An arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a national group representing the top law enforcement officers in their . offers a preview of documents scheduled to appear in the next day's The Committee for Police Officers Defense is run by James J. Fotis, who is a retired New York Police officer, who ran unsuccessfully in 2007 for Sheriff of Manassas City / Manassas Park City / Prince William County. Callers said they did so quickly and proudly, hoping people wouldnt catch on. We have never contributed to Rule of Law Defense Fund. Everyday our protectors in law . i.e., In Montgomery County, Maryland, the consumer protection office recently won a settlement against a super PAC called Heroes United, run by Zachary Bass of Baltimore. documents in the last year, 663 Cherokee Nation Businesses does not condone these actions and strongly condemns the insurrectionists and all those who instigated the disruption of the federal government through their words and actions.. For complete information about, and access to, our official publications 26. not individual consumers) about robocalls and spoofing best aligns with the TRACED Act requirement. Through interviews with the former callers and donors, reviews of call scripts and visits to threecall centers in Alabama, Reuters has obtained rare access into the world of these for-profit fundraisers, a tiny but lucrative niche of the multi-billion-dollar U.S. telemarketing industry. Against that background, Congress directed the Commission to develop a streamlined process for private entities to submit robocall information to the Commission. Once submitted, the Bureau will review to determine whether the information presents evidence of a violation of our rules. Zeitlin, whose operations also have been examinedby the Center for Public Integrity and other media outlets, said on his website that hes never been accused, indicted, tried or convicted of anything.. Private entity submissions of robocall violations. Streamlined Process. [FR Doc. It is a way for them to get around the charity laws thats exactly what theyre doing, said Stuart Discount, chief executive of the Professional Association for Customer Engagement, a trade association for direct marketers. The full text of this document is available for public inspection online at Gifts to actual charities are; donations to PACs, which sometimes sound like charities, are not. Never disclose personal information. Or follow the simplest rule: Never give to anyone over the phone, said Margot Saunders, senior counsel for the National Consumer Law Center. Most of the guys that are real good are felons., Regulators responsible for protecting U.S. consumers from potentially unscrupulous fundraisers face a bedeviling new challenge: the scam PAC.. IE 11 is not supported. The otherwise bland office was decorated with posters from the film Glengarry Glen Ross, a tale of ruthless telemarketer salesmen set in a real-estate boiler room. We define private entity as any entity other than (1) an individual natural person or (2) a public entity. Even as they charmed millions from credulous donors, a dozen former callers for two major fundraisers told Reuters that they knew their companies would be keeping the vast majority of it. on Memo from Chair Lina M. Khan to commission staff and commissioners regarding the vision and priorities for the FTC. Document page views are updated periodically throughout the day and are cumulative counts for this document. They are looking for naturals, said Jones, adding that good performers could take home $1,000 to $1,500 a week. documents in the last year, 940 In addition, it serves as a valuable clearinghouse for the Commission to identify trends and activities that are negatively affecting consumers. Together Politicause and Pledge Assistance earned close to $20 million between January 2017 through mid-2019 raising money for PACS, campaign finance records show. Police Officers each day protect and preserve life and property where they work and live. In such cases, the Enforcement Bureau will forward such consumer complaints to the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. should verify the contents of the documents against a final, official We kind of all understood what we were doing was wrong, but I needed a place to live.. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. The Committee for Police Officers' Defense (CPOD) The "Committee for Police Officer's Defense" (CPOD) was configured in order to complete an intrinsic goal. Third, consumers will not be adversely affected by our decision to exclude them from the definition of private entity. The Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for policing telemarketing, generally has no jurisdiction over political fundraising, said Lois Greisman, an associate director in charge of the agencys marketing practices division. This prototype edition of the All told, the PACs took in $83.1 million during the 2 year period examined by Reuters, about 82% of which went to the eight fundraising companies, according to the campaign disclosures required by the FEC. Paxtons office did not respond to a request for comment. I had breast cancer, so they knew how to get me, she said. That goal is to help police officers fight against the continuing "War on Cops" by taking a varied political stance against politicians, activist judges, prosecutors, district attorneys and a host of others who try to bring police officers down by any means. As required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended (RFA), the Commission has prepared a Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) relating to this Report and Order. 