Baltimore sues Agora, accusing Mount Vernon publishing giant of ‘selling snake oil’

A new formula that could “rewind” old age for just $199 a bottle?

An opportunity to get in on Elon Musk’s secret new project before other investors catch on?

Enhanced sexual performance or your money back?

The offers, from the Mount Vernon-based publisher Agora and its army of affiliates, are too good to be true, according to a new consumer protection lawsuit from the city of Baltimore.

“On the outside, Agora has cultivated the image of an offbeat publishing business writing about health, finance, and retirement,” the city’s attorneys wrote in a complaint filed Tuesday. “The truth is darker. Agora is an internet marketing and supplements company that targets older consumers with exploitative business practices.”

The lawsuit asks a judge to order civil penalties of up to $1,000 a day for each violation of Baltimore’s consumer protection ordinance. It’s the latest big move from Baltimore’s Law Department, which has sued financial and gambling giants like MoneyLion and DraftKings since gaining new consumer protection enforcement powers in 2023.

It’s also the Law Department’s first time taking on a major Baltimore company with a consumer protection lawsuit. In a statement, Mayor Brandon Scott said the lawsuit will safeguard city residents from Agora’s business strategies.

“It is my hope that these protections will prevent further harm in communities across the nation,” Scott said. “This predatory cycle of exploitation ends here.”

Agora did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Based at 14 W. Mount Vernon Place, Agora has a host of affiliate companies, including 14 West Administrative Services, which provides operational support to the other companies; NewMarket Health Publishing; MarketWise; Paradigm Press; and Oxford Financial Publishing, all of which are named as defendants in the city’s lawsuit. The suit also names the president of The Agora Companies, Jules Bonner, and the editors of several publications.

The company rose to prominence through its financial and health newsletters and other publications, many of which offer advice from high-profile gurus or investment recommendations. Founder Bill Bonner, Jules Bonner’s father, launched the company in 1978, borrowing the name “Agora” from the ancient Greek concept of an open market and gathering space.

“We are a marketplace of ideas,” the company says on its website, claiming credit for predicting the 2008 housing crisis and for warning readers of the harms of sugar before the idea was popularized. “In fact, Agora is the largest publisher in the world of ideas.”

By the 2010s, the company claimed to have more than three million paid subscribers, more than a thousand employees and revenues topping half a billion dollars.

The complaint accuses Agora and its affiliates of using a common business model: first, flood the internet with targeted ads to attract customers, then push them to an “advertorial” or longform video that ends with a product or subscription offer. Customers who click on the offer are directed to a checkout page that offers multiple subscription tiers, ranging from short-term subscriptions costing about $100 to more expensive “lifetime” subscriptions.

Once a customer buys a newsletter or other product, they are flooded with advertising emails from the company’s affiliates, the complaint claims. The offers suggest that supplies are limited, or that customers can join elite “inner circle” clubs to gain access to experts in real estate or invitations to member events at vacation spots. These expensive memberships are where the company makes its money, according to the complaint.

“Selling snake oil is not a new business model,” the city’s lawyers wrote. “But it has become more sophisticated, with its practitioners relying on social media, internet marketing, and e-commerce to maximize scale.”

The company targets an older audience, particularly for its unproven health products and financial advice, the lawsuit alleges. The family of one elderly customer reported that Agora charged the man more than 60 times over two years for various subscriptions and products, in amounts ranging from $19 to $4,000, according to the complaint.

“The consumer was severely disabled. He took out home loans to pay for Agora products,” the lawyers wrote. “At his death, his family discovered that he had spent more than $30,000 on Agora products.”

The city’s lawsuit claims the companies generate “hundreds of millions of dollars” in revenue each year; one affiliate claimed in its 2025 annual report that it netted $328.1 million from more than 374,000 paid subscribers. The company has at least 40 legal entities, according to the complaint.

This isn’t the first time Agora has faced legal scrutiny over its business practices. In 2003, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sued Agora and one of its subsidiaries, alleging the companies sent unsolicited emails claiming to have insider information about upcoming government approval of a contract that would boost a company’s stock, and sold a report naming the company for $1,000. About a thousand customers bought the report, the complaint alleged. A judge ordered $1.5 million in penalties and restitution.

In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission accused Agora and a group of affiliates of duping seniors into buying publications that promised a cure for Type 2 diabetes and a path to receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars through a government giveaway program. The company ultimately settled for $2 million in a deal that also barred Agora from making “false or unsupported claims.”

Baltimore’s lawsuit argues that the company’s ever-changing roster of affiliates allows it to evade serious legal responsibility while raking in enormous profits.

“Compared to the few million dollars in penalties and settlements Agora has paid to regulators,” the city’s attorneys wrote, “it has been more lucrative for Agora to continue breaking the law.”

Madeleine O’Neill is a freelance reporter based in Baltimore.