John Oliver dedicated Sunday night’s episode to taking down the debt-buying industry, which involves selling debt at a fraction of a price to debt-collecting companies. He reveals he has bought $15 million dollars in debt and relieves almost 9,000 people of their debt.
The show revolved around the intimidating tactics used by debt-collectors to pursue debtors, the lack of regulation or licensing in place for debt-collectors at the state level, and the effect this has on the people struggling with debt.
Oliver’s Last Week Tonight went as far as sending someone undercover to the Debt Buyer’s Trade Group, DBA International, annual conference. One seminar at the conference was called, “Debt Buyers ARE the Good Guys: How to Convince the Court.” He spoke of debt-collecting, particularly collecting on debts from a deceased person’s family or out-of-statute debt, as “the sleaziest way of making money imaginable.”
Oliver denounced debt-collectors as predatory and glib over the lack of regulation and their ability to capitalize on debt despite any existing regulation, particularly since, he said, any idiot could do it.
“And I’ll prove it to you,” he said. The show incorporated a debt-collecting company in April called Central Asset Recovery Professionals, Inc., with John Oliver as Chairman. After making a simple website for the company, they were offered a portfolio that was worth $14,922,261.76 in out-of-statute medical debt. That is, debt that is older than the time limit imposed by a state within which a debt collection company can sue over it. The portfolio was sold at such a cheap price that Oliver was able to forgive almost $9,000 people’s debt, saying, “Fuck you, Oprah!”, and making the biggest giveaway ever televised.
With this, Oliver once again made a poignant end to an episode, not just calling for tougher regulations by government on debt-collectors, but easing the medical debt of thousands of people who won’t have to worry about being harassed to pay up.
