Miami Nation – Turtle Talk

From the FTC press release:

Two payday lending companies have settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated the law by charging consumers undisclosed and inflated fees. Under the proposed settlement, AMG Services, Inc. and MNE Services, Inc. will pay $21 million – the largest FTC recovery in a payday lending case – and will waive another $285 million in charges that were assessed but not collected.

The Federal Trade Commission’s website on this matter is here.

The stipulated judgment is here.

Detroit News on U-M Decision to Repatriate Culturally Unidentifiable Remains

March 17, 2010Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Detroit News:

The University of Michigan will work with tribes on the disposition of unidentified Native American human remains held by the university to comply with newly released federal rules.

The National Park Service on Monday announced the rule to establish a process to repatriate remains in museums or on exhibit which have not been culturally affiliated with a tribe.

The rules, which go into effect May 14, require universities and federal agencies with unidentified remains in their collections to work with tribes that lived in the areas where the remains were exhumed.

There are more than 124,000 unidentified Native American human remains in the United States, including some held by U-M’s Museum of Anthropology.

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Colorado ex rel. Suthers v. Cash Advance — Rent a Tribe Case

April 18, 2008Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

We have written about this case before — the question of whether Cash Advance and others who are part-owned by Indian tribes can avoid suit from the Colorado AG for unfair consumer practices (yecch).

The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s decision not to quash the subpoena directed against the tribe-owned Cash Advance defendant in this opinion — cash-advance-colorado-coa-opinion

The appellate briefs are here, and an additional amicus brief is here — amicus-brief-supporting-cash-advance (strangely, the brief doesn’t actually say who the amicus is…).

Cash Advance Rent-A-Tribes?

November 7, 2007November 7, 2007Matthew L.M. Fletcher2 Comments

The Denver City and County Court thought so. In a case where the Colorado AG asked a Colorado trial court to issue subpoenas to internet money lenders owned by the Miami Nation of Oklahoma and the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska. The tribal enterprises appeared for the purpose of contesting jurisdiction, raising tribal sovereign immunity as a bar to the subpoenas. The trial court denied the order. The case is now pending before the Colorado Court of Appeals.

If the characterization of this case on page 13 of this prepared statement before the House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy of the Committee on Oversight and Domestic Reform is even half accurate (the whole “rent-a-tribe” thing), then this is an ugly case. It is an ugly case regardless.

The Colorado Court of Appeals briefs are here:

Appellant Brief

Appellee Brief

Reply Brief