From the desk of lead San Francisco Attorney Alison Cordova:
The New York Times just ran an expose on Aaron Siegel, the owner of Franklin Asset Management, i.e. one of the largest debt collection CEO’s in the country. The story is quite tumultuous. Siegel started as a respectable banker on Wall Street, and then continues as a wealth advisor back in his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., before taking a turn to the wild side. Once he decided to invest in the debt collection world, he quickly found himself among ex-cons, firearms, and knifes — you name it. As the NY Times says “it was a hustle.”
The story is quite interesting, and as the author points out, Siegel has made millions of dollars. But he has done it oftentimes by collecting from people who don’t know the debt has already been removed from their credit report or is past the deadline for a legal lawsuit, i.e. the debt is of no concern to the consumer. However, legally, Siegel is allowed to still try to collect funds.
At the end of the day, as Siegel’s right hand man says, “If you don’t give [debt collectors] a little bit of fear, right — if it’s just the law, if it’s just the attorney general, if it’s just a civil suit — they could care less.” Basically, the debt collection industry is the Wild West — a hustle — and unfortunately, the debt collectors can be quite unscrupulous.
Read more here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/15/magazine/bad-paper-debt-collector.html?_r=2
In this dark underbelly of the finance world where everything is a hustle, you need a lawyer at your side who isn’t scared and can represent you when the debt collectors come a knockin’. Contact a qualified debt settlement attorney.