Desperate Loans

A Wisconsin tribe, the Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, passes an ordinance to enter the online high-interest lending business. Over a decade, through deals with nontribal partners, their business would grow into a massive lending enterprise.

Scott Tucker, a race car driver and businessman, is indicted on charges related to the payday lending enterprise he controlled, which entered “sham business relationships” with three tribes. His case sent waves of fear around the industry, but no other major criminal cases were brought in later years involving the tribal lending industry.

The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau drops its case against Golden Valley Lending, a tribal lender based in California. It is part of a larger regulatory pullback in the Trump administration, after the industry faced crackdowns in the Obama era.

The LDF tribal leaders and some of their nontribal business partners agree to a mammoth settlement in a civil lawsuit, which includes $1.4 billion in debt relief and $37.4 million in restitution to consumers and to private attorneys who brought the suit.

The LDF tribe agrees to avoid lending in Minnesota and forgive debt to residents as part of a consent agreement with the state’s attorney general. In the absence of federal action, a handful of states have acted against tribal lenders and effectively deterred them.