When Denise Katzman of New York City discovered that a friend had received a Victoria's Secret mail-order lingerie catalog containing a $25 discount offer while she only received one with a $10 discount, she talked to that friend, a lawyer named Howard Gotbetter, and they decided to sue the company on the basis of sexual discrimination. When Gotbetter discovered a few days later that the company offered more generous discounts to previous customers (including himself) and not on the basis of sex, he argued instead that Victoria's Secret had violated federal racketeering laws by offering varying discounts in general, and that the company's policy discriminated more broadly against "various demographic groups." Katzman and Gotbetter demanded $15, an apology, reimbursement to everyone who had bought merchandise under the smaller discount, and millions of dollars in damages. Katzman commented that Gotbetter helped motivate her to pursue the suit, because "He believes in the little people."

Gotbetter also previously filed a $50,000 lawsuit on behalf of a religious woman he also knew who, having been part of a crowd of people watching the filming of an HBO documentary about nude models, later found that a few seconds of footage with her in the crowd was included in the film, ruining her reputation and violating her civil rights. Another woman, who had been accused of shoving over a magazine stand and who was held for an hour by police, sued five New York agencies and officials as well as the newsstand company for $3 million and attorney's fees. Gotbetter also sued on behalf of his third ex-wife, who was "humiliated and embarrassed" when told by a bank security guard not to drink a complementary cup of coffee intended for customers; he didn't realize she was a customer. Mr. Gotbetter also filed a libel suit against the bank and the National Law Journal, which reported on the coffee case, on the basis that they had created the "false impression that [he] had filed a frivolous lawsuit."

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