The portal will request private entities to submit certain minimum information including, but not necessarily limited to, the name of the reporting private entity, contact information, including at least one individual name and means of contacting the entity ( In the 2 year period examined by Reuters, records show, TPFE and three other Zeitlin firms earned more than $27.6 million for PAC fundraising. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. 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. NPRM, The OFR/GPO partnership is committed to presenting accurate and reliable We agree with the commenters and therefore exclude individual natural persons from the definition of private entity. Instead, the bulk of the money is kept by fundraising firms or the people running the PACs. New Documents Federal Register provide legal notice to the public and judicial notice An arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a national group representing the top law enforcement officers in their states, sent out robocalls encouraging people to march to the U.S. Capitol the day before the building was stormed by a pro-Trump mob. documents in the last year, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration documents in the last year, 86 12. No Impact on Informal Consumer Complaint Process. Private entity submissions of spoofing violations. 801(a)(1)(A). publication in the future. 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. Going byvarious names, the fundraising operation has worked for some of the same PACs as Zeitlins firms have and has employed some of the same people, according to internal PAC records, state corporate filings, employee interviews and deposition testimony in a civil case unrelated to this article. Efforts to pass anti-robocall legislation have stalled for years, but the agreement announced Friday increases the odds that Congress will send the White House a bill before 2020. The portal is available for use by private entities that wish to submit information about suspected robocall or spoofing violations. Interviews and records indicate managers at both firms once worked at a Zeitlin company called Courtesy Call. Jul 10, 2020, 08:10 ET. A Pro-Trump scam PAC returns with a vengeance - POLITICO About the Federal Register 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. establishing the XML-based Federal Register as an ACFR-sanctioned We enforce federal competition and consumer protection laws that prevent anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices. 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 . Use the PDF linked in the document sidebar for the official electronic format. 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. Timely and thorough information from private entities is crucial to enable the Commission to mitigate illegal robocall incidents and bring swift enforcement actions. Commenters raise concerns that the new streamlined portal will create consumer confusion or duplicate current processes. Lina M. Khan was sworn in as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission on June 15, 2021. To achieve this objective, we direct the Enforcement Bureau to create and monitor an online portal located on the Commission informational resource until the Administrative Committee of the Federal 2. Legitimate charities can be checked on websites such as www.guidestar.org. Ask if the donation is tax-deductible. on NARA's archives.gov. Police Officer Defense Alliance - Better Business Bureau The calls, which often target elderly donors, come from a variety of generic and similar-sounding aliases: The Police Officers Support Association, the National Emergency Responders Coalition and. Donation | Police Officers' Defense Coalition There should be more transparency on this to protect consumers, he said. As his office pursued the money trail in the Bass investigation, for instance, Friedman said it came across an organization called Market Process Group, one of the eight fundraisers examined by Reuters. You are not lying, but you are being extremely misleading. Twilio recommends that the Commission create one centralized mechanism for reporting all information regarding robocalling and spoofing, whether it is from a whistleblower, company, or consumer. Those who responded denied their marketing was deceptive and defended their business model and compensation. Police officers defense back. include documents scheduled for later issues, at the request 03/03/2023, 266 22. on The purpose of the portal is to provide private entities a streamlined method to submit information to the Bureau about suspected robocall or spoofing violations. and services, go to 03/03/2023, 234 Reuters also could not ascertain the ownership of another large fundraising operation with a call center in Hoover, Alabama, some 45 miles from Zeitlins center in Sylacauga. e.g., At TPFE, callers said they told potential donors all proceeds went to defraying the cost of the appeal [for funds] and to accomplish the mission, said former employee Jake Adair, 28. Just enough to get them to stop asking, he added. documents in the last year, 26 An official website of the United States government. Two of the fundraising companies identified by Reuters employed jail inmates and ex-cons as telemarketers, according to interviews in Alabama with several former employees, as well as court records. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely. About | Police Officers' Defense Coalition regulatory information on FederalRegister.gov with the objective of The Report and Order contains new or modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). 15. 19. ThePAC, organized by Zachary Bass, spent 90% of its take on fundraising, campaign filings show. 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. 