Those fake President Biden robocalls that were blasted out in New Hampshire ahead of the primary have been traced to a Texas company, according to local officials who have launched a criminal investigation.
The source of the fraudulent Biden robocalls — which urged thousands of Granite State residents to not vote in the presidential primary — has been identified as Texas-based Life Corporation and an individual named Walter Monk.
The robocalls played a message with what appeared to be an AI-generated voice clone of Biden’s voice. The message said, “It’s important that you save your vote for the November election,” and “Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”
Biden ended up winning the Democratic primary in a landslide, even with his name off the ballot in a write-in campaign.
After the fake robocalls went out, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office Election Law Unit opened an investigation into these calls in coordination with state and federal partners. Officials were able to trace the calls back to Life Corporation and Monk.
“Ensuring public confidence in the electoral process is vital,” said Attorney General John Formella. “AI-generated recordings used to deceive voters have the potential to have devastating effects on the democratic election process.”
“The partnership and fast action in this matter sends a clear message that law enforcement, regulatory agencies, and industry are staying vigilant and are working closely together to monitor and investigate any signs of AI being used maliciously to threaten our democratic process,” Formella later added.
The robocalls also illegally spoofed their caller ID information to appear to come from a number belonging to a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair. The message instructed recipients to call the number belonging to that person to be removed from future calls.
After identifying specific calls, the Election Law Unit requested “tracebacks” via an entity known as Industry Traceback Group. These tracebacks identified the source of the calls to be Life Corporation and Monk.
The tracebacks further identified the originating voice service provider for many of these calls to be Texas-based Lingo Telecom. After Lingo Telecom was informed that these calls were being investigated, Lingo Telecom suspended services to Life Corporation.
On Tuesday, the Election Law Unit issued a cease-and-desist order to Life Corporation for violating RSA 659:40, III — which prohibits any person from engaging in voter suppression by knowingly attempting to prevent or deter another person from voting or registering to vote based on fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, or spurious grounds or information.
The Attorney General’s Office 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 Election Law Unit is also aware of media reports that the recorded message was likely made using software from ElevenLabs. At this time, the Unit is continuing to investigate and cannot confirm whether that reporting is accurate,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. “Finally, the Attorney General is continuing to investigate whether Life Corporation worked with or at the direction of any other persons or entities and at this time cannot comment on whether other persons or entities were involved.”