Midland Funding in Minnesota. Check this out!

[rc1078]

hahahah!!!

http://www.startribune.com/business/183225761.html

One of the country's largest debt collection businesses has agreed to overhaul its practices and pay the state of Minnesota $500,000 to settle the state's claims that it robo-signed paperwork in its collection lawsuits without verifying, or even including, basic facts and signatures.

Midland Funding LLC, a San Diego company with offices in St. Cloud, must now verify the debt it's trying to collect and the identity of who owes it, and show that information to people before the company sues them to collect.

Also in the package of changes it agreed to: it will resolve outstanding and future consumer complaints made to the state Attorney General's office, ensure that it isn't trying to collect old "zombie debt" that's beyond the statute of limitations and change the way it serves lawsuits to ensure people know they are being sued.

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson announced the consent judgement Wednesday at a Capitol news conference. Swanson, who sued Midland over the problems last year in Hennepin County District Court, was flanked by several Minnesotans who related disturbing tales of Midland hounding them for debts they didn't owe.

Ka Yang, 32, of St. Paul, said she finally managed to get back the $9,000 Midland took from her bank account over someone else's Visa credit card debt, but only after paying $2,000 to hire a lawyer. Yang said she was speaking out in hopes of preventing more people from going through the same thing. "I'm really angry," Yang said.

Midland signed the settlement without admitting wrongdoing. The company is owned by San Diego-based Encore Capital Group, a publicly traded debt buyer and collector that Fortune magazine has named to its "100 Fastest Growing Companies" list for the last two years. A company spokeswoman said Wednesday that Midland is working on a statement.

Midland is one the state's biggest filers of lawsuits, Swanson said, filing 15,000 cases against Minnesotans since 2008. She described an out-of-control business operation lacking even basic procedures for checking information.

Such problems are prevalent in the fast-growing debt-collection industry, she said. But she said her lawsuit last year was the first government lawsuit in the country against a debt buyer.

"This is a real problem area," Swanson told reporters. "I hope others will take a look at this."

Swanson said her office has a number of pending investigations into other debt collection operations, she said, that will likely result in more enforcement actions. She also plans to ask state lawmakers to strengthen the state's weak consumer protections regarding debt collection.

"Minnesota has some of the most lopsided creditor laws in the country when it comes to collecting debts," she said.

[sphinx313]

SCORE! Screw you Midland!