The regulator’s latest complaints are part of an ongoing nationwide enforcement initiative with state and federal law officials focused on bad actors.
3/16/2021 9:00
The Federal Trade Commission announced Monday it reached a settlement in two cases resulting in a ban on defendants’ operations in the debt collection industry.
The settlements resolve FTC charges that the individuals and companies “threatened consumers with legal action to collect on debts that did not exist,” according to a news release from the FTC.
The FTC continues:
In complaints filed as part of the “Operation Corrupt Collector” enforcement sweep, the FTC accused National Landmark Logistics and Absolute Financial Services of using illegal robocalls to leave messages with consumers that threatened outcomes such as lawsuits and arrests. The messages didn’t identify the caller as a debt collector, and when consumers would return the calls, the defendants would present themselves as mediators or attorneys.
In most cases, the debts being collected by National Landmark and Absolute Financial were not actually owed by the consumers, either because they never existed in the first place or had been previously paid off.
National Landmark Logistics
Under the terms of this settlement, defendants Liberty Solutions & Associates, LLC; LSA Processing Systems, LLC; James Dennison; and Eric Dennison will be permanently banned from playing any role in debt collection. They will also be prohibited from making certain misrepresentations to consumers, including whether a consumer owes them a payment, whether they are attorneys or associated with a law firm, or the terms of any refund program.
The settlement contains a monetary judgment of $16,418,306, which is partially suspended due to an inability to pay. The defendants will be required to turn over the contents of numerous bank accounts to the FTC.
The FTC’s case against National Landmark Logistics, LLC; National Landmark Service of United Recovery, LLC; Silverlake Landmark Recovery Group, LLC; and Jean Cellent will continue.
Absolute Financial Services
Under the terms of their settlements, Lashone Elam (also known as Lashone Caldwell); Absolute Financial Services, LLC; Absolute Financial Services Recovery, LLC; AFSR Global Logistics, LLC; and Talesia Neely will be permanently banned from playing any role in debt collection.
They will also be prohibited from making certain misrepresentations to consumers, including whether a consumer owes them a payment, whether they are attorneys or associated with a law firm, or the terms of any refund program.
The settlement with the corporate defendants and Elam contains a monetary judgment of $11,281,993, which is partially suspended due to an inability to pay. The corporate defendants will be required to turn over the contents of several bank accounts to the FTC, while Elam will be required to turn over $10,000.
If any of the defendants in either the National Landmark or Absolute Financial cases are found to have misrepresented their financial status, the full amount of their judgments would become due immediately. In addition, all the settling defendants will be required to cooperate with the FTC in ongoing law enforcement actions.
When there are admissible facts evidencing egregious conduct, ACA supports law enforcement and regulators’ efforts to target bad actors, stop illegitimate debt collection activity and safeguard consumer rights by removing known violators from the financial marketplace.
ACA will continue to work with the FTC and other regulators to help them understand the complex issues that legitimate debt collectors face. ACA takes pride in its frequent and varied industry compliance educational services and offerings in support of the overwhelming majority of legitimate debt collectors who operate lawfully, take consumer protection seriously and play a unique and much-needed role in our credit-based economy.