White, et al. v. Symetra Assigned Benefits Service Company, et al. United States District Court Western District of Washington Case No. 20-cv-01866 The Court appointed attorneys Edward Stone of Edward Stone Law PC, Alison Chase, Gretchen Freemen Cappio, Lynn Lincoln Sarko, Adele Daniel and Sydney Read of Keller Rohrback LLP, Daniel Simons of Marcus & […]
On December 17, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settled its lengthy, five-year litigation with Access Funding, LLC, Access Holding, LLC, Reliance Funding, LLC, Lee Jundanian, Raffi Boghosian, Michael Brokowski, and Charles Smith for a paltry disgorgement of $40,000 and a $10,000 civil penalty. The settlement was approved by Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander, who took […]
On December 21, 2021, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh issued a press release announcing the indictment of three individuals in connection with the Access Funding structured settlement factoring scheme involving victims of lead paint poisoning. Raffi Michael Boghosian, Charles Edward Smith, and Anuj Sud were charged with Theft Scheme over $100,000 and Conspiracy to Commit […]
Kudos to a group of investigative journalists at the Minnesota Star Tribune for what is to be a four part series on abuses in the structured settlement factoring industry. The interactive article, with the first two parts published on October 3, 2021 is a wealth of data on more than 700 cases approved by Minnesota […]
Here at Edward Stone Law, we get phone calls every day from people who feel they have been taken advantage of by factoring companies when selling their structured settlement payments. One of the most common things we hear is that sellers have been told it is legal to go to another state and sell their […]
Forum shopping in the transfer of structured settlement payment rights transfer is not legal. 26 U.S.C. Section 5891 imposes a 40% excise tax on any structured settlement transfer that does not qualify for one of the exemptions set forth in Section 5891(b). In order to qualify for one of the exemptions, a transfer petition must […]
Louisiana’s Structured Settlement Protection Act (SSPA) was just revised, adding some additional provisions which may help curb some of the factoring industry abuses. Unfortunately, some of the new provisions are designed to protect the factoring companies, and not those selling their structured settlement payments. The new legislation, which goes into effect on July 1, 2020 […]
Ruling in a case in mid-December, 2018, the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the Kentucky Structured Settlement Protection Act applied only to “tort claims” and did not apply to workers’ compensation settlement payments. In 2015 Ray Thomas settled a workers’ comp claim against his employer. The settlement agreement provided for certain lump sum payments to […]
In late November, 2018 DRB Capital, LLC filed a lawsuit in Palm Beach Circuit Court, Florida against several other secondary market, factoring companies, including Rightway Funding LLC, BTG Advisors LLC, Sempra Finance LLC, Greenwood Funding LLC, and JLC Capital Funding LLC alleging that these companies interfered with DRB’s business in violation of the Florida Deceptive […]
Fraud in the structured settlement secondary market appears to continue unabated. One of the latest scams seems to involve transfer companies that obtain court orders authorizing an annuitant to sell his/her periodic payments, and then the company fails to pay the seller. The seller is then faced with chasing down the company or figuring out […]
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