In October 2017, Scott Tucker was criminally convicted for his billion-dollar payday loan business. On Friday, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. (Tucker’s attorney, Tim Muir, received 7 years.)

“As a unanimous jury found today, Scott Tucker and Timothy Muir targeted and exploited millions of struggling, everyday Americans by charging them illegally high interest rates on payday loans, as much as 700 percent,” Joon H. Kim, acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney, said in a statement. “Tucker and Muir sought to get away with their crimes by claiming that this $2 billion payday loan business was actually owned and operated by Native American tribes. Scott and his lawyer attempted to portray their Kansas City based AMG services as Native American owned; thereby having sovereign immunity. The jury disagreed.

Scott Tucker Payday Loan Business – Tribe Lenders

A lawyer for Tucker told said Scott  Tucker intends to appeal. Tucker is also appealing the $1.3 billion fine leveled against him last year by the Federal Trade Commission.

Meanwhile, Tucker is off to prison for 16 years!

The fact is, Scott Tucker’s payday loan business had thousands of returning borrowers! Why? Because they preferred Scott’s online payday loan product to the few options they had for borrowing a few hundred bucks without a hassle.

It’s true that Tucker employed MANY “tricks” and disclosure failures during the course of his customer’s online borrowing transaction. Too bad! Lenders don’t really have to do this. A lender can reveal ALL the costs, terms and transaction details BEFORE the potential borrower actually “signs on the dotted line” and still build a multi-million dollar loan portfolio. Many publicly traded and privately held companies are achieving this as I type here.

Tribal ownership? It appears that Scott Tucker and Timothy Muir accomplished this “after the barn doors were opened!” Their handling of this arrangement appears to have resulted in their mortal death. (They should have consulted with an experienced tribal chairman/manager like Allen Parker at Consultants4Tribes.com!)

Regarding the payday loan product offering itself, the media ALWAYS fails to disclose that there is more to the 700% interest rate they ALWAYS refer to than first meets the eye. This is an annualized interest rate required to be disclosed by the lender to a customer by the FED’s. By now, everyone knows that these loans aren’t meant to be rolled over every 2 weeks for years! They are scheduled to be paid off on the borrower’s next payday. You borrow $300 and payback $345. No big deal IF you have zero options and you want  a fast loan!

Scott Tucker screwed up! But of course, that’s easy for the rest of us to conclude having the benefit of hindsight! Tucker was a maverick; blazing new trails. As he says in the Netflix “Dirty Money,” Episode 2 treatise on his business, “There was no road map.”

By: Jer Ayles at Trihouse Consulting. 702-208-6736

There’s an interesting “Conversation” written by Matthew Fletcher Professor of Law & Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, Michigan State University.

His thesis is that a negative outcome of a personal injury case under review by the Supreme Court could expose Indian tribes to new legal risks and put their “sovereign immunity” status  in jeopardy.

Certainly, as a direct lender, a consultant to tribes and a conduit for capital infusions into tribal business enterprises, this topic and it’s outcome are of great interest to both me and my clients.

So, first my thoughts followed by a link to Professor Fletcher.

So long as the sovereign tribe maintains a forum for litigants to bring suit and be fairly adjudicated, I see no issues here. It’s as if a limo driver employed by the French Embassy were in a similar circumstance. There are legal avenues for “forum shopping” lawyers in similar circumstances. Tribal businesses have access to insurance as do other entities and sovereign nations. Sovereign tribes do not intentionally shirk their responsibilities. However, having counseled and represented tribes in collaborations with online payday loan and installment loan management groups and capital infusions for several years, I have witnessed instances in which the resources of the tribes have been stretched. This “friction” is not due to a reluctance by the tribes to negotiate fair and reasonable alliances but rather a lack of experience in such business endeavors because Big Brother in D.C. denies, delays and inhibits their financial success. Success that would enable the tribe to fund their own businesses, build infrastructure including medical care, education, housing… and GET OFF THE GOVERNMENT TIT as they prefer to do!

Jer Trihouse

Finally, having equity in payday loan and installment loan stores plus my own capital at work via online lending portfolios and continuing to serve payday lenders, installment loan lenders, car title loan lenders, investors… in a consulting capacity, I certainly understand why there are those in our “micro-lending/alternative lending” industry who would like nothing better than for the tribe lending model to fall off the face of the earth. Why? Because state licensed lenders perceive an online tribal lender as having the advantage of zero regulatory, compliance, auditing, etc. oversite. Well, as President Trump often says,”WRONG!” I will not dwell on all the regulatory hoops and convolutions tribal lenders must comply with at this time but I assure you dear reader that THERE ARE MANY.

Ultimately, there is room in the business of lending money for all players and licensing models. Whether you’re a small mom-and-pop with a tiny portfolio and just a few core customers or a publicly traded behemoth like Enova, there is, and will continue to be, demand for your inventory: MONEY!

Zero lenders in the business of lending money to consumers and small business for the long-term will embrace the abuse of their customers. Zero lenders will risk the wrath of the FED’s, the State, their peers and MOST OF  ALL their friends and family members; their community.

Of course there are “outliers.” They exist in all industries including the media and in government. But eventually, as we have all witnessed during this LONG election cycle, Julian Assange will get the DOPE on the bad guys! And the results ain’t pretty!

So… on to Professor Fletcher and “The Conversation.”

Comment? Reach out! Help? Let me know! Haters? Bring it on… I’ve been at this awhile. Meanwhile, 2017 is proving to be ONE HELL OF AN OPPORTUNITY!

Signing off: Jer Trihouse. 702-208-6736

PayDay Loan Ruling: Connecticut Sovereign Nation Status

The state of Connecticut’s banking department must decide whether to appeal a ruling that appears to allow an Oklahoma Indian tribe to continue to offer payday loans in Connecticut. The Otoe Missouri Tribal Nation brought a lawsuit claiming tribal sovereignty protects it from Connecticut usury rate enforcement, after the Connecticut banking department determined the Otoe Missouri Tribal Nation had violated state loan laws. The Otoe Missouri Tribal Nation offres payday loan products having interest rates of more than 400 percent APR’s. However, a superior court judge has found in the tribe’s favor saying “its rights have been prejudiced.”

And the beat goes on…