15. First, we find that there is value in maintaining the separate informal consumer complaint process. The fundraisers later went to work for PACs under the names Politicause and Pledge Assistance, both registered in Wyoming, which requires little disclosure from corporations. Add 64.1606 to subpart P to read as follows: (a) Any private entity may submit to the Enforcement Bureau information related to a call or text message that the private entity has reason to believe included misleading or inaccurate caller identification information in violation of 64.1604(a) or 47 U.S.C. e.g., Some of the workers for TPFE also had felony convictions, according to several former callers and court records. P, sec. Mailing address: 8228 FAWN MEADOW AVE LAS VEGAS, NV 89149. ), send an email to establishing the XML-based Federal Register as an ACFR-sanctioned How Scam PACs fall through the cracks of U.S. regulators, The motto was, Leave your morals at the door, said Alexander Lefler, 21, who worked for nearly a year at a call center southeast of Birmingham, Alabama, describing what he saw as high-pressure and deceptive tactics. Reuters gains rare access into the world of fundraising for these charitable-sounding political action committees, a tiny but profitable niche in the U.S. telemarketing industry. Federal Register Starting with a group of eight fundraising operations that earned at least a half-million dollars each during this period, Reuters traced interconnections among them and 31 PACs. ThePAC, organized by Zachary Bass, spent 90% of its take on fundraising, campaign filings show. 4. The PACs examined for this article typically handed over less than 10% of their take sometimes less than 1% to candidates or causes, Reuters found. Federal election laws were designed to prevent corruption, he said, not to protect consumers.. would create consumer confusion and duplicate existing Commission robocall information collection efforts. On September 1, 2009, new FTC rules went into effect prohibiting most prerecorded telemarketing calls, commonly known as robocalls . that parts 0 and 64 of the Commission's rules The President of the United States communicates information on holidays, commemorations, special observances, trade, and policy through Proclamations. The company later was renamed Politicause. One Piaro committee, Americans for the Cure of Breast Cancer, garnered $1.6 million in donations through Zeitlins fundraising operations and made one charitable contribution, $10,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation less than 1% of the total raised, campaign filings show. 3274, this Report and Order, is hereby Elsewhere in the Communications Act, however, Congress used the term person to include individuals and organizational entities. Robocallers have apparently been using the name of a former Abilene City Councilman/Abilene businessman to try to entice people to give to a fake police charity. Here it would be virtually impossible for the consumer to do any research, he said. Register, and does not replace the official print version or the official daniel.stepanicich@fcc.gov. The Cherokee Nation Businesses LLC, which donated $150,000 in 2020, said it has requested an immediate refund of its sponsorship to the Republican Attorneys General Association, and the organization obliged. Commenters raise concerns that the new streamlined portal will create consumer confusion or duplicate current processes. Commenters suggested that the Commission consolidate the new portal and its existing informal consumer complaint process, which the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau administers, or better distinguish the two processes by defining private entity to exclude consumers. Solicitors asking you to donate to charity. it is ordered Commenters were concerned that the definition proposed in the Across the industry, calls are computer-generated before being routed to telemarketers, something Politicause and TPFE employees said allowed their firms to maximize the number of calls and to pester people repeatedly. documents in the last year, 83 05/04/2018 05:04 AM EDT. fcc504@fcc.gov ". I dont think you understand how hard it is to fundraise, said Forrest Sandusky Baker IV, a telemarketing professional. Coffee is for Closers Only, read another. The .gov means its official. She is based in Washington. At Politicause, for instance, some said they initially were told to say donations would be used to help buy new police and fire equipment. 13. The Commission has determined, and the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, concurs that this rule is non-major under the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 12. Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis. 20. The Commission will send a copy of this Report and Order to Congress and the Government Accountability Office pursuant to 5 U.S.C. Few other top officers at these fundraising firms and PACS would speak to Reuters on the record. Amend 0.111 by redesignating paragraph (j) as paragraph (k) and revising it and by adding new paragraph (j) to read as follows: (j) Collects and reviews information received from private entities related to violations of 64.1200(a) and 64.1604(a) of this chapter. It spent $103,700 on behalf of House candidates about 3% of the total, and it has contributed nothing directly to veterans groups. Pepsi and the NRA did not respond to requests for comment. They said to pitch it like it was a charity but as quietly and quickly as you can, slip in that it was a PAC, said Lefler, who worked at TPFE until March. It is further ordered I cant speak to peoples understanding or what the scripts said., I dont think you understand how hard it is to fundraise. The Report and Order contains new or modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). In the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (TRACED Act), Congress directed the Commission to establish regulations to create a process that "streamlines the ways in which a private entity may voluntarily share with the Commission information relating to" a call or text message that violates . Use our visualizations to explore scam and fraud trends in your state based on reports from consumers like you. This document has been published in the Federal Register. Compliance with the requirements of that information collection will not be required until after approval by the Office of Management and Budget. We work to advance government policies that protect consumers and promote competition. Drug abuse was a problem at both call centers, ex-employees said. We could no longer say, We are helping police officers get body armor, but we could say, We are supporting efforts to get them body armor, said Jackie Armstrong, 32, a former Politicause employee. Document Drafting Handbook