Illinois Consumer Files Suit Over Payday Lending “Rent-A-Tribe” Scheme

Predatory Loan Came with 664% Interest Rate

Law360 reports that a Chicago resident is seeking to strike back at alleged predatory lenders who used a Wisconsin tribe to skirt Illinois’ 36% rate cap on loans.

In a complaint filed Thursday in Illinois federal court, Tyanna Qualls took aim at a ring of LLCs — including LDF Holdings, Anong LLC and Availblue — purportedly owned by a Wisconsin tribe called the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. According to Qualls, the LLCs are no more tribal than their non-Native, out-of-state beneficiaries: Jesse Phillips Lorenzo, Mark Koetting, and debt collector Rick Gwynne.

Qualls, who took out a personal loan from Anong LLC over the internet last month at a disclosed annual interest rate of 664.77%, seeks to represent a class of Illinois borrowers who received loans from LDF, Anong and Availblue with interest rates higher than 36%.

The 664% interest rate is significantly higher than the maximum rate allowed under the recently-enacted Predatory Loan Prevention Act.

The Predatory Loan Prevention Act (SB 1792), would directly address long-standing inequities by prohibiting lenders from charging more than 36 percent APR (annual percentage rate) on consumer loans. High-cost, small-dollar loans heighten the racial wealth gap, and stopping high interest payday lending is a significant step toward immediate relief for…