Tribes act as fronts for major Internet lending businesses

Wow and yuck:

Quote:

"How does the tribal deal work? Think Finance provides— at a publicly undisclosed cost— its “technology platform” to firms incorporated on Native American lands. Those tribal firms then market and sell payday loans—but not to tribal members. Instead, the program goes online to pitch everyday Americans around the country, even in states that limit or ban such loans.

The point, says Standaert, is to cloak a lending operation in the guise of tribal sovereignty. This is for “the express purpose of asserting the tribes’ immunity from suit.” It’s simple: Under federal law established in 1978 in the case of Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez, Native American tribes generally can’t be sued. "

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