FTC-PR-240206-2
Date Released: 
February 6, 2024
Headline:
FTC-PR-240206-2 – FTC Action Leads to Permanent Ban for Scammers Who Charged Students Seeking Debt Relief with Junk Fees Order requires defendants to turn over personal and business assets
Excerpt:
A group of student loan debt relief scammers will be permanently banned from the debt relief industry and is required to turn over their assets as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
According to the FTC’s August 2023 complaint, since at least 2019, Express Enrollment LLC (also doing business as SLFD Processing), Intercontinental Solutions LLC (also doing business as Apex Doc Processing LLC), and their operators Marco Manzi, Ivan Esquivel, and Robert Kissinger falsely claimed to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education and used “Biden Loan Forgiveness” or some similar name, which consumers have understood to refer to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Student Loan Debt Relief Plan, to lure students into signing up for their phony student debt relief scheme. The FTC charged that the scheme’s operators collected approximately $8.8 million in junk fees in exchange for student loan debt relief services that did not exist. The defendants also used these misrepresentations to illegally obtain consumers’ bank account, debit card, or credit card information, and typically collect hundreds of dollars in unlawful advance fees—sometimes through remotely created checks in violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, according to the FTC’s complaint.
A federal court temporarily halted the operations and froze the assets of Apex Processing Center and its owners after the FTC filed the complaint to end the deceptive practices.
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/02/ftc-action-leads-permanent-ban-scammers-who-charged-students-seeking-debt-relief-junk-fees
[Date Accessed: 3/5/2024]
Please Contact ⊗ the administrator if you find any non-working links on this page.