The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), along with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, North Carolina Department of Justice and the Los Angeles City Attorney, announced an action yesterday to halt a student loan debt-relief operation engaged in allegedly unlawful conduct and consisting of several related companies: Consumer Advocacy Center Inc., which does business as Premier Student Loan Center; True Count Staffing Inc., also known as SL Account Management; and Prime Consulting LLC, which is known as Financial Preparation Services. Defendants also include Albert Kim, Kaine Wen and Tuong Nguyen, whom the Bureau alleges substantially assisted the student loan debt-relief companies. The CFPB alleges that since at least 2015, the debt-relief companies operated as a common enterprise, deceived thousands of federal student loan borrowers, and charged over $71 million in unlawful advance fees in connection with the marketing and sale of student loan debt-relief services to consumers. The CFPB alleges that Premier, along with its company co-defendants, violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA) and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) by making deceptive representations about the companies’ student loan debt-relief and modification services. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Premier charged and collected improper advance fees before consumers had received any adjustment of their student loans or made any payment toward such adjusted loan.
