to run a driverless ridehailing service in California, CNBC confirmed. The company would first need authorizations from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
The CPUC told CNBC on Friday, that under existing permits, Tesla can only operate a human-driven chartered vehicle service, not carry passengers in robotaxis.
Waymo driverless vehicles wait at a traffic light in Santa Monica, California, on May 30, 2025.
Daniel Cole | Reuters
On the earnings call, Musk and other Tesla execs claimed the company was working on regulatory approvals to launch in Nevada, Arizona, Florida and other markets, in addition to San Francisco, but offered no details about what would be required.
Within Austin, the company said its robotaxi service had driven 7,000 miles, and that Tesla has been restricting its robotaxis’ to roads with a speed limit of 40 miles per hour. The Austin service involves a small fleet of about 10 to 20 Model Y vehicles equipped with the company’s latest self-driving systems.
The Tesla robotaxis rely on remote supervision by employees in a customer service center, and a human safety supervisor in the front passenger seat, ready to intervene if needed.
Compare that to what Alphabet said on its second-quarter earnings call the same day as Tesla’s results.
“The Waymo Driver has now autonomously driven over 100 million miles on public roads, and the team is testing across more than 10 cities this year, including New York and Philadelphia,” Alphabet said. Meanwhile, Waymo has become significant enough that Alphabet added a category to its Other Bets revenue description in its latest quarterly filing.
“Revenues from Other Bets are generated primarily from the sale of autonomous transportation services, healthcare-related services and internet services,” the filing said. The Other Bets segment remains relatively small, with revenue coming in at $373 million in the quarter.
Regardless of investor skepticism, Musk is more bullish than ever.
On Friday, the world’s richest person posted on his social network X that he thinks Tesla will someday be worth $20 trillion. On the earnings call earlier in the week, he said that when it comes to AI for cars and robots, “Tesla is actually much better than Google by far” and “much better than anyone at real world AI.”
CORRECTION: The Waymo Driver has now autonomously driven over 100 million miles on public roads, according to Alphabet. A previous version misstated the number of miles.
WATCH: Tough quarter for Tesla
A vehicle Tesla is using for robotaxi testing purposes on Oltorf Street in Austin, Texas, US, on Sunday, June 22, 2025.
Tim Goessman | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In an earnings call this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased an expansion of his company’s fledgling robotaxi service to the San Francisco Bay Area and other U.S. markets.
But California regulators are making clear that Tesla is not authorized to carry passengers on public roads in autonomous vehicles and would require a human driver in control at all times.
“Tesla is not allowed to test or transport the public (paid or unpaid) in an AV with or without a driver,” the California Public Utilities Commission told CNBC in an email on Friday. “Tesla is allowed to transport the public (paid or unpaid) in a non-AV, which, of course, would have a driver.”
In other words, Tesla’s service in the state will have to be more taxi than robot.
Tesla has what’s known in California as a charter-party carrier permit, which allows it to run a private car service with human drivers, similar to limousine companies or sightseeing services.
The commission said it received a notification from Tesla on Thursday that the company plans to “extend operations” under its permit to “offer service to friends and family of employees and to select members of the public,” across much of the Bay Area.
But under Tesla’s permit, that service can only be with non-AVs, the CPUC said.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles told CNBC that Tesla has had a “drivered testing permit” since 2014, allowing the company to operate AVs with a safety driver present, but not to collect fees. The safety drivers must be Tesla employees, contractors or designees of the manufacturer under that permit, the DMV said.
In Austin, Texas, Tesla is currently testing out a robotaxi service, using its Model Y SUVs equipped with the company’s latest automated driving software and hardware. The limited service operates during daylight hours and in good weather, on roads with a speed limit of 40 miles per hour.
Robotaxis in Austin are remotely supervised by Tesla employees, and include a human safety supervisor in the front passenger seat. The service is now limited to invited users, who agree to the terms of Tesla’s “early access program.”
On Friday, Business Insider, citing an internal Tesla memo, reported that Tesla told staff it planned to expand its robotaxi service to the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment on that report.
In a separate matter in California, the DMV has accused Tesla of misleading consumers about the capabilities of its driver assistance systems, previously marketed under the names Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (or FSD).
Tesla now calls its premium driver assistance features, “FSD Supervised.” In owners manuals, Tesla says Autopilot and FSD Supervised are “hands on” systems, requiring a driver at the wheel, ready to steer or brake at all times.
But in user-generated videos shared by Tesla on X, the company shows customers using FSD hands-free while engaged in other tasks. The DMV is arguing that Tesla’s license to sell vehicles in California should be suspended, with arguments ongoing through Friday at the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings in Oakland.
Under California state law, autonomous taxi services are regulated at the state level. Some city and county officials said on Friday that they were out of the loop regarding a potential Tesla service in the state.
Stephanie Moulton-Peters, a member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, said in a phone interview that she had not heard from Tesla about its plans. She urged the company to be more transparent.
“I certainly expect they will tell us and I think it’s a good business practice to do that,” she said.
Moulton-Peters said she was undecided on robotaxis generally and wasn’t sure how Marin County, located north of San Francisco, would react to Tesla’s service.
“The news of change coming always has mixed results in the community,” she said.
Brian Colbert, another member of the Marin County Board of Supervisors, said in an interview that he’s open to the idea of Tesla’s service being a good thing but that he was disappointed in the lack of communication.
“They should have done a better job about informing the community about the launch,” he said.
Alphabet’s Waymo, which is far ahead of Tesla in the robotaxi market, obtained a number of permits from the DMV and CPUC before starting its driverless ride-hailing service in the state.
Waymo was granted a CPUC driverless deployment permit in 2023, allowing it to charge for rides in the state. The company has been seeking amendments to both its DMV and CPUC driverless deployment permits as it expands its service territory in the state.
— NBC’s David Ingram reported from San Francisco.
WATCH: Waymo testing self-driving cars with human drivers in New York and Philadelphia
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday said Shengjia Zhao, the co-creator of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, will serve as the chief scientist of Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Zuckerberg has been on a multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence hiring blitz in recent weeks, highlighted by a $14 billion investment in Scale AI. In June, Zuckerberg announced a new organization called Meta Superintelligence Labs that’s made up of top AI researchers and engineers.
Zhao’s name was listed among other new hires in the June memo, but Zuckerberg said Friday that Zhao co-founded the lab and “has been our lead scientist from day one.” Zhao will work directly with Zuckerberg and Alexandr Wang, the former CEO of Scale AI who is acting as Meta’s chief AI officer.
“Shengjia has already pioneered several breakthroughs including a new scaling paradigm and distinguished himself as a leader in the field,” Zuckerberg wrote in a social media post. “I’m looking forward to working closely with him to advance his scientific vision.”
In addition to co-creating ChatGPT, Zhao helped build OpenAI’s GPT-4, mini models, 4.1 and o3, and he previously led synthetic data at OpenAI, according to Zuckerberg’s June memo.
Meta Superintelligence Labs will be where employees work on foundation models such as the open-source Llama family of AI models, products and Fundamental Artificial Intelligence Research projects.
The social media company will invest “hundreds of billions of dollars” into AI compute infrastructure, Zuckerberg said earlier this month.
“The next few years are going to be very exciting!” Zuckerberg wrote Friday.
WATCH: Meta announces massive ‘Prometheus’ & ‘Hyperion’ data center plans
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