The state has joined a suit against Avid Telecom and its top executives for allegedly initiating and facilitating billions of robocalls to millions of people in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and other federal and state telemarketing and consumer laws. 

What You Need To Know

  • State Attorney General Anne Lopez joined the suit on behalf of the state on Tuesday, joining the attorneys general of 47 other states plus the District of Columbia

  • Avid Telecom is a so-called Voice over Internet Protocol service provider that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software and expert consultation to help its clients make mass robocalls
  • Of the more than 24.5 billion illegal robocalls, Avid Telecom sent or transmitted more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry

  • According to the suit, Avid Telecom continued to engage in the illegal activity despite 329 notifications from the USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group

State Attorney General Anne Lopez joined the suit on behalf of the state on Tuesday, joining the attorneys general of 47 other states plus the District of Columbia.

Avid Telecom is a so-called Voice over Internet Protocol service provider that sells data, phone numbers, dialing software and expert consultation to help its clients make mass robocalls. It also serves as an intermediate provider and is accused of helping route illegal robocalls across the country.

According to the suit, the company sent or attempted to transmit more than 24.5 billion calls between December 2018 and January 2023. More than 90% of the calls lasted less than 15 seconds, an indication that they were likely robocalls.

Of the more than 24.5 billion calls, Avid Telecom sent or transmitted more than 7.5 billion calls to telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. About 12 million of those calls were to numbers in Hawaii, according to the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General.

In addition, the company allegedly sent or transmitted calls for scammers pretending to be Social Security Administration, Medicare, auto warranty businesses, Amazon, DirecTV, credit card interest reduction programs, employers and others. Avid Telecom is also accused of making hundreds of millions of calls using spoofed or invalid caller ID numbers, including more than 8.4 million calls that appeared to be coming from government and law-enforcements agencies and private companies.

According to the suit, Avid Telecom continued to engage in the illegal activity despite 329 notifications from the USTelecom-led Industry Traceback Group.

“Despite receiving notices and warnings for years that it was transmitting illegal robocalls, Avid Telecom has allegedly ignored all such notices and continues to this day to allow its networks to transmit unwanted and potentially harmful robocalls to residents of Hawaii,” said deputy attorney general Christopher Leong, who is leading the state’s efforts in this case. “The Department of the Attorney General is committed to protecting the consumers of our state and will work to hold Avid Telecom accountable.”

Avid Telecom owner Michael Lansky and vice president Stacey Reeves are named in the suit. 

The legal action arises from an investigation by the nationwide Anti-Robocall Multistate Litigation Task Force, which is composed of 51 bipartisan attorneys general. The task force has been targeting those responsible for routing significant volumes of illegal robocall traffic into and across the United States. The Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General provided investigative assistance.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.