Oregon businesses pay $3 million, stop newspaper, magazine subscription offers in settlement

SALEM, Ore. — A group of southern Oregon businesses have agreed to stop offering newspaper and magazine subscriptions and pay $3 million after the state attorney general filed a racketeering lawsuit against them.

State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced the agreement filed Tuesday in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem.

The 19 businesses and nine individuals based in White City, Oregon, don’t admit guilt but agree to stop offering newspaper and magazine subscriptions, pay $3 million into the state consumer protection fund and up to $500,000 to reimburse customers.

Rosenblum says the scam bilked consumers across the country of millions of dollars with bogus offers of cut-rate subscriptions.

Medford business consultant Jeffrey Hoyal, one of those signing the agreement, said in a statement they had “strived to operate our businesses within the law.”