The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) and the Office of the Arkansas Attorney General yesterday filed a proposed settlement with Andrew Gamber; Voyager Financial Group, LLC; BAIC, Inc.; and SoBell Corp. The companies, owned and operated by Gamber, were brokers of contracts offering high-interest credit to veterans, many of whom are disabled, and to other consumers, according to a CFPB press release. Under the proposed settlement, Gamber and the companies will be banned from the industry and a judgment requiring redress, a civil money penalty, and a payment to the State of Arkansas will be entered against them. The Bureau and the Arkansas Attorney General alleged that Gamber and his companies misrepresented to consumers that the contracts the companies facilitate are valid and enforceable when, in fact, the contracts are void under federal and state law; misrepresented to consumers that the product is a sale of payments and not a high-interest credit offer; misrepresented to consumers when they will receive their funds; and failed to inform consumers of the applicable interest rate on the credit offer. Under the proposed settlement, Gamber and the companies are permanently banned from brokering, offering, or arranging agreements between pension recipients and third parties under which the consumer purports to sell a future right to an income stream from the consumer’s pension. The proposed settlement would also impose a judgment for redress of $2.7 million, a civil money penalty of $1 to the Bureau, and a payment of $75,000 to the Arkansas Attorney General’s Consumer Education and Enforcement Fund in lieu of a civil money penalty to the State of Arkansas.
