It has been a while since I’ve written about the power of Connecticut when it comes to challenging debt relief companies. Two California companies have learned that painful lesson. Optima Advocates and Optima Student Loan Services were recently issued a Consent Order from the State Banking Commissioner. The allegation is the companies violated the law. …
The Federal Trade Commission sued Financial Education Services and others for selling credit repair and an alleged pyramid scheme business opportunity. Watching the court record, Financial Education Services is pushing back hard. However, the FTC just filed a document that makes a compelling argument why the credit repair company should have some concerns. You can …
Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) finalized an enforcement action against debt-relief payment-processors RAM Payment and Account Management Systems (AMS), as well as AMS’s co-founders, Gregory Winters and Stephen Chaya, for collecting debt-relief fees from consumers, lying to consumers about when the fees would be paid to debt-relief companies, and sending illegal advance fees …
Yesterday I wrote about the misfortunes of Daniel Rufty, a new North Carolina attorney that learned some very hard lessons about being a local representative for a debt settlement company. You can read that post here. Rufty sued Jason Blust, Law Offices of Jason Blust, Lit Def Strategies, and Relialit after his disciplinary debacle. The …
I just discovered the misfortunes of Daniel S. Rufty, an attorney in North Carolina that was brought before the North Carolina State Bar for his debt relief business. Rufty was a brand new attorney hired to represent an out-of-state group of lawyers for their debt settlement business. Things did not end well for Rufty but …
I previously wrote about Julie Anne Stamps who alleged she was terminated by Ramsey’s company, Lampo Group for being a lesbian. See the section “Gay Woman Fired” in this post. In an interesting turn of events, the Ramsey company, Lampo Group aka Ramsey Solutions, has agreed to pay out $76,900 on claims of “employment discrimination …
The operators of an alleged credit card interest rate reduction scam will be permanently banned from the debt relief industry as part of court orders resolving charges by the Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Office of the Attorney General. The defendants—Gino de Paz, Grace de Paz, and Shabana Khublal—allegedly engaged in deceptive and abusive …
Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced that Elevate Credit, Inc. (Elevate), a predatory online lender, will pay at least $3.3 million to refund over 2,500 District consumers who were misleadingly marketed high-cost loans and lines of credit, waive over $300,000 in interest owed by those consumers, and pay $450,000 to the District. The company will …
The remaining defendants in a deceptive student loan debt relief scheme are permanently banned from providing all student loan debt relief products and services in settlements with the Federal Trade Commission. The settlements with Jay Singh, the two corporate defendants he controls, and seven other corporate entities resolve charges the FTC in brought in November …
The court just recorded an apparent final disposition in the Arete Financial Freedom lawsuit. The parties included under the Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction and Monetary Judgment include Arete Financial Group, Arete Financial Freedom, CBC Conglomerate, 1file.org, Diamond Choice Inc., Interest Rate Solutions, J&L Enterprise, Premier Solutions Servicing, La Casa Bonita Investments, Inc., La Casa …