Brian Hopkins, a 62-year-old resident of Chandler, Arizona, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay over $1.8 million in restitution. This sentence was handed down by Senior United States District Court Judge David G. Campbell on July 16. Hopkins had previously pleaded guilty to charges including mail fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and making false statements on a tax return. He is the third individual sentenced in connection with a telemarketing fraud scheme that affected more than a thousand victims nationwide.
Two other individuals involved in the scheme have also received sentences within the past year. Richard Kuhlmann, Jr., aged 58 from Tempe, Arizona, was sentenced to 42 months in prison by United States District Court Judge Susan M. Brnovich on May 30, 2025. Kuhlmann was ordered to pay $2,140,231 in restitution after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States, mail fraud, and transactional money laundering.
David Bartlett, a 54-year-old from Scottsdale, Arizona, received a sentence of 24 months in prison on November 24, 2024. His case was overseen by United States District Court Judge Michael T. Liburdi. Bartlett was required to pay more than $500,000 in restitution following his guilty plea for mail fraud.
The telemarketing company at the center of this scheme operated under various names including GTT Financial and was owned by Kuhlmann and Hopkins. The company offered services claiming to reduce credit card interest rates but later targeted customers with fraudulent investment opportunities involving “sales leads.” Employees like Bartlett convinced victim-customers that these leads represented potential customers for debt services and promised them returns on their investments.
However, no legitimate investment opportunity existed; funds collected were distributed among co-conspirators and employees of GTT Financial instead. From 2014 to 2019, they amassed over $10 million through this fraudulent scheme from more than a thousand victims across the U.S.
The investigation into this case was conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigation Phoenix Field Office with prosecution led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Raymond Woo and Matthew Doyle from the District of Arizona.
