JPL Recovery Solutions, LLC; Check Security Associates, LLC (dba Warner Location Services, Pinnacle Location Services, and Orchard Payment Processing Systems); ROC Asset Solutions LLC (dba API Recovery Solutions and Northern Information Services); Regency One Capital LLC; Keystone Recovery Group, LLC; Bluestreet Asset Partners, Inc.; Christopher L. Di Re; Scott A. Croce; Brian J. Koziel; Marc D. Gracie; and Susan A. Croce
On September 8, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau), in partnership with the New York Attorney General, filed suit in the federal district court for the Western District of New York against a network of five different companies based outside of Buffalo, New York, two of their owners, and two of their managers, for their participation in a debt-collection operation using illegal methods to collect debts. As set forth in the amended complaint filed on December 20, 2021, the company defendants are: JPL Recovery Solutions, LLC; Regency One Capital LLC; ROC Asset Solutions LLC, which does business as API Recovery Solutions; Check Security Associates LLC, which does business as Warner Location Services and Orchard Payment Processing Systems; Keystone Recovery Group; and Blue Street Asset Partners, Inc. The individual defendants are Christopher Di Re, Scott Croce, and Susan Croce, who have held ownership interests in some or all of the defendant companies, and Brian Koziel and Marc Gracie, who are members of Keystone Recovery Group, and have acted as managers of some or all of the defendant companies. Susan Croce is also a relief defendant. The complaint alleged that from at least 2015 through the present, the defendants have participated in a debt-collection operation that has used deceptive, harassing, and improper methods to induce consumers to make payments to them in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010.
On May 25, 2022, the court entered a stipulated judgment which requires the defendants to pay $4 million in civil money penalties split between the Bureau and New York, which increases to $5 million if they fail to make timely payment. The judgment also permanently bans them from being debt collectors and prohibits them from engaging in deceptive practices in connection with consumer financial products or services.
Related documents
Stipulated Final Judgment and Order
Press release
CFPB and New York Attorney General Shut Down Debt Collection Ring