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Irvine car chip company accused of false advertising

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The Orange County district attorney’s office said Friday that it is looking for possible victims of an Irvine-based company accused of selling bogus aftermarket microchips that it claimed could boost a car’s performance when installed on the engine.

Marketers of the GForce Performance Chip claimed the device would boost gas mileage, reduce emissions up to 40% and pump up an engine’s power by 30 to 60 horsepower. But in reality, the chip was an “elaborately packaged circuit board that contains no software,” a news release from the district attorney’s office said.

Ravi Ghataode, the company’s owner and operator, sold hundreds of thousands of GForce chips nationwide for $69 each, and the company made $15 million in the process, prosecutors said.

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Prosecutors have filed a civil consumer lawsuit against GForce, accusing the company of unlawful business practices and false advertising, according to the release.

GForce allegedly never tested the chip and fabricated marketing material about topics such as who engineered the chip, where the company was based and who founded the operation.

The district attorney’s office said that after it started investigating the case, it discovered hundreds of complaints about GForce.

“We vehemently deny all the allegations,” Ghataode said in an email. “As a matter of fact, we have retained top experts in the country who have tested our product and they have provided reports of the accuracy of the product. We expect to prevail on the merits.”

Orange County prosecutors sued Ghataode in 2011, alleging unlawful business practices and false advertising regarding a different business.

According to prosecutors, Ghataode agreed to pay $200,000 after he was accused of charging customers for products they never received and not providing refunds at audio retailers in Irvine and Santa Ana.

Prosecutors have asked that anyone with information about the GForce case call the district attorney’s office consumer fraud hotline at (714) 834-6553.

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