A limited liability company and four attorneys have settled an enforcement suit brought by federal regulators in 2014 over a foreclosure relief scam that the consumer financial protection agency said “charged millions of dollars in illegal advance fees” for services promised but not delivered.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said that under the settlement, the defendants – Consumer First Legal Group, LLC, and attorneys Thomas G. Macey, Jeffrey J. Aleman, Jason Searns, and Harold E. Stafford – will pay $10.9 million in consumer redress and a $1.1 million penalty into the CFPB’s victims relief fund. The individual defendants are covered by eight- or five-year bans from the mortgage assistance industry, under a district court’s original order, it said.
These parties were the subjects of a coordinated enforcement effort launched in 2014 by the CFPB, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and 15 states. The CFPB filed three lawsuits, the FTC filed six lawsuits, and the states took 32 actions, the bureau said.
The bureau said the settlement concludes the case.
CFPB Secures $12 Million From Ringleaders of Foreclosure Relief Scam