Legal counsel for Payday Lenders Is Verified for F.T.C. Job
WASHINGTON — This new manager for the Federal Trade Commission’s customer protection product, a watchdog with broad investigative powers over personal businesses, sticks out even in a management at risk of turning over authority that is regulatory pro-industry players.
The manager, Andrew M. Smith, has recently represented Facebook, Uber and Equifax — all ongoing businesses with things prior to the payment — and intends to recuse himself from lots of situations given that he’s got been verified for the post.
Plus in 2012, Mr. Smith had been additionally the main appropriate group that defended AMG Services, the payday loan provider established by the convicted racketeer Scott Tucker, whose predatory methods against impoverished borrowers ultimately resulted in a $1.3 billion court-ordered settlement, the largest when you look at the history that is commission’s.
“It’s outrageous the F.T.C. would find the attorney for a criminally convicted racketeer’s loan that is payday as customer security chief,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, whom opposed Mr. Smith’s selection. “The agency should pick somebody with a history of protecting customers, perhaps maybe maybe not businesses that cheat people.”