Borg-Johnson Electronics Inc. (also known as Borg- Johnson Electronics Co.) were selling very simple crystal set radios in the mid to late 1950s. The company sold these radios only via mail-order and advertised them in newspapers. While the radios are pretty standard compared with other crystal sets the ads contained false claims ("A built-in power plant", "Perfect reception, no interference") that lead to fraud trials.

David Ratke and Monroe Caine - the president and vice president of Borg-Johnson Electronics Inc. - had a long history of mail-order scams and frauds, mostly selling very cheap and simple products as "wonder" products, making false claims to lure people into buying their stuff. The "lifetime" crystal sets were sold for 4.95 US Dollars at the time, which was much more than other comparable "Toy quality" crystal sets costed at the time.