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Lina Khan
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ProfilePerson

Lina Khan

Oversight and enforcement

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Type
Person
Role
Oversight and enforcement
Programs
PPP
Updated

The profile

FTC Chair, June 2021 – January 2025, when the agency brought the Womply and Biz2Credit cases (2024).

Individuals whose conduct was challenged or called into question during or after the pandemic. See sources: Wilson resignation letter, March 2, 2023 Womply stipulated order, April 3, 2024 Biz2Credit stipulated order, March 20, 2024

In the archive

Identity & role

Lina M. Khan was Chair of the Federal Trade Commission from June 2021 to January 2025. The Womply and Biz2Credit consent orders (both filed March 18, 2024) were authorized under her chairmanship by the three-Democrat Commission (Khan, Slaughter, Bedoya).

Career arc (before / during / after the pandemic)

  • Before: legal scholar (Yale Law); counsel to the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee; Columbia Law academic (FTC biography). The Open Markets Institute role and the 2017 "Amazon's Antitrust Paradox" article have no source document on this site.
  • During: appointed FTC Chair in June 2021 and led the agency through the back half of the pandemic-relief enforcement period, including the March 2024 PPP-fintech actions.
  • After: returned to Columbia Law School in 2025; her role as co-chair of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's transition team and the April 2026 Center for Law and the Economy directorship are reported by amNY and The Hill.

FTC enforcement involvement

Her Bureau of Consumer Protection brought the Womply and Biz2Credit actions: counts under Section 5 of the FTC Act and the COVID-19 Consumer Protection Act over deceptive marketing of PPP-application odds and processing times (not loan fraud). Womply settled for $26M and Biz2Credit for $33M, each with a permanent injunction and a "neither admit nor deny" clause (stipulated orders). The three-vote Democratic majority authorizing both complaints consisted of Khan, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, and Alvaro Bedoya. The Womply action named Toby Scammell individually alongside OTO Analytics, Inc. d/b/a Womply; the Biz2Credit action named the company and its subsidiary Itria Ventures. Staff attorneys on the Womply case: Julia Heald, Katherine Worthman, and Paola Henry. FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director at the time: Samuel Levine. Across the broader 2021–2025 enforcement record, the same three Democratic votes recur on every action in the FTC commissioner vote record, from the Amazon monopolization suit to the Non-Compete and "Click-to-Cancel" rules.

Lobbying & industry ties

None located.

Revolving door

Returned to academia (Columbia Law).

Commissioner Christine Wilson's February 2023 resignation criticised Khan's conduct, including over a Meta matter (see the Wilson profile; the resignation letter itself does not make the charge). No recusal issue arose in the Womply or Biz2Credit matters, which the Commission authorised 3-0 (FTC release).

Documents on this site

Original source documents and archived copies

  • Andrew N. Ferguson — Republican FTC commissioner from April 2024; appointed Chair in January 2025 to succeed Khan.

Sources

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