The Federal Trade Commission has filed lawsuits against two Canadian companies it alleged offered pre-approved credit cards for advanced fees and then failed to deliver the cards, the commission announced yesterday.
The FTC alleged that Centurion Financial Benefits placed unsolicited telemarketing calls to U.S. consumers, falsely offering them pre-approved MasterCard and Visa credit cards for an advance fee of $249. In the second complaint, the FTC also alleges that Pacific Liberty Benefits promised credit cards and an assortment of “complimentary” gifts for $319 and failed to deliver the cards and gifts. In each case, U.S. consumers lost millions of dollars, the FTC said.
Filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, both complaints charge the defendants with multiple violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the FTC Act and seek to have them permanently barred from doing so again. They also seek unspecified monetary damages to strip the companies of their “ill gotten monies,” make restitution, and pay the FTC’s costs related to the complaints.
“The Commission continues to work diligently to monitor, track, and prosecute cross-border fraud cases,” said Lydia Parnes, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement.
Judges in the U.S. district court in Chicago have issued temporary restraining orders barring the defendants from engaging further in the alleged illegal conduct and freezing their assets, the FTC said. Also, Canadian law enforcement agencies have executed criminal search warrants and made arrests in each case, the FTC said.
People named in the Centurion complaint are Sean Somma aka Sean Soma; Antonio Marchese aka Tony Marchese; Tony Andreopoulos; and Dennis Andreopoulos. Companies named are Centurion Financial Benefits; Integra Financial Benefits; American Getaway Vacations; Credence Travel Processing; and Topstar Media.
People named in the Pacific Liberty complaint are Oleg A. Oks; Aleksandr Oks; Philip Nemirovsky; and Boris Pekar. Companies named in the Pacific Liberty complaint are Pacific Liberty; Pacific Liberty Group; Pacific Liberty W Group; Liberty Wide Info Services; Liberty Wide Info Services Group; Liberty Wide Services and Liberty Wide; Liberty Sun Info Services and Liberty Sun Info; C & B Communications Group; Atlantic One Info Services Group; Nationwide Credit Service Inc.; Nation Wide Information Services Group; and Nationwide Information Services, all of which are corporations based in Ontario, Canada, the FTC said.
