BUFFALO?Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced a settlement with Joseph Bella, the operator of several debt collection companies in the Buffalo area, for illegally collecting on payday loans, violating the privacy of consumers by soliciting their personal information through employers, and sending letters that purported to be from an attorney in order to collect. Bella will pay $165,000 in restitution and penalties and be ordered to substantially change his business practices.

?Across the state, we?ve worked aggressively to ensure that debt collectors who exploit desperate consumers and break the law pay a price for their behavior. In this case, we?re pleased that consumers who paid on payday loans will receive full restitution and that Bella will receive heavy penalties,? said Attorney General Schneiderman. ?With this action and many others, my office will continue to fight to protect New Yorkers from illegal business practices and stop companies that seek to prey upon consumers facing tough economic times."

Since November 2008, Joseph Bella has operated various debt collection companies in the Buffalo area, including Check Systems, LLC; Interchex Systems, LLC; Goldberg Maxwell, LLC; Mullins & Kane, LLC; Morgan Jackson, LLC, and National Check Registry, LLC, that the Attorney General found had repeatedly violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Bella operated several of these companies on a one-at-a-time basis for very short periods, usually for less than six months. Then, he would shut the companies down and began operations under a new name.

Bella?s debt collection companies routinely sent Verification of Employment forms to the employers of consumers. Federal law, however, strictly prohibits debt collectors from communicating with employers except to obtain location information about the employee. Bella?s debt collection companies illegally sought information about consumers, including their consumer's Social Security numbers, hourly wages, dates of hire, and information on whether their consumer's wages were being garnished. The form improperly implied that the Bella debt collection companies would garnish the wages of consumers even though they had never obtained judgments against the consumers and, therefore, had no authority to do so.

Bella?s debt collection companies also routinely violated the law by sending letters to consumers under the name of an attorney, M. Robert Madia. Madia, however, did not have any direct personal involvement in the sending of the letters; had not reviewed the consumers' files before the letters were sent; had not determined that the letters should be sent, and did not know the identities of the consumers to whom the letters had been sent. Indeed, despite the fact that Bella terminated Madia in November 2012, as late as February 2013, one of his companies continued to send letters to consumers from Faith Galloway, Legal Assistant, that, according to the letters, were copied to the terminated Madia.

Finally, Bella?s companies collected on, or attempted to collect on, payday loans from New York State residents. Payday loans are a type of short-term borrowing in which an individual borrows a small amount at a very high rate of interest, often 450 percent or more. These loans are also called cash advance loans or check advance loans. Payday loans are illegal in New York State.

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorneys General James Morrissey and Michael Russo, and Senior Consumer Frauds Representative Karen Davis, under the supervision of Martin J. Mack, Executive Deputy Attorney General for Regional Affairs.

M. Robert Madia II is a real attorney who is duly licensed and who works in good faith, at all times.

He's a scumbag. I got a hold of his personal cell phone number about a year ago and gave him s***....felt good....

Awe.... http://reputationbuild.wix.com/reputationmanagement# doesn't seem to be there anymore either...I guess "Rob" is trying to clean up his tracks??

Well, I know he is reading this now. His FP page is either blocked or taken down.... makes me smile inside :)

http://www.bookedin.net/mrm-attorneys-at-law

He also has another "office" in grand island under MRM title and phone number and sounds like he uses a California friend to help out (Mark Borden)....the below link shows what people think of Mr Borden:
http://www.lawyerratingz.com/ratings/12279/Lawyer+Mark-Borden.html

Birds of a feather flock together...

In case you are wondering, the address is a single family residential home
http://www.trulia.com/homes/New_York/Grand_Is ... Island-NY-14072
http://www.spokeo.com/River+Rd+Grand+Island+NY+addresses#469915661 shows that the Madias live there too.....Nice little getaway on the water

http://reputationbuild.wix.com/reputationmanagement#

And a Trademarkia search shows that there is NOT a valid trademak on the term Reputation Management....So, lets's get this straight. A "seasoned" attorney who works all angles of the JDB community as well as president of a Boiler repair facility/CEO of a construction conpany/Professional Hockey Player/DJ/Law Instructor/PR Specialist/Winner of awards/ Slayer of Dragons, for some reason tries to lend credence to his site by claiming a trade mark that doesn't exist.

