The Lie That Cost Me Over 130 Thousand: A Veteran’s Fight To Expose Smart FBA, Scott Hunt, Cohen Branden Chorabik, Phillip C Kramer and Amazon’s Inaction

*** “This was supposed to be a fulfillment deal. It became a full blown scam.”

On December 31, 2024, I received what seemed like

a hopeful promise from Scott Hunt, the man publicly claiming to take over and reform SmartFBA. He assured me that the company would pivot to

Walmart Fulfillment, replacing the mess SmartWholesale and SmartFBA had created with something cleaner and more ethical. I wanted to believe him.

Instead, what followed was as months of deception, vanished inventory (more than 2000 items from my Poshmark, Mercari and EBay, unanswered emails, lies at his bankruptcy court hearings, and complete silence from Amazon executive teams.

The Beginning: An Invoice, A Lie

In August 2023, I paid $30,000 for Smart FBA’s so-called “Omni Package.” I have the invoice. This is after their business development director talked me into buying one of their pre-existing stores from a client who wanted out. That was an additional $30,000. The business development director was paid a

Commission by the seller. The deal was purportedly approved by the CFO, Phillip C Kramer. I wired the funds to respective Banks. Smartwholesale LLC in Gresham, Oregon is now tied to failed fulfillment and missing goods by their public YouTube admissions of Scott Hunt.

By fall of 2024, I began noticing discrepancies between what I paid for and what I received. Inventory orders placed In July, August and October 2024 totaling over $18,000 were simlpy never delivered. I emailed Scott Hunt directly. On January 23, 2025 I begged for a refund. He never responded. It took several appeals through banks whose business credit cards were leverage to reverse charges for those purchases. All my appeals were initially denied by each bank at least 3 times.

The Paper Trail

-Amazon Seller Support (ignored)

-The Executice Seller Relations team (ignored)

-The New York Attorney General (acknowledged but deferred)

-The Consumer Financial Bureau (ignored)

-The media (silence)

Ive sent UPS letters, emails, screenshots. I’ve created multiple paper trails through Gmail, WhatsApp, invoice receipts, Facebook. All Of it-documented.

The Big Reveal: Scott Hunt Spills the truth

In a now public video interview posted in early 2025, Scott Hunt admits:

-He interred a broken company with “hundreds of Thousands of dollars in problems”

-One of the partners misappropriated funds and

Inventory

-He continued signing off on deals while knowing refunds weren’t being issued (especially true in my case ).

Rick Benosa, Poaching and Profiting

In February 2025, a former SmartFBA coordinator emailed me, offering to help me “recover my losses” for $1,500/month. He confirmed he was no longer with SmartFBA. Instead of restitution, he wanted to profit again off our collective trauma.

Where was Amazon?

Amazing was notified repeatedly. I filed reports. I escalated my case. I included proof of misleading activity, photos of executives featured

In the Smart FBA homepage and discrepancies between contract promos es and store delivery? Amazon’s response: they need proof from my supplier’s supplier to reactive my deactivated account. I can’t close the account: I can’t create inventory removal requests. I am billed regularly for

This despite being unable To get around the supplier’s supplier demand. They know I can’t access it.

It’s Time to Speak Up.

This is not just about money. It’s about accountability. If you were impacted by SmartFBA, SmartWholesale LLC (Texas and Oregon ) or any of its former key players Scott Hunt, Phillip C Kramer, Cohen Branden Chorabik, or others), I invite you to join me and the 18 others suing these men.

We are stronger together. And our silence only protects the people who profited off of our trust: