9/11 Heroes, NFL Players 'Scammed' Out Of Settlement Money, Feds Say

A New Jersey company targeted 9/11 first responders and NFL concussion victims and scammed them out of millions of dollars in settlement money, according to a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

RD Legal Funding, based in Cresskill, New Jersey, drew up confusing contracts that they said would help victims get their settlement money quicker, the lawsuit said. Victims were then charged much more than they had received "only months earlier," according to a press release from the attorney general, Eric Schneiderman.

Schneiderman and the protection bureau are suing RD Legal and Roni Dersovitz, the company's founder and owner, asking for monetary relief for victims, civil penalties for RD Legal and for contracts to be voided.

“The alleged actions by RD Legal—scamming 9/11 heroes and former NFL players struggling with severe injuries—are simply shameful. RD Legal used deceptive tactics to charge unlawfully high interest rates for advances on settlement and compensation funds, allowing them to profit off the backs of these unsuspecting individuals," Schneiderman said in a statement.

In an email to Patch, an attorney representing RD Legal called the claims "outrageous and without merit."

First responders to the September 11 terrorist attacks have suffered cancer, respiratory diseases and post-traumatic stress disorder after their work on that day and in the days after. So the government set up the Zadroga Fund to pay for medical expenses and loss of income for these heroes.

Some former NFL players also won a major settlement after a class-action lawsuit alleged that the league tried to hide the dangers of head injuries.

In big settlements such as these, there is often a gap between the time money is awarded and when victims actually receive it.

RD Legal, Schneiderman's office said, contacted these first responders and former football players during that in-between period and offered them "an upfront payment" they were to pay back once the full settlement was received. Instead, victims were sometimes charged "more than twice" as much as they were advanced, the lawsuit says.

In one example, a woman was awarded $65,000 from the government fund, Schneiderman's office said. RD advanced her $18,000, and when she got her full settlement she had to pay RD $33,000, the office said. She was not named.

“It is unconscionable that RD Legal scammed 9/11 heroes and NFL concussion victims out of millions of dollars,” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray said in a statement. “We allege that this company and its owner lined their pockets with funds intended to cover medical care and other critical expenses for people who are sick and sidelined. Our lawsuit seeks to end this illegal scheme and get money back to those entitled to receive it.”

RD Legal told Patch the deals struck with these victims were not loans.

"The claims made today by the CFPB and NYAG misunderstand and falsely characterize clear documents with those parties as 'loans,' and falsely state that RDLF is 'scamming' the affected parties when it did nothing more than provide immediate liquidity – in the form of an arm’s length transaction – to people who voluntarily sought the benefits of early funding," David K. Willingham, an attorney for RD Legal, told Patch by email.

Willingham said it had sued the New York attorney general and the consumer protection bureau in January for "engaging in an inappropriate overreach of their legal authority."

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