NY FELLS MONTEL

Fines 1,300%- interest payday loan firm $ 2.1M

Money talks — unless you’re Montel Williams.

The former talk show host can no longer hawk Money Mutual’s payday loans in the Empire State after the company was slapped for illegally marketing the highinterest shortterm loans to struggling New Yorkers.

The company will pay a $ 2.1 million fine, stop its online “lead generation” business in the state and provide additional disclosures to customers as part of a settlement Tuesday with the Department of Financial Services.

Williams’ advocating payday loans puts him in a long line of celebrities hawking financial products — from Kim Kardashian and Suze Orman selling prepaid debit cards to the late Gary Coleman promoting quick loans on TV commercials — many of which have been pulled fromthe market after an outcry over the high fees attached to them.

“Montel Williams should be ashamed of himself,” Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told The Post.

“It would be incredibly foolish to make any consumer purchases based on the fact that a celebrity has endorsed a product,” he added.

Money Mutual, which is the business name of Selling Source, sold personal information of about 800,000 New Yorkers to companies making online payday loans, which are banned in New York, the DFS said.

“Using Mr. Williams’s reputation as a trusted celebrity endorser, Money Mutual marketed loans to struggling consumers with skyhigh interest rates — sometimes in excess of 1,300 percent — that trapped New Yorkers in destructive cycles of debt,” Ben Lawsky, superintendent of the DFS, said in a statement.

Williams, whose talk show ended in 2008, has fronted for the company in commercials since at least 2010.

“It’s your trusted source to over 60 lenders to get you up to a thousand dollars fast,” Williams, 58, said in the ads. Money Mutual would even be able to give borrowers “breathing room ’ til payday,” he said.

Williams left out that annual interest rates could climb as high as 82 times the legal limit in New York, and that the firm targeted repeat customers for the usurious loans, the DFS said.

“The DFS has made no finding of a violation of law by Williams, and the agreement does not require him to pay any fines or penalties. Williams and his staff have cooperated fully with the DFS throughout the course of the investigation,” said Jonathan Franks, Williams’ spokesman, in a statement.