WASHINGTON (USDOJ) – Shaun Hansen, former co-owner of Idaho-based telemarketing firm Mylo Enterprises, pleaded guilty today in federal court in New Hampshire for his involvement in a scheme to jam several New Hampshire telephone lines by placing nearly 1000 hang-up calls on Election Day, 2002, the Department of Justice announced today. Hansen, 34, was charged in a two-count indictment on March 8, 2006. He pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to commit interstate telephone harassment and one count of making repeated and continuous interstate phone calls with intent to harass. Chief Judge Steven J. McAuliffe set sentencing for February 20, 2007 at 10:30 a.m. Hansen will face a maximum of seven years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000. Hansen admitted that he was contacted by others involved in the scheme and asked to assist in making harassing phone calls to five telephone numbers associated with the New Hampshire Democratic Party and one number associated with the Manchester Professional Firefighters Association on Election Day, November 5, 2002. Hansen agreed that, in return for $2,500, employees of Mylo Enterprises would place repeated hang-up calls to those numbers on that day. At Hansen’s direction, employees of Mylo Enterprises in Idaho placed several hundred hang-up calls to those New Hampshire telephone numbers on that morning before the scheme was discontinued. Hansen was the fourth individual charged in the Department’s investigation. Allen Raymond, former president of a Virginia communications consulting company, and Charles McGee, former Executive Director of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit telephone harassment. McGee was sentenced to seven months in prison and Raymond was sentenced to three months. James Tobin, former New England Regional Chairman of the Republican National Committee, was convicted after a December 2005 jury trial on for conspiring to commit, and aiding and abetting the commission of, interstate telephone harassment. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison. The prosecutions have been led by Andrew Levchuk, Senior Counsel, and Lily Chinn, Trial Attorney, with the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section, and by Nicholas Marsh, Trial Attorney with the Public Integrity Section. The investigation was conducted by Bedford Resident Agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Hampshire State Attorney General’s Office.
Robin Sheen
Staff Reporter |