PALATINE, Ill., Oct. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Businessman Dean Tucci is challenging a $43.24 million federal judgment in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, calling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) case an extraordinary example of government overreach.

The judgment includes $2.1 million in consumer restitution and a staggering $41.1 million civil penalty.

“This is beyond ridiculous,” said Tucci. “The CFPB sued a tax prep and accounting firm that was no longer in business that when operating employed tax attorneys, tax accountants, and IRS Enrolled Agents. When there was no one to legally defend the firm in court, they obtained a default judgment against the company – without ever having to prove any of their allegations and then pursued me personally for more than 5 years for a self-calculated ridiculous fine of $43 million on a business that did $2 million in sales over 3 years.”

FDATR, was an acronym for Federal Debt and Tax Relief and provided tax prep and resolution services and also did a small portion of the business helping students prepare docs to get their student loans out of default.

“The company worked hand in hand with the Department of Education,” Tucci said, “and provided students with help getting out of default and also assisted with wage garnishments and getting tax refunds released.”

Tucci sold the company in 2017 to Kenneth Halverson. FDATR closed in May of 2019 and then dissolved in September 2020, before the CFPB filed suit.

“When I owned the company, the student loan doc prep portion of FDATR was never a money maker – the fees ranged from $99 to $600, Tucci stated, “but I decided to keep providing these services because it was helping students get their life back in order – plus it returned money to the Federal Government when they started to make payments again.”

In November of 2020, the CFPB sued the closed FDATR, Inc.; Ken Halverson and Dean Tucci personally for alleged violations of the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule banning advance fees put in place in 2010 for credit card debt settlement firms. However, the Rule specifically stated that Tax Prep firms were exempt – which FDATR was. The suit also alleged that FDATR was providing credit repair services because of one line on its website that stated you could improve your credit score if your student loan was moved out of default.

On November 20, 2020, the CFPB served the last owner of FDATR, Ken Halverson, at his home. 62 minutes after he was served he tragically died by suicide. In addition, when the CFPB served him, he was no longer an officer of the company as it was dissolved 2 months prior and Illinois law clearly states that you have to serve an officer or a registered agent of a dissolved company of which Halverson was neither.

“The CFPB then dropped the case against the now deceased Halverson and continued the lawsuit against the defunct company, but it had no one defending it, and I was told by the courts I couldn’t represent the company because I no longer owned it. The CFPB also made claim that I ignored the matter, however, I was not legally able to do anything on the matter,” Tucci stated.

The CFPB then obtained a default judgement against FDATR, again without ever proving any of its allegations of violating the TSR Advance Fee law and then spent the next 5 years looking to move the default judgement over to Tucci personally.

Tucci also challenges in his appeal the CFPB’s reliance on customer database records to support its extraordinary monetary fine calculations.

Tucci stated, “Half of the $41 million fine was calculated for allegedly taking advance fees and the other half was for allegedly acting as a credit repair agency, however, each client signed a limited power of attorney for us to begin work and the first paragraph of that agreement clearly stated in writing the company did not provide debt relief services and would not correct entries on client credit reports.”

According to the appellate arguments, the CFPB identified approximately 6,046 paying customers in the FDATR database, however, Tucci maintains that in his Appeal that they failed to establish what each customer actually purchased nor did they match it against any bank records.

“We sold tax prep and resolution services along with student loan doc prep services,” Tucci stated, “in addition, the student loan doc prep clients made small monthly payments like $99 a month and most of the work was completed in 1-2 months but they calculated payments made after the services were completed as advance fees. In addition, every customer who paid for services received what they purchased and for the small amount that could not be helped, we refunded.”

The CFPB did identify 20 complaints in the database of 6046 records – which amounted to 1/3 of 1 percent of its customers, however, not one FDATR client ever filed a complaint with the CFPB.

“This case has dragged on for almost 6 years, Tucci stated, and has cost enormous legal expenses and devastating reputational damage, and while the CFPB dropped cases against major banks like Chase, Bank of America and Capital One in the last year, they have still relentlessly gone after me.”

“Forty-three million dollars. No trial. A dissolved company. A dead business partner. And they then put out a press release calling my appeal frivolous,” Tucci stated.

Case: CFPB v. FDATR, Inc. and Dean Tucci, Seventh Circuit No. 25-2607.

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SOURCE Dean Tucci