On August 7, 2019, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (“Massachusetts AG”) announced that it filed a complaint and consent judgment in Suffolk County Superior Court. The consent judgment bans a purportedly unlicensed finance company from collecting on any active student loan debt relief accounts in Massachusetts, and requires the company to pay $340,000 to repair the credit of…
On July 25, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the New York Attorney General (“New York AG”) announced that they have filed two proposed settlements with three debt collection companies and two individuals who conducted business together in Buffalo, New York. The proposed settlements were filed in the U.S. District Court for…
On July 23, 2019, Delaware’s Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Unit (“Delaware CPU”) announced that it reached a settlement with two-California based companies that would require them to cease advertising and selling loan modification and debt relief services in the state of Delaware. According to the cease and desist agreement, the companies and their…
On July 19, 2019, the Georgia Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that it had entered into a settlement with a company allegedly offering unlawful and deceptive credit repair services in violation of the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act. According to the AG, Georgia law generally forbids the provision of credit…
On July 11, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had obtained a temporary restraining order against defendants operating an alleged student loan debt relief scheme that, according to the FTC, tricked thousands of consumers by making false claims that it would service and pay down their student…
On July 11, 2019, the Massachusetts Office of Attorney General Maura Healey announced that a for-profit educational institution and its parent company would provide over $1.6 million in debt relief to settle claims that it did not provide its students with critical information on program job placement, loan repayment, and…
On July 9, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it settled its lawsuit against the nation’s largest debt-settlement services provider for allegedly engaging in deceptive debt-settlement acts or practices. The company agreed to pay $20 million in restitution to affected consumers and a $5 million civil money penalty….
On June 21, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against affiliated companies offering services to repair consumers’ damaged credit. The FTC’s Complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, alleged that the companies used deceptive marketing campaigns that promised to eliminate derogatory credit from consumers’ credit reports and raise…
On June 18, 2019, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced that it entered into a settlement and consent order with a mortgage servicer over an alleged failure to pay interest on escrow impound accounts for 94,483 residential mortgage loans. Servicers are required to pay interest on such accounts under…
On June 14, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with a private student loan provider that issued and managed student loans at the now-defunct for-profit ITT Technical Institute. Forty-five states including Kansas, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Oregon, and New York also settled with the loan…