3 Arizona men sentenced to prison for telemarketing fraud scheme

PHOENIX — Three men from Arizona have been sentenced to prison for a telemarketing fraud scheme that stole millions of dollars from more than 1,000 victims across the country, authorities announced.

Brian Hopkins, 62, of Chandler, was sentenced on Wednesday to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $1.8 million, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. Hopkins previously pleaded guilty to mail fraud, conspiring to defraud the United States and false statement on a tax return.

Hopkins’ co-conspirators, 58-year-old Richard Kuhlmann of Tempe and 54-year-old David Bartlett of Scottsdale were sentenced to 42 months and 24 months in prison, respectively. Kuhlmann was also ordered to pay more than $2.1 million restitution while Bartlett was order to pay more than $500,000 in restitution.

Kuhlmann previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States, mail fraud and transactional money laundering. Meanwhile, Bartlett previously pleaded guilty to mail fraud.

Details on telemarketing fraud scheme

Kuhlmann and Hopkins owned and operated an Arizona-based telemarketing company that went by different names, including GTT Financial.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the company would call potential customers and offer to reduce their credit card interest rates. Anyone who decided to use GTT Financial’s services then became a target of the fraud scheme.

Employees, including Bartlett, would tell the customers that they could purchase a “sales lead” for $1 and that each “sales lead” was a prospective customer for the company’s credit card debt service. The employees would then promise the customers that they would receive a portion of any fees paid to GTT from each sales lead and assured them they would receive a significant return on their investment.

However, the sales leads were a false investment opportunity and the victim’s money went to the co-conspirators as well as other employees at GTT.

Between 2014 and 2019, the co-conspirators took more than $10 million from over 1,000 victims across the United States for the fictious sales leads.

The IRS Criminal Investigation Phoenix Field Office conducted the investigation for this case.

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