ORLANDO, Fla. – The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against a Kissimmee man, claiming he and the software he created are behind millions of illegal robocalls.
The lawsuit against Derek Jason Bartoli was filed in U.S. District Court on Friday.
State records show Bartoli has registered several telemarketing companies using his home address in Kissimmee over the last nine years.
According to the lawsuit filed by the FTC, automated calls made by those companies violated federal law.
"Bartoli built and operated the Autodialer to call consumers, who were then transferred to live telemarketer agents... in Altamonte Springs," the lawsuit read.
Federal investigators also claimed in the lawsuit, "Bartoli programmed the Autodialer to engage in illegal 'neighbor spoofing,' where the caller ID displayed is a telephone number that matches the first six digits of the call recipient's telephone number followed by four random digits."
They claim many of the telephone numbers called were on the Do Not Call Registry.
For example, during a six-month period from July-December 2017, the lawsuit claimed Bartoli's software made 77,447,672 calls to consumers. Investigators claimed 73 percent of those calls were made to numbers on the Do Not Call Registry.
"Bartoli knew the telephone calls he initiated were unlawful," the lawsuit alleged.
The FTC is seeking an injunction and punitive damages against Bartoli.
Andrew Cove, Bartoli's attorney, told News 6 on Monday that they're currently working to resolve the issue with the government.
He would not go into specifics.
