united-states criminal-law contract-law finance loan-guarantee
Trying to find a payday loan scam contract
<p>I read about one of the largest payday loan scammers in the United States of America being caught and eventually found guilty. The case was interesting because the company tried to avoid state law by incorporating on an Indian Reserve, theoretically meaning they would only have to comply with Federal law. Although, this did not help them in court.</p>
<p>I was hoping, given the publicity, someone could point me to a source because I have since lost the article. In particular, I am interested in reading the misleading contract that clients signed when taking out the payday loan, which caused them to repay more money than they had initially thought.</p>

<p>Could it be American Web Loan?</p>
<p>“American Web Loan claimed it could charge sky-high rates because it was owned by a Native tribe, the Otoe-Missouria. The tribe’s sovereign status meant that the business would have immunity against state usury laws and civil suits. However, a judge ruled that American Web Loan had no claims to tribal sovereignty because it actually belonged to the tribe’s business partner, Mark Curry, who’s made a career out of predatory lending.”</p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/31/payday-lender-native-american-tribe-american-web-loan/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://theintercept.com/2021/05/31/payday-lender-native-american-tribe-american-web-loan/</a></p>

<p>A Google search using <em>payday loan scams in &quot;usa&quot; &quot;first nation&quot;</em> gave me this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Charles Hallinan</strong> nicknamed &quot;The Godfather of Payday Lending&quot; is a convicted felon and the former Owner of several Online payday lending companies. Halliman's companies charged yearly interest rates and fees as high as 1,825% and got $690 million in revenue starting from 1997 and 2013. In July 2018, Hallinan was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for evading state regulations against usury by using Native American tribes and a bank as fronts. He was convicted on several charges relating to racketeering and conspiracy. [<em>Source</em>: <a href="https://everipedia.org/wiki/lang_en/charles-hallinan" rel="nofollow noreferrer">everipedia</a>]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the &quot;media&quot; section of the above everipedia article is this image entitled: <em>One loan highlighted by prosecutors carried periodic fees that amounted to an annual interest rate of 1,825 percent</em></p>
<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/kJE9j.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/kJE9j.jpg" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>For completeness, Hallinan and his co-accused Neff lost their appeals to conviction and sentence:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5d7766d2342cca3e584eeac7" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5d7766d2342cca3e584eeac7</a></p>
