Charlotte woman pocketed $1.9 million in scheme to bully struggling debtors, feds say
Hundreds of debtors across the United States believed they were making settlement payments to their creditors when they sent checks to a debt collector in North Carolina, according to investigators.
But their debt remained unsettled.
In reality, 33-year-old Carissa Eugenia Brown was pocketing the payments, federal prosecutors say. Brown, who lives in Charlotte and is the registered owner of the purported debt collection companies, is accused of collecting $1.9 million from unsuspecting victims over the course of five years.
Brown pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering in federal court on Friday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina said in a news release.
A lawyer listed in court filings as Brown’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on Monday.
According to a bill of information filed earlier this month, Brown registered three different businesses in the state of North Carolina between 2013 and 2018 with names like Accredited Recovery Network, Elite Credit Network and Martin Recovery P.C.
Starting in 2015, prosecutors say, she sought out individuals being sued by creditors — namely credit card companies such as American Express and Discover. Brown reportedly told the victims she was authorized to collect their debts on behalf of the creditors and offered to settle it for a smaller amount than what was due.
Court filings state it was “often around half of what the victim actually owed.”
The deal was contingent on debtors paying the settlement to her companies right away, prosecutors said. Brown also sent “official looking documents,” such as a settlement agreement, to further legitimize the scheme, according to court filings.
“Victims then made a lump-sum payment, or several payments, to Brown and her companies, believing that doing so would resolve their debt and outstanding court case, only to later learn that Brown was not authorized to collect the debt and they still owed the full debt to the actual creditor,” the news release from the U.S. attorney says.
As part of the alleged scheme, Brown held herself out as a paralegal or arbitrator, used letterhead that falsely represented one of her companies as a law firm and “engaged in one or more other threatening and harassing pressure tactics,” according to court filings.
Those tactics reportedly included threatening to garnish the victims’ wages or seize their bank accounts and file a court judgment against them.
In one instance, prosecutors said, Brown left a voicemail for a victim claiming a payment would be drafted from his checking account to pay off debts owed to American Express. The victim had already come to a settlement agreement with American Express, but Brown reportedly told him she was hired to take over the case and convinced him to pay her more than $14,000.
“This resulted in victims being placed in the untenable position of either having to pay their debts twice, or face the financial consequences for failing to pay the true creditor,” prosecutors said.
From February to April 2018, court filings state, Brown fraudulently transferred tens of thousands of dollars from her business accounts to her personal checking account, which she reportedly used to fund a down payment on a “new half-million dollar personal residence.”
The alleged scheme continued through July 2020, according to court filings.
Brown was released Friday on a $25,000 bond and faces up to 30 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 1:27 PM.
