A defendant in a Fair Credit Reporting Act case has filed a motion for sanctions against the plaintiff, accusing her of doctoring bank statements to make it appear that she did not receive the funds or make payments on the debt in question, attempting to prove her claim that she was the victim of identity theft.
The background: The plaintiff filed the lawsuit in the District Court for the Northern District of Florida last April. She had been served a summons and complaint in a collection lawsuit that had been filed against her by one of the defendants. She went to the police and filed a report claiming she was the victim of identity theft, then went to the credit reporting agencies — who were also named as defendants in this suit — to dispute the debt.
- The plaintiff disputed the debt, but the credit reporting agencies reported back that the debt had been verified as accurate. To substantiate her claims, the plaintiff submitted information verifying her identity and other documents, such as bank statements.
- She filed suit against the credit reporting agencies and the debt buyer that owned the debt, accusing them of violating the FCRA.
The motion: The defendant took the step of subpoenaing the plaintiff’s actual statements from her bank and then compared them against the statements she had submitted.
- The plaintiff removed an entry from March 2022 showing receipt of the loan funds from the original creditor and replaced it with a deposit from a brokerage account, according to the motion. The defendant subpoenaed the brokerage account’s records and it could not find any account in the plaintiff’s name.
- The plaintiff also removed entries from her bank statements showing seven payments that were made to the original creditor.
- The payments that were made match what the original creditor supplied to the debt buyer/defendant when it purchased the account.
- Coincidentally, days before the defendant filed its motion for sanctions, the plaintiff’s attorneys filed a motion to withdraw from the case.
- The defendant is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed and be awarded attorney’s fees and costs for having to defend a frivolous lawsuit.
