The Digital Altitude Receiver filed a clawback motion on March 15, seeking to recover $515,000 from Paradise Media Ventures, a company led by John Souza. This action follows allegations that Paradise Media Ventures received significant overpayments from Digital Altitude just before the FTC moved to shut down the alleged pyramid scheme.

Digital Altitude, a company accused of operating an illegal online marketing pyramid scheme, faced a federal shutdown order. A court-appointed Receiver then took control of its assets. The Receiver's primary duty involves identifying and recovering funds for distribution to defrauded victims, a process that often includes clawback lawsuits against parties who received transfers from the scheme.

Paradise Media Ventures had provided "educational materials" to Digital Altitude starting around August 2016. By November 2016, the business relationship had deteriorated, leading to a $600,000 settlement in favor of Paradise Media Ventures.

A critical error occurred on January 5, 2018. Digital Altitude intended to pay the remaining $300,000 settlement balance. Instead, the company mistakenly wired $600,000 to Paradise Media Ventures. Mary Dee, representing Digital Altitude, immediately contacted DA's bank to initiate a reversal of the overpayment. The bank indicated this process could take up to a week.

To ensure Paradise Media Ventures received its rightful payment and could not claim a default while the reversal was pending, Digital Altitude transferred an additional $105,000 to PMV around January 12. Soon after, DA's bank informed them that PMV's bank had rejected the reversal of the original $600,000 erroneous transfer. This left Paradise Media Ventures holding $515,000 more than it was due.

Digital Altitude then sought a manual return of the overpaid funds from Paradise Media Ventures and John Souza. But instead, Souza ceased communication with Digital Altitude. After the federal action against Digital Altitude and the appointment of the Receiver, attempts were made to recover the $515,000. These efforts initially met with silence. Souza eventually entered into negotiations with the Receiver, but these discussions have not yielded the return of the funds.

The Receiver argues that Paradise Media Ventures has no legitimate claim to the $515,000 overpayment. The motion filed on March 15 specifically requests a court order compelling Paradise Media Ventures to remit the funds to the Receivership estate. Mary Dee provided a declaration supporting the motion. Separately, John Souza now promotes Social Media Magic University (SMMU), claiming it serves 75,000 students as "the most trusted social media firm."

A court order dated March 18 continued the motion hearing, postponing resolution until at least June 3rd.