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CFPB bans scammers and orders them to pay $11M+

The CFPB announced Wednesday it had finalized an enforcement action against debt-relief payment-processors RAM Payment and Account Management Systems (AMS), as well as AMS’s co-founders, Gregory Winters and Stephen Chaya, for collecting debt-relief fees from consumers, lying to consumers about when the fees would be paid to debt-relief companies, and sending illegal advance fees to debt-relief companies before they were legally allowed to do so. The Bureau also said AMS failed to return funds to consumers who cancelled student-loan debt relief agreements, as required by law. The CFPB is ordering RAM Payment, AMS, Winters, and Chaya to pay more than $11 million in consumer redress and civil money penalties.

Knoxville, Tennessee-based AMS and RAM Payment provided account maintenance and payment-processing services to about 270,000 consumers across the U.S. who were enrolled in debt relief programs. Winters and Chaya co-founded AMS. RAM Payment acquired AMS in 2019. After the acquisition, Winters and Chaya continued to manage AMS and RAM Payment, and they exercised substantial control over the companies’ business practices.

Providers of account-maintenance and payment-processing services to debt-relief companies are supposed to be independent, third-party companies that hold fees until debt-relief companies are entitled to them under the law. The CFPB’s investigation found that the respondents violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Consumer Financial Protection Act. The respondents substantially assisted student-loan and traditional debt-relief companies in requesting or accepting advance fees for debt-relief services, misrepresented their payment-processing actions to consumers before disbursing fees to student-loan debt-relief companies, and unfairly disbursed unearned fees for student-loan debt-relief services after consumers had unenrolled from or canceled the services.

Additionally, Winters and Chaya sought to enrich themselves through illegal relationships with an affiliated financing company and debt-relief companies. Winters and Chaya owned a financing company, Account Connect Limited (ACL). For certain debt-relief companies, ACL advanced about 65% of the fees that the companies expected to receive from consumers. ACL recouped these advances from payments consumers made into accounts maintained by AMS and RAM Payment. The respondents deceived consumers by failing to disclose this conflict-of-interest between the respondents and ACL. Instead, the respondents falsely represented that AMS and RAM Payment provided services as independent third-party companies. They also illegally kept money held in consumers’ accounts when consumers cancelled or unenrolled from ACL-funded student-loan debt-relief services with companies.

The CFPB's consent order:

  • Requires the respondents to refund $8.7 million to consumers enrolled in student-loan debt-relief services
  • Issues industry bans against AMS, Winters, and Chaya and requires RAM Payment to stop providing services to both student-loan debt-relief companies and debt-relief companies receiving funding from or owned by an affiliated company, stop paying commissions to third-party marketing companies for consumer referrals, and consent to the CFPB’s supervisory authority.
  • Requires the respondents to pay a $3 million fine
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