Recently I wrote about the Receiver update on the seizure of Arete Financial Freedom. In that post, I said the Receiver had been shopping the Arete settlement clients to find a new buyer. The Receiver said, “While Revitafi made an all-cash offer of $1,250,000, which I accepted in principle, Arete Defendants’ counsel later claimed that … Read more
United Debt Counselors just sent out a press release which hit my news feed. United Debt says they’ve been helping people for “over half a decade.” Congratulations on making it five years. Aren’t these the same folks who were United Debt Services and then United Debt Counselors? I’ll post the full press release below but … Read more
An Orange County, California, man pleaded guilty today for his role in operating fraudulent debt relief firms that offered to settle credit card debts but instead took victims’ payments as undisclosed up-front fees, the Justice Department and U.S. Postal Inspection Service announced. Jeremy Nelson, 30, pleaded guilty to one count of an indictment alleging conspiracy … Read more
Yesterday a debt relief industry friend pointed out to me an attack post Paul Paquin, president of Golden Financial Services posted about me on Linkedin. – Source The post then linked to another much longer attack post he published on November 1, 2015 on the nomorecreditcards.com website. I’m at a loss what motivates these folks … Read more
Last week the CFPB raided Orion Processing’s headquarters after obtaining a search warrant. The CFPB filed a complaint last Monday, and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) last Tuesday, which was under seal until late yesterday. With the TRO, the CFPB also obtained an asset freeze on all of the defendants’ assets. The defendants include … Read more
A fantastic reader / tipster (send in your tips here) sent me the following press release. Anyone know what Linda Remsberg is doing now? I looked at noteworld.com and that redirects to Evergreen Note Servicing (notecollection.com) (which appears to actually be Evergreen Escrow, Inc.)and Meracord.com goes to a non-existent site. Interestingly, Evergreen Note Servicing sounds … Read more
A reader sent me a story about a Ft. Lauderdale debt relief company, Financial Help Services. It appears the Bobby Blackmon company has run into what is either an issue of not paying creditors for his Debt Management Plan clients or a serious case of poorly explained client expectations with creditors. In a bizarre move, … Read more
A tipster (send in your tips here) pointed out to me an article in insideARM today that talks about why about half of debt collection companies do not yet work with debt settlement companies. “The second most interesting data point to emerge was only one of the top six reasons for not working with debt … Read more
An tip just came in from a reader. Seems Doug Van Arsdale the CEO of Lending.com and CEO of Credit Solutions of America is back in the news. The allegation is that Van Arsdale is the indirect owner of SaveMore.com, a Grouponesque spinoff that sells discounts and coupons, is not delivering coupons to consumers more … Read more
A very interesting article in the Star Tribune was brought to my attention by a reader. It calls for a closure of the debt settlement loophole in Minnesota that allows attorneys to collect advanced fees. Kara McGuire wrote, “In Minnesota, laws are on the books that forbid charging steep upfront fees for promising to negotiate … Read more
Christopher Boulahanis, who has been in the news after the collapse of his nonprofit credit counseling group United Financial Systems, appears to have made more news this year with his Capital Debt Relief company being cited by Georgia. While this action took place in February, 2011, the BBB just published this report recently according to … Read more
A tipster (send in your tips here) sent this to me in disgust over the usual DUI, DWI mugshots I post from time to time. They were getting bored with seeing the petty stuff, so they wanted to bring the case of two debt settlement lead vendors from 800 Exchange, where one killed the other. … Read more
Yesterday a number of law enforcement officials raided offices of lawyers and marketing participants who have been involved in mass joinder efforts. Consumers were sold access to lawsuits with a number of claims against their lenders and were told they could get their homes free and clear, cash back, stop foreclosure, etc. These efforts were … Read more
A tipster (send in your tips here) just alerted me that a company I had recently written about in Is Leading Debt Arbitrators in Canada a Poser? is apparently taking a run at another of their critics, the Credit Counseling Society at nomoredebts.org. And while they took an ill fated swipe at the Credit Counseling … Read more
The United States Courts just released the complete bankruptcy survey for 2010 bankruptcies. It shows that the majority of bankruptcy filings are for Chapter 7. Here is what the 2010 results show. I’ve highlighted the parts that stood out to me. Summary of Findings During calendar year 2010, more than 1.5 million bankruptcy petitions were … Read more