The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against the owner of two ARM companies and charged them with collecting on debts that were not legitimate.
Anthony Swatsworth, who owned ACDI Group and Solutions to Portfolios, purchased a portfolio of phony payday loans via a broker and continued to try and collect on the loans for seven months after being notified by the broker that the loans were not real. The broker even refunded the transaction fee back to Swatsworth, who collected about $30,000 in payments from individuals.
The loans were purchased from SQ Capital, which was owned by Joel Tucker, who has been charged with selling fake payday loan portfolios.
In this case, as soon as Swatsworth’s agencies started contacted purported debtors, they started hearing that those individuals had no recollection of taking out a payday loan. Swatsworth contacted the broker, United Debt Holdings, who instructed Swatsworth to stop trying to collect on the loans and then refunded the purchase price of the portfolio. Swatsworth and his agencies allegedly continued to try and collect on the debts for seven more months.
A copy of the complaint is available here.
