For Immediate Release:
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Contact:
Nazneen Ahmed (919) 716-0060
(RALEIGH) Attorney General Josh Stein today led a coalition of eight attorneys general asking the court to take stronger action against John Caldwell Spiller, II after Spiller violated permanent robocall and telemarketing bans.
“This defendant has repeatedly violated the court’s order and continued to make harmful scam calls,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “This must end. I’m asking the court to require him to pay up and stop him from working in the telephone industry again.”
In March 2023, Attorney General Stein obtained judgments shutting down a massive robocall operation involving Spiller and other defendants. As part of the judgment, Spiller was banned from making robocalls or engaging in telemarketing. But despite this permanent injunction, Spiller continued to harass people by making deceptive and abusive robocalls and by helping others make these calls. Two recordings of scam calls that Spiller helped make or send are available here.
Spiller used aliases and falsified business records filed in various states and with the Federal Communications Commission to continue doing this illegal business. Further, since the attorneys general sued him and his co-defendants, Spiller has set up at least three new businesses through which he engaged in telemarketing and facilitated robocalls.
Because he violated these bans on robocalling and telemarketing, Attorney General Stein is asking the court to ban Spiller from engaging in all telephone-related services, not just robocalling and telemarketing. That includes transmitting telephone calls over the U.S. telephone network, providing any VoIP services, engaging in text messaging services, and originating or facilitating ringless voicemail messages or any other electronic messages.
The attorneys general are asking that the court order Spiller to dissolve his existing telephone service companies. They also ask that Spiller be ordered to pay $122,339,320 – the amount that would have otherwise been suspended if Spiller had followed the rules of the permanent injunction and the court’s order. Since he failed to do so, he is obligated to pay the full amount.
Attorney General Stein is joined in filing this motion by the Attorneys General of Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, and Texas.
A copy of the motion is available here.
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