Judge halts Oregon man’s telemarketing lawsuits, cites fraud concerns

A Lane County man and a Washington, D.C.-based law firm representing him have engaged in an extortion scheme by bringing bogus lawsuits against dozens of companies in Oregon and around the country, lawyers for one targeted company argued in court Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane on Wednesday refused to let Chet Michael Wilson, the front man of the alleged scheme, turn his Oregon lawsuit against Freeway Insurance Services of America into a class-action telemarketing abuse case and ordered 14 other similar cases filed by Wilson in federal court in Oregon to be paused.

The judge also ordered Wilson and the D.C.-based Heidarpour Law Firm to preserve all electronic devices and documentary evidence related to their telemarketing abuse claims, as well as Wilson’s communications with the firm or anyone else regarding such claims. McShane allowed discovery for the lawsuit against Freeway Insurance to proceed while the insurance company seeks evidence to support an anticipated motion for sanctions against Wilson and his attorneys.

“I am concerned about the manner in which these cases are going to court,” McShane said. “Frankly, I’m concerned about whether criminal fraud is taking place.”

Playing telephone

Wilson, 44, is a professional litigant who purchased the phone number 541-999-9999 for $1,000 and has used it since January 2024, according to Ryan Watstein, an attorney representing Freeway Insurance Services.

Wilson, of Eugene, is also a dedicated racist who has praised Adolf Hitler, making him incapable of representing others in a class-action lawsuit, Watstein said.

In his complaint against Freeway Insurance, Wilson claimed that someone else entered his phone number on a website requesting insurance quotes and asked to be contacted. Wilson then filed a class-action lawsuit against the insurer, claiming he did not fill out the form – an action Watstein alleged Wilson has repeated hundreds of times.

In the Freeway Insurance case, someone visited the website usautoinsurancenow.com and provided information to obtain an insurance quote, including Wilson’s phone number with the name Dorianne Plageman. On the final page, whoever entered Wilson’s number hit a button that read, “Show My Quotes.” That person also accepted a disclosure on the website that said submitting the number gives consent for marketing partners — including Freeway Insurance — to contact them.

Freeway contends Wilson or someone on his behalf inputted his number on the website.

Freeway hired a former FBI agent to locate Plageman, but the agent was unsuccessful despite traveling to her California addresses. The former agent spoke with the manager of a mobile-home park where she reportedly lived but could not locate anyone who had heard of her, according to Watstein.

In another lawsuit filed by Wilson against the MAH Group, Wilson admitted that the IP address tied to the person who signed up his number to receive marketing messages via a third-party site was his, according to Watstein.

When Freeway’s lawyer alerted Wilson’s attorney that he intended to file court documents alleging fraud, Wilson and his lawyer immediately moved to voluntarily dismiss their lawsuit against the insurer as well as their motion for class certification.

McShane refused to dismiss the case or grant class certification, and he placed the stay on the 14 other cases Wilson has filed against companies in federal court in Oregon, until the judge could examine more closely the “very serious claims” raised by Watstein and Freeway Insurance.

‘I got a robocall! Cha-ching!’

Wilson’s lawyer Andrew Roman Perrong argued in court that Wilson is not inviting the automatic calls to his number and is entitled to obtain damages of $500 to $1,500 per violation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act passed by Congress.

Perrong said Wilson put his phone number on a national “do not call” list and has not submitted his number online.

In a sworn declaration, Wilson said the phone number is his personal one that he uses every day and did not obtain it for any business purpose. He said he never authorized anyone else to use his number, and despite it being on the National Do Not Call Registry, he has received a “large volume” of unsolicited telemarketing calls and text messages. He said he received multiple telemarketing text messages from or on behalf of Freeway Insurance in June 2024, soliciting the purchase of car insurance.

Perrong argued that there were no “manufactured” allegations brought in the Freeway insurance case and that the Heidarpour Law Firm had no relationship with Wilson when his phone number was submitted seeking insurance quotes.

