Scott Tucker, a payday lending mogul who made hundreds of millions of dollars running a payday loan operation that exploited individuals by charging high interest rates, has been sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison. Tucker’s lawyer and co-defendant, Timothy Muir, was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Tucker’s operation tried to hide behind sham relationships with Native American tribes that Tucker used to try and shield his companies from prosecution. Some of the payday lending companies operated by Tucker charged interest rates in excess of 700%.
Tucker and Muir were convicted in October.
Scott Tucker and his brother Joel have been in the regulatory spotlight for a number of years. Joel Tucker has been charged by the Federal Trade Commission with selling fake debt portfolios of payday loans.
Prosecutors had been seeking a 20-year sentence for Scott Tucker. Tucker’s lawyer had asked for 15 years. Tucker was immediately taken into custody at the sentencing hearing in New York on Friday.
Tucker was charged with illegally accessing the bank accounts of individuals and withdrawing interest payments on payday loans, but not taking out any money to pay down the principal. Tucker is also facing charges for filing a false tax return.
Tucker plans to appeal the criminal conviction and has appealed a $1.3 billion civil penalty assessed by the FTC.
