KEYSER — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's has filed a lawsuit against two California attorneys for allegedly duping West Virginia consumers.
The complaint was filed March 27 in Mineral Circuit Court against Frank L. Kucera & Associates PC, Frank L. Kucera, M. Thomassen & Associates PC and Marilyn R. Thomassen. Neither are licensed to practice law in West Virginia, and Kucera's California law license currently is suspended.
According to the complaint, the pair run debt relief services. The AG's office alleges they both failed to settle accounts of West Virginia consumers and refused to return tens of thousands of dollars to their clients.
Morrisey
“As I have mentioned numerous times in the past on similar instances, those who breach the trust of consumers in West Virginia have no place in our state,” Morrisey said. “Above all, those who are thinking of doing business in the state should follow our consumer protection laws because if not, our office will vigorously investigate, and if necessary litigate, any violation.”
In the complaint, four consumers say they were charged with “a wide range of unlawful fees,” and the defendants ceased communications with them when the consumers notified them that their services are no longer needed. The defendants also allegedly “refused to return thousands of dollars from trust accounts that belonged to consumers who discontinued the debt settlement services.”
According to Morrisey's office, debt settlement is an offer for a plan or strategy for a fee to consumers to settle outstanding credit card debts. Consumers are advised to stop making payments to their unsecured creditors, generally credit card accounts" and are directed to make monthly payments to the debt settlement company. The money is then held in trust accounts to be used to negotiate a lump sum payment often less than the actual balance owed.
The most common issue among the consumers was that the defendants allegedly were not able to settle all their debt payments, and the defendants failed to return the money that had been sent for payment. Kucera and Thomassen were involved in debt services in the state since 2014.
The AG's office, which believes “there are other victims who may become known during the course of this litigation," seeks compensatory damages of all payments collected from the four consumers (more than $40,000) along with $5,000 for each violation of the state’s Consumer Credit Protection Act.
Senior Assistant AG Norman Googel and Assistant AG Scott Caudill are handling the case for Morrisey's office.
Mineral Circuit Court case number 23-C-13