Give payday lender 20 years, U.S. says

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge in New York to sentence Leawood, Kan., businessman Scott Tucker to no less than 20 years in prison for his conviction of running a criminal payday-lending enterprise.

In a sentencing memorandum filed Friday, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said Tucker’s years-long practice of charging illegal interest rates, laundering the proceeds and evading law enforcement warranted 20 years or more in prison.

In relation to his $2 billion enterprise that federal prosecutors said exploited 4.5 million consumers, Tucker was convicted in October of 14 criminal charges including racketeering. He is scheduled for sentencing on Friday.

In seeking a lengthy sentence, prosecutors wrote that Tucker had a “lack of insight” into the criminal conduct of his business.

Attorneys representing Tucker asked for no more than 15 years in prison, a term they said would be appropriate and allow the 55-year-old “to have a meaningful life beyond incarceration.”

Prosecutors are seeking at least 10 years for Tucker’s attorney and co-defendant, Tim Muir, who was also convicted at trial of the same charges as Tucker. Muir, an Australian citizen who moved to the United States as a 7-year-old, faces deportation when his prison sentence ends.