Buying Disabled Veterans’ Pensions With Contracts That Were Void

Brokers offered disabled veterans lump sums for their future pension checks, structured as “purchases” that were really high-interest loans — and void from the start, because federal law makes pension rights unassignable. Permanently banned.

Gamber’s companies brokered contracts offering high-interest credit to veterans, many of them disabled, marketed as purchases of future pension or disability payments rather than loans.

The regulators alleged the contracts were misrepresented as valid and enforceable when they were void under federal and state law — federal law bars assigning veterans’ pension rights at all. Consumers were allegedly misled about when they would receive funds and never told the applicable interest rate. Where a veteran sold only part of a pension, the defendants could receive the veteran’s entire pension direct deposit and remit only a portion back.

The settlement permanently bans the defendants from brokering pension-income-stream agreements. It resolves allegations by agreement; it is not a criminal conviction.

"the contracts are void under federal and state law"
— Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Case file in the VA Fraud case files — part of the VA Fraud record. Cases are published as the courts decided them; amounts are stated as the Justice Department states them (billed, stolen, or ordered in restitution, as labeled).