Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Takes First Legal Case

Debt settlement company indicted

Federal authorities announced fraud charges against a debt settlement company on Tuesday, in the first criminal case based on work by the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

A newly unsealed indictment filed in District Court in Manhattan charged Mission Settlement Agency and four individuals with mail and wire fraud over a scheme that prosecutors said victimized more than 1,200 people across the United States.

Manhattan Attorney Preet Bharara suggested the case would not be the only one arising out of ongoing investigations related to the debt settlement industry. Based on the results so far, "our concern is that predatory practices pervade the industry," he said.