WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission has alleged that a California-based student debt relief scheme bilked consumers out of millions of dollars using false promises that they could reduce their monthly payments, or eliminate or reduce their student loan debt.
A federal court temporarily halted the scheme and froze its assets at the request of the FTC, which seeks to end the deceptive practices, the agency stated.
Operators of the scheme, including Tuan Duong, who has allegedly been involved in other scams, falsely promoted a 96% success rate in reducing consumers’ student loan payments, according to the FTC’s complaint. “In fact, the consumers who purchased these services often did not receive any debt relief and lost hundreds of dollars,” the FTC said.
The complaint also alleges that the defendants charged consumers illegal upfront fees of $499 or more for these purported debt relief services.
The Struggling Are Victimized
“People struggling to repay their student loan debt are a favorite target for fraudsters,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “If anyone promises quick student loan forgiveness or asks you to pay in advance for help with your student debt, tell the FTC, because that’s a scam.”
In 2015, Duong was sued by the Commission as part of Operation Mis-Modification, a joint federal-state enforcement initiative against six fraudulent mortgage relief schemes. In 2016, the court granted the Commission’s motion for summary judgment against Duong. Under the final order entered by the Court, Duong was banned from advertising, marketing, or promoting debt relief services or misrepresenting any fact material to consumers relating to any product or service. The order also required Duong to pay more than $1.7 million in restitution, which Duong failed to pay, the FTC said.
The defendants in this case are three corporations: Impetus Enterprise, Inc. (also doing business as Aiding Student Relief, Aiding Students & Teachers, Aidnest, Avec Staffing, and National Education Student and Teacher); Fig Tree & Co., LLC (also doing business as Aiding Student Relief, Aiding Students & Teachers, and Aiding Student & Teacher) and relief defendant, Noel Solutions, LLC; and three individual defendants; Tuan Duong (also known as Thomas Duong and Thomas Dinh), Brenda Avitia-Pena, and Brian Colombana.