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For those who enjoy seeing robocall kingpins being taken down– isn’t that everyone?– there’s a very interesting case pending in federal court in Ohio.
A guy named Aaron Michael Jones allegedly oversaw a robocall empire that made hundreds of millions of illegal calls to sell auto warranties.
If a consumer interacted with the robocall and expressed interest they would be transferred to a warranty company that would then pay Jones for the “lead.”
This was a very sophisticated operation, apparently, that allegedly involved shell financial entities and even fake people who served as directors and submitted false FCC filings.
Crazy.
So the Attorney General for the State of Ohio is not just going after Jones in their suit but also named a bunch of his alleged co-conspirators.
Two of them– a guy named Roy Melvin Cox, Jr. and a lady named Julie Katherine Bridge– just tried to get out of the suit and it didn’t go very well for them.
In Ohio v. Jones, 2025 WL 2772466 (S.D. Oh. Sept. 29, 2025) the court denied a motion for judgment on the pleadings brought by Cox and Bridge.
The essence of the motion was that they should not be personally named in the suit since the actions were taken in furtherance of their employer. But the Court concluded the corporate veil could be pierced.
Notably, piercing the corporate veil is not necessary in TCPA suits because the statute applies automatically to individuals who “personally participated” in such violations (at least according to most courts.) But the AG is suing under a bunch of other statutes– so piercing the veil was part of the strategy here apparently.
For those wondering what these two did in furtherance of the scheme, here is a brief synopsis:
Cox allegedly paid for the domain registration and a cloud server used to initiate robocalls. (Id. ¶¶ 99(d), (h)). With respect to Bridge, she is alleged to have opened financial accounts for Corporate Defendants which were allegedly used in the illegal robocall operation. (Id. ¶¶ 104(a)-(c)). She also allegedly signed contracts in furtherance of the scheme. (Id.).
These acts–coupled with alleged full knowledge of the scheme– was all it took for them to be stuck in the suit and standing shoulder to shoulder with Jones in the case.
Fascinating stuff.
Pretty clear take aways here:
- Cold calling people with pre-recorded marketing messages is illegal;
- Do not make illegal robocalls;
- Do not help people make illegal robocalls;
- Do not associate with people who make illegal robocalls;
- Do not attempt to profit off of illegal robocalls;
- Do not open bank accounts for money from illegal robocalls;
- Do not sign up for services used to make illegal robocalls;
- Do not sign papers used to facilitate an illegal robocall scheme;
- Just stay the hell away from illegal robocalls.
Its all bad folks.
