There is a pending lawsuit in Florida involving Global Credit Management Corporation. The lawsuit involves an employee who was fired from the company for refusing to partake in a mandatory credit collection program. This suit was initiated by the employee’s attorney, on behalf of himself and his client. In a nutshell, the attorney is challenging the legality of the corporation’s contract with Bank of America under which the employee was employed.
According to the lawsuit, the employee did not sign the contract because he opposed the credit collection plan and did not want to participate.
At the time, this suit says that the bank did not inform the employee that it was a credit-driven organization. The attorney further contends that this violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) which requires a consumer reporting agency to give notice and obtain consent before going into a contract with a person or entity on whose behalf the report was prepared. A separate law, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) requires that the reporting agencies inform the consumer that the service will be credit-based and if it is not credit-based, then they must provide the consumer a copy of the statement or a statement listing the provision for opting out of credit-based purchases.
The attorney is seeking damages based on the breach of fiduciary, that is, he believes that the officers of the company breached their duties of loyalty and the duties of good faith.
He also says that there was evidence that fraud was committed. This would indicate that Global Credit Management Corporation was not acting as a true credit collection agent but was fraudulently attempting to collect fees from its clients. As such, this lawsuit is considered to be a class-action suit. If the other parties involved in the suit are also seeking damages, that would add another class-action suit to the mix. This could be a very lucrative area of litigation, indeed.
Now, you may be thinking, “Well isn’t this just another lawsuit in a long series of lawsuits against Global Credit Management Corp? Surely this is just another case of the credit collection agencies taking advantage of people.” Again, you would be wrong. This lawsuit isn’t an ordinary lawsuit; this is an extraordinary lawsuit.
First, let’s discuss what the complaint states: Global Credit Management Corp, defendants herein, did not maintain proper records required by law; failed to obtain consent as required; provided inaccurate information; made false statements and did so repeatedly.
There is more. According to the complaint, the defendants fraudulently tried to force three clients to pay them over $500,000 based upon fraudulent information provided by the attorneys. One of those three clients actually settled with Global Credit Management Corp., thus admitting that they had paid GMC; yet, they are still owed the money they owe, with a notation stating that the debt cannot be collected.
The lawsuit further claims that GMC failed to provide any evidence of the validity of the debt or the amount of that debt, which they maintain is their sole property.
In fact, GMC never provided any proof of the ownership of the debt, thus rendering the company in violation of the FDCPA. They also further claim that they were not properly compensated during the process of debt collection. This means that the only way Global Credit Management Corp can collect from their customers is through legal action, which is what the lawsuit is all about.
If the above sounds frightening, it shouldn’t be. The fact that this particular case is being handled by an attorney who has previously represented credit collection agencies is comforting, to say the least. Attorneys who have represented credit agencies are not necessarily frauds; in fact, the attorney may have representation and experience in other areas, not related to the lawsuit. This is usually good because fraud attorneys deal in far more gray areas than they do white collar crime, such as the ones involved in the lawsuit. The defendant’s case is not going to trial; however, GMC may find themselves paying thousands of dollars to attorneys and their affiliates to fight the case, while they rake in the profits from the illegal activity.
So, you can see how this credit dispute fraud case has a much longer future than many people think.
Global Credit Management Corp could be sued for fraud even after they have been paid, yet again draining the company of their funds and possibly putting them out of business. If you were a victim of this type of deception you should contact a credit or debt relief lawyer as soon as possible. Don’t let another day to get away from you in regards to debt or credit repair.
