After reading the info below, EVERYONE PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, start calling your Attorney General's Office and file complaints. This is the fastest way to stop CASH CALL and get our money back for all the high interest loans that they stole from us. The AG offices needs more and more complaints to come in so they can have a PILE of evidence to bring these thieves down for good.
Government ActionsColorado Attorney General Release
DENVER
- Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced today that his
office has filed a lawsuit against Western Sky Financial, a South
Dakota-based online lender, and its principal, Martin A. Webb, for
making unlicensed, high-interest loans to Colorado consumers.According
to the lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, the company made more
than 200 loans to Colorado consumers since at least March 2010, during
which time it was not licensed with the state. The loans to ranged in
value from $400 to $2,600 and had terms ranging from seven months to 36
months. The loans' annual percentage rates ranged from 140 percent to
300 percent. Under Colorado's Uniform Consumer Credit Code, lenders
making subprime loans must be licensed with the Office of the Attorney
General. Because Western Sky Financial made loans with interest rates
higher than 12 percent, it must be licensed. The following
describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by
a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a
summary of the government's allegations, which have not yet been proven.On
3/7/12, the FTC released that it expanded its case against Payday
Financial, LLC charging that it sought to unfairly and deceptively
manipulate the legal system and force debt-burdened consumers throughout
the country to travel to South Dakota and appear before a tribal court
that did not have jurisdiction over their cases. The amended
complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of South
Dakota Central Division on March 1, 2012. The amended complaint names
as defendants Payday Financial, LLC, Great Sky Finance, LLC, Western Sky
Financial, LLC, Red Stone Financial, LLC, Financial Solutions, LLC,
Management Systems, LLC, 24-7 Cash Direct, LLC, Red River Ventures, LLC,
High Country Ventures, LLC, and Martin A. Webb.In its amended
complaint, the FTC charged that South Dakota-based payday lender Payday
Financial, LLC suits against customers are unfair and that its contract
language about the court where such suits would be brought is deceptive.
When customers fall behind in their payments, Payday Financial, LLC
improperly files suits against them in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal
Court, attempting to obtain a tribal court order to garnish their wages,
the amended complaint alleges. The tribal court does not have
jurisdiction over claims against people who do not belong to the
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and who do not reside on the reservation or
elsewhere in South Dakota. The amended complaint also seeks civil
penalties for alleged violations of the FTC's Credit Practices Rule
where the company and its owner Martin A. Webb and several others named
as defendants pitch short-term, high-fee, unsecured payday loans to
consumers on television and the Internet. This case is pending. For updates or further details concerning this case, please contact the Federal Trade Commission.The
following describes a pending government action that has been formally
brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are
providing a summary of the government's allegations, which have not yet
been proven.After the Federal Trade Commission filed an action in
U.S. district court, a payday lender that allegedly attempted to
illegally garnish consumers' wages has agreed to stop the challenged
conduct pending trial. On September 6, 2011, the FTC filed a complaint
for permanent injunction and other equitable relief in US District
Court, District of South Dakota, Central Division, that alleges that
Payday Financial, LLC, doing business as Lakota Cash and Big Sky Cash,
along with other defendants, illegally attempted to garnish consumers'
wages without obtaining a court order, to collect payments on payday
loans. As a result, the defendants illegally revealed consumers'
supposed debts to their employers and deprived consumers of their right
to dispute the debts or make payment arrangements, the FTC alleges.According
to the FTC, defendant Martin A. Webb operates Payday Financial, LLC,
and several related businesses in Timber Lake, South Dakota. The
defendants offer short-term, high-fee, unsecured payday loans of $300 to
$2,525 to consumers throughout the country, advertising on television
and through websites such as www.bigskycash.com and www.westernsky.com The
FTC complaint alleges that when a consumer does not pay back a payday
loan on time, the defendants send documents to his or her employer that
mimic those used by federal agencies collecting debts owed to the
government in an attempt to garnish the consumer's wages. Under federal
law, the government can directly require employers to garnish wages for
debts it is owed without a court order. But private creditors must
obtain a court order before garnishing a debtor's wages. The complaint
charges the defendants with violating the FTC Act by:
?
misrepresenting to employers that the defendants are legally authorized
to garnish an employee's wages, without first obtaining a court order;
?falsely
representing to employers that the defendants have notified consumers
about the pending garnishment and have given them an opportunity to
dispute the debt; and
?unfairly disclosing the existence and the
amounts of consumers' supposed debts to employers and co-workers without
the consumers' knowledge or consent.
The complaint further alleges
that the defendants have violated the FTC's Credit Practices Rule by
requiring consumers taking out payday loans to consent to have wages
taken directly out of their paychecks in the event of a default, and
have violated the Electronic Funds Transfer Act and Regulation E by
requiring authorization for electronic payments from their bank account
as a condition of obtaining payday loans.The Commission vote
authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 5-0. The FTC filed the
complaint and a request for preliminary relief in the U.S. District
Court for the District of South Dakota, Central Division on September 6,
2011. The complaint names as defendants Payday Financial, LLC, Great
Sky Finance, LLC, Western Sky Financial, LLC, Red Stone Financial, LLC,
Financial Solutions, LLC, Management Systems, LLC, 24-7 Cash Direct,
LLC, Red River Ventures, LLC, High Country Ventures, LLC, and Martin
Webb. On September 7, 2011, the parties agreed to a stipulated
preliminary injunction to immediately halt the alleged unlawful conduct,
and the court accepted and entered the stipulated preliminary
injunction. The FTC would like to acknowledge the assistance of the
South Dakota U.S. Attorney's Office.This case is pending. For updates or further details concerning this case, please contact the Federal Trade Commission.