Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: Arrest warrant issued for Cash Grant Institute robocaller who ignored court order in FTC action, (Feb 20, 2014)

By Linda O’Brien, J.D., LL.M.

In a case brought by the FTC, a federal judge ordered the arrest and incarceration of Paul Navestad, known as Paul Richard Jones, for violating a court order requiring him to pay more than $20 million for his role in a phony government grant scheme that involved making unlawful calls to consumers on the Do-Not-Registry, the FTC announced today (FTC v. Navestad, FTC File No. 092-3099, Civil Action No. 09-CV-6329).

According to a Decision and Order, issued in 2012 by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, Navestad operating primarily as the “Cash Grant Institute,” made more than eight million robocalls to consumers, including more than 2.7 million calls to phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. These calls falsely claimed that cash grants for consumers were readily available from federal, state, and local governments, private foundations, and wealthy individuals. The robocalls directed interested consumers to one of Navestad’s websites, requestagrant.com, which repeated many of the same deceptive claims about the availability of free grant money.

The court ordered Navestad to pay $20 million in civil penalties – the largest civil penalty against a defendant in an FTC case – and give up more than $1.1 million in ill-gotten gains, for making millions of robocalls falsely claiming consumers could get grants from federal, state, and local governments, private foundations, and individuals. At the FTC’s request, the court subsequently found him in contempt for ignoring the order.

The court issued the arrest warrant on December 2, 2013. Navestad is believed to be residing overseas. The court has ordered his arrest upon his return to the United States and his incarceration until he pays the money due.

News: ConsumerProtection FederalTradeCommissionNews