The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge yesterday filed a lawsuit in federal district court in the District of South Carolina against Candy Kern-Fuller, Howard Sutter III, and Upstate Law Group LLC, according to a CFPB press release. The CFPB alleges that the defendants worked with a series of companies that brokered contracts offering high-interest credit to consumers, primarily disabled veterans, and violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act’s prohibition against deceptive acts or practices and against providing substantial assistance to deceptive and unfair acts or practices of others. Yesterday’s action builds on a number of recent Bureau actions against other entities that used similar contracts and similar marketing tactics in offering high-interest credit to veterans. In January 2019, the Bureau settled with Mark Corbett. In August 2019, in partnership with Arkansas, the Bureau settled with Andrew Gamber; Voyager Financial Group, LLC; BAIC, Inc.; and SoBell Corp. In October 2019, in partnership with South Carolina, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against Katharine Snyder and her companies, Performance Arbitrage Company, Inc. and Life Funding Options, Inc. Corbett worked with both Gamber and Snyder, and their respective companies, to broker contracts offering high-interest credit.
