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SEPTEMBER
**23, 2022**
Dayen on TAP
The Importance of Citizen Activism
Foreclosure activist-turned-journalist Lisa Epstein's work leads to
another victory over a predatory company.
Last month, a federal judge ruled
in one of the most under-the-radar scams in the business world.
Thousands of small and medium-sized businesses were taken advantage of
by a company called FleetCor, which provided "discount" gas credit
cards. Only there weren't any discounts at all: The cards were riddled
with hidden charges. Despite promising no transaction or annual fees,
FleetCor imposed hundreds of millions of dollars in "convenience network
surcharges" and "program administration fees," without notifying
customers.
The judge granted summary judgment
without a trial, ruling that the practices were unlawful, and that CEO
Ronald Clarke was personally responsible. "It is plain that Clarke had
actual knowledge of FleetCor's unlawful practices or, at the very
least, that he was recklessly indifferent." The company has announced
that it would appeal the ruling
.
FleetCor and Clarke do not have any fines hanging over them for now,
despite being found liable. Because of a very stupid Supreme Court
ruling
last year, the Federal Trade Commission, which filed this case in 2019
,
cannot return monetary damages to customers through a lawsuit. The FTC
can bring administrative action in a way that can trigger restitution,
and they did so last year
;
that has been stayed pending resolution of the lawsuit. The FTC is now
seeking a permanent injunction to prohibit FleetCor's tactics. More
than 40 percent of the company's revenues come from the fuel-card
sector.
Clarke, a billionaire, doesn't seem too worried: He just bought a
waterfront mansion
for $15.7 million. But the stock is down over 25 percent
since May, and it is
relatively clear that FleetCor's days of ripping off small businesses
have probably come to an end. And we have someone to thank for that.
When I wrote my book Chain of Title
in 2016, one of the main
subjects was Lisa Epstein, an oncology nurse who fell victim to
foreclosure fraud during the collapse of the housing bubble. She fought
back in her case, grew obsessed with the shocking machinations of the
big banks, quit her nursing job, and became an activist, helping other
foreclosure victims and using a blog to detail the extent of foreclosure
fraud. In 2010, she was instrumental in helping shut down the entire
foreclosure system temporarily.
Instead of returning to nursing, Lisa became an investigative journalist
with a subscription-based site called The Capitol Forum
. She had the skills to uncover nefarious
activity, and she put them to work. Lisa was the first journalist to
really dig into the FleetCor story. In 2018, she quoted a senior-level
employee who told her that Clarke called customers "stupid dumbasses
" from "southern
shithole states." Clarke personally instituted the hidden fees and
obscure disclosures that were a hallmark of the scheme, according to
Epstein's reporting, relying on the expectation that these business
owners were too busy to read the fine print. "They are never going to
know about the fees and the tiered rebates," she quoted Clarke telling
senior employees. "They are not watching their bills."
It was Lisa's work that built up awareness of this story, culminating
in the federal ruling and potential injunction and consumer relief. We
have her to thank for exposing FleetCor's practices, just as she
exposed the banking industry's. The nation has a lot of reasons to
thank Lisa Epstein for her work.
~ DAVID DAYEN
Follow David Dayen on Twitter
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How to Pay Under the Minimum Wage in California
If you're Uber and Lyft, you buy a labor law through the ballot
initiative system that legalizes the payment of poverty wages. BY DAVID
DAYEN
Puerto Rico's Colonial Status Left It Vulnerable to Hurricane Fiona
When a place is controlled by a government in which it has no
representation, it will be abused. BY RYAN COOPER
[link removed]
The Problem With Emission Reduction Models
They are partially based on what even some of the modelers acknowledge
are faulty data, particularly on methane. BY HANNAH STORY BROWN &
DOROTHY SLATER
[link removed]
Altercation: How the Democrats' Economics Changed
Michael Tomasky on how a dissident, if realistic, assessment of the
economy became mainstream BY ERIC ALTERMAN
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