These are lines we can not cross if we want to hold on to a functioning human civilization — not
a collection of failed states, desperate environmental refugees and collapsing food systems.
Not exact matches
Specifically, Defendants made false and / or misleading statements and / or
failed to disclose that: (i) the Company was engaged in predatory lending practices that saddled subprime borrowers and / or those with poor or limited credit histories with high - interest rate debt that they could not repay; (ii) many
of the Company's customers were using Qudian - provided loans to repay their existing loans, thereby inflating the Company's revenues and active borrower numbers and increasing the likelihood
of defaults; (iii) the Company was providing online loans to college students despite a governmental ban on the practice; (iv) the Company was engaged overly aggressive and improper
collection practices; (v) the Company had understated the number
of its non-performing loans in the Registration Statement and Prospectus; (vi) because
of the Company's improper lending, underwriting and
collection practices it was subject to a heightened risk
of adverse actions by Chinese regulators; (vii) the Company's largest sales platform and strategic partner, Alipay, and Ant Financial, could unilaterally cap the APR for loans provided by Qudian; (viii) the Company had
failed to implement necessary safeguards to protect customer data; (ix) data for nearly one million Company customers had been leaked for sale to the black market, including names, addresses, phone numbers, loan information, accounts and, in some cases, passwords to CHIS, the
state - backed higher - education qualification verification institution in China, subjecting the Company to undisclosed risks
of penalties and financial and reputational harm; and (x) as a result
of the foregoing, Qudian's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
While negotiating rules for face recognition has
failed for now, Ben Sobel, also
of Georgetown, points out that the US
states of Illinois and Texas, which comprise an eighth
of the country's population, already have privacy laws that govern the
collection and processing
of biometric data like faces.
The primary consumer protection problem areas that have given rise to the
States» actions include: (1) unsubstantiated claims
of consumer savings; (2) deceptive representations about the length
of time necessary to complete a debt relief program; (3) misleading or
failing to adequately inform consumers that they will be subject to continued
collection efforts, including lawsuits, and that their account balances will increase due to extended nonpayment under the program; (4) deceptive disparagement
of consumer credit counseling; (5) deceptive disparagement
of bankruptcy as an alternative for debtors; (6) lack
of screening and analysis to determine suitability
of debt relief programs for individual debtors; (7) the
collection of substantial up - front fees so the debt relief company gains even if it
fails to perform; (8) lack
of transparency and information for consumers as to payment
of fees, status
of accounts, and communications with creditors; (9) significant delays in active negotiation or engagement with creditors, coupled with prohibitions on direct consumer communications with creditors; and (10), in the case
of debt settlement companies, basing savings claims (and settlement fees) not on the original account balance, but on the inflated amount due (including late fees and default rates
of interest) at the time
of settlement.
«Money to Burn» is one
of more than ten videos in this diverse
collection of work interrogating what the organizers
of the exhibition, Gregory Sholette and Oliver Ressler, call «our present day circumstances
of unrelenting economic crisis, authoritarian drift and rapidly
failing states.»