Debt Buying

A Maryland man indicted last year on charges of running a debt buying Ponzi scheme has agreed to plead guilty to those charges as well as one that he attempted to obstruct justice after he was arrested and is facing 40 years in prison. Kevin Merrill, who, along with Jay …

A legal battle that has lasted nearly eight years and has gone up and down the legal ladder appears to be one step closer to ending, with both sides agreeing to a settlement that is awaiting approval from a District Court judge in New York. Under the terms of the …

Eric Rosenkoetter from Maurice Wutscher is the first to alert the industry to another new proposed state law, this time in Texas. This time, the newly introduced bill — the Fair Consumer Debt Collection Act — is intended to limit the period of time in which a debt buyer may …

The Virginia Department of Taxation has released draft guidance to help debt buyers comply with a new law related to how they apportion their income to the state. The state’s legislature passed a new law last year that requires debt buyers, regardless of where they are based, to apportion their …

Cuyahoga County, Ohio is set to sell up to $12 million of unpaid property tax liens to a Florida investment group. Any homeowner who does not make an arrangement with the county prior to a Dec. 11 deadline could see their debt sold to Finch Investment Group LLC. Terms of …

A jury in Massachusetts has awarded $290,000 to a debt buyer who sued his former business partner, alleging the partner was stealing customer information to pursue his own venture. Shawn Mulligan was awarded the money after he sued Jonathan Koop, his former partner in Elite Enterprise Services LLC. Mulligan alleged …

A trio of individuals from the debt buying world have been indicted on charges of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of $364 million. The trio — Kevin B. Merrill, Jay B. Ledford, and Cameron R. Jezierski — were indicted by a grand jury in Maryland last week and are facing …

A group of Democratic attorneys general have reached out to a handful of Senators in an attempt to lobby against a pair of bills that would allowing debt buyers to bypass state interest rate caps and undo an Appeals Court ruling which ruled that a debt buyer was not privy to …

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a federal regulator that oversees large, national banks, has come forward with an endorsement for the financial services firms it regulates to get into the short-term, small-dollar lending market. Traditionally known as payday loans, small-dollar loans have traditionally been the market of …

Agora Data, an online marketplace for buying and selling portfolios of auto loans, has announced a partnership with Nancy Hughes, an “industry-leading debt acquisitions expert,” to “expand the scope of services and solutions” offered by the company. Agora was started last April after its founders identified a number of roadblocks …