Frampton (Ted) Rowland III, payday lending figure, dies at 52

Frampton (Ted) Rowland III, who was accused of participating in an illegal payday lending scheme, has died. He was 52.

Rowland died Monday, according to an obituary published Friday. The funeral mass will take place at St. Ann Catholic Church in Prairie Village. A 2013 story in the The Pitch described how the sudden wealth of families who made money in payday lending became source of tension in the St. Ann Parish community.

Last year, Rowland and Tim Coppinger reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission after the agency accused them of bilking millions of dollars from consumers by trapping them in unauthorized loans. Rowland faced a $22 million judgment that was suspended upon surrender of certain assets.

The FTC alleged that Coppinger, Rowland and their companies used lead generators and data brokers to obtain financial information from people who had applied online for payday loans. After depositing money in the applicants’ bank accounts, Coppinger, Rowland and the companies collected finance charges without any of the payments going to pay down the principal owed, according to the FTC. If consumers closed their bank accounts, the FTC said, the defendants often sold the bogus loans to debt buyers, who then harassed consumers for payment.

Rowland’s death arrives at a time of reckoning for Kansas City’s cadre of payday lending moguls.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered Scott Tucker of Leawood and others to pay the FTC $1.3 billion for deceptive payday lending activities. The order is the largest litigated judgment ever obtained by the FTC. (Tucker also faces criminal charges in New York.) James Carnes of Mission Hills is appealing a recent recommendation that he and his company pay $38.1 million in restitution for promoting what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says are illegal payday loans.

Rowland was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in August, according to Prairie Village police. A cause of death has not been made public.

Blaine Tucker, a brother of Scott Tucker, committed suicide in 2014. His estate was party to a $21-million settlement reached with the FTC last year.