Jimmy Csays: during the juncture of journalism and life that is daily KC

“Good Catholic men” making a killing in the loan business that is payday

Take a good look at this photo of a previous choir boy…Well, really, we don’t know if he had been a choir kid but i recognize which he ended up being when a pupil at Visitation level School and soon after Rockhurst twelfth grade and it is from a very regarded Visitation household.

As a grownup, nonetheless, he’s been neck deep in the loan business that is payday.

Tim Coppinger, in picture from Visitation Catholic Church 1985 directory

At the very least two other former Visitation boys, Vince and Chris Hodes, are also associated with that seamy company.

I’ve been asking myself so how exactly does this equate kids that are bedrock Visitation families going to the business of earning fortunes at the expense of the indegent?

I realize that greed is one of several Seven Deadly Sins and that it may hit anybody. Nonetheless it’s still difficult in my situation to get together again.

For the record, we don’t think I’ve ever met some of the three; I’m at the very least two decades over the age of these are typically. But i’m knowledgeable about their moms and dads. Tim Coppinger’s dad is a respected doctor, now mostly resigned; their mother an anchor at Visitation Church. The Hodes family members has an extremely effective plumbing work supply business, now owned and operated with a third-generation household user.

A few people of the Hodes family members happen major contributors to Visitation Church, specially to a $13-million-plus renovation and expansion associated with church, 51st and principal, about decade ago.

Two sources said that Tim Coppinger contributed the cash in the past for construction of a fresh operating track — Coppinger Family Track — at St. Teresa’s Academy, 55th and principal.

My guess is the fact that money that is ill-gotten for that track. And, in my experience, that raises an issue that is secondary Did the St. Teresa’s management and board of directors understand how Tim Coppinger easy payday loans in Oklahoma had made their cash? If that’s the case, did they ever start thinking about rejecting the amount of money?

Early in the day this week, a Kansas City celebrity editorial made note of this twist that is“awkward by which a few of the dirty cash ended up being later directed to philanthropic reasons.

Tim Coppinger has become a defendant in a Federal Trade correspondence lawsuit that claims he and another guy, Frampton T. Rowland III, had been in the industry of “bilking cash-strapped consumers out of since much cash as possible.”

In recently unsealed court filings, the FTC alleges that Coppinger and Rowland used personal monetary information on individuals to make phony loans that customers hadn’t consented to — and that some had never ever requested. The defendants then made one-time electronic deposits in the “borrowers” bank records and started debiting the accounts indefinitely for biweekly “finance costs” of $60 to $90. Nevertheless the amount that is principal usually $150 to $300 — never went away, based on the lawsuit.

Then, you can find the Hodes brothers.

In a December 2013 tale, the Pitch stated that Vince Hodes led an ensemble called the Vianney Fund, which this season desired $20 million from investors, by having a $100,000 minimum buy-in.

The Pitch quoted the firm’s offering that is initial saying, in part:

“We intend to concentrate a lot of the Company’s efforts and investments on money loans to payday-lending businesses both in the retail and Internet markets. Nonetheless, the business might also expand credit with other Subprime Borrowers, including check-cashing, rent-to-own, subprime mortgage, and pawn stores.”

“put simply,” The Pitch concluded, “Vianney is definitely an equal-opportunity exploiter of bad individuals.”

Here’s exactly what that same Pitch tale said about Chris Hodes:

“From a Brookside building at 601 East 63rd Street, he presides over many different hard-to-pin-down organizations. According to legal actions filed in the last few years, he could be likely very much immersed when you look at the lending industry that is online.

“In 2010, the Arkansas Attorney General sued Arrowhead Investments and Galaxy advertising, in addition to Christopher Hodes (who it speculated to end up being the controller of the two businesses), for lending on the internet to Arkansans at interest levels of 782 per cent. Arkansas legislation caps consumer financing prices at 17 %. The firms settled and promised never to provide into the continuing state once more.”

Seven-hundred eighty-two %!

We mentioned these dudes’ family backgrounds for the reason that it is a part that is significant of disconnect.

additionally, that isn’t simply any parish, it is Visitation, one of several wealthiest parishes per capita within the Kansas City area, and undoubtedly the wealthiest per capita into the city.

I realize that moms and dads can not be held accountable for just what their adult kids do, but We wonder just exactly exactly what the moms and dads consider these specific sons’ notions of “success.”

Let’s make something, clear, though: These guys are an embarrassment with their families, to Visitation also to their community.

That same KC celebrity editorial stated:

The Kansas City area is becoming a hotbed for abusive pay day loan operations…payday loan operations are toxic enterprises, plus it’s to Kansas City’s detriment which they received the monetary and tech support team to flourish right here.“To its chagrin”

It couldn’t have already been done with no willing involvement of individuals whom tossed aside their moral compasses in the interests of numerous big paydays. Now, as governments move around in to place an end for their wrongdoings, allow them to bask in pity.

CONTACT US