Texas Payday Loan Company Accused of Illegally Targeting Military Personnel

Historical archive, first published 2006 — payday-lending laws and rates have changed since. Preserved for the record.

Military payday loans - in this case, illegal ones - continue to dominate the news. 

An El Paso judge has frozen the assets of a payday loan business as part of a lawsuit by state officials. Investigators claim the company is really a loan-sharking operation targeting military personnel.

State Commissioner of Consumer Credit Leslie Pettijohn accused the owner of Advance Internet and Texas Advance Internet of making short-term cash advance loans at inflated interest rates.
The 21-page lawsuit was filed in El Paso last week. It claims that owner John A. Gill charged as much as 782 percent interest and offered Internet service as a perk for doing business with the company - which was not licensed in Texas.

The suit also charges that the Alabama man targeted military personnel by putting his fast payday loan stores close to military bases in El Paso, Coryell, Bell and Bexar counties.