FBI revealed that they were investigating whether or not individuals paid by Ackman and otherwise had made false statements about Herbalife's business model to regulators and others in order to lower the company's stock price and influence authorities to conduct an investigation. In November 2017, Ackman closed out his short position after Herbalife shares increased by 51 percent over the year, and replaced it with a less aggressive put option. In March 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ackman had "largely exited" his bet against the company, while others reported that the bet against Herbalife had cost his company hundreds of millions of dollars and damaged the confidence of investors in his hedge fund. FTC investigation Based on information from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the New York Post reported on February 4, 2013, that Herbalife was subject to a pending probe from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC released 729 pages containing 192 complaints received over a 7-year period in regards to the New York Post'''s FOIA request. The FTC stated that the wording it used in its response to the FOIA request was incorrect; the FTC could not confirm or deny an investigation into Herbalife. In March 2014, the FTC opened an investigation into Herbalife in response to calls from consumer groups and members in both houses of Congress. Herbalife responded to the probe by saying it "welcomes the inquiry given the tremendous amount of misinformation in the marketplace, and will cooperate fully with the FTC. We are confident that Herbalife is in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations." However, in the press conference, Herbalife was declared not necessarily not pyramid scheme. In July 2016, Herbalife agreed to change its business model and pay $200 million in a settlement with the FTC. Partial refund checks were mailed to roughly 350,000 Herbalife distributors in January 2017. The FTC said in a press release about the settlement "it's virtually impossible to make money selling Herbalife products." The lawsuit alleged that Herbalife deceived consumers into believing they could earn substantial income from the business opportunity or big money from the retail sale of the company's products. In addition, the complaint charged that one of the fundamental principles of Herbalife's business model—incentivizing distributors to buy products and to recruit others to join and buy products so they could advance in the company's marketing program, rather than in