Feds, state settle with Vegas telemarketers

Grace Leong

Thursday, Aug. 31, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Nevada attorney general reached a settlement Wednesday with four Las Vegas telemarketing companies accused of bilking consumers of more than $12 million in membership fees since 1996 through alleged bogus credit offers.

The FTC filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in U.S. District Court against the firms.

"The settlement is composed of several parts including an agreed set of business practices, and provides a mechanism to allow (the defendants) to give money back to consumers that the FTC alleged, and (the defendants) dispute, were misled in any way," said Reed Freeman, attorney for several of the defendants.

The defendants, Consumer Money Markets Inc., its president Ana S. Miller and director of operations, Gary Allen Balazs; Continental Direct Services Inc.; Data Tech Solutions Inc. and its owner William S. Kelly; Interstate Check Services Inc. and its owner Raymond Elia, all operated out of the same address at 1050 E. Sahara Avenue.

The FTC's suit alleged the defendants told consumers they were pre-approved for a $5,500 credit line at 14.99 percent annual interest regardless of their credit history and claimed they could get substantial cash advances as in the case of an ordinary credit card, but failed to clearly disclose the critical differences. These include CMM's large up front membership fee of $169.95, the annual percentage rate of CMM's cash loans and the size and repayment terms of the loans.