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JUNE

**8, 2021**

Dayen on TAP

Gottheimer Rakes In Cash From Rent-a-Bank Practitioners He Supports

Yesterday, I wrote about how House Democrat and co-chair of the Problem
Solvers Caucus Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is trying to block a resolution

that would eliminate a Trump-era rule allowing predatory lenders to
partner with federally chartered banks to evade state interest-rate caps
and charge whatever they want for consumer loans. I noted that
Gottheimer is one of Wall Street's go-to Democrats, and that he's
raised over $6 million from the finance, insurance, and real estate
sectors over the course of his short congressional career.

What I didn't know then is how the small group of companies that
specifically use this tactic of laundering loans through banks to charge
higher interest rates have funneled support to Gottheimer. I did mention
that Opportunity Financial, an online lender that charges 160 percent
interest on its loans in 24 states thanks to a partnership with FinWise
Bank, gave a total of $1,500 in two

installments

from its political action committee to Gottheimer in the 2019-2020
election cycle. The CEO of OppLoans, Jared Kaplan, personally gave
Gottheimer

$500.

But there are more. Joan Kuehl, at the time the CIO of Elevate Credit,
contributed $1,300

in the same election cycle. Kate Vanderkolk, a staff attorney for the
company, gave $1,250
.
Elevate Credit is one of the online lenders that has taken advantage

of these "rent-a-bank" schemes to charge up to 251 percent interest;
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine sued the company

last year.

Another company using rent-a-banks to gouge customers with high-cost
loans is Enova International
.
Matthew Hollender, director of NetCredit at Enova, gave Gottheimer $500

in 2020, and Michael Kerr, an attorney with the firm, gave $350
.

This largesse has continued into this year. In just the first quarter of
2021
,
the only period for which we have current donor information, Christopher
Lutes, an executive with Elevate Credit, contributed $1,250 to
Gottheimer, and CEO Jason Harvison gave $1,250. Kirk Chartier, an
executive with Enova, gave $2,500. And Andrew Pincus, a partner at the
D.C. law firm Mayer Brown who works with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
which is on the same side as Gottheimer on preserving the rent-a-bank
rule, gave $500.

That's a total of $10,400 since 2019 coming from executives who are
explicitly using the very rent-a-bank scheme Gottheimer is lobbying to
keep alive, and another $500 from a legal ally of the effort. In the
grand scheme of Gottheimer's prodigious fundraising-$7.2 million in
the 2020 cycle, and $925,000 in the first quarter of 2021-it's not
that much. But it's enough to get the attention of a member of
Congress, to at least have them know that they should maybe take a
meeting and listen to this constituency's concerns. And Gottheimer is
certainly listening.

~ DAVID DAYEN

Follow David Dayen on Twitter

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