WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission said it has stopped scammers who the agency says facilitated an operation that preyed on students seeking debt relief.
The agency has charged the defendants for pretending to be affiliated with the Department of Education, using deceptive loan forgiveness promises, and falsely claiming they were offering relief under the “Biden Loan Forgiveness” plan to lure students and collect millions in illegal upfront fees.
According to the complaint, since at least 2019 California-based companies Express Enrollment, LLC (also doing business as SLFD Processing) and Intercontinental Solutions LLC (also doing business as Apex Doc Processing LLC), operated by Marco Manzi, Ivan Esquivel, and Robert Kissinger, have targeted students seeking debt relief and collected approximately $8.8 million in illegal advance fees in exchange for student loan debt relief services that did not exist.
False Promises
The FTC said it charges that the defendants falsely promised to lower or eliminate students’ loan payments, pretended to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education, and convinced students to stop communicating with their federal loan servicers.
“The defendants have told consumers that they must pay a fee for services that are available for free through the U.S. Department of Education, including that consumers must pay a fee, or make purported loan payments, to obtain federal student loan forgiveness under the Biden Loan Forgiveness or some similar name (which consumers have understood to refer to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Student Loan Debt Relief Plan),” the FTC said. “For example, one consumer was told that ‘Because I received a Pell Grant, my student loans would be forgiven up to $20,000, if I paid a processing fee of $375.’ Another consumer was told that ‘under the student loan forgiveness program my student loan balance would be reduced by $10,000 and I would begin a new loan repayment plan starting with six monthly payments of $250’.”
Additional Allegations
The complaint also notes that the defendants used these misrepresentations to illegally obtain consumers’ bank account, debit card, or credit card information, and typically collect hundreds of dollars in unlawful advance fees—sometimes through remotely created checks in violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR).
Court Takes Action
The FTC charges that the defendants have violated Section 5 of the FTC Act, the TSR, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
After the FTC filed a complaint seeking to end the deceptive practices, a federal court temporarily halted the operations and froze the assets of Apex Processing Center and its owners, the FTC noted.
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