Debt Collection Business Allegedly Operated…From Prison!

Lamont Cooper has been charged with allegedly operating his Buffalo-based debt collection agency while incarcerated in federal prison on unrelated charges. Cooper was previously barred by court order from the debt collection industry in 2009 after New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office determined that his operation regularly used threats and intimidation against consumers. 

According to the felony complaint, Cooper continued to operate CMC Recovery Services, Inc., d/b/a Legal Action Recovery, in violation of a May 2009 court order barring him from the business. Cooper and CMC Recovery Services were charged in Buffalo City Court with Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree (class E felony) and Cooper was charged with Criminal Contempt in the Second Degree (class A misdemeanor).
 
According to the felony complaint, consumers have complained that Cooper’s employees continue to engage in the debt collection business despite the court order barring the practice. The complaint also alleges that Cooper’s collectors continue to routinely pose as law enforcement officials and threaten to arrest consumers and throw them in jail unless they made arrangements to pay the company immediately.
 
The complaint alleges that Cooper’s involvement in the scheme continued even after he was taken into federal custody in October 2009 for being found in violation of the terms of his release from a 1997 drug conviction. An investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies included the monitoring of his correspondence during his incarceration at a federal detention facility in Batavia. According to Cuomo, the surveillance determined that Cooper was still actively involved in the debt collection business, including instructing employees on how to manage accounts and personnel matters, and requesting that he be kept abreast of “all banking activity.”

According to the government: Legal Action Recovery collectors regularly demanded payment for non-existent debts and demanded payments for debts that had already passed the statute of limitations or were discharged in bankruptcy. Using false law enforcement identities, collectors coerced and cajoled terrified victims into agreeing to make payments. Frightened at the prospect of arrest and humiliation, many victims were asked to pay by credit/debit card, authorize withdrawals from their checking accounts, and/or send Western Union money grams.
 
Cooper will be arraigned on the charges once he is returned from federal custody.