"pattern of complaints concerning misrepresentation in selling practices". The New York State Consumer Protection Board issued an alert, naming it the largest example they had found of a photo mill scam.<ref>"Model Agency Labeled a Scam" Page Six, New York Post. October 20, 2003.</ref> San Francisco's labor commissioner declared Options/TCT/WSN in violation of California law, and several state agencies were reported to be investigating the company. In Florida, around 2,000 complaints were filed with the then-Attorney General Charlie Crist and the BBB, and an investigation was started by Assistant Attorney General Dowd. However, as the newly appointed Assistant AG MacGregor was unable to find "any substantial violations", no charges were filed. Further complicating matters was the fact that the company had since declared bankruptcy, "leaving no deep pockets from which to collect damages." By June 2004, Fashion Rock, LLC had filed a civil suit for defamation against some who had criticized Pearlman's talent businesses. The case was dismissed and closed in 2006. One of the accused, a Canadian consumer-fraud expert Les Henderson, successfully pursued a libel lawsuit against Pearlman, Tolner, El-Difrawi and several others. Fashion Rock, LLC lived on until February 2, 2007, when its assets were sold in Pearlman's bankruptcy proceeding. Difrawi continued filing lawsuits that were all dismissed and was most recently running Expand, Inc. dba Softrock.org aka Employer Network, from the same address as former TCT. Ponzi scheme In 2006, investigators discovered Pearlman had perpetrated the longest-running Ponzi scheme in American history and had defrauded investors out of more than $1 billion, out of which $300 million is still missing. For more than 20 years, Pearlman had enticed individuals and banks to invest in Trans Continental Airlines Inc., TransCon Records, and both companies' parent, Trans Continental International Inc. All three companies were fictions that existed only on paper—at least until Lou Pearlman's boy bands took off and TransCon Records was profiting from signed acts. After the success of NSYNC and Backstreet Boys, he turned the groups and their fame into the engine to further expand his Ponzi scheme. Pearlman used falsified Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, AIG and Lloyd's of London documents to win investors' confidence in his program titled Employee Investment Savings Account, and he used fake financial statements created by the fictitious accounting firm Cohen and Siegel to secure bank loans. Investigation In February 2007, Florida regulators announced that Pearlman's Trans Continental Savings Program was indeed a