It’s easy to get into the debt-buying business, he explained, as the show did so by creating a company called Central Asset Recovery Professionals, Inc.
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The company, which he named Central Asset Recovery Professionals – or C.A.R.P., “after the bottom-feeding fish” – purchased nearly $15 million in medical debt for just $60,000.
Oliver bought the debt by starting a company online for $50, which he then registered in Mississippi. The show set up its own company to acquire $15 million worth of debt owed to hospitals in Texas, paying $60,000.
Instead of choosing to capitalize on the debt portfolio, Oliver chose to immediately forgive the debt “because on one hand it’s obviously the right thing to do but more importantly we’d be staging the largest one-time giveaway in television history”.
Oliver called it the “largest one-time giveaway in television history”, trumping Oprah Winfrey’s vehicle giveaway in 2004.
As a result, consumers can find themselves being sued for debt they don’t recognize, out-of-statute debt (“debt that’s so old you can no longer be sued for it”, Oliver notes), debt that they’d already paid off or debt they took care of in bankruptcy.
Until we stopped collecting donations a year ago, we used the $700 thousand we raised to erase over $30 million in predatory medical and tuition debt and more, as well as helping to abolish over $800 million in a class action settlement. By buying and forgiving this debt, Oliver said the title of most generous host now belonged to him. For that amount, Oliver’s show got access to 9,000 people’s personal information, including names, home addresses and social security numbers.
Oliver’s show engages in a form of investigative comedy, this week examining an overlooked industry. Oprah gave away $8 million in cars.
Instead of hounding people to pay off their debt, he made a decision to go the other way.
The $15 million in medical debt was transferred to RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit that forgives medical debt with no tax consequences.
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According to the Federal Trade Commission, debt collectors generate more complaints to their office than any other industry, and while many debt collectors operate within the law, others resort to intimidation and harassment in pursuit of payment.
