violated the TSR by requesting and receiving payments from their debt relief customers before renegotiating or otherwise altering the terms of those customers’ debts.
The complaint seeks a permanent injunction to prohibit the defendants from future violations, as well as monetary civil penalties and relief to redress injury caused to consumers.
Two defendants in this action, Kasm and its owner and director Kenan Azzeh, have agreed to entry of a court order that resolves the claims against them. The stipulated order, if entered by the court, would prohibit these defendants from further violations and impose a monetary judgment of $3,380,000, suspended to $7,500 due to their limited ability to pay.
“The Department of Justice is committed to stopping individuals and companies from making illegal robocalls and peddling predatory debt relief services,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “We will continue to work with the FTC to enforce the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule against those who use misleading sales tactics to prey on consumers.”
“This case targets the ecosystem of companies who perpetrate illegal telemarketing to cheat American consumers who are struggling financially,” said Director Samuel Levine of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC will continue to take aggressive action to protect consumers from the scourge of illegal robocalls.”
Senior Trial Attorney Daniel K. Crane-Hirsch and Trial Attorneys Matthew A. Robinson and Zachary A. Dietert of the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch, in conjunction with staff at the FTC’s Division of Marketing Practices, are prosecuting the case.