The Federal Trade Commission is sending more than $147,000 in full refunds to people affected by a student loan debt relief scam. According to an amended FTC complaint filed in 2019, corporate defendants Impetus Enterprise, Inc., Fig Tree & Co., LLC, Capital Sun Investments, and individual defendants Tuan Duong, Brenda Avitia-Pena, Brian Colombana, and Jimmy … Read more
Three defendants in a student loan debt relief scheme have been banned from telemarketing and selling debt relief, and ordered to pay millions in resolution of Federal Trade Commission allegations that they deceived consumers by promising to reduce or eliminate consumers’ student loan debt. The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found … Read more
Additional defendants involved with student loan debt relief schemes have been permanently banned from selling debt relief services pursuant to settlements with the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC alleged that they tricked consumers into paying illegal upfront fees in hopes of reducing or eliminating their student loan debt. One of the defendants, Brenda Avitia-Pena, has … Read more
In the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and State of Ohio suit against a payment processor that was taking care of payments made to two student loan assistance companies, interesting additional details have emerged. My post on the shuttering of companies can be found here. The point of the spear here looks like a company named … Read more
The ringleader of a California-based student loan debt relief scheme has agreed to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges that he bilked $11 million from consumers who were trying to reduce their student loan monthly payments or get loan forgiveness. Under the modified court order, recidivist scammer Tuan Duong admits he violated the 2016 order … Read more
The Federal Trade Commission has apparently found a few more parties to add to their ongoing court action against a host of other companies and people who are thought to have sold services in violation of FTC rules. The original suit can be found here. The new parties added are Studora, U.S. Debt Relief, Capital … Read more
It appears two past names in debt relief got together again to launch a new debt relief scheme. Back in 2010, I wrote a piece about Provident Law Group that was involved in the mortgage modification business. “I was told Duong is not an attorney and has a background in brokering sub-prime mortgages. It is … Read more
California has been tough on loan modification companies and in fact passed laws to prevent upfront fees. One of the companies that recently came under attack was a company I wrote about, Liberty Law Firm. After my piece KTLA did their own investigative report on Liberty. According to an confidential source, that contacted me at … Read more