A Massachusetts judge has ordered an immediate stop to two debt collection businesses and their owners, handing the state’s attorney general an early win in a case that strikes at one of the industry’s persistent reputational threats: unlicensed “phantom” collection.
Suffolk Superior Court Justice Peter B. Krupp signed the preliminary injunction yesterday, requiring East Coast Financial, Assessment Resolution, LLC, and brothers Paul and Richard Santorsola to cease all collection activity at once. The order also bars the defendants from destroying records or moving assets while the case proceeds, and it reaches two individuals operating under the names “Jackie” and “Tom Gilchrist” who allegedly worked in concert with the companies.
Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office filed suit this month, alleging East Coast Financial functioned as a phantom collector, pursuing payment by phone on old court judgments the operators could not show they owned. According to the complaint, callers used false names and posed as affiliates of a constable’s or law office, threatening consumers with arrest and property seizure to pressure payment. The office said the collectors leaned on profane language, false threats, and misrepresentations, and never produced documentation establishing ownership of the debts despite consumer requests.
The state says none of the defendants held the debt collection license Massachusetts law requires, and none had authority to garnish wages, seize property, place liens, or have anyone arrested. Investigators estimate consumers lost more than $26,000.
That conduct, the office alleges, violates the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act and the AGO’s debt collection regulations. Campbell said the order would prevent further harm while her office pursues restitution for victims and continues to hold the businesses and their operators accountable.
Read the preliminary injunction
