Brian Hopkins, a 62-year-old resident of Chandler, Arizona, was sentenced to 21 months in prison on July 16 by Senior United States District Court Judge David G. Campbell. Hopkins was also ordered to pay over $1.8 million in restitution after pleading guilty to mail fraud, conspiring to defraud the United States, and making a false statement on a tax return. He is the third person sentenced in connection with a telemarketing fraud scheme that defrauded more than a thousand victims nationwide.
Richard Kuhlmann, Jr., aged 58 from Tempe, Arizona, received a sentence of 42 months in prison on May 30, 2025. The sentence was handed down by United States District Court Judge Susan M. Brnovich. Kuhlmann was ordered to pay $2,140,231 in restitution after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, mail fraud, and transactional money laundering.
David Bartlett, aged 54 from Scottsdale, Arizona, was sentenced on November 24, 2024, by United States District Court Judge Michael T. Liburdi to serve 24 months in prison and pay more than $500,000 in restitution for mail fraud.
Kuhlmann and Hopkins operated an Arizona-based telemarketing company known as GTT Financial. The company contacted potential customers with offers to reduce their credit card interest rates. Victims who used these services were later targeted by the fraudulent scheme involving fake "sales lead" investments. Employees at GTT Financial misled victim-customers into purchasing these leads for $1 each under false promises of receiving returns from fees paid by other customers.
Between 2014 and 2019, the co-conspirators collected over $10 million through this fictitious investment scheme from more than a thousand victims across the U.S.
The investigation was conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigation Phoenix Field Office with prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Raymond Woo and Matthew Doyle from the District of Arizona.
