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Debt Collector Settles Abusive Practices Charges

March 13, 2007

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The final defendant in a case that brought a $1 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission in December for illegal debt collection practices has agreed to settle FTC charges that he threatened and harassed consumers to get them to pay old, unenforceable debts or debts they did not owe.

Under the settlement, Joshua Rausch is prohibited from engaging in debt collection activities or assisting others engaged in debt collection activities. If he has misrepresented his financial condition, a $15 million judgment, representing the minimum amount of consumer injury, will be imposed against him.

Rausch was among several individual and corporate defendants, including Capital Acquisitions and Management Corp. (CAMCO), charged with violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The other individuals are subject to the same prohibitions under previous settlements reached with the FTC. In December 2006, pursuant to a settlement entered by the court involving the FTC, CAMCO, and CAMCO�s largest creditors, CAMCO agreed to pay $1 million in ill-gotten gains to the FTC.

CAMCO, which was permanently closed by the court-appointed receiver in December 2004, was a "debt buyer" -- a company that buys old debts well past the statute of limitations and attempts to collect them. Most of the debts are unenforceable in court and beyond the reporting periods allowed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The other parties named in the FTC complaint are RM Financial Services Inc., Capital Properties Holding Inc., Caribbean Asset Management Ltd., Reese Waugh, Jerome Kuebler, Eric Woldoff, George Othon, Jeffrey Garrington, David Kapp, Michael Seng, and Billy Martin.

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