Maurice Sessum, the co-owner and chief financial officer of Four Star Resolution was sentenced today to 90 months in prison for his role in a debt collection scam that bilked individuals out of $31 million.
Sessum joins Travell Thomas and 12 others who have pled guilty to counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of the scam. Sessum pled guilty to the charges last November. Along with more than eight years in prison, Sessum must also forfeit $31 million.
As part of the scam, the Sessum and Thomas inflated the amount owed by the individuals in the agency’s debt collector software, so that agents would try to collect more than the total balance. Sessum and Thomas also approved scripts that made a variety of false and misleading statements, including:
- Four Star was affiliated with local government and law enforcement agencies, including the “county” and the district attorney’s office;
- The consumers had committed criminal acts, such as “wire fraud” or “check fraud,” and if they did not pay the debt immediately, warrants or other process would be issued, at which point they would be arrested or hauled into court;
- The victims would have their driver’s licenses suspended if they did not pay their debts immediately;
- Four Star was a law firm or mediation firm and that Four Star’s employees were working with lawyers, a law firm, mediators, or arbitrators; and
- A civil lawsuit would be filed, or was pending, against the victims for failing to pay their debts. Sessum and Thomas also approved an abusive and coercive “mailing campaign,” in which Four Star sent mailers to victims across the country that purported to be from courts and government agencies
“Maurice Sessum was a driving force behind the largest criminal debt collection scheme ever prosecuted,” said Joon Kim, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. “Using outrageous threats and blatant lies to take advantage of vulnerable Americans, Sessum and his co-conspirators defrauded victims out of $31 million. For victimizing others to enrich himself, Sessum will now serve a significant term in federal prison.”
