“The tracebacks further identified the originating voice service provider for many of these calls to be Texas-based Lingo Telecom. After Lingo Telecom was informed that these calls were being investigated, Lingo Telecom suspended services to Life Corporation,” the AG’s office said.
The Election Law Unit issued document preservation notices and subpoenas for records to Life Corporation, Lingo Telecom, and other entities “that may possess records relevant to the Attorney General’s ongoing investigation,” the announcement said.
Media outlets haven’t had much luck in trying to get a comment from Monk. “At his Arlington office, the door was locked when NBC 5 knocked,” an NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth article said. “A man inside peeked around the corner to see who was ringing the doorbell but did not answer the door.”
The New York Times reports that “a subsidiary of Life Corporation called Voice Broadcasting Corp., which identifies Mr. Monk as its founder on its website, has received numerous payments from the Republican Party’s state committee in Delaware, most recently in 2022, as well as payments from congressional candidates in both parties.”
A different company, also called Life Corporation, posted a message on its home page that said, “We are a medical device manufacturer located in Florida and are not affiliated with the Texas company named in current news stories.”
FCC warns carrier
The Federal Communications Commission said yesterday that it is taking action against Lingo Telecom. The FCC said it sent a letter demanding that Lingo “immediately stop supporting unlawful robocall traffic on its networks,” and a K4 Order that “strongly encourages other providers to refrain from carrying suspicious traffic from Lingo.”
“The FCC may proceed to require other network providers affiliated with Lingo to block its traffic should the company continue this behavior,” the agency said.
The FCC is separately planning a vote to declare that the use of AI-generated voices in robocalls is illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.