NY Attorney General Shuts Down Collection Agencies; Subpoenas 20 Others

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Wednesday announced that his office had closed a collection agency in the state and said that nearly 20 other accounts receivable management firms had been subpoenaed to provide additional information about their collection practices.

The announcements were part of what Cuomo called a “statewide inquiry into debt collection companies.”

Cuomo’s office said in a press release that it had obtained a court order against Lamont Cooper and two debt collection firms he owns that operated in the state: Emanee Development, Inc. and Dial Tech LLC. The order stipulates that the companies will shut down and Cooper will be forced to pay restitution to consumers statewide. Cooper and his companies are permanently barred from engaging in the debt collection business and acting as brokers that buy and resell portfolios of consumer debt.

The attorney general alleged that Cooper’s companies told debtors that they were criminals, threatened lawsuits and arrest, engaged in third party disclosure, and other violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

“At a time when New York families are already struggling with unprecedented levels of debt, unscrupulous collection agencies add salt to an open wound,” said Attorney General Cuomo in a press release. “Using fear and intimidation to take advantage of individuals facing debt is a shameful and illegal scare tactic. This judgment is the first step in this Office’s expanding investigation into debt collectors that violate the rights of consumers and operate outside of the law.”

Cuomo also said that he has subpoenaed nearly 20 companies and law firms operating as debt collectors throughout the state. The subpoenas included requests designed to discover the policies and procedures the debt collectors have implemented to comply with federal and state laws, how the companies respond to complaints about their collection practices, as well as how individual collectors are compensated.

An executive from one collection agency that was named by Cuomo’s office as having received a subpoena told insideARM that due to the size of the company, it receives requests from regulators fairly often. “From time to time, we get regulatory requests concerning investigations, and we comply with them,” he said. He declined to comment specifically on Cuomo’s subpoena.

Cuomo said that the probe of debt collection practices will include activities that are illegal under state and federal law, including fraudulent threats of criminal prosecution, harassing phone calls to consumers and their families, friends and employers, bringing lawsuits against and/or reporting consumers to credit reporting agencies without verifying that the consumer being targeted actually owes the debt, and failing to disclose that a caller is working for a debt collector.