Mark Curry named his payday company after a shell company in the movie Wall Street, and other revelations from yesterday’s Bloomberg story

Those interested in Kansas City’s lamentable role in the dark world of online predatory lending should hop on over to Bloomberg and read yesterday’s story about the relationship among Mark Curry’s various businesses, the Otoe-Missouria tribe in Oklahoma, and Wall Street.

It’s an increasingly common practice in the online lending industry to partner with Native American tribes, who enjoy sovereign immunity. States can’t sue them for usury violations. Essentially, the people who control these operations, like Curry, hide behind the tribes and pay them a small cut of their revenue. The tribes, often impoverished, are usually eager to accept any arrangement that provides a financial infusion.

Though Curry’s payday roots are in Kansas City — he was an original partner in LTS Management before breaking off and starting his own online lending operation, Geneva Roth — he has since moved to Las Vegas and Puerto Rico. He is also the founder of the Online Lenders Association, which, the story notes, is trying to raise $9 million from members for litigation, lobbying and public relations in fighting the government’s ongoing crackdown on their industry. 

Among the story’s other revelations: 

*The lending operation consists of four double-wide trailers behind a casino in Red Rock, Oklahoma.
*Curry’s new operation, MacFarlane Group, generates more than $100 million a year in revenue. 
*Curry is funded by a Wall Street hedge fund called Medley Opportunity Fund II LP.
*Curry calls himself a “consultant.”
*Curry named Geneva-Roth, his first company, after a shell company in the movie Wall Street.

There’s much more. Read it here.