Daily Digest – December 7. Debt Collection Scandal Ensnares Town; Gov’t Passes Bill To Allow Outsourced Tax Collections

PAYOLA SCANDAL INCLUDES DEBT COLLECTORS

• A scandal in Allentown, Penn., has ensnared several public officials, who are now facing charges. The scandal surrounds how a contract for debt collection services was awarded. The company that was awarded the contract may have submitted the lowest bid, but won because it donated the most to the mayor’s campaign.

SERVICER ON HOOK FOR $2 MILLION VERDICT

• A mortgage servicer will have to pay a $2 million court verdict to a borrower it tried to foreclose on, twice, after the servicer deliberately ignored a modification that the borrower had previously entered into with the FDIC.

GOV’T OPENS TAX COLLECTION HIGHWAY  

• President Obama signed a bill into law on Friday that will provide $305 billion to fund highway and infrastructure improvements, but will also permit the Internal Revenue Service to use third-party debt collectors for the first time in several years.

BK FILINGS INCREASE 

• Bankruptcy filings increased slightly in November compared with the same month last year, according to data from the American Bankruptcy Institute. But the uptick is not substantial enough to keep the overall number of filings from 2015 to be the second-worst on record in the past 10 years.

WORTH NOTING:

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