A financial services telemarketer who allegedly called hundreds of thousands of consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry and failed to transmit accurate caller ID information has settled the government’s charges and is banned from telemarketing to consumers for five years, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Named as defendants were
In Nov. 2007, the federal government charged Global Mortgage Funding, Inc. (Global Mortgage) and its owner, Damian Robert Kutzner, with unlawfully calling consumers on the Do Not Call Registry in an attempt to sell financial products, including mortgages and related financing services, according to the FTC.
The complaint also charged the defendants with allegedly failing to transmit accurate caller ID information, pay fees required to access the Registry, and abandoning calls by not connecting consumers to a representative within two seconds after they answered the phone, according to the Commission.
The court order bans Kutzner and anyone working with him from telemarketing to consumers and from helping others to do so for five years, according to the FTC.
The order also permanently bans Kutzner from violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule, as well as its Do Not Call provisions, the FTC continued.
The order imposed a $6 million fine against Kutzner and Global, which has been suspended due to their inability to pay. Both defendants have filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the Commission.
This case is on file at U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
