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.
Scores below 580 are indicative
of a consumer's
poor financial history, which can include late monthly payments,
debt defaults, or bankruptcy; individuals in this «subprime» category can end up paying auto loan rates that are 5 or 10 times higher than what prime consumers receive, especially for
used cars or longer term loans.
Francis said that wealthy nations and multinational corporations that
use foreign
debt as a way to control
poorer countries, while exploiting their natural resources and polluting their land and water, owe them an «ecological
debt» by limiting consumption
of fossil fuels and assisting them in more sustainable development.
But it wasn't until this spring, when the official leader
of the Democratic party
used her heft within the caucus to urge other Democrats to help ensure payday lenders could evade regulation nationwide, that her long advocacy for 400 percent interest rates and endless
debt traps for the working
poor became a political liability.