The $200 million deal allowed Curry to continue running the business in the background and saddled the tribe with insurmountable debt - just like what happened to many of American Web Loan’s customers. As loan repayments began and the company became flush, Curry reaped millions in profits and began seeking out investors to grow the business.Īmid federal and state crackdowns on “rent-a-tribe” operations starting in 2013, Curry eventually arranged with Shotton to sell the companies that ran American Web Loan to the Otoe-Missouria. Behind the scenes, court records reveal that Curry and his labyrinth of companies handled almost every aspect of American Web Loan’s operation. In 2009, Curry approached the chair of the Otoe-Missouria, John Shotton, to set up an online lending company under the tribe’s jurisdiction. (Lawyers for Curry and American Web Loan declined to comment on the record the preliminary settlement agreement prohibits all involved parties from speaking to the press.)

The case, which reached a preliminary settlement agreement in April, generated extensive discovery about American Web Loan’s business dealings over the last decade and provides an unprecedented look under the hood of a major “rent-a-tribe” operation, a once-popular financial services model among payday lenders and their Wall Street and Silicon Valley investors. Under the “sovereign nation model,” lenders pursued massive profits by partnering with tribes that have sovereign immunity and protection from legal action. “The tribe’s being, in effect, paid a royalty for your client to wear – what is it they call it? – the ermine cloak of sovereign immunity? That’s all it is.” said to American Web Loan’s attorney during a 2019 hearing. And he’s continuing to do that,” Judge Henry Coke Morgan Jr.

“If anything, he’s controlling the tribe. However, a judge ruled that American Web Loan had no claims to tribal sovereignty because it actually belonged to the tribe’s business partner, Mark Curry, who’s made a career out of predatory lending. The tribe’s sovereign status meant that the business would have immunity against state usury laws and civil suits.

American Web Loan claimed it could charge sky-high rates because it was owned by a Native tribe, the Otoe-Missouria. In 15 states the interest rates charged by American Web Loan were illegal in others where payday lenders can register with the state to seek exemptions, the company never has.

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