Today, ProPublica published a story about the lending activity of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, a Wisconsin tribe whose various companies generated than 2,200 consumer complaints to the FTC since 2019 — more than any other tribe in recent years. The Tribe’s affiliated entities regularly issued online loans with annual interest rates of 600% or more.
The story notes that there is a proposed settlement of a 2020 class action suit, which would lead to the cancellation of $1.4 billion in outstanding loans, and a payment to the class and its lawyers of $37.4 million. Although the Tribe and many affiliated entities would likely have been entitled to sovereign entities, the plaintiffs in the 2020 case sued individual members of the Tribe’s governing council, some high-level employees, and a nontribal business partner.
