WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Trade Commission barreled through a sweeping set of actions this past week, permanently shutting down an alleged trucking-investment scam, forcing a major healthcare divestiture tied to services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and warning dozens of elite law firms that coordinated hiring practices tied to DEI metrics could violate antitrust laws.
The moves, spanning consumer protection, healthcare competition, labor markets, and rulemaking, reflect an agency signaling it intends to press aggressively across multiple fronts at once.
In one of the most severe consumer-fraud outcomes, a federal district court in Florida permanently halted the operations of RivX, which regulators say lured consumers with promises of lucrative trucking-industry investment opportunities. The court order bans the defaulting defendants from engaging in any business or investment opportunity and enters an $8,390,025.99 judgment against them, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC and Florida alleged in an August 2024 complaint that RivX told consumers who paid $75,000 or more that the company would buy a semi-truck in their name and run it for them, handling loads, drivers, and logistics. Regulators said very few consumers received trucks, and none recouped their investment.
“The FTC is committed to protecting America’s workers from business opportunity scams,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. The agency said the case was advanced through the Chairman’s Joint Labor Task Force, established in February 2025.
The court granted default judgments against 10 defendants, including RivX entities and executives Antonio Rivodo and Noah Wooten, as well as relief defendants Propihub LLC and RivX Investments LLC. The order also entered a $1,790,465.54 judgment against Propihub LLC and a $42,153.65 judgment against RivX Investments LLC. A separate order settled claims against Diamond Cargo LLC, which will pay $15,000 and assist with the sale of certain trucks tied to the case. The FTC said the default judgment was entered January 15, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Two days later, the FTC targeted a major healthcare deal, requiring Sevita to divest more than 100 facilities to resolve antitrust concerns tied to its proposed $835 million acquisition of BrightSpring Health Services’s community living business, known as ResCare Community Living. The agency said the transaction would combine the two largest national providers of residential services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Under the proposed consent order, Sevita must divest 128 intermediate care facilities and related assets, including certain day-training programs, in Indiana, Louisiana, and Texas to Dungarvin Group. FTC officials said the divestiture is intended to prevent reduced choice and degraded quality of care in certain local markets.
The Commission voted 2-0 to issue the complaint and accept the consent agreement for public comment. The public will have 30 days to submit comments, and the FTC said instructions appear on the docket, with submissions to be posted on Regulations.gov.
On the same day, FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson sent letters to 42 major law firms, warning that potentially unfair and anticompetitive employment practices—especially coordination among competitors—can violate antitrust laws. The FTC said the firms recently participated in the Mansfield Certification program, created by Diversity Lab, and that public information suggests firms may meet with Diversity Lab and competitors to discuss implementation criteria.
Ferguson cautioned that collusion in hiring, including coordination over candidate-pool characteristics and sharing sensitive pay or benefits information, can distort competition for legal labor. The FTC listed the recipients as some of the largest firms in the country and said they collectively employ more than 50,000 attorneys.
Beyond enforcement, the FTC also set a policy agenda that could reshape consumer and housing markets. The agency announced a February 26 workshop, “Measuring Injuries and Benefits in the Data-Driven Economy,” focused on how to quantify consumer injuries and benefits tied to the collection, use, or disclosure of consumer data. The workshop will begin at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, be held online and in-person, and will include remarks from Ferguson and senior FTC officials. Information is posted at https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events/2026/02/consumer-injuries-benefits-data-driven-economy.
In addition, the FTC said it submitted two draft advance notices of proposed rulemaking for review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget—one concerning the agency’s Negative Option Rule and another concerning fees in the rental housing market. The FTC said OIRA determined both proposals are “significant regulatory actions” requiring review before the agency can publish them in the Federal Register and solicit public comment. The Commission votes to move the items forward were 2-0.
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