WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced June 23 that the remaining defendants involved in a landline cramming operation have agreed to settle charges of placing more than $70 million in unauthorized charges on consumers’ phone bills.
The defendants involved in the most recent settlement are Steven Sann, Terry Lane and the corporate defendants who operated the scheme. The initial complaint was against American eVoice Ltd., eight other companies, and four individual defendants. One of the individual defendants, accountant Robert Braach, settled in November 2016.
The FTC said the defendants were involved in a scheme that placed charges ranging from $9.95 to $24.95 per month on consumer landline phone bills. These charges were shown as “voicemail services,” and the consumers purportedly never signed up for the services or even knew they had them.
The FTC voted 2-0 to approve the proposed stipulated final orders against Sann, Lane and the corporate defendants, The order was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, Missoula Division. The FTC voted 3-0 to approve the stipulated final order against Braach. The district court judge then approved and signed the order in January.