Judge penalizes ‘robocaller’

A federal judge Tuesday entered a default judgment against one of five Florida companies sued last year by Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel over purported violations of telemarketing laws.

Each of the lawsuits allege that separate Florida-based businesses were violating the law by making auto-dialed solicitations to Arkansas consumers on the national Do Not Call registry, in efforts to sell them credit-card interest-rate-reduction services that consumers complained were a ripoff.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James Moody sided with McDaniel’s office in finding Financial Ladder Inc. of St. Cloud, Fla., and its owners, Brenda Helfenstine and Antonio Helfenstine, in default for failing to respond to the state’s motion for relief. Moody permanently enjoined the Helfenstines and their business from making unsolicited “robocalls,” as well as unauthorized live telemarketing calls to consumers in the United States. He also enjoined them from owning or operating any business that markets services purporting to lower credit-card interest rates or to provide other forms of debt relief.

Moody imposed a $100,000 penalty against the defendants after finding that they committed at least five violations of the Arkansas Consumer Telephone Privacy Act and at least five violations of the Arkansas Advance Fee Loan Brokerage Act, which prohibits loan brokers from assessing or collecting an advance fee to provide services.

He also ordered the defendants to pay $3,395 in restitution to three consumers who couldn’t obtain a refund, and $4,500 to the attorney general’s office for expenses incurred in bringing the lawsuit, for a total of $107,895, as well as interest that will accumulate against each defendant, jointly and severally, until the total is paid off.

Meanwhile, Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Miller hasn’t ruled on McDaniel’s Nov. 25 request to find another “robocalling” company, Associated Accounting Specialists Inc. of Port Saint Lucie, Fla., and its owner, Jason Page, in default for ignoring a similar lawsuit.

In September, Moody granted a joint request to stay a third lawsuit that McDaniel’s office filed against Business First Solutions Inc. of Orlando, Fla., and its owners, Jonathan Warren and Edward Warren, pending the resolution of a related case brought against the same defendants by the Federal Trade Commission.

Also in September, U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes entered a default judgment against Kenneth Sallies of Winter Spring, Fla., for failing to answer McDaniel’s lawsuit. Holmes found Sallies had violated several telemarketing laws, enjoined him from making additional calls or operating any business offering credit-card rate-reduction services, and ordered him to pay $20,000 in civil penalties as well as $4,500 in fees to McDaniel’s office.

A fifth lawsuit filed by McDaniel’s office, against Financial Management Partners Inc. of Maitland, Fla., is pending before U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright. It alleges that the defendants accepted between $400 and $1,000 from 40 consumers who contend they didn’t receive the services they paid for and didn’t receive a requested refund.