Jimmy Csays: At the juncture of journalism and life that is daily KC

“Good Catholic men” making a killing in the loan business that is payday

Have a look at this photo of a previous choir boy…Well, really, we don’t understand that he was once a student at Visitation Grade School and later Rockhurst High School and is from a highly regarded Visitation family if he was a choir boy but I do know.

As a grownup, nevertheless, he’s got been neck deep in the loan business that is payday.

Tim Coppinger, in picture from Visitation Catholic Church 1985 directory

At the least two other previous Visitation boys, Vince and Chris Hodes, are also tangled up in that seamy company.

I’ve been asking myself how exactly does this equate kids that are bedrock Visitation families going to the business of earning fortunes at the cost of the indegent?

I realize that greed is among the Seven Deadly Sins and therefore it could hit anybody. Nonetheless it’s nevertheless difficult in my situation to get together again.

For the record, I don’t think I’ve ever met some of the three; I’m at the least two decades more than they’ve been. But i will be knowledgeable about their moms and dads. Tim Coppinger’s dad is a respected doctor, now mostly resigned; their mom an anchor at Visitation Church. The Hodes family members has an extremely effective plumbing work supply company, now owned and operated by a family member that is third-generation.

A few people of the Hodes household advantageous site have already been major contributors to Visitation Church, specially to a $13-million-plus renovation and expansion regarding the church, 51st and Main, about ten years ago.

Two sources said that Tim Coppinger contributed the funds in the past for construction of a unique operating track — Coppinger Family Track — at St. Teresa’s Academy, 55th and principal.

My guess is that money that is ill-gotten for that track. And, in my experience, that raises an issue that is secondary Did the St. Teresa’s management and board of directors understand how Tim Coppinger had made their cash? In that case, did they ever give consideration to rejecting the cash?

Early in the day this week, a Kansas City celebrity editorial made note of this twist that is“awkward by which a number of the dirty cash had been later directed to philanthropic reasons.

Tim Coppinger happens to be a defendant in a Federal Trade correspondence lawsuit that says he and another guy, Frampton T. Rowland III, were in the commercial of “bilking cash-strapped consumers away from because much cash as feasible.”

In recently unsealed court filings, the FTC alleges that Coppinger and Rowland utilized individual monetary details about individuals to make phony loans that customers hadn’t consented to — and that some had never ever sent applications for. The defendants then made one-time electronic deposits in the “borrowers” bank records and started debiting the records indefinitely for biweekly “finance costs” of $60 to $90. Nevertheless the amount that is principal frequently $150 to $300 — never went away, based on the lawsuit.

Then, you will find the Hodes brothers.

In a December 2013 tale, the Pitch stated that Vince Hodes led an ensemble called the Vianney Fund, which this year desired $20 million from investors, by having a $100,000 minimum buy-in.

The Pitch quoted the firm’s offering that is initial saying, in component:

“We intend to concentrate most of the Company’s efforts and investments on money loans to payday-lending organizations both in the retail and Internet markets. Nevertheless, the organization could also extend credit with other Subprime Borrowers, including check-cashing, rent-to-own, subprime mortgage, and pawn stores.”

“put simply,” The Pitch concluded, “Vianney is definitely an equal-opportunity exploiter of bad individuals.”

Here’s just just what that exact same Pitch tale stated about Chris Hodes:

“From a Brookside building at 601 East Street that is 63rd presides over many different hard-to-pin-down organizations. Predicated on legal actions filed in recent years, he could be likely very much immersed within the lending industry that is online.

“In 2010, the Arkansas Attorney General sued Arrowhead Investments and Galaxy advertising, also Christopher Hodes (who it purported to function as controller of those two organizations), for lending on the internet to Arkansans at interest levels of 782 percent. Arkansas legislation caps customer lending prices at 17 %. The businesses settled and promised never to provide within the continuing state once again.”

Seven-hundred eighty-two %!

We raised these dudes’ family backgrounds because that is just a significant the main disconnect.

Also, this is certainlyn’t simply any parish, it is Visitation, among the wealthiest parishes per capita within the Kansas City area, and truly the wealthiest per capita within the town.

I am aware that moms and dads may not be held accountable for just what their adult kids do, but We wonder exactly exactly exactly what the moms and dads think of these sons that are particular notions of “success.”

Let’s make the one thing, clear, though: These guys are an embarrassment for their families, to Visitation and also to their community.

That exact same KC celebrity editorial stated:

The Kansas City area is becoming a hotbed for abusive pay day loan operations…payday loan operations are toxic enterprises, plus it’s to Kansas City’s detriment which they received the economic and tech support team to flourish right here.“To its chagrin”

It couldn’t have already been done without having the prepared participation of men and women whom tossed apart their ethical compasses in the interests of numerous big paydays. Now, as governments move around in to place a end for their wrongdoings, allow them to bask in pity.