Law Firm & Big Retailer A 'Target' Of Civil RICO Class Action Robosigner Suit Alleging Use Of "False Affidavit Factory" In Debt Collection Activities

In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Associated Press reports:

• A western Pennsylvania woman filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Target Corp. and its law firm over the discount department store chain's debt collection practices, saying false affidavits were used to go after customers who allegedly owed money to a subsidiary bank that issues the store's credit cards.
• Vicki Higgins' lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of thousands of Target customers who have repaid Target National Bank debts, paid legal fees, lost lawsuits or had their credit scores damaged as a result of debt collections using the allegedly false affidavits.

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• Officials with Target National Bank of Sioux Falls, S.D., and the chain's law firm, Patenaude & Felix APC, did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press. The suit also names a Target official identified only as Adam Grim, who signed the debt affidavits, a notary public who attested to the documents, and several "John Doe" defendants — one being an unknown "officer at Target Corporation who authorized the implementation of the false affidavit factory" described in the lawsuit.

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• [T]he affidavit was one of hundreds rubber-stamped by Grim which, the lawsuit contends, is illegal because the affidavits are used to coerce customers, or convince courts to enforce the debt, under the false impression that the financial information contained has been reviewed by the bank.
• "TNB took the false and misleading affidavits and utilized them to secure judgments against hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of alleged debtors," the lawsuit said,(1) allegedly violating federal racketeering and Pennsylvania's fair credit laws.

For more, see Pa. woman sues over Target debt collection.

(1) Borrowng from the words used by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Elizabeth W. Magner in a recent robosigner foreclosure case (see In re Wilson, Case 07-11862 (Bankr. E.D. La. April 6, 2011) (p. 21-22, 25), the scenario described here may be one more example of a debt collection sweatshop employing an individual with no training or experience in banking or lending, who can be best described as a document execution clerk, and cloak him with a 'title' in a purposeful attempt to convey an experience level and importance beyond his actual abilities; an individual who slavishly adheres to procedures set by his employer without any understanding of the importance of his duties, and who has not been provided by his employer with the tools to question the information to which he attests. The individual is cloaked with a title that implied knowledge and gravity by an employer that wanted to perpetrate the illusion that he was a person with personal and detailed knowledge of the debts to which the affidavits related.