Global Tel*Link (GTL), doing business as ViaPath Technologies, is one of the nation’s largest providers of carceral communications services, including phones, video calling, and e-messaging. Its subsidiaries include Telmate, LLC and TouchPay Holdings, LLC; the latter provides money transfer services for people to send funds to loved ones in prisons and jails. GTL has long been known for price-gouging and other abusive business practices, as extensively reported in PLN. [See: e.g., PLN, Dec. 2020, p.24.] 

On November 14, 2024, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took the Virginia-based company to task for some of those abuses, ordering it and its subsidiaries to pay $3 million in restitution and penalties. The CFPB identified three GTL practices that violated consumer protection laws.

First, the company had a “no refund” policy for most money transfers; when money transfers went awry, prisoners’ family members were forced to file chargebacks with their banks or credit card providers to recover funds. In some cases, they were told by GTL customer service staff to initiate the chargebacks. In response, the company would freeze the prisoners’ accounts and prevent them from receiving any additional funds until the chargeback fees were repaid—in some cases with an additional $25 fee.

Second, from 2019 to 2023, GTL had a policy of seizing money from customers’ accounts if no transactions had been made for 90 or 180 days. It retained those funds from around 575,000 accounts “without properly disclosing the inactivity policy or notifying consumers that their funds were about to be taken,” the CFPB said. In total, GTL reportedly seized around $4.2 million from inactive accounts.

Lastly, the CFPB found that GTL and its subsidiaries did not disclose complete fee schedules for their money transfer services. As a result, prisoners’ families were not aware how much they would pay for sending funds to prison and jail accounts based on the payment method and amount sent. 

For example, GTL’s standard fee schedule included fees ranging from $3.95 to $5.95 for cash deposits using a lobby kiosk at correctional facilities. However, the fee schedule when using a credit or debit card included the same flat rates plus 3.5% of the deposit amount. Such practices were especially egregious because prisoners’ families had no other option but to use GTL’s services if they wanted to send money to their incarcerated loved ones, thanks to the company’s monopoly contracts with prisons and jails. 

In its stipulation and consent order, the CFPB ordered GTL, Telmate and TouchPay Holdings to stop blocking prisoners’ accounts from receiving funds due to a chargeback; to stop requiring repayment of chargeback fees; and to stop blocking consumers who initiate chargebacks from sending additional deposits.

Further, the companies were barred from deeming an account dormant after less than 180 days of inactivity, and even then they may not retain any unclaimed funds in inactive accounts. Rather, they must make “reasonable efforts to return” funds in the accounts to the account holder and, if unsuccessful, must “treat the remaining funds in accordance with applicable … law requirements concerning unclaimed funds and the disposition of such funds.”

GTL must also “clearly and prominently” disclose its complete fee schedule, including payment methods used to send funds to prisoners’ accounts. The company was required to submit a compliance plan to ensure it followed the CFPB’s stipulated consent order.

The CFPB also ordered GTL and its subsidiaries to pay $2 million to prisoners’ family members and other affected consumers. Additionally, GTL was ordered to pay a $1 million civil penalty to the CFPB. See: In the Matter of Global Tel Link Corp., U.S. CFPB, File No. 2024-CFPB-0015; 2024 WL 5348028.

It remains to be seen how effectively CFPB can enforce this order, however; the agency has been caught in the crosshairs of an effort by newly elected Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) and his deputized mega-billionaire donor Elon Musk to take drastic cost-saving measures through the White House’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Though Musk is not a federal employee, and DOGE is not a real government agency, it had nevertheless succeeded in slashing the CFPB’s workforce by 88% by April 25, 2025, leaving just 200 staffers at work.  

Additional source: AP News