UPDATED at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to include more from legal settlement.
Two St. Louis-area telemarketers will pay Missouri a total of $35,000 for violating the state’s no-call law, officials announced today.
As reported in this blog in May, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster sued the two firms — St. Peters-based SJS Investments, which does business as Equity One Mortgage, and Hillsboro-based A&J Mortgage Brokers. The businesses sell home mortgage refinancing packages, and they were accused of making robocall telephone solicitations to no-call subscribers.
According to the Attorney General’s office, the companies agreed to pay the fine as part of a legal settlement that also prohibits the companies from making any telephone solicitation calls to any Missouri resident. If the firms break that agreement or violate telemarketing laws, they could be held in contempt of court and fined up to $2,000 per violation.
“The Attorney General’s Office will continue to pursue companies who violate our no-call laws,” Koster said in a prepared statement. “I want Missouri citizens to know that this office will aggressively enforce this law.”
According to the settlement, known as an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance, the firms must pay the $35,000 fine before Oct. 5. The agreement allows the companies to determine what shares of the penalty each firm must pay.
(7 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)
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Where is this $35,000 going? What state department gets it and how is it going to be used?
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Spam deleted by Hathaway.
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Thank you for pointing out the typos. I’ve fixed them. Many of our reporters update their blogs and, no, they are not necessarily edited in advance of publication. Mistakes happen and we’re happy that you care enough to let us know.
As for the question about the payments, Koster’s news release is unclear. Matt has presented it as it was presented to him; he’s out on an assignment right now, but I’ll ask him to get clarification when he’s back.
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Because the guy throws a company picnic…he should be immune? LMAOSFH!
This guy wants HIS money NOW…cannot stop to educate the mo-rons who took out the loans to COUNSEL them as to whether they are REALLY making the right move or should they stay in their $70,000 home in Overland, take some money management classes at Flo Valley, etc etc.
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$35,000 is a trivial amount for robo calling. The fines are supposed to be $16,000 per violation. Did they only make 2 or 3 calls? And the agreement gets them a lower fine than the law allows if they violate again? Without a settlement they could be fines $16K with settlement they pay $2k. Can I negotiate my taxes with this person from the attorney generals office?
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Equity One might not make robo calls themselves, but I know a lot of their satellite companies do. It is called Gorilla marketing. I used to work for Equity One Mortgage, Scott Kline is a very nice guy. He has a large family and he supports his employees well. He even has a company picnic every year.
Ever since the government backed pay option ARM was introduced, many people was put on a path of destruction. We live in a waste based society, a throw away, fast food, rush, rush to do everything today, but can’t stop to save a buck. We are in this mess because of government run banks, forced private banks, to loan money out to people, they knew couldn’t pay it back. America has fallen deeper & deeper into debt and we are in turn bombarded by TV commnercials that say, buy now and let somebody else pay the bill. Low and Behold, its called Liberalism. After all, only a liberal knows how to spend your money, correctly.
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well KimE what is the story you are hearing? the no call list is there for a reason
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This is completely ridiculous. The whole story isn’t being told here. Trust me.
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Honestly, I cannot read an article on this site that is not rife with spelling and grammatical errors.
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Does the Post still edit its paper? Or maybe its just a lack of interest in the product it showcases on the internet? What about a writer self-editing? This article is ambigious, doesn’t give much information generally and has spelling errors. Misspelling “that” and “firm”, both in the second paragraph that would get any student a failing grade.
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luvmysoftail~
Maybe you should proofread your own posts. Ironical.
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Hey Matthew – I think your spell check was turned. Who edited this article by the way.
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$35,000 each or in total between the two of them?
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