September 11, 2018
Background:
- Hallinan was a former investment banker.
- Hallinan was head of payday lending from 1997 from 2013.
- Hallinan owned, operated and financed companies that issues small-amount, fixed-fee loans and collected debts in excess of $690 million
- Dubbed “the Godfather of payday lending” by the media.
- His entire business model was built on trapping his victims in an endless debt cycle.
- Preyed on struggling borrowers.
- Hallinan claimed in his defense: since he forged relationships with Native American tribes across the country, reasoning that through the federally recognized groups — which hold sovereign immunity to set their own regulations on reservation lands — they could continue to operate nationwide.
Court Ruling:
- Charged fixed rates far in excess of what was permitted under states’ usury laws.
- Hallinan was nothing more than a loan shark.
- Hallinan was ordered to pay a forfeiture money judgment in excess of over $64 million.
- Forfeited his interest in 1.2 million in funds in 18 bank accounts; two Mercedes Benz vehicles; one Bentley vehicle; and his Villanova, PA mansion.
- Convicted of all 17 counts
- $2.5 million in fines.
- Sentenced to 14 years in prison
- Judge described deals that Hallinan struck with their Native American partners “unlawful, a sham, and a fraud.”.
Hallinan’s payday has come.
