Pinnacle Security, Orem, Utah, agreed to pay a $1 million fine as part of a settlement agreement announced today by the Illinois state department.

According to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Pinnacle allowed unlicensed personnel as well as employees with criminal records to sell its security systems door-to-door in Illinois. Furthermore, Pinnacle was accused by the IDFPR of using “unfair and deceptive” sales practices.

According to a press release, "The investigation conducted by IDPFR included issuing subpoenas for all employees working in Illinois and found that 700 of the 1,100 were not licensed by the state.  Further, several of the employees listed on the employee roster had been charged with or convicted of felonies, including larceny, robbery, theft, conspiracy to commit burglary, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, assault, domestic battery, and possession of controlled substances, any of which would have been cause to deny a license, had an application been filed."

Pinnacle did not comment on the accuracy of these claims. But Stuart Dean, vice president of corporate communications for the company, stated: "Pinnacle Security has worked closely to address the generally historical issues related to licensing requirements of our sales representatives that allegedly took place as early as 2006.”

The state reported that $250,000 of that $1 million fine has already been paid by Pinnacle. Other conditions of the settlement would render Pinnacle unable to make new sales in Illinois for two years, supervision of Pinnacle’s monitoring and service practices and a probationary period of five years.

 SDM continues to report on this developing story.