Four men connected to Assail Telemarketing, a Utah operation accused of conducting a fraudulent advance-fee credit card scheme, agreed to a ban on telemarketing activities as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency announced yesterday.
The four include three Assail officers — vice president Joel Best, chief financial officer Michael Henriksen and general manager Clifford Dunn — and Lawrence Silverman, owner of Lamar Holdings Inc., which also is alleged to have played a role in the scheme, the FTC said.
Assail, a network of seven companies, took more than $100 million from consumers by contacting those with poor credit histories, offering a MasterCard for an advance fee and ultimately sending them nothing, the FTC said.
The four men received suspended monetary judgments that would be paid only if it is shown that they misrepresented their financial condition. However, in September, a federal judge in Waco, TX, ordered Assail president Kyle Kimoto to pay $106 million when it was shown that he inappropriately hid $3 million that should have been disclosed as part of his separate settlement with the FTC.
Scott Hovanyetz covers telemarketing, production and printing, and direct response TV marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
