On January 18, Lukeroy Rose, owner of Phoenix-based Rose Marketing LLC, pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to charges of theft, unlawful telephone solicitations, and conspiracy to commit theft. Rose was arrested in December 2016 pursuant to the newly amended Arizona Telephone Solicitations statute, Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 44-1277, which makes it a Class 5 felony for unregistered telemarketers to make unlawful calls to in-state and out-of-state consumers. He faces five years in prison when he is sentenced on February 23 in the Superior Court of the State of Arizona, County of Maricopa.
Rose’s guilty plea resolves his December arrest under the amended law and charges from a May 2016 indictment alleging conspiracy, illegally conducting an enterprise, participating in a criminal syndicate, fraudulent schemes and artifices, multiple counts of theft, and money laundering. The May 2016 indictment claims Rose and three other telemarketers – Dino Nick Mitchell, Solana Depaola, and Cordell James Bess – targeted senior citizens around the country using Phoenix-based call centers to convince them to invest in credit-card processing machines. Rose and his co-defendants promised commissions to “investors” but instead sold them fabricated business leads. They convinced at least sixteen victims to invest between $3,000 and $40,000 each, for a loss of over $298,000. While Rose awaited trial on the May charges, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office learned that Rose continued to engage in unlawful telemarketing. Special agents with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office began conducting undercover surveillance and confirmed that Rose had continued to engage in unlawful telemarketing. Rose is being held without bond.
Rose, Rose Marketing LLC, Rose’s three co-defendants, and numerous related company defendants were the subjects of an FTC Complaint filed in Arizona federal court in August 2013 regarding this illegal telemarketing scheme that offered fictitious business investment opportunities. After an investigation by the United States Postal Service Inspection, the case was handed over to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for criminal prosecution.
Rose’s three co-defendants from the May 2016 indictment have each entered guilty pleas. Depaola was sentenced in early January to two years imprisonment and five years probation. Mitchell will be sentenced in early February. Bess was sentenced in September to one-and-a-half years imprisonment and five years probation.