Maurice Sessum, $31M Debt Collection Scheme, NY 2024

Buffalo’s dirty secret has finally been dragged into federal court: Maurice Sessum, 40, of Buffalo, New York, the co-owner, chief financial officer, and chief operating officer of a debt collection operation, pleaded guilty to orchestrating a $31 million fraud scheme that terrorized thousands of victims across the country. Using false threats, fake legal documents, and outright lies, Sessum and his criminal enterprise extracted payments from consumers who owed little or nothing—funded by fear, not facts.

Sessum’s operation, run through four Buffalo-based offices, was a machine of deception. Between 2010 and February 2015, he and co-owner Travell Thomas inflated consumer debt balances in their software, then unleashed debt collectors armed with fraudulent scripts. These scripts instructed callers to lie—claiming arrests were imminent, warrants would be issued, and legal action already underway. The goal wasn’t collection. It was coercion.

Jimmy Stokes, 39, of Charlotte, North Carolina, a manager in the scheme, also pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. Stokes personally threatened victims, telling them he’d have bench warrants issued and that he wasn’t calling from a collection agency—despite being deep inside one. He faces up to 20 years in prison and is scheduled for sentencing on May 18, 2017.

Another manager, Tacoby Thomas, 34, of unknown residence, wasn’t given the chance to plead. He was sentenced today to 70 months in federal prison for his role in the scam. Thomas impersonated a process server from a fictional outfit called “U.S. Couriers,” falsely accused victims of “check fraud,” and claimed to be calling from an “arbitration firm.” These weren’t rogue actors. They were trained liars in a system built on fraud.

From January 2010 to November 2014, the company raked in over $31 million from terrified consumers. Of that, $1.5 million was paid directly in cash to Sessum and Travell Thomas. Another $1.4 million was pulled from banks and ATMs, while tens of thousands more vanished into Sessum’s personal accounts—funded by fear, laundered through shell tactics.

All 14 defendants charged in the scheme have now pleaded guilty, marking the end of what U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called “the largest debt collection scheme ever prosecuted.” Sessum is set for sentencing on March 1, 2017, at 3:00 p.m. before Judge Katherine Polk Failla. The fallout continues, but the message is clear: when fraud becomes a business model, federal prison becomes the endgame.

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