McDaniel
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced five lawsuits on Thursday against five Florida-based telemarketing companies that allegedly used certain tactics in violation of federal and state laws.
The lawsuits name Financial Management Partners Inc. and owners Eric Pugh and Betsy Valorose, Financial Ladder Inc. and owners Antonia Helfenstine and Brenda Helfenstine, Business First Solutions Inc. and owners Edward Warren and Jonathon Warren, Associated Accounting Specialists Inc. and owner William Page, and Kenneth Sallies, the former owner of the defunct Customer Global Services LLC.
The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, allege that the defendants made prerecorded automated calls to consumers in Arkansas offering reduced credit card interest rates. The companies allegedly never intended to provide permanent deductions of interest rates and did not have the means to do so more than the consumers themselves.
The defendants allegedly used illegally automated calls known as robocalls in their marketing in an effort to maximize the number of consumers they could contact.
"Our office has received hundreds of complaints about these types of companies and their aggressive, illegal telephone marketing," McDaniel said. "Our Consumer Protection Division has worked diligently to track down the people responsible for these calls, who attempted to avoid detection by disguising their phone numbers when they contacted consumers. I'm grateful for the Consumer Protection Division's efforts on behalf of Arkansas consumers."