Former sports car owner/driver charged in payday lending scheme
Scott Tucker, who won a class title in the 2014 Rolex 24 as an owner and driver, faces federal indictments in a payday lending scheme.
Outside of the debatable ethics involved in payday lending, Tucker’s business practices have been under scrutiny for some time. According to the indictments, Tucker is accused of trying to say his companies were owned by Native American tribes. And boy, was he running one heck of a business.
According to the Kansas City Star, “prosecutors want Tucker to forfeit $2 billion in proceeds, plus 10 high-end sports cars and a Learjet.” Tucker’s company is based in suburban Kansas City. He’s indicted along with another man whose payday lending company is located in the area. They both owned companies that provided short term loans with incredibly high interest rates.
Here’s how Tucker used the tribes to his benefit. From the Pitch KC:
For two years, The Pitch has chronicled Tucker’s payday-loan enterprises, many of which are ostensibly housed in tribal reservations in order to work around state regulations on interest rates that short-term lenders can charge their customers. But the businesses operated largely in Overland Park, and consumers who sought redress from Tucker’s businesses through state courts had their cases dismissed when the payday enterprises claimed “tribal immunity” or that tribal reservations were not subject to state usury laws.
Last week, The Pitch described how the Federal Trade Commission, which has been after Tucker and his businesses for years, believes that customers of Tucker’s businesses have overpaid on their loans to the tune of $1.32 billion, owing to deceptive language contained in the terms of the loan disclosures. The FTC alleged, and a federal judge in Nevada agreed, that customers were led to believe that a $300 loan would cost them $390. But labyrinthine wording in the loan documents could have those customers paying closer to $1,000, through automatic loan renewals that weren’t made clear to customers, according to the FTC.
Tucker was the owner of Level 5 Motorsports, a team that competed primarily in the American Le Mans Series before ALMS was merged with the Grand-Am Series to form a united American sports car series now governed by IMSA. Tucker had 24 wins in 33 starts as a driver in ALMS from 2010-2013.
The FTC filings also give an idea of how expensive it can be to run a race team. They allege that Tucker spent $67 million on Level 5.
Level 5 Motorsports competed in the GTD class at Daytona in 2014. Tucker teamed with Bill Sweedler, Townsend Bell, Jeff Segal and Alessandro Pier Guidi for the win that season. It’s Tucker’s lone IMSA race. And, given the charges, it may end up being his only one.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
