According to a story reported in The Chicago Tribune on October 31 and the Final Consent Order from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), Pinnacle Security LLC, Orem, Utah, has been ordered to pay a $1 million fine for “slamming” homeowners and using alleged felons to sell its products.
The consent order was issued on October 30, 2012 from the IDFPR, the entity that enforces Illinois alarm company licensing. This is not the first time the firm has been sued and forced to pay a settlement (see www.securityinfowatch.com/10489598). According to the latest order and the Tribune story, the department alleged that Pinnacle "used unfair and deceptive trade practices, hired unlicensed sales personnel and allowed employees with criminal histories to sell products door to door in Illinois."
The department said 700 of 1,100 Pinnacle workers were not licensed by the state. Several workers had been charged with or convicted of felonies, including larceny, robbery, theft, conspiracy to commit burglary, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, assault, domestic battery, and possession of controlled substances, the department said.
Pinnacle agreed to pay the $1 million fine, of which $250,000 had already been paid, and also agreed to a two-year ban on new sales to Illinois consumers, supervision of Pinnacle's business of overseeing existing security systems and five years probation.
According to Stuart Dean, vice president of Corporate Communications for Pinnacle Security, the company is “pleased that it has come to a settlement with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation of the State of Illinois to the parties' mutual satisfaction. Pinnacle Security has worked closely to address the generally historical issues related to licensing requirements of our sales representatives that allegedly took place as early as 2006,” Dean said.
Dean added that since 2010, Pinnacle has implemented industry-leading compliance initiatives to help ensure that Pinnacle's sales representatives meet all city, county and state licensing requirements. “We are confident that through this agreement, Pinnacle will continue to provide its thousands of customers in the state of Illinois superior support and customer service,” he said.
Pinnacle neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the settlement agreement.