Federal Register issue. The call centers in Alabama, along with others in Nevada, New Jersey, and Florida, raise money on behalf of scam PACs, slang among criticsfor political action committees that purport to support worthy causes but in reality hand over little of the money for political or charitable purposes. And, as he has been saying since moments after seeing news break, the violence and destruction we saw at the U.S. Capitol is unacceptable and un-American.. This table of contents is a navigational tool, processed from the Both Politicause and TPFE had procedures to keep workers with fraud convictions from handling credit card information, former callers said, although Politicause workers said the rules were sometimes relaxed for high performers. Robocalls and the Do Not Call Registry. While in the Shelby County Jail on a felony charge of stealing a truck, Dellinger said he began working at a center in suburban Birmingham then known as Charity Promotions as part of his government-sponsored work release program. The calls always seem to come when you least expect it. A spokesperson for the Republican Attorneys General Association did not address questions about the robocall but sought to distance the organization from the event. At the time Reuters visited, the firms Hoover call center was jammed with desks and callers on headsets. The Better Business Bureau says if anyone calls or knocks asking you to help the police, the best thing you can do is ask them for information before you agree to donate. The FTCs response to complaints is not noted in the records.. 19. are amended The Do Not Call law, the FTCs major weapon in policing telemarketing, does not apply to political calls, which have protections under the U.S. Constitution. In recent years, some telemarketers have used technology to bombard consumers with hundreds of millions of prerecorded calls that are often unwanted and frequently deceptive. 154(i), 154(j), and 227, and section 10(a) of the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, Public Law 116-105, 133 Stat. These so-called scam PACs and their fundraisers exploit the gray zone between U.S. election finance and state charity fundraising laws, regulators told Reuters. . For further information, contact Daniel Stepanicich, Attorney, Telecommunications Consumers Division, Enforcement Bureau, at (202) 418-7451 or The Bureau will review information submitted through the portal to assess violations of the rules in the same manner that it reviews information submitted to the Commission through other means. 47 U.S.C. Treasurer: POLLOCK, KECIA MARIE. A web of new political action committees raised nearly $6 million in recent months under the guise of supporting police, veterans and . More information and documentation can be found in our documents in the last year. for better understanding how a document is structured but The fundraising operation used corporate names including Charity Promotions, from 2013 to 2016, and Charity Appeal, from 2016 to 2018, according to several ex-employee interviews and state filings. For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal Communications Commission proposes to amend 47 CFR parts 0 and 64 as follows: 1. The site is secure. During today's hearing, the Committee heard from local law enforcement, the U.S. Though scam PACS have no standard definition and cant be definitively counted, a review of Federal Election Commission records suggests they account for a sliver of the some 6,800 PACs in the country. What a racket, oh my God., On his website, Zeitlin said his firms revenue which he described as 80% to 90% of the proceeds may seem high but actually is standard for the industry and is needed to offset high costs for technology and intensive time-consuming labor.. Scam PAC telemarketers who use aggressive tactics in the charity realm also face less risk of scrutiny or sanction when they turn to PAC fundraising, regulators and former callers said. These workers were a convenient labor pool and skilled at getting people to open their wallets, former callers said. Register (ACFR) issues a regulation granting it official legal status. James Dellinger, 34, said he and other callers got in the door with a remarkable qualification they were in jail. documents in the last year, 20 03/03/2023, 159 While every effort has been made to ensure that They said it was not uncommon to find needles in the bathroom or a caller passed out at his desk. Black's Law Dictionary defines public entity as a governmental entity, such as a state government or one of its political subdivisions. At least one statute, the Americans with Disabilities Act, defines public entity as any state or local government and any department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a State or States or local government.. to the courts under 44 U.S.C. shall be effective on that agencies use to create their documents. The FTC declined to comment. Its infuriating, said Angelides, who learned from Reuters that it was a PAC that got his money. We agree with commenters that including individuals within the definition of private entity would undermine the intent of the statute to streamline information collection about robocalls and spoofed calls, and would create confusion for consumers about whether to use the existing informal complaint process or the new portal, or both. 7. She said she would like to see the panel mandate more disclosure to donors about how much of their money is going to fundraisers, as well as stronger fraud protections in federal campaign law. Counts are subject to sampling, reprocessing and revision (up or down) throughout the day. If an individual consumer mistakenly files a complaint with the new portal, the Bureau will forward the complaint to the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Contact Information P.O. Start Printed Page 52842 documents in the last year, 981 Find legal resources and guidance to understand your business responsibilities and comply with the law. Quoting from its website, the "Committee for Police Officers' Defense is a 527 Committee designed to seek out radical prosecutors, judges and district attorneys." Another organization is.
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