UPDATE, 4:06 p.m.: Kantartzis pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of wire fraud, according to court records.
ORIGINAL POST: A Bethesda pay phone operator fraudulently made $4 million by setting up his phones to robotically place calls to government agencies and businesses, according to federal prosecutors.
Nicolaos Kantartzis, owner of Federal Telephone Corporation Incorporated, was charged in federal court in Greenbelt with wire fraud.
From January 2005 until July 2011, he programmed his pay phones to place calls to toll-free numbers, according to court documents. He received a 50-cent compensation fee from the recipient of each call, the documents say. In total, according to prosecutors, he netted $4 million over the six years.
Owners of pay phones receive what’s called a “dial around” compensation fee for toll free calls that are made from their phones. Prosecutors allege that Kantartzis rigged his phones to automatically make millions of such calls.
He’s accused of programming the phones to place calls to government agencies that included the General Services Administration, the Department of Labor, the Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Services. The robo-calls were also made to private businesses such as Dell Corporation, Fidelity Brokerage Services, financial institutions and airlines, according to court records.
Kantartzis controlled at least 165 pay phones in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, court records say.
He was charged by information, which indicates that a plea deal is likely in the works.
