Just Mail Checks To Poor People – The Newest Predatory Lending Trap

Tim Geithner is in charge of a company called Mariner. They are predatory, ugly predatory lenders. Tim Geithner, you might remember, was in charge of our money under the Obama administration. The predatory lending story has been outrageous. Ring of Fire’s Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss this issue.

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Tim Geithner is in charge of a company called Mariner. They are predatory, ugly predatory lenders. Tim Geithner, you might remember, was in charge of our money under the Obama administration. The predatory lending story has been outrageous. Fortunately, I'm here with Farron Cousins, who has followed this story more than anybody I know. It's an outrageous story. Tell us how predatory lending works, first of all. Then tell us how this DNC sweetheart, okay, DNC sweetheart Tim Geithner, pals with Larry Summers, who is also kind of a DNC sweetheart. How is he now one of the predatory jackals, I'll call him? It's really what he is. He's a-

Not only has Geithner become one of the jackals, he has revolutionized these predatory payday lending scams because, rather than set up these rundown offices in the poorest parts of neighborhoods like the cash advance, things like that that we've seen in the past with predatory lenders, he has tried to make it into more of an upscale venture. He gives out larger loans, higher interest rates, but larger loans for more money. Now what he and Mariner are doing, which they now have 450 branches in 22 different states, they're just ... and I wish there was a more sophisticated way to say this, but there's not. They're just mailing checks to poor people hoping that the poor people cash the check so that they can catch them, and now they've got them in this loan that this person may not have known. Plenty of times-

Okay. Now, wait, wait. Farron, that sounds so incredible, but it's the truth.

Yeah.

Again, the poor person doesn't ask for the check.

Right.

They do background checks. They see, sometimes, that the person may have equity in their home. They do all their homework, but the person is living subsistence existence, barely making payments, barely staying alive, and the Tim Geithner crew ... Tim Geithner, Obama's financial guy, now says, "Well, I got a good idea. We're going to mail them a check, and if they cash it, we got them." Isn't that it?

Here's what they do as well. This is part of the scheme. They go through, they look through hospital billing databases, they look through any kind of car repair database, anywhere where you've given your name and phone number, things like that. They can see who gets popped with a big bill.

You just had a surgery. Your insurance covered most of it, but now you have a hospital bill for $5,000. Couple days later, a $5,000 check shows up, and you say, "Okay, well, I could really use this right now to pay this and be done with it before that goes to collections." They also work with collection agencies to find out who owes what, so it is very targeted. It is very sophisticated. These checks do not come with very much explanation, a little bit of fine print that nobody reads. They think, "Oh, well, this is a good thing. I'm probably 5% interest, better than a credit card." Reality, almost 40% interest on these things, and they lock them in, and then-

Yeah. As a matter of fact, let me just tell you something. Finally, the king of predatory lending went to prison, one of the kings. Now there's so many out there right now. Now the new king is Tim Geithner. Okay? This is the DNC golden boy who is now running this pathetic, ugly scam.

Let me back up just a second. Before they send the check, they have abilities to find out everything they want to about you. They can find out where do you shop? What do you buy? Who do you owe money to? Are you behind on your rent? Are you behind on your house payment? They do all of that, and they target. They have a matrix that targets this is the right person. This person hits all of the matrix just right. It's like throwing a dart and hitting bull's eye. You're a bull's eye. You owe the hospital $5,000. You can't pay it. You get a $5,000 check, and they've got you for the rest of your life.