NY Attorney General Arrests Buffalo Collection Agency Owner; Shuts Down Operations

At a press conferenceTuesday in Buffalo, N.Y., New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that his office has shut down a debt collection operation in Western New York that included at least nine collection agencies owned by Tobias Boyland.

Cuomo said that his office executed search warrants on four of Boyland’s businesses and his residence early Tuesday morning. When investigators executed the warrant at Boyland’s home, they found a loaded gun, prompting the Erie County Sheriff to take him into custody. Boyland is a convicted felon and may face additional weapons charges in Erie County.

Boyland’s operation was featured heavily in a Dateline NBC segment that aired in March. Cuomo noted that a Dateline crew was present at one of the offices raided Tuesday.

The attorney general’s office alleged that Boyland’s operation harassed and intimidated consumers into paying old debts by threatening jail time as posing as police officers and worse.

According to Mitra Hormozi, special deputy chief of staff to the attorney general, “These are some of the worst tactics we’ve seen.”

"Plain and simple, this company was run by people who lied, bullied and preyed on vulnerable Americans struggling to resolve their financial situation," said Cuomo in a statement. "Pretending to be a police officer, threatening to throw consumers in jail – these practices are as despicable as they are illegal. My Office will continue to relentlessly root out these kinds of tactics and shut down unscrupulous companies that violate the rights of consumers across New York and the entire nation."

Cuomo said that Boyland’s debt collection operations in the Buffalo area had been shut down, including offices operating under the names Central Resource Management, Final Claims Asset Locators, Final Control Asset Locators, Interchange Payment Solutions, Next Step Services, Portfolio Asset Assurance, Silverbay Services, and Teleport.

In addition, three others – two with criminal records – connected to Boyland were named in the suit.

The office of the attorney general announced in May that it had shut down two collection agencies and subpoenaed 20 others in what it called a “statewide inquiry into debt collection companies.” (“NY Attorney General Shuts Down Collection Agencies; Subpoenas 20 Others,” May 28) Less than a week later, the office said that it had settled with three more collection agencies under investigation (“NY Attorney General Settles with Three Collection Agencies for $245,000 Total,” June 3).

In the June announcement, Cuomo said that his office will “continue to investigate the myriad deceptive practices that debt collection companies, debt settlement companies and others employ as a means to exploit consumers who are already down on their luck.”