24 Hour Fitness Class Action Lawsuit Certified for RICO Bank Fraud and Wire Fraud

24 Hour Fitness Class Action Lawsuit Certified for RICO Bank Fraud and Wire
Fraud

Company Faces Potential Liability of More Than $100 Million

- Complaint & Attorney Interviews Available -

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- One-and-a-half million former
members of 24 Hour Fitness, the gym popularized by the television show
"Biggest Loser," are permitted to pursue a nationwide class action case
against 24 Hour Fitness for violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO) and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA), per a
decision by the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Friedman vs. 24 Hour Fitness USA, Inc., (Case # 06-06282), alleges that 24
Hour Fitness continues to deliberately take monthly payments out of consumer's
accounts after the member cancels membership. The case was filed in U.S.
District Court, Central District of California.

The gym insists all members pay their monthly memberships by electronic
transfer. It is estimated that 24 Hour Fitness is making $1.6 million a month
that it is getting from former members' bank and credit card accounts by
defrauding such companies as Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, which
process payments via the national financial system networks for electronic
fund transfers.

"24 Hour Fitness is the modern day Al Capone, using the electronic banking and
credit card system as Al Capone and his mob used the Tommy gun," says Los
Angeles trial lawyer Robert L. Esensten of Wasserman Comden & Casselman. "This
is exactly what the RICO laws were designed to stop. Apparently 24 Hour
Fitness's annual revenues of over one billion dollars a year are not enough
for its owners, despite the fact that today's consumers are struggling to make
every dollar count."

24 Hour Fitness is considered the nation's largest fitness chain, owned by the
private equity firm Forstmann, Little & Co., based in New York.

It uses celebrities Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson, Andre Agassi, Derek
Jeter, and Lance Armstrong to promote the gym and to sell monthly memberships.
For instance, 24 Hour Fitness teamed up with O'Neal to create new 24 Hour
Fitness Shaq Sports Clubs, the first of which opened in Miami in 2005.

The 24 Hour Fitness class action will now proceed to trial. If the gym is
found in violation of the RICO laws, the company faces potential liability for
more than $100 million.

Wasserman, Comden & Casselman, LLP and Keller Grover, LLP are court-appointed
class counsel. For information, contact Wasserman, Comden & Casselman at
800.736.6800 or visit www.wcclaw.com.

SOURCE Wasserman, Comden & Casselman, LLP

Geri Wilson, The Jonathan Group, +1-626-403-6741, +1-626-487-2235 (24/7),
Gerij9@yahoo.com, for Wasserman, Comden & Casselman, LLP