By EFE
02 Apr 2024, 20:21 PM EDT
A migrant bail bond company will have to pay more than $800 million in restitution and fines for deceiving its clients, most of them Latinos who did not speak English, into paying thousands of dollars to wear electronic shackles while awaiting trial, they reported. this Tuesday American media.
Libre by Nexus, based in Virginia, was sued in 2021 for engaging in fraudulent practices such as making them sign contracts in English they did not understand and threatening them with deportation if they did not pay a monthly fee.
Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon this Monday ordered the company to pay more than $811 million dollars – as reported today by The Washington Post – as part of the lawsuit filed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFBP) and prosecutors. generals of Massachusetts, New York and Virginia.
The judge determined that the company had to pay $231 million in restitution to those affected and more than $555 million in penalties to the consumer protection office, according to court documents cited by the newspaper.
In the ruling, the judge also prohibited the company from requiring migrants to use GPS monitors.
Most immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody are allowed to be released on bond while their cases are processed in immigration courts.
ICE requires full payment of the bail, which must come from someone with legal status in the country, so many of the detainees must resort to bail payment agencies, which, in turn, do not deposit more than a commitment of pay the government if the person in question does not appear in court when the court date arrives.
The plaintiffs alleged that for years Libre by Nexus has duped migrants detained in federal prisons by offering them the bail money they needed – often about $10,000 – to release them while awaiting trial, something that can take up to three years.
According to the complaint, the company required its customers to wear what they were told were electronic shackles with satellite tracking devices and pay a fee of $420 a month.
The plaintiffs maintain that the shackles did not function as satellite tracking devices, and that clients often believed that the monthly payments were used for bail repayment, when in fact they had no such use.
The bonds were actually paid by third parties, reimbursed by the government when the migrants had to appear for their trials.
The monthly fees amounted to an annual interest rate of about 57%, and according to the lawsuit, Libre by Nexus often threatened its clients with returning them to prison or deporting them.
A federal trial had been scheduled for early 2023 but the judge moved directly to the sanctions phase of the case when the company did not present the necessary documentation to defend itself.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Libre by Nexus CEO Mike Donovan criticized the ruling and said he would appeal it.
In 2020, the company reached a settlement with the Virginia Corporation Commission for $435,000 to end an investigation by that agency into a complaint that it operated as an insurance agent without the appropriate license.
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