A credit repair operation agreed to stop making false claims and stop charging upfront fees under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.
The settlement agreement requires that Clean Credit Report Services Inc., Ricardo A. Miranda, Ruthy Villabona, and their son, Daniel R. Miranda give up two cars, three houses and six commercial properties in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in Florida, and in Bogota, Colombia.
According to the FTC, they told consumers they would help remove all negative remarks from their credit reports, as well as current debt. Clean Credit often debited $400 from consumers’ bank accounts before receiving a signed contract, and then did little, if anything, to fulfill its promises.
The settlement order bars Clean Credit and its owners from making misrepresentations about any good or service, such as the ability to improve a consumer’s creditworthiness or remove negative information from a credit report. The order further prohibits Clean Credit from charging money upfront for credit repair services and from collecting payments from consumers who purchased its services before October 22, 2008, the date when the court froze the defendants’ assets, including bank accounts. The order bars the defendants from disclosing, benefitting from or failing to properly dispose of customer information.
The settlement order imposes a $14.4 million judgment that will be suspended, contingent upon the defendants surrendering their assets - including frozen funds totaling about $165,000 and any proceeds received from selling their six commercial and three residential properties under foreclosure in Florida; commercial property in Colombia; a 1992 Mercedes S300; and a 1997 Chevrolet Venture. The full judgment will become due immediately if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.
