| Federal Trade Commission
FTC,
Partners Put Stop to Canadian Cross-Border Frauds - Continued
The complaint also
charges the following corporations as defendants: Centurion
Financial Benefits LLC; 1629936 Ontario Ltd., also dba Centurion
Financial Benefits; 1644738 Ontario Ltd, dba Integra Financial
Benefits; American Getaway Vacations Inc., also dba Integra
Financial Benefits; Credence Travel Processing Inc., dba Integra
Financial Benefits; and Topstar Media Inc., also dba Integra
Financial Benefits.
The Commission vote
to issue the complaint against the Centurion defendants was
4-0. The complaint was filed under seal in the U.S. District
Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division,
on September 21, 2005, and the Court issued a temporary restraining
order (TRO) against the defendants that day. The seal was
lifted on September 26, 2005.
Pacific Liberty
The complaint in this
matter alleges that the Pacific Liberty defendants also used
outbound telemarketing to call consumers in the United States.
For an advance fee of $319, which they electronically debited
from the consumers' bank accounts, the defendants promised
they could deliver Visa or MasterCard credit cards, along
with free gifts such as cell phones. No consumers who paid
the money received either credit cards or “complimentary”
gifts, instead getting only a “member benefits” package with
items such as booklets on how to improve their creditworthiness.
Some also received a “member merchandise” card valid for purchases
only from a catalog supplied by the defendants. Most recently,
the defendants called consumers offering them a brand-name
personal computer if they agreed to have a fee debited from
their bank account. No one received the promised computers.
Instead they received certificates supposedly redeemable for
off-brand computers but that required payment of additional
fees.
The Pacific Liberty
complaint, filed on September 19, 2005, also involved a large
number of individual and corporate defendants. The complaint
names the following individuals as defendants, both individually
and as corporate officers: Oleg Oks, aka Oleg A. Oks and Oleg
Alex Oks; Aleksandr Oks; Philip Nemirovsky; and Boris Pekar.
The complaint also
charges the following corporations as defendants: 1530605
Ontario, Inc., also dba Pacific Liberty; 159927 Ontario, Inc.,
also dba Pacific Liberty Group and Pacific Liberty W Group;
1565205 Ontario, Inc., also dba Pacific Liberty and Pacific
Liberty W; 1585392 Ontario, Inc., also dba Liberty Wide Info
Services, Liberty Wide Info Services Group, Liberty Wide Services;
and Liberty Wide; 1620142 Ontario, Inc., also dba Liberty
Sun Info Services and Liberty Sun Info; 1619264 Ontario, Inc.,
also dba C & B Communications Group; 1629930 Ontario,
Inc., also dba Atlantic One Info Services Grp and Atlantic
One Info Services Group; and 1485635 Ontario, Inc. (dissolved),
also dba Nationwide Credit Service Inc., Nation Wide Information
Services Group Inc., and Nationwide Information Services,
all of which are corporations based in Ontario, Canada.
The Commission vote to issue the complaint
against the Pacific Liberty defendants was
4-0. The complaint was filed under seal in the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern
Division, on September 19, 2005, and the Court issued a TRO
against the defendants that day. The seal was lifted on September
26, 2005.
Law Enforcement
Assistance
The FTC appreciates
the considerable assistance of several U.S. and Canadian law
enforcement partners, including the Toronto and Alberta Strategic
Partnerships, in conducting these investigations. In both
Pacific Liberty and Centurion, assistance was provided by
the Toronto Strategic Partnership. In addition to the FTC,
the Toronto Partnership is comprised of the U.S. Postal Inspection
Service, Canada's Competition Bureau, the Toronto Police Service
Fraud Squad's Telemarketing Section, the Ontario Provincial
Police Anti-Rackets Section, the Ontario Ministry of Consumer
and Business Services, the York Regional Police Service, the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the United Kingdom's Office
of Fair Trading.
Continue
|
 |
Related Links
|