Why? Has he not sucked enough money out of the public's teet? It's funny that his FB page background photo says "Karma"...One day (hopefully soon) Karma truly will come back on this person

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=10919

And again, on several sites he is so proud of the fact(?) that he played with the Gulls in 99 (really 96-97) and set a "record" for "100% goals made" when he only played 1 game....POS

I'm going to go out on a limb here and even suggest that American Mutual Holdings, NCR, Lippes Mathias and Wexler, and Rob Madia are all so entertwined, they may be the same entity?

I am now on a mission to tie them all together and send all of my findings to the NY SAG office. The Erie County Commisioners Office is a useless puppet in the Junk Debt Buyer scam being ran from his County (or maybe he is part of it too?)

Any info you can post or find will help me on my mission to squash these parasites.

https://profiles.google.com/vestigeconsulting#vestigeconsulting/about

Another omission from the resume, Entertainment Law Instructor...all while attending a DJ school.....Too Cool!!

https://www.facebook.com/madia.esq#!/madia.esq/photos_stream

and I can tell from his FB pics that he is someone I would want representing ME in court...A 42 yo man with a skate punk haircut, nice

And Mr Madia,
So you can't say I am an anonymous blogger trying to poison the internet or defame you, my contact info is on the package and letter that was sent to NCR, Christian Lovelace,and your home on 9/7/2012 via Fedex (Robert Tucker)

http://reputationbuild.wix.com/reputationmanagement#

And while we are at it (and yes, this man DOES get under my skin and yes, I DO think he is a snake oil salesman), take a look at the "reputation management" business he set up using his MRM Attorneys at Law phone number (which we now know is ran from his fathers Boiler facility of which he is listed as the President)...at the top he calls mimself Attorney while in the body of the sales pitch he calls himself a PR specialist. He promises "Join us today and get access to an experienced FDCPA compliance officer, experienced attorney network, public relations expert, IT specialist, web development team, and the latest state-of-the-art document automation technology"(again, all from a run down shack built in the '20s and a warehouse, or perhaps from the cab of one of the tractors to the side of the house....another proof of Jack of all trades...

http://www.debtinterchange.com/#!porfolio-listings/c1jhd
I am also looking at this Debt Interchange thing and trying to figure out if he is part owner or just the legal counsel, but either way, he truly is at the heart of the junk debt buyers. Getting paid by the people who buy old debt then sell them to collectors who hire him (or his signature) to try and seem official...THEN he starts a company to offer PR services for the same people paying him for his signature....A TRUE work of art!!

And FYI, in 2004, 80 percent of first time takers passed the New York bar exam.....So his claim to fame of passing on the first try doesn't sound so incredible now, does it?

http://businessprofiles.com/details/brown-bea ... -madia-41-colum
Mr Madia left being Chairman / CEO of BROWN BEAR CONSTRUCTION CORP out of his resume, didn't he?

http://archives.buffalorising.com/story/nicholson_hall_corporation_cha
Or that ,according to this article from 2008, he is President and CEO of Nicholson & Hall ( a boiler repair company)

http://www.img-solution.com/#!complaint/c220j
Or his work for Infinity Management Group (another Buffalo junk debt collector)

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=s ... P20060522104719
Or that in 2006 he was filing patents as The Madia Firm LLC

So, it appears that Mr Madia is a Jack of all trades. He was so gracious as to give us a resume online but seems to have left some things out....He runs a legitimate law firm out of his fathers Boiler plant? That's true multitasking at its best!

Bottom line and the last I will say about this is: If you get a document with this man's signature on it, know the source and take it for what its worth (less than the paper its printed on). There are a number of lawyers in Erie County who sell themselves (or their signatures) to the 150+ junk debt collectors in the area to get a dime. Shame on them...

http://www.spokeo.com/Columbia+St+Buffalo+NY+addresses#775303321

This is MRM Attorneys at Law's address!!! LOL!!! I KNEW that address looked familiar as other debt collectors in that area have used it in the past....

So all I can say is "legit, or not?"

I also want to point out that Mr Madia's resume says that he has worked for NCR from 2004 to 2012....which is funny since NCR didn't exist until June of 2012.

Little things that make you question his validity

One last lil' tidbit.
Robert Madia states he played for the San Diego Gulls in 98. A search of the Gulls rosters from 96-99 (giving him leeway for typos) http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=10919 shows that he did play for them from 96-97 with no playoff stats (so assume he didn't play in the playoffs).

