The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a proposed order seeking to bring an end to an enforcement action against a pair of debt relief companies and their owner, which would ban the owner from the debt relief industry for five years and require him to pay a $30,000 fine, and permanently ban one of the companies from ever offering debt relief services again. The defendants were accused of collecting more than $10 million in unlawful fees from consumers.
A copy of the proposed order in the case of Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection v. Performance SLC, Performance Settlement, and Daniel Crenshaw can be accessed by clicking here. The judge must approve the order for it to become finalized.
The CFPB filed its original lawsuit back in November 2020, accusing the defendants of violating the Consumer Financial Protection Act by engaging in unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The defendants allegedly charged consumers upfront fees of as much as $1,450 to process and submit paperwork to apply for consolidation of their student loans, even though the Department of Education does not charge for entering those programs. The defendants also steered consumers into debt relief services by making it appear as though they had been denied for personal loans. The problem was that the company did not make any loans.
The proposed order includes judgments of more than $11 million, most of which are being suspended because of the defendants’ limited ability to pay the fines.
