Judge orders bond company to pay $811 million for defrauding migrants

Source: Washington Post

LEGAL ISSUES
Judge orders bond company to pay $811 million for defrauding migrants

By Salvador Rizzo
Updated April 2, 2024 at 4:45 p.m. EDT * Published April 2, 2024 at 2:27 p.m. EDT

A Virginia company that posts bonds for jailed immigrants facing deportation has been ordered to pay more than $800 million in restitution and penalties for fraudulent practices such as getting Spanish-speaking clients to sign English-language contracts that they didn’t fully understand and requiring them to pay $420 a month for GPS ankle monitors.

The company, Libre by Nexus, based in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, also threatened legal action against clients who didn’t pay the company’s fees, saying that their accounts would be sold to collection agencies and that they would be referred for deportation, according to the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York and Virginia.

In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon in Roanoke ordered the company and its principals to pay more than $811 million. The judge found that the company owed the consumer protection bureau $231 million in restitution, of which Virginia is seeking $14 million, Massachusetts $3.3 million and New York $13.7 million to reimburse the company’s clients. The rest is owed in civil penalties, including more than $555 million to the consumer protection bureau, according to court documents.

Legal experts said the company could face bankruptcy, considering the whopping size of the monetary judgments. Libre chief executive Mike Donovan blasted the judge’s “offensive” ruling and said the company would appeal. ... “We continue to remain committed to serving our clients — people who suffer and sacrifice for a better life, and who do not deserve to be political pawns in an American legislature or an American courtroom,” Donovan said in a statement.

{snip}

By Salvador Rizzo
Salvador Rizzo covers crime and courts for The Washington Post. He was a reporter for The Fact Checker from 2018 to 2021 and previously covered New Jersey politics. Twitter https://twitter.com/rizzoTK

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/04/02/migrants-bond-fraud-judgement-penalties/