Also of note is the extensive sports career! Alabama, Florida, Dallas, Sacremento, San Diego. He was VERY Busy, all while getting awards for scholastic excelence (and junk)....Which I am still researching...


http://reputationbuild.wix.com/reputationmanagement#!untitled/cngp Also, Mr Madia's resume shows a 7 year hiatus (98-2005) from practice. Why would he do that? and also, he was the "house" legal counsel for NCR from 2006-2012. All the while heading MRM

When things don't add up, one must rethink the math. So Mr/Mrs Non-Hater (employee of http://reputationbuild.wix.com/reputationmanagement# ?), if ya love him so much, why dontcha marry him

http://reputationbuild.wix.com/reputationmanagement#

This is the site he is using to "re-brand" himself. They overload the web with good info to counter any of teh negative put out there....The fact remains that prior to Dec of 2012 there was no MRM or what have you. He allows his name to be used by the Buffalo Area junk debt collectors (which I have outlined in previous posts.

If he tuly is legit, he and Mr lovelace should be putting their skills to work to protect people from companies like NCR

AHHHH! So I see he did set something up on the net and DOES have an address in Buffalo now. Funny that it wasn't there 6 months ago....Anywho, I see from his website (set up in 2012, So yo KNOW its legit!) that he workd for the "agrieved consumer" LOL...

WOW....

Mr Madia may be a smart man. He may be a great lawyer (somewhere). But the fact remains that he has no office in Buffalo. The closest you can find is a disconnected Cingular phone.

He does appear to have a business in San Diego working with the recording industry (??) and I wish him nothing but luck. If he chooses to be part of the Buffalo Debt Collector scam, then shame on him

M Robert Madia II went to one of the nations top ranked law schools and then passed the NY bar on his first attempt. He works hard for a living. Any chance you could NOT promote that he is a scam?

University Of San Diego School Of Law
Licensed member of state bar of New York focused on accounts receivable management and commercial litigation


http://reputationbuild.wix.com/attorneys

Received a call from a Mr. Sanchez, stating we owed money for payday loans from 2009.  We have never even taken out a payday loan.  In addition, they called family members, threatening them with federal charges.  Not sure how they got any of these numbers.  Also, they could not even give me an amount we supposedly owed.  He was willing to settle, if I gave him my banking info.  Must think we are all stupid.  Said he would e-mail me info, but have not received anything.  Something needs to be done about these scammers!

BURN IN HELL

This has to be a scam
As I am now reading the method of payment and it states:

For payment purposes we accept major credit cards or bank to bank wirs, ONLY
What a joke !!!!!!!!

Furthermore the charges will apear as
american mutual holding, inc

From I read on some other sites about this suppose comapny NCR. Why did they mail this bogus letter to me???

The NCR trademark on the letterhead looks like it was cut and pasted???

I received a letter in the mail yesterday from a company called National Check Registery,LLC in Buffalo NY 268 Main st suite 100..
On the letter was the  word DRAFT printed on it and it states" Draft complaint" State of NY ,City of Brooklyn Small Claims BUT no Index # nor a docket #.


Regarding some Orginial lender by the name of BMG??? In the amount of Balance due $580.50 and a settlement amount of $430 and another letter with a orginal amount of $688.50 and a setllement amount of $510.
I know I paid my payday loans back in 2009 and 2010. What is the BMG group.
From what I am reading this is another scam???
Please advise.
So I know how to proceed either with my lawyer, FTC and Attorney General's office to file a complaint

Hey Steve
Dont pay them It is a scam

Got a letter in the mail from a company called NCR. The letterhead looks like someone pasted it???

Anyway it's on some type of legal draft letter showing a company by the name of BMG that I owe 650, BUT they will settle this amount for $438.
I had a payday loan that I paid in full back in 2010 (I kept all the paperwork, cancelled check, etc...) Now this company is sedning me this garbage. Should I call them??? From what I am reading above it is NOT a legimate company and it appears to be a scam.
Please advise.
Thank you all.

I also received a letter from them on 11/15/12Stating I owed on two payday loans from 2009 and 2010 which I paid off in full.
I don't like that they have my full SS#, but I will not be calling them back.They have the letter written NOTICE OF DEMAND, VERIFICATION OF DEBT & OFFER OF SETTLEMENT in some legal format that says draft complaint. And yes the M Robert Madia, II name is on their as the lawyer.
The orginial creditors name is BMG??? That was not the companies name when I borrowed the money and paid
DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY INFORMATION ESPECIALLY YOUR BANKING INFO