The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday announced a stipulated final order with a debt relief company and its owners and officers, who will repay $22,000 out of a $3.8 million judgment after being accused of charging illegal advance fees. The defendants are also permanently barred from providing debt relief services in the future.
A copy of the judgment in the case of the CFPB v. Timemark Solutions, Timothy Lenihan, Mark Nagler, and Casey Gassaway can be accessed by clicking here.
Timemark marketed itself as a company that helped individuals with federal student loan debt. The company would charge individuals between $99 and $699 for the service, and much of that was paid before the Department of Education ever approved the debt relief applications that were filed by the defendants.
This is not the first time that Lenihan, Nagler, and Gassaway have carried out this scheme, according to the CFPB. In its complaint, the CFPB alleged that the trio used to work as salespeople at a now-defunct company that offered the same services as Timemark. They founded Timemark in 2016 and modeled it after their former employer.
Through Oct. 30, 2019, the company received $3.8 million in fees from more than 7,300 individuals, according to the CFPB.
The $3.8 million judgment corresponds with the amount in fees that the company had taken in from unsuspecting individuals, but the defendants’ lack of funds made it impossible for the CFPB to recover the full amount. As part of the settlement, Timemark will pay $5,000, Nagler will pay $7,000, and Gassaway will pay $10,000. Each defendant will also pay a $1 fine that will be deposited into the CFPB’s Civil Money Penalty Fund.
