1987, Cook filed personal bankruptcy. Two companies he controlled, American Business Alliance and Monarch Funding Corporation, also went bankrupt that year. In 1989, Cook was charged with securities violations by the Arizona Corporation Commission. The following year, the Arizona Attorney General charged him with several criminal counts, including selling unregistered shares of a company he controlled. In 1998, Cook won a settlement against self-help guru Anthony Robbins over his claim that Robbins had illegally used concepts (particularly the "meter drop") from Cook's book Wall Street Money Machine to create a financial seminar. Robbins agreed that he had read the book and met with Cook, but disputed the illegality of his use of the concepts. A jury in Tacoma, Washington sided with Cook and awarded damages in the amount of US$655,900. In 2000, WCFC, a company which sold seminars on investing and offered subscriptions to a trading bulletin board service called the Wealth Information Network (W.I.N.), posted US$1.7 million in trading losses. The stated purpose of posting the bulletin board information about these trades was to let attendees of his financial workshops "learn from the master" by seeing what securities Cook bought and sold. Gaining access to "Wade's Trades" was touted as one of the major advantages of attending these seminars. Subscribers to Wade's Trades could purchase the same securities that Wade Cook purchased and theoretically, could duplicate his results. The bulletin board often recommended the securities of obscure corporations or options in which there was a fairly small market. When Cook's students began purchasing these investments, they tended to drive up the price. Initial purchasers could then liquidate their own positions in these investments at a profit, thus proving to Cook's students that he had a talent for picking securities that were poised to go up in value. Unfortunately, the increase in the value of the securities was often short-lived; since the price would be driven back down as students began to sell their positions. If most of the activity in the recommended securities was due to transactions by bulletin board subscribers, it is reasonable to conclude that at least some of these investment recommendations would become self-fulfilling prophesies. On October 5, 2000, Wade Cook Financial Corporation agreed to a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and 14 state Attorneys General on charges that the corporation misrepresented earnings potential. WCFC claimed 20% monthly returns. As a result, WCFC was required