Bankruptcy

Debt Settlement Firms--Fraudulent Transfers

By Adam Levitin

There's a nice piece about debt settlement companies in the NYTimes.  

The story left me wondering whether Ms. Robertson, who paid $4,000 to the debt settlement firm without getting any debt relief might have a fraudulent transfer claim against them.  I recognize that it is far from clear whether such a suit would succeed; there is a REV question and an insolvency question at the very least, and the trustee might not want to litigate over what is at most a few thousand dollars in most cases.  Yet especially for no-asset cases, the avoidance action might be the only real value available for creditors.  

Does anyone know of fraudulent transfer suits being filed against debt settlement firms?  Are trustees or creditors starting to inquire at 341 meetings whether the debtor has been making debt settlement payments?  I'm curious to here whether practitioners have started to account for pre-bankruptcy debt settlement attempts.  

Full post as published by Credit Slips on June 19, 2010 (boomark / email).