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The Justice Division, along with the Federal Commerce Fee (FTC), right now introduced a civil enforcement motion towards a number of company and particular person defendants for alleged violations of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Gross sales Rule (TSR) in reference to telemarketing campaigns which have illegally bombarded American customers with thousands and thousands of robocalls.
In keeping with a grievance filed within the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of California, defendant telecommunications service corporations Stratics Networks, Inc. and Netlatitude Inc., together with defendant Kurt Hannigan, Netlatitude’s president, violated the TSR by offering substantial help and help within the type of technological providers to telemarketers that unlawfully referred to as customers with robocalls delivering prerecorded advertising messages, referred to as numbers listed on the Nationwide Do Not Name Registry, and did not in truth determine the vendor of the products and providers being marketed. These alleged robocalls embrace quite a few “ringless voicemails” delivered to customers with out making their telephones ring.
The grievance additionally brings claims towards a number of extra defendants that allegedly used Stratics Networks, Inc.’s ringless voicemail platform to illegally telemarket credit-card debt aid providers. In keeping with the grievance, defendants Tek Ventures, LLC (additionally doing enterprise as Provident Options), Atlas Advertising and marketing Companions, Inc., Atlas Funding Ventures, LLC, Eric Petersen and Todd DiRoberto (who’re co-owners of these three corporations), Kasm, and Kenan Azzeh (proprietor and director of Kasm) violated the FTC Act by misrepresenting the phrases and outcomes of their debt aid providers. These defendants additionally violated the TSR by making these misrepresentations, by failing to obviously and in truth determine the vendor of their providers, and by calling customers with prerecorded messages with out first acquiring their consent. The grievance additionally alleges that defendants Tek Ventures, LLC, Atlas Advertising and marketing Companions, Inc., Atlas Funding Ventures, LLC, Eric Petersen, Todd DiRoberto, and two extra defendants – Ace Enterprise Options LLC and its proprietor and director Sandra Barnes – violated the TSR by requesting and receiving funds from their debt aid clients earlier than renegotiating or in any other case altering the phrases of these clients’ money owed.
The grievance seeks a everlasting injunction to ban the defendants from future violations, in addition to financial civil penalties and aid to redress damage prompted to customers.
Two defendants on this motion, Kasm and its proprietor and director Kenan Azzeh, have agreed to entry of a courtroom order that resolves the claims towards them. The stipulated order, if entered by the courtroom, would prohibit these defendants from additional violations and impose a financial judgment of $3,380,000, suspended to $7,500 resulting from their restricted capacity to pay.
“The Division of Justice is dedicated to stopping people and firms from making unlawful robocalls and peddling predatory debt aid providers,” stated Principal Deputy Assistant Legal professional Normal Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Division’s Civil Division. “We are going to proceed to work with the FTC to implement the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Gross sales Rule towards those that use deceptive gross sales techniques to prey on customers.”
“This case targets the ecosystem of corporations who perpetrate unlawful telemarketing to cheat American customers who’re struggling financially,” stated Director Samuel Levine of the FTC’s Bureau of Client Safety. “The FTC will proceed to take aggressive motion to guard customers from the scourge of unlawful robocalls.”
Senior Trial Legal professional Daniel Okay. Crane-Hirsch and Trial Attorneys Matthew A. Robinson and Zachary A. Dietert of the Civil Division’s Client Safety Department, along with employees on the FTC’s Division of Advertising and marketing Practices, are prosecuting the case.
For extra details about the Client Safety Department and its enforcement efforts, go to its web site at https://www.justice.gov/civil/consumer-protection-branch. For extra details about the FTC, go to its web site at https://www.FTC.gov.
A grievance is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed harmless except confirmed responsible past an inexpensive doubt in a courtroom of legislation.
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