On January 9, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas against one individual and affiliated companies, alleging that they sold portfolios of nonexistent payday loans to debt collectors.  The complaint alleges that the companies fabricated lenders and loan providers to whom consumers supposedly owed money, and that debt collectors would then try to collect money from these consumers.  The FTC alleged that because the consumers never owed these debts, the individual and companies violated the Federal Trade Commission Act’s prohibition on unfair or deceptive acts or practices.  In order to add legitimacy to this scheme, the individual and companies associated the loans with racecar driver Scott Tucker, the individual defendant’s brother, who was the subject of an FTC enforcement action previously covered by Enforcement Watch.