Check Exchange Admits to Making More Than 3,000 Illegal Payday
Loans Over Seven-Month Period; California Department of Corporations
Moves Forward With Pending Civil Lawsuit Against Check Exchange
and Its Principal
Date: 2/7/2006
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb 07, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The California
Department of Corporations (Corporations) announced it has settled
administrative actions against Saverio Lanni, a resident of Los
Angeles, for making more than 3,000 payday loans without a state
license.
Operating under the fictitious business name Check Exchange, Lanni
violated the California Deferred Deposit Transaction Law by making
the payday loans during the period between January 2005 and August
2005 through four stores, two of which were located in Hemet, and
one each in Fontana and Lomita.
"Our department will vigorously pursue repeat violators who
flagrantly refuse to abide by laws designed to protect consumers,"
said acting Corporations Commissioner Wayne Strumpfer. "There
are dire consequences to their unlicensed activity."
In addition, in Check Exchange's license application to operate
as a payday lender, Lanni falsely claimed that he had never been
subject to an enforcement action in California and had never had
a business license revoked. However, in January 1980, the California
Department of Real Estate revoked Lanni's salesperson license.
As a result of the settlement agreement, Lanni has agreed to withdraw
his pending application for a license as a payday lender and agreed
not to challenge the desist-and-refrain order previously imposed
by Corporations, which orders Lanni not to engage in unlicensed
payday loan activity.
Furthermore, Corporations has obtained a preliminary injunction
against Check Exchange and Lanni and that action is still pending
in Los Angeles Superior Court. That action seeks a permanent injunction
against Check Exchange from operating without a license, and violating
the desist-and-refrain order, and also seeks to impose civil penalties.
The Department of Corporations is California's investment and
financing authority and is responsible for the regulation, enforcement,
and licensing of securities, franchises, off-exchange commodities,
investment and financial services, independent escrows, consumer
and commercial finance lending, residential mortgage lending, and
payday lenders. Contact our toll-free consumer resource center at
1-866-ASK-CORP (275-2677) for information or to obtain a consumer
complaint form. Please visit Corporations' Web site at www.corp.ca.gov.
SOURCE: California Department of Corporations
Back to Cash Advances >
|
