Recently, the CFPB announced that it entered a stipulated final judgment and order with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts against a national credit-repair company and its owner in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, barring the company and its owner from the credit-repair and debt-relief industry for 25 years. The action followed allegations by the CFPB and Massachusetts that the company and its owner violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the CFPA by charging consumers advance fees for credit-repair services and making deceptive claims about their results. As previously covered by InfoBytes, the court in September 2024 granted the CFPB’s motion for summary judgment and imposed $31.7 million in fees and $9.6 million in civil money penalties per defendant.

Subsequently, the parties proposed, and the court entered, this stipulated judgment and final order to resolve the scope of monetary and injunctive relief. The judgment included $36,229,618 in consumer redress for fees collected since 2013, but the full amount was suspended based on the defendants’ limited ability to pay, requiring only $20,000 in partial satisfaction. The order also imposed a $1 civil money penalty, enabling the CFPB to access its civil penalty fund for consumer redress. Among other requirements, the settlement included robust compliance, reporting, and recordkeeping measures for the company, as well as a prohibition on using or benefitting from customer information.