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Bottom Line Concepts Paid Referral Partners 10 Percent of Its ERC Fee

Snoop Dogg, Kevin O'Leary, and a Nevada charter school's open-meeting board packet expose the referral machinery sitting on top of a 20 percent cut of a federal tax credit.

Pandemic Darlings · Published

Bottom Line Concepts built distribution through referral partners, affiliates, trade associations, and celebrity promotion. The Snoop Dogg robocall and hotline are covered in the Martin v. Bottom Line Concepts case record.1

Bottom Line Concepts, LLC also markets itself as GovernmentAid, BottomLine Capital, and BottomLine Savings. A private lawsuit describes what it built in the Employee Retention Credit era: a network of “Referral Partners” that a Wall Street Journal video put at more than 50,000, a Shark Tank investor as its best-known partner, and company training for commission-based prospecting.

A 20 percent fee that counts the IRS's interest

The Amplus Academy engagement verifies a 20 percent contingency fee in one public 2022 contract; the contract's clauses, board packet, and IRS-interest treatment are covered in full in The Bottom Line Concepts Contract.2

Bottom Line's fee is "20% of all Credits received by Client, including the actual ERC refund and interest paid". The IRS's own interest on a delayed refund counts toward Bottom Line's cut along with the underlying credit.2 Unpaid fees accrue interest at 1.5% a month; disputes go to arbitration in Miami-Dade County under Florida law; and the school agreed to make Bottom Line its "exclusive provider" of ERC services, owing the fee regardless if it got the credit some other way.2 Josh Fox signed as CEO.

The Amplus fee comes from one dated, publicly disclosed 2022 engagement; it is not proof of what any other client paid.

The complaint's count: more than 50,000 Referral Partners

Bottom Line's growth strategy, according to Martin's amended complaint, ran through what the company calls its Referral Partner Program: an onboarding funnel that a 2023 Wall Street Journal video report, cited in the complaint, put at "more than 50,000 Referral Partners."3 Bottom Line's own program graphic for those partners, reproduced from the company's site, works a 200-employee company through a $2,000,000 refund, a 25% Bottom Line fee ($500,000), and a 10% cut to the Referral Partner who brought in the deal ($50,000), with an additional 5% override available for partners who recruit other partners.3

Fox appears in the complaint's account as recruiter-in-chief, hosting seminars and producing videos titled "Become a Millionaire with Bottom Line" that walk prospective partners through those same commission numbers.4 Partners get a "BLC Academy" of training videos, email templates and scripts linking back to Bottom Line's own sites, and encouragement to "do cold calling, cold email, direct mail, various forms of online marketing, or whatever you are most comfortable with."4 None of that is illegal on its face. Per the complaint, the company also disclaimed responsibility for how that sales force made its calls once it had taught them how.5

The complaint's best-known Referral Partner: Kevin O'Leary

Martin's complaint names Kevin O'Leary, the "Shark Tank" investor, as "Bottom Line's best-known Referral Partner," describing a joint venture called WonderTrust that O'Leary and Bottom Line used together for advertising and booking ERC calls.6 A 2022 press release distributed through NCTC, a cable-industry cooperative, and quoting Fox directly, shows a more conventional channel: member-cooperative partnerships offering members "one-stop access" to Bottom Line's ERC service.7 A separate 2023 release promoting a Bottom Line-branded ERC application service was issued by an outside marketer, "Plentisoft," routing readers to a referral-tracking link.8

According to Martin's complaint, the Snoop Dogg call was placed through a website and hotline (ERCEnroll.com and the "Employee Retention Hotline... brought to you by BottomLine Capital") that the complaint alleges is an alter ego or referral partner of Bottom Line Concepts.1 The complaint's exhibits show consumers complaining to the Better Business Bureau of being called repeatedly after asking to be removed, complaints that show a business response but, per the complaint, no change in calling practice.9

A TCPA lawsuit that survived dismissal in part

The private TCPA case survived dismissal in part but produced no merits finding; the holding and the sibling-suit list are covered in Martin v. Bottom Line Concepts.1011 We found no public enforcement action against Bottom Line Concepts by name.

