Skip to main content
Menu Icon
Close

InfoBytes Blog

Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

Debt Collection Company President Fined $2 Million for FDCPA Violations

Courts Financial Crimes FDCPA Debt Collection FTC

Courts

On March 21, a U.S. district judge in the Eastern District of Texas ordered the president of a Texas-based third-party debt collector company (Defendant) to pay a $2 million civil penalty for FDCPA violations by company employees. U.S. v. Commercial Recovery Systems, Inc., No. 4:15-CV-00036, 2017 WL 1065137 (E.D. Tex. Mar. 21, 2017). The complaint, filed in 2015, alleges that Defendant had the authority to direct and control the employees’ actions and had personal knowledge that employees were “impersonating attorneys, attorneys’ staff and judicial employees; falsely threatening litigation; falsely threatening wage garnishments and asset seizures; and misrepresenting the character or legal status of debts under collection.” In his order, the judge notes that Defendant “admitted to hiring abusive collection managers and refused to fire them if they were effective,” acknowledged that the company had no formal FDCPA training program, and testified that the company had been driven into bankruptcy largely by FDCPA suits brought by private litigants. Such conduct, the judge reasoned, evidences a “lack of good faith.” The Court noted that theoretically the Defendant could have faced a civil penalty exceeding $4 billion if the estimated 109,643 violations were penalized at $40,000 each—the maximum penalty amount authorized by the FTC Act for “each instance of conduct that violates the FDCPA with actual or implied knowledge of the FDCPA.” In additional to the penalty, the Defendant must cease all debt collection activity.