Formella said he has started a criminal investigation and has issued a cease and desist order against Life Corp., putting them on notice of a violation of New Hampshire's voter suppression law and demanding that it not commit further violations. He identified the owner of the company as Walter Monk.
No criminal charges have been filed.
The attorney general also said it appeared that artificial intelligence was used to imitate the president's voice in the calls, which were made on Jan. 21.
"Ensuring public confidence in the electoral process is vital," Formella said. "AI-generated recordings used to deceive voters have the potential to have devastating effects on the democratic election process."
He said the law enforcement community has been concerned for some time about the potential of someone using artificial intelligence to interfere with an election.
"But we had not seen as concrete of an example as this, calls using AI with something as deceptive as trying to clone the voice of the president of the United States," Formella said.
"We don't want this to be the first of many."
The Sentinel's attempts to reach Monk and his company were unsuccessful Tuesday.
The message on the robocall wrongly indicated it was sent by the treasurer of a political committee that had been supporting efforts for voters to write in Biden's name on the Democratic primary ballot.
Biden's name was not printed on the ballot, but he won easily as a result of the write-in campaign. He did not file as a candidate in New Hampshire because the election was set for a date in conflict with the Democratic National Committee's schedule.
Formella said the voice service provider for many of the robocalls in question was Texas-based Lingo Telecom. He said that after that company was informed that the calls were being investigated, it suspended services to Life Corp. Also, the Federal Communications Commission sent an order to Lingo Telecom, demanding that it stop supporting illegal robocall traffic on its networks.
Formella said the robocalls were targeted at Democrats.
"The Attorney General is continuing to investigate potential election law violations, consumer protection act violations, and telephone consumer protection act violations, while still determining the total number of robocalls made," the AG's office said in a news release Tuesday. "The call monitoring service, Nomorobo, estimates between 5,000 and 25,000 calls were made."
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a news release that her agency is trying to thwart such calls.
"Consumers deserve to know that the person on the other end of the line is exactly who they claim to be. That's why we're working closely with State Attorneys General across the country to combat the use of voice cloning technology in robocalls being used to misinform voters and target unwitting victims of fraud."
© 2024 The Keene Sentinel (Keene, N.H.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
