By: Linda L. Goodman
This month, Kevin W. Guice, has been permanently banned from the telemarketing and debt relief industries. The Federal Trade Commission and Florida Attorney General accused Guice of founding and running a massive debt relief scam that made over $23 million from more than 10,000 consumers until June of 2016.
“Guice bombarded consumers with illegal robocalls and tricked them into paying thousands of dollars for worthless credit card debt reduction services,” said Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Working with our partners in the Florida AG’s office, we were able to bring Guice to justice and stop this massive fraud.”
It was discovered that the scam operation used two telemarketing company and 11 shell companies all working together to sell fraudulent debt relief services. Guice concealed his involvement while working out of a boiler room in Orlando. The telemarketers called consumers with millions of robocalls, including numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry. The telemarketers used aliases of Bank Card Services and Credit Assistance Program and falsely claimed to be licensed enrollment center for major credit card networks like MasterCard and Visa. They promised consumers that they would permanently and substantially lower interest rates. Then the consumers were charged illegal up-front fees between $500 and $5,00 for the services but consumers did not receive the permanent and substantial interest reductions they were promised.
The other scam Guice ran was a false credit card debt elimination service that claimed that they could access funds from the government or from a lawsuit against the credit card industry to pay off consumers’ credit card debt, which was not true and there were no funds or such a legal case. The consumers paid between $2,500 and $26,000 up front and ended up deeper in debt, with damaged credit scores, higher interest rates and late fees.
The FTC charged Guice with violating the Federal Trade Commssion Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The State of Florida charged Guice with violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The final order and permanent injunction against Guice contain injunctive and monetary relief and permanently barring Guice from all telemarketing, either directly or through an intermediary.
The order also permanently bars Guice from:
- Advertising, marketing, promoting, offering for sale, selling, or assisting anyone else in any of these activities in relation to the provision of debt relief products or services;
- Making a range of material misrepresentations related to the marketing or sale of any product;
- Failing to clearly and conspicuously disclose any of the items above;
- Taking a cash advance against consumers’ credit cards or causing billing information to be submitted for payment before getting consumers’ express written consent to do so.
As to the monetary relief, the order imposes a non-suspended judgment of $23,099,878 against Guice for restitution to the consumers he defrauded. In addition to cash, Guice will surrender his 55-fot ocean yacht, a luxury-watch collection and other personal property.
For more information and to view the full case and press release, go to the FTC’s website here: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2016/06/ftc-florida-attorney-general-take-action-against-illegal-robocall
______________________________________________________________________
This article was originally posted on Cliclaw.com as part of my ongoing efforts to share valuable legal insights. I regularly contribute guest blogs to leading websites in the field of internet compliance. In these posts, I cover a range of topics to help businesses stay compliant in the ever-evolving digital world. You can read my latest guest contributions on Cliclaw.com.
This article is a publication of The Goodman Law Firm and is intended to provide information on recent legal developments. This article does not create an attorney-client relationship, nor should it be construed as legal advice or an opinion on specific situations. This may constitute “Attorney Advertising” under the Rules of Professional Conduct and under the law of other jurisdictions.
Linda L. Goodman is the founder of The Goodman Law Firm, concentrating its practice in internet business and law. Her firm’s clients include Advertisers, Affiliates, Affiliate Networks, and ISP’s.
© 2018 TGLF, A.P.C.