The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, under Trump appointee Mick Mulvaney has virtually abandoned it’s consumer protection role. N
ever has that been more apparent than the agency fining Mark Corbett, the man behind a number of pension assignment scam companies, the whopping sum of $1.00. That’s one whole dollar.
With the neutering of the CFPB, it is clear that the Trump administration thinks that pensioners, including military pensioners, should just be money donors to all fast-talking scam operators.
If you find yourself the victim of a pension assignment scam, feel free to call my office. We may be able to help you if you are a pensioner who has assigned a piece of your pension. If you invested in a pension obligation, we MIGHT be able to help you, but it is a tougher case. Once the scammers have implemented their exit strategy, we really have to look at intermediaries, like the life insurance agents who sell the pension annuity, because these obligations generally are illegal securities.
When looking up stuff for this post, I found a complaint from a lawsuit filed in 2017 in USDC South Carolina, Lyons et al vs BAIC, Inc., et al, 6:17-cv-02362-MGL. (A Pacer.gov search showed that this case is still open, with 149 documents having been filed in the case so far.) I found a number of things interesting in this complaint. First, one of the atttorneys for the plaintiff works for the Jones Day lawfirm. This is a big law firm that consumer advocate attoneys usually see on the other side of their cases, because Jones Day represents credit reporting agencies and other corporate defendants. Secondly, the group of defendants they sued – listed below.
BAIC, Inc., VFG, Inc, (f/k/a Voyager Financial Group), SoBell Ridge Corp., Bradling Financial Group, Veterans Benefit Leverage, Strategic Marketing Innovators, Inc., Performance Arbitrage Company, , Andrew Gamber, Mark Corbett, Candy KernFuller, and Upstate Law Group, I filed a suit in 2015 against Upstate Law Group, LLC on behalf of a client in 2015 based on their collection activities on behalf of a buyer of a pension security. At that time the firm’s defense was based on the isolated nature of this collection effort. I didn’t give that argument much credence then, and I would give it none today.
If you get any collection correspondence from Upstate Law Group, LLC on behalf of any pension assignee, please call my office. We may be able to help you bring an action for damages even if you don’t pay them any money.