A Snellville debt collection company, Williamson and McKevie, has agreed to surrender $8.8 million in accounts to the state of Georgia to resolve allegations that it threatened customers with arrest and falsely claimed they had committed crimes.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Tuesday that the settlement will resolve allegations that the company violated federal and state debt collection laws.
"It is plain and simple: Any debt collector that employs abusive, deceptive and illegal tactics in Georgia will be held accountable," Carr said in a statement.
The company must cease collections on 10,922 accounts it owns and turn them over to the state so they can’t be sold or collected on in the future, according to the settlement filed Friday in Fulton County Superior Court. Those accounts represent a total of nearly $8.8 million in consumer debt.
Phone numbers for Williamson and McKevie, as well as its owner Greg Williamson, couldn’t be located Tuesday.
The company was facing allegations that its employees deceived customers by telling them they could be imprisoned if they didn’t pay debts, falsely implying they were attorneys instead of debt collectors, and divulging information about debtors to third parties, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
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