Arizona Men Sentenced Over $10M Nationwide Telemarketing Fraud

Three men from the Phoenix area—Brian Hopkins of Chandler, Richard Kuhlmann, Jr. of Tempe, and David Bartlett of Scottsdale—have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a telemarketing fraud scheme that defrauded over a thousand victims nationwide of more than $10 million between 2014 and 2019. Hopkins was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution after pleading guilty to mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and falsifying a tax return. Kuhlmann received a 42-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay over $2.1 million in restitution, while Bartlett was sentenced to 24 months and ordered to pay more than $500,000. The defendants owned and operated GTT Financial, a company that initially offered services to lower credit card interest rates but then targeted successful customers with a fraudulent "sales lead" investment scam, promising profits from fees paid to the company. In truth, the "sales lead" investment was a sham, and the money collected was pocketed by the defendants and their employees. These sentences follow earlier convictions and reflect federal efforts to hold accountable those behind large-scale telemarketing fraud schemes.