Marquita Hawkins was sentenced in St Loui,s Missouri on fraud charges in connection with providing false bankruptcy credit counseling certificates. The new bankruptcy law requires debtors to receive credit counseling before filing for bankruptcy. When filing for bankruptcy, the debtor must provide evidence she has received the required credit counseling and file a certificate with her court documents.
Credit counseling companies are part of the consumer credit industry, working to convince consumers to pay off their debts, regardless of a consumer’s right to file bankruptcy. The new bankruptcy law was passed after intense lobbying by the consumer credit industry.
Hawkins had helped two people complete their bankruptcy forms. After learning they needed the credit counseling certificates, she obtained two false certificates and filed them with the debtors’ documents.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Bankruptcy Courts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.