Prosecutors want more than ‘slap on the wrist’ for Prairie Village con man Joel Tucker

Federal prosecutors want Prairie Village con man Joel Tucker to serve more than 11 years in prison for selling phony consumer information to debt collectors and not paying millions in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

Tucker, who is the brother of former pro race car driver and convicted payday loan racketeer Scott Tucker, is scheduled for sentencing on June 17 after pleading guilty to multiple counts of interstate transport of stolen money, bankruptcy fraud and tax evasion.

Prosecutors are asking a federal judge to sentence Tucker to 135 months in prison and to make him pay more than $8 million in unpaid taxes that he owes to the IRS.

“Tucker has flouted the laws for many years, and he is long overdue for just punishment,” the government’s memo says. “Those who have watched him defraud and lie and fail to even pretend to care about his fellow Americans should see that his conduct is not rewarded with a slap on the wrist.”

Tucker’s lawyer in a court filing submitted Monday argued that Tucker should face no more than nine years in prison.

A grand jury in 2018 indicted Tucker after hearing evidence that he sold spreadsheets to debt collectors that contained alleged unpaid debts from consumers. Those spreadsheets, however, were bogus; the consumers did not actually owe the debts listed in the documents that Tucker sold to collectors.

Debt collectors buy unpaid bills from businesses for pennies on the dollar in hopes of having better success at getting consumers to pay up than the businesses from where the debt originated. Diligent debt buyers request chain of titles and other proof that the debts are valid before making the purchase, but many do not.

Prosecutors said that Tucker’s fraudulent sales resulted in consumers fielding phone calls and mail from debt collectors. Some of those consumers went ahead and paid the debts they did not actually owe.

Tucker’s scheme came to light in 2016 when bankruptcy judges around the country started noticing thousands of consumer bankruptcy cases where debt collectors were suddenly having a difficult time proving the validity of the debts they claimed they were owed by debtors.

One judge in Texas opened an investigation, which determined that the source of those suspicious claims was Tucker.

Tucker was brought down to Texas to explain himself in court. Prosecutors said Tucker lied repeatedly during his sworn testimony. The judge ordered Tucker to gather up documentation related to his debt files, but later realized that Tucker didn’t provide information asked of him or created fictional data that was given to the court.

The Texas judge referred the matter to the Justice Department.

Tom Kirkendall, a Houston lawyer who represented one of the debt buyers who got stuck with one of Tucker’s fake portfolios, said Tucker’s scheme was unusual.

“I’ve been practicing over 40 years, so I’ve seen a lot — I was very involved in the Enron case, so I’ve seen a lot,” Kirkendall said. “But Tucker was very brazen. He was definitely on the edge of the envelope. I don’t know what was driving him.”

Tucker even invoked his brother’s payday loan companies in creating his fake debt portfolios. One of Scott Tucker’s payday loan brand names was 500FastCash. The company received more than 1,000 complaints from people getting harassed by third-party debt collectors demanding repayment for bills they did not owe.

In all, Joel Tucker was paid $7.3 million for his worthless paper.

Prosecutors in their sentencing memo characterized Tucker as a serial liar who used his ill-gotten gains to fund a lavish lifestyle and behaved as though he would never face consequences for his actions.

They pointed out that Tucker owes $8 million to the IRS for unpaid taxes and has barely made any progress in repaying that bill, including not even one dollar paid in taxes on his income since 2014.

Tucker told an IRS agent he didn’t have money to pay the government, but investigators learned that he was making opulent purchases, like leases for luxury vehicles, chartering private jets, paying six-figure credit card bills and staying at high-end hotels in expensive locales, like Vail, Colorado.

“The United States has been trying to collect money from Tucker for well over a decade and Tucker has evaded paying at every turn,” the government’s memo says. “He has lied repeatedly, used shell companies and bank accounts to hide his money, used a friend to hide his money, and paid nothing while making millions from fraud.”

The Federal Trade Commission, a consumer watchdog agency, sued Tucker over his debt portfolio sales, resulting in a $4 million fine against him in 2017.

More recently, Tucker obtained a $20,833 loan from the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, created during the coronavirus pandemic last year to help businesses pay rent and keep employees on their payroll while the economy was devastated by the health emergency.

One of the questions applicants are required to answer is whether they’re under indictment when they seek the loan, which Tucker was when he applied for his. Tucker responded that he was not and received the proceeds, according to the prosecution’s memo.

Tucker’s lawyer, J.R. Hobbs, said in a memo that the judge should consider a sentence of 87 to 108 months, arguing that Tucker takes full responsibility of his actions. Hobbs’ memo said Tucker is caring for his mother, who has health issues, and provides for his two children.

“Mr. Tucker understands and regrets how his wrongdoing has affected his family, friends and the greater community,” Hobbs’ memo said, further requesting that Tucker enter into a prison treatment program for inmates with a history of using alcohol and drugs.

Hobbs did not respond to a request seeking comment about Tucker’s sentencing.

Tucker, in an email response to The Star, said his sentencing date was delayed, even though the court docket on Tuesday reflected a June 17 sentencing hearing, which was confirmed by a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

“We are still working on our part and have much more work to do,” Tucker said.