Attorneys for Leawood payday loan mogul ask judge to drop some charges

Attorneys for Scott Tucker want a federal judge to drop four criminal charges against the Leawood payday loan businessman, arguing that state laws regulating interest rates don’t apply to loans that Tucker’s businesses extended to consumers.

In a motion filed Tuesday, Tucker’s criminal defense attorneys asked a federal judge in New York to drop four of the nine criminal charges against the businessman and professional race car driver. Those four charges accuse Tucker of collecting on illegal debts through lending companies based on Native American reservations that charged higher interest rates than what many states allow.

A grand jury in New York indicted Tucker and his attorney, Timothy Muir, in February, saying both set up lending companies on tribal reservations to evade state limits on usury laws. The arrangement, federal prosecutors charge, resulted in a $2 billion business that exploited 4.5 million consumers.

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