FTC permanently bans group of student loan debt relief scammers

A group of student loan debt relief scammers will be permanently banned from the debt relief industry and is required to turn over its assets as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. According to the FTC’s August 2023 complaint, since at least 2019, Express Enrollment LLC (also doing business as SLFD Processing), Intercontinental Solutions LLC (also doing business as Apex Doc Processing LLC), and their operators Marco Manzi, Ivan Esquivel, and Robert Kissinger falsely claimed to be affiliated with the U.S. Department of Education and used “Biden Loan Forgiveness” or some similar name, which consumers have understood to refer to the Biden-Harris Administration’s Student Loan Debt Relief Plan, to lure students into signing up for their phony student debt relief scheme.

The FTC charged that the scheme’s operators collected approximately $8.8 million in junk fees in exchange for student loan debt relief services that did not exist. The defendants also used these misrepresentations to illegally obtain consumers’ bank account, debit card, or credit card information, and typically collect hundreds of dollars in unlawful advance fees—sometimes through remotely created checks in violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, according to the FTC’s complaint. Click here to read the full FTC press release.