On September 15, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that it had filed a proposed stipulated judgment against a Delaware statutory trust after a settlement agreement was reached between the trust and forty-seven states plus the District of Columbia. The trust was created to purchase and hold beneficial…
On July 27, 2020, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that his office had obtained an important win in a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as part of the Office of Attorney General’s ongoing court battle with the nation’s second-largest servicer of federal and private…
On August 21, 2020, Colorado’s Attorney General announced that the Denver District Court ruled in the state’s favor and found that a for-profit college violated the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (“CCPA”) and the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (“UCCC”) in operating its institutional loan program. The matter was initiated after a two-year investigation that…
On August 4, 2020, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (Pennsylvania AG) announced that it reached a settlement with a company providing financing to consumers seeking student-loan debt relief. According to the Pennsylvania AG, the company violated the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law and the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) through its alleged…
On July 30, 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General (Massachusetts AG) announced a settlement with a Nevada-based debt buyer regarding a portfolio of loan debt it purchased from a for-profit education company. The settlement resolves the Massachusetts AG’s allegations that, between 2010 and 2016, the for-profit education company misled students by…
On July 8, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it reached a settlement with a Florida-based student debt relief company and three of the company’s officers. The complaint, which was filed in the Southern District of Florida, alleges that from 2016 through October 2019, the company violated the…
On April 29, 2020, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that it had settled its claims against a California-based student loan debt settlement company for alleged violations of Minnesota’s Debt Services Settlement Act, Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act, and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Specifically, the AG alleged that the company…
On March 30, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached a settlement with three student loan debt relief companies and their owner, resolving allegations that the companies made false promises to consumers and charged illegal fees in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), 15…
On April 2, 2020, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced that it filed a lawsuit against a student loan servicer servicing over 900,000 Californians as part of the DBO’s investigation into whether the loan servicer was improperly converting federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH)…
As a result of COVID-19’s widespread economic disruption, the student lending industry has been impacted, from financial institutions to borrowers. In the past few weeks, the federal government has sought ways to address the student loan industry and offer protection to borrowers affected by the virus. On March 20, 2020,…
On March 10, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it obtained a permanent injunction and monetary judgment from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (the Court) against three defendants that allegedly deceptively marketed student loan debt relief services. The Court’s order was entered on February 27, 2020, and…
On January 17, student loan servicer Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) filed a notice of appeal in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenging the decision of Chief Bankruptcy Judge Celelia Morris, which granted summary judgment for a student loan debtor and discharged his…
On January 9, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a constellation of companies for allegedly requesting credit reports without a permissible purpose in order to deceptively market sham student-loan debt relief services to consumers, in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act…
On December 10, 2019, the FTC announced a settlement with a major for-profit university and its parent company to resolve allegations that they deceived potential students in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C.§ 45. According to the FTC, the defendants used advertisements to attract students…
On November 12, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that on it had filed a lawsuit against a collection of interrelated companies and individual defendants for allegedly misrepresenting themselves as affiliated with the Department of Education in order to convince consumers to sign up for student loan debt relief. The…
On October 30, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced an action to halt a student-loan debt-relief operation engaged in allegedly unlawful conduct. The CFPB filed its complaint on October 21, 2019 and requested a temporary restraining order in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California….
On October 21, 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that, together with the Attorneys General (AGs) of Minnesota, North Carolina, and California, it had filed a complaint and sought a temporary restraining order in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against a group of debt relief companies. …
On October 3, 2019, the New York Attorney General’s office (NY AG) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against a major student-loan servicer for failing to properly administer the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. According to the complaint, the servicer allegedly employed deceptive, unfair, and abusive practices such…
On September 12, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that it had settled lawsuits against the operators of two alleged student loan debt relief schemes, and a financing company that assisted them, alleging that they had bilked millions of dollars from consumers. The FTC alleged that the defendants violated the…
On September 5, 2019, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) announced that it was launching a new investigation into the student loan debt relief industry. NYDFS stated that, as part of its “Step Up for Students” initiative, it was issuing subpoenas to eight student loan debt relief companies…