Scam perpetrators hit with restitution, penalties

Two business partners who sold magazine subscriptions door to door in central and southwest Missouri but never delivered the magazines will pay restitutions to customers and penalties to the state of Missouri.

Under a court order from Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, Jason E. Cogbill, a Joplin resident at the time the lawsuit was filed, has been ordered to pay $2,699 in restitution to customers and an additional $2,000 to the state.

The judgment is a result of a December lawsuit filed by Nixon’s office in Boone County Circuit Court against Creek House Subscription co-owners Cogbill and Kameron C. Johnson. Johnson was ordered to pay more than $6,800 in restitution and penalties as part of an agreement reached in April.

The two men also have been barred from operating the Linn Creek-based Creek House Subscription in the state of Missouri.

Nixon said his office received more than 60 complains from customers in six counties, including Christian and Greene counties. The customers said they paid for subscriptions they never received.

They also said Cogbill and Johnson falsely claimed to be students from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Missouri State University.

Consumers who purchased magazine subscriptions from Creek House can file a complaint through the attorney general’s Web site, www.ago.mo.gov, or by calling the consumer protection hotline at (800) 392-8222.