Long prison term sought in payday lending case

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 for running a criminal payday lending enterprise.

In a sentencing memorandum filed Dec. 29, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said Tucker’s yearslong practice of charging illegal interest rates, laundering the proceeds and evading law enforcement warranted 20 years or more in prison.

Tucker, 55, was convicted in October of 14 criminal charges including racketeering. He is scheduled for sentencing on Friday.

“It is one thing for a defendant who chose to go to trial to maintain his innocence and refuse to accept responsibility for his conduct,” the government’s sentencing memorandum reads. “But a defendant who is so completely lacking in basic honesty, who is willing to brazenly contradict evidence seen by the court at his trial, and who is apparently surrounded by people who aid his persistent efforts to divert responsibility and blame others, poses a particular threat to a public that needs to be protected from his schemes.”

Tucker, who initially made his name as a professional race car driver, was the businessman behind a host of online payday lending operations that were set up on American Indian reservations but operated in large part out of Overland Park, Kan.