WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Jan. 9 that it has charged Joel Jerome Tucker, SQ Capital LLC, JT Holdings Inc. and HPD LLC with selling portfolios of fake payday loan debts.
According to the FTC, the defendants took private information from consumers – including Social Security and bank account numbers – and sold them to debt collectors.
Tucker and his companies allegedly received the information in the form of fake loans supposedly made by a phony lender, “Castle Peak,” or by an online loan provider known as “500FastCash.”
The debt collection agencies could, according to the FTC, use the information to persuade people that the debts were real and needed to be paid off.
The FTC charges that the defendants listed fake loans that lenders never made, and falsely said that purported borrowers had failed to repay debts, when those consumers never actually owed the debts. Alleged conduct of this nature violates the FTC Act. The FTC seeks a permanent injunction barring the defendants from continuing the business.
The FTC voted 3-0 to authorize the staff to file the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.