Who's in Charge

Fox was the public founder and chief executive in a 2023 Leaders magazine interview; the question of who manages the entity is covered in Joshua Fox and the GovernmentAid Profile.1213

Notes

  1. Martin v. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC, No. 1:23-cv-08510-PAE (S.D.N.Y.), First Amended Complaint (Doc. 15), ¶¶ 30–38, 49–50, filed Nov. 13, 2023; quoted in the court's Opinion & Order (Doc. 35) at 2 (March 14, 2024). ↩1 ↩2
  2. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC–Nevada Charter Academies Consulting Agreement, signed Sept. 7, 2022 (Josh Fox, CEO), reproduced in the Amplus Academy Governing Board's public meeting packet for Oct. 24, 2022, item 4(C), including the briefing memorandum's 20% summary. The board packet was posted under Nevada's Open Meeting Law, NRS 241.020. ↩1 ↩2 ↩3
  3. FAC (Doc. 15) ¶ 18 (reproducing Bottom Line's own "Referral Partner Program" graphic, sourced to erc.bottomlinesavings.com) and ¶ 22 (the 50,000-partner figure, which the complaint sources to a 2023 Wall Street Journal video report republished via MarketWatch, not to Bottom Line's own materials). ↩1 ↩2
  4. FAC (Doc. 15) ¶¶ 23–29, describing Fox's recruiting videos, the "BLC Academy," referral e-mail templates, and marketing FAQ instructing partners on cold-calling methods. ↩1 ↩2
  5. FAC (Doc. 15) ¶¶ 53–66 (actual-authority theory) and ¶¶ 67–72 (apparent-authority theory), alleging Bottom Line specified and directed Referral Partner marketing methods while disclaiming direct control over call lists and content; allegations only, resolved in Martin's favor solely for purposes of the motion to dismiss. Opinion & Order (Doc. 35) at 4, 17–19. ↩
  6. FAC (Doc. 15) ¶¶ 19–21, alleging Kevin O'Leary as a Bottom Line Referral Partner and identifying WonderTrust as a joint O'Leary–Bottom Line advertising and call-booking entity. ↩
  7. PRNewswire (via NCTC), "NCTC Partners with BottomLine Concepts to Offer Members One-Stop Access to CARES Act Employee Retention Credit Program", July 13, 2022, quoting Josh Fox. ↩
  8. Newsfile Corp release distributed by "Plentisoft" (contact Alonso Colina), "Employee Retention Credit Claims Application Service Announced By BottomLine Concepts," March 2, 2023, linking to a bottomlinesavings.com referral-tracking URL; not confirmed as a Bottom Line corporate release. ↩
  9. FAC (Doc. 15) ¶¶ 99–101, reproducing Better Business Bureau complaint excerpts and Bottom Line's "see attached" responses. ↩
  10. Martin v. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC, Opinion & Order (Doc. 35) at 15–22 (denying the Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the TCPA claim; dismissing the request for injunctive relief for lack of Article III standing; granting leave to file a Second Amended Complaint), March 14, 2024. ↩
  11. FAC (Doc. 15) ¶ 102, listing Callier v. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC, No. 3:23-cv-00180 (W.D. Tex.); Rojas v. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC, No. 2:23-cv-02667 (C.D. Cal.); Baughman v. Bottom Line Concepts LLC, No. 23-cv-21862 (S.D. Fla.); and Fridline v. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC, No. 4:23-cv-01193 (M.D. Pa.) — private suits, none identified in the cited source review as producing a government merits finding. ↩
  12. "LEADERS Interview with Josh Fox, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Bottom Line Concepts," Leaders Magazine, 2023. ↩
  13. Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz.org), Detail by Entity Name, "BOTTOM LINE CONCEPTS LLC," Document No. L22000224704, FEI/EIN 88-2278531, status ACTIVE, last annual report filed Jan. 26, 2026, listing "BOTTOM LINE CONCEPTS MANAGEMENT, LLC" as the sole Authorized Person (Title: MGR); accessed July 11, 2026. A same-day entity-name search for "Bottom Line Concepts Management" returned no matching Florida registration under that exact name. ↩

Primary sources used in this article

  • Martin v. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC, No. 1:23-cv-08510-PAE (S.D.N.Y.), First Amended Complaint (Doc. 15), filed Nov. 13, 2023.
  • Martin v. Bottom Line Concepts, LLC, No. 1:23-cv-08510-PAE (S.D.N.Y.), Opinion & Order (Doc. 35), March 14, 2024 (Engelmayer, J.).
  • Bottom Line Concepts, LLC — Nevada Charter Academies (Amplus Academy) Consulting Agreement, signed Sept. 7, 2022, in Amplus Academy Governing Board packet for the Oct. 24, 2022 public meeting.
  • Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz.org), Detail by Entity Name, "BOTTOM LINE CONCEPTS LLC," Document No. L22000224704, accessed July 11, 2026.
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