On March 30, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia held five parties in civil contempt for violating an amended final judgment in a case brought by the CFPB, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia (covered by InfoBytes here). The court found that two companies, a newly formed corporate purchaser, and two associated individuals that collectively provided immigration bond products or services had knowingly violated the judgment’s injunctive provisions when they executed a sale of virtually all corporate assets on April 17, 2024, including customer information, accounts receivable, client lists, and contract-collection rights, shortly after the court entered an approximate $811 million judgment against them. The court denied the contempt motion as to one individual defendant, finding insufficient evidence of his involvement in the sale.

The amended final judgment, which the 4th Circuit affirmed in October 2025 (covered by InfoBytes here), barred the defendants and anyone acting in concert with them from benefiting from customer information obtained in connection with immigration bond services and from attempting to sell, assign or transfer any right to collect payment from consumers.

The court found the alleged violation was “knowing,” reasoning the defendants moved to stay enforcement of the judgment because they understood its injunctive provisions would prohibit a sale but then executed the asset purchase agreement six days later without waiting for the court to rule. The court rejected every defense raised, including the argument that a “savings clause” in the purchase agreement kept the sale in compliance and that the judgment was too vague to support contempt. As a remedy, the court voided provisions of the sale that violated the judgment, ordered the parties to unwind any performance of those provisions, and directed the purchaser to destroy any covered customer information, cease collecting on any covered contracts, and disgorge to consumers any money collected. The court set an April 17 compliance deadline and warned it could impose additional sanctions, including daily fines, if the parties fail to comply.