{"id":174877,"date":"2026-04-24T13:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T13:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T13:18:10","slug":"pennsylvania-businesses-scammed-out-of-thousands-of-dollars-settlement-reached-wpxi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174877\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania businesses scammed out of thousands of dollars; settlement reached \u2013 WPXI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">A settlement has been reached with a Florida-based company and its owners for allegedly impersonating a Pennsylvania agency as part of efforts to get money from owners of newly registered state businesses, Attorney General Dave Sunday announced this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The company will pay $40,000 in total restitution to impacted business owners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">According to the AG\u2019s office, PA Corporate Certificates, LLC, contacted Pennsylvania state businesses to solicit purchases of a Subsistence Certificate, which is a legitimate document offered by the Department of State, but is often not necessary for many businesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The real price of the certificate is $40, but the company inflated the price to $102.50, according to the AG\u2019s office, and collected payments from nearly 2,000 business owners in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">The AG\u2019s office said the company sent letters that appeared to be from the Department of State and \u201cmisrepresented the purpose or benefit\u201d of a Subsistence Certificate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Not all businesses that paid for a certificate actually received it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cToday\u2019s settlement will return thousands of dollars to Pennsylvania business owners who paid for documentation they likely did not need,\u201d Attorney General Sunday said. \u201cNew businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of our local economies and communities, and my Office will continue to take seriously any attempts to exploit them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">PA Corporate Certificates has ceased operations in Pennsylvania, and the settlement prevents the company or individuals from operating in the state again. <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">\u201cWe thank the Attorney General for investigating and resolving this matter,\u201d Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said. \u201cWhen the Department of State became aware of this issue, we immediately forwarded the information to the Office of Attorney General. We also alerted Pennsylvania businesses with a message on our website.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph\">Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM CHANNEL 11 NEWS <\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 gJuxXh body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A settlement has been reached with a Florida-based company and its owners for allegedly impersonating a Pennsylvania agency&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4737,10094,3646,4738,40880,8216,4591,60,4741,21941,449,4742,786,31,784,15649,20608,15651,4746,744,4747,15652,4036,4748,4586,4749,15653,4011,15654,60844,740,742,3430,4751,69295,393,4752,15655,4043,28,30,29,15657,787,6436,4756,4757,1112,40881,4758,15658,15659],"class_list":{"0":"post-174877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-attorney","9":"tag-auction","10":"tag-authority","11":"tag-background","12":"tag-barrister","13":"tag-book","14":"tag-brown","15":"tag-business","16":"tag-concept","17":"tag-constitution","18":"tag-court","19":"tag-courthouse","20":"tag-courtroom","21":"tag-crime","22":"tag-criminal","23":"tag-decision","24":"tag-document","25":"tag-equality","26":"tag-gavel","27":"tag-government","28":"tag-guilt","29":"tag-hammer","30":"tag-horizontal","31":"tag-innocence","32":"tag-judge","33":"tag-judgement","34":"tag-judgment","35":"tag-judicial","36":"tag-juridical","37":"tag-jurisdiction","38":"tag-justice","39":"tag-law","40":"tag-lawyer","41":"tag-legal","42":"tag-legal-system","43":"tag-legislation","44":"tag-litigation","45":"tag-mallet","46":"tag-order","47":"tag-pennsylvania","48":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","49":"tag-pennsylvania-news","50":"tag-prosecution","51":"tag-punishment","52":"tag-right","53":"tag-symbol","54":"tag-system","55":"tag-trial","56":"tag-tribunal","57":"tag-verdict","58":"tag-wood","59":"tag-wooden"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}