Perrong said someone else submitted Wilson’s number, making him a “wrong number recipient” of marketing calls.

McShane cut Perrong off and responded sharply.

“Mr. Wilson and his lawyers who represent him are making a cottage industry out of this,” the judge said. “Do not tell me that Mr. Wilson is up at night saying, ‘Oh my God, I got a robocall.’ He’s calling the law firm saying, ‘Oh my god, I got a robocall! Cha-ching!’” the judge said. “Please, don’t take me to be an idiot up here.”

McShane also called the relationship between Wilson and the law firm “quite frankly baffling.’’

Under the Heidarpour Law Firm’s engagement agreement with Wilson, the firm has the “power of attorney” to select, pursue and settle “any and all” of Wilson’s telephone consumer protection cases and to execute settlement documents, checks and deposit money in connection with them. The agreement also imposes severe economic penalties if Wilson seeks to halt the agreement, requiring repayment of all costs incurred for any outstanding claim.

The scheme has resulted in millions of dollars in individual settlements, with 90% to 95% going to the lawyers, Watstein argued.

Under Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers, any decision to settle a case must be made by the client, not the lawyer. In settlement statements prepared by Heidarpour Law Firm that Watstein said he reviewed from other companies that had been sued, he said the plaintiff’s signature appeared as a bare electronic mark without any DocuSign or other verification showing that the plaintiff opened, reviewed or actually signed the document personally.

Heidarpour Law Firm has countered in court papers that it does not resolve claims without appropriate client authorization and called Watstein’s allegations “a campaign of serious but baseless accusations.” It said Wilson retained the firm in October 2024, months after Wilson had received multiple text messages from Freeway Insurance. The law firm, represented now by the New York-based law firm Milbank LLP, moved in court to try to squash subpoenas from Freeway Insurance’s lawyers.

Wilson has filed more than 80 lawsuits across the country since 2024. Many of the complaints have been settled because companies decide it’s too expensive to fight the allegations, according to a spreadsheet Watstein submitted to the court. Watstein said Freeway Insurance already has spent about half a million dollars to defend the case against Wilson.

Some of the other companies Wilson has sued in Oregon are PacifiCorp, Umpqua Health Alliance, Nationstar Mortgage, MAH Group and AnyTime Fitness Franchisor.

Plaintiff’s ‘character flaws’

After Wilson and his lawyers filed a motion for class certification in the Freeway Insurance case, Watstein said he was blunt with Wilson’s attorneys. He questioned how Wilson could serve as a representative of a class of people when he has posted hateful antisemitic and racist comments on social media, including calling Hitler the “greatest protector of Christianity.”

Wilson also was banned more than 12 times by Facebook for hate speech, bullying and harassment, according to Watstein.

Wilson, in his sworn declaration, said his online posts were intended to be private and not publicly accessible and reflect his “personal political views.” He said he understands others may find them deeply offensive, but as a class representative in his lawsuit, he would be committed to representing all potential class members – whether Jewish, Black or LGBT, fairly and equally.

The judge noted that Wilson has “some character flaws” that will make people suspicious of his motives and actions.

“If he’s willing to say, ‘I want to kill Jews,’ he may be the kind of person who’s willing to put his own number into a computer system to rip off the government,” McShane said. “I’m not saying he did it, but boy, I’d want to find out if I were the defense, and I certainly want to find out, presiding over these cases.”

Wilson doesn’t appear to be a consumer who does not want to receive marketing calls from companies, the judge added. “In fact, he’s thriving off of these calls,” McShane said.

Wilson’s case against Freeway Insurance has similarities to one from last fall when a federal magistrate judge ruled that a Portland lawyer, Jessica Molligan, misrepresented facts and pursued a bogus lawsuit alleging disability access violations against a local business to extract thousands of dollars in attorney fees. A class-action lawsuit against Molligan, who was working with the out-of-state firm Wampler, Carroll, Wilson & Sanderson of Memphis, is pending in federal court in Portland.

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