The Federal Bureau of Investigation could be the next agency to investigate Holly Christina Photography.
According to a bride who hired the photography company, an agent from the FBI called her to gather more information and determine if it should be considered a federal crime or not.
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WRAL reached out to the FBI for comment, but the agency said it could neither confirm nor deny the call, citing a Department of Justice policy.
Hundreds of North Carolina couples are out thousands of dollars after Holly Christina Photography took their money but never provided their services or never released the photos already taken.
Holly Scott Ayscue and her husband Christopher Owen Ayscue, the co-owners of Holly Christina Photography, are each facing one count of felony obtaining property by false pretenses. The charges stem from a bride who said she paid the couple a $5,600 deposit that was never returned after the business closed.
North Carolina’s Attorney General Jeff Jackson’s office also sued the company in February after receiving complaints from more than 220 people. The lawsuit alleged that the defendants misled and defrauded couples and their families by not providing the photographs and videos they were promised.
In May, a judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering the company to turn over all edited and unedited photos and videos within 30 days. The order also required the company to stop doing business and prohibited its owners from moving company assets while the case proceeded.
Jackson’s office says the company did not comply.
The attorney general is now seeking a final judgment requiring the delivery of every remaining photo and video, nearly $600,000 in restitution for affected consumers and more than $1.1 million in civil penalties. The requested judgment would also permanently prohibit the company and its owners from engaging in similar conduct.
Both owners of the company told reporters outside a Winston-Salem courthouse in August that they were doing "everything" in their power to make things right.
A judge has not yet ruled on the attorney general’s request.
A judge ordered that a Raleigh-based photography company that failed to deliver for Triangle couples on their wedding day turn over the photos and videos they are owed.