227(b). Federal Register documents in the last year. 'Scam PACs' rake in millions under guise of charity - POLITICO the material on FederalRegister.gov is accurately displayed, consistent with Second, we find that establishing a stand-alone process designed specifically to handle concerns from private entities ( for better understanding how a document is structured but Authority delegations (Government agencies). Thats what critics call political action committees that gobble up most of the money they raise rather than using it forthe charitable or other causes they profess to support. The .gov means its official. To protect law enforcement methods and techniques, we decline to adopt SAFE Credit Union's suggestion to detail the exact steps and criteria that the Bureau will use to evaluate the information submitted. Our past robocall enforcement actions have relied extensively upon information from private entities. corresponding official PDF file on govinfo.gov. Verify: Law enforcement charity phone calls - KSDK If youre a PAC, and youre raising money for one purpose and doing something else, thats fraud, said Elizabeth Grant, who oversees the Oregon Department of Justice Charities unit. Those calls used a recording of Trump's . Some political fundraising operations change locations frequently, operate under different names or dissolve and resurface under another name, making it difficult to trace their ownership, activities and connections to one another. legal research should verify their results against an official edition of Register, and does not replace the official print version or the official 7. If the potential donors suspected they had given to the group before, the callers were instructed to say: I have no way of knowing because we feel that donations are given from the heart, not the hand, so we keep all donation records confidential, according to the FAQ. The current informal consumer complaint process is a vital tool for the Commission. Consistent with these privacy protections, however, the Bureau may share information gathered from the portal with other government agencies combatting robocalls. Some of the workers for TPFE also had felony convictions, according to several former callers and court records. For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal Communications Commission proposes to amend 47 CFR parts 0 and 64 as follows: 1. It is further ordered 727-351-8757 - Committee For Police Officer's Defense - CallerCenter It is further ordered People are getting ripped off, Weintraub said in an interview. 269-257-6522 | 12692576522 - Phone Scam Alert! - Nomorobo Reuters obtained FTC complaint records, with names redacted, through a Freedom of Information Act request. Melaleuca, an online wellness shopping club, gave $290,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association in 2020. that, pursuant to 1.4(b)(1) and 1.427(a) of the Commission's rules, 47 CFR 1.4(b)(1), 1.427(a), this Report and Order and the amendments to parts 0 and 64 of the Commission's rules, as set forth in 3. we proposed to include individuals in the definition of private entity but sought comment on the proposed interpretation, and whether there was a basis for a different interpretation of the term. 151, 154(i), 154(j), 155, 225, and 409, unless otherwise noted. 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. Good evening this is Mike Stevens calling for the . 24. The full text of this document is available for public inspection online at About 82% of the money, $13.8 million, went to Zeitlins firms, while Piaro collected $190,613 in salary from the PACs, according to the records. We amend our rules to establish a streamlined process for private entities to submit information about violations of Sections 227(b) and 227(e) of the Act to the Commission. Sections 227(b), (c), and (d) impose specific requirements on telemarketing and prerecorded voice message calls to give consumers the ability to know who is calling and to control the calls they receive. This definition is consistent with common usage. 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.. 1503 & 1507. Thus, a private entity is only in a position to provide information about calls that it suspects are violations of the law. on 5. They often are set up as super PACs, groups which in recent years have been empowered by the courts to raise and spend money in unlimited amounts, with little regulation. documents in the last year, 83 We are appalled at Wednesday's incursion into the Capital, and did not support any efforts by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, he said. 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. Police Officers' Defense Coalition and Committee for Police Officers' Defense is committed to cleaning up the annals of justice by flushing out those who pretend to represent the people, but instead manipulate the system and the prosecute police officers as a stepping stone to their next higher political office. Caller name: Committee for Police Officer's Defense. This table of contents is a navigational tool, processed from the We do not support any similar activities now, and will not in the future., A Microsoft spokesperson said: We condemn the actions taken by the RLDF and are raising our concerns directly with RAGA. 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. 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. CTIA, SAFE Credit Union (SAFE), Twilio, Inc., and USTelecom-The Broadband Association (USTelecom) filed comments. The President of the United States issues other types of documents, including but not limited to; memoranda, notices, determinations, letters, messages, and orders. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. 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.