The Predatory Lending Machine Crushing Small Businesses Across America
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How an obscure legal document turned New Yorkâs court system into a debt-collection machine thatâs chewing up small businesses across America.
一份不起眼的法律文件如何将纽约法院系统变成一台追债机器，吞噬美国各地的小企业。
Look out, the stranger on the phone warned.
“小心点，”电话里的陌生人警告道。
Theyâre coming for you.
他们来找你了。
The caller had Janelle Duncanâs attention.
来电者引起了珍妮尔·邓肯的注意。
Perpetually peppy at 53, with sparkly jewelry and a glittery manicure, Duncan was running a struggling Florida real estate agency with her husband, Doug.
53 岁的邓肯永远精力充沛，戴着闪闪发光的珠宝，做着闪闪发光的美甲，她和丈夫道格一起经营着佛罗里达州一家陷入困境的房地产经纪公司。
She began each day in prayer, a vanilla latte in her hand and her Maltese Shih Tzu, Coco, on her lap, asking God for business to pick up.
她每天都以祈祷开始，手里拿着一杯香草拿铁，腿上放着她的马耳他西施犬可可，祈求上帝让生意好起来。
Sheâd answered the phone that Friday morning in January hoping it would be a new client looking for a home in the Tampa suburbs.
一月份的那个星期五早上，她接了电话，希望是一位在坦帕郊区寻找住房的新客户。
The man identified himself as a debt counselor.
该男子自称是债务顾问。
He described a bizarre legal proceeding that he said was targeting Duncan without her knowledge.
他描述了一个奇怪的法律程序，他说该程序是在邓肯不知情的情况下针对她的。
A lender called ABC had filed a court judgment against her in the state of New York and was planning to seize her possessions.
一家名为 ABC 的贷方已在纽约州向法院提交了针对她的判决，并计划没收她的财产。
âIâm not sure if they already froze your bank accounts, but they are RIGHT NOW moving to do just that,â heâd written in an email earlier that day.
“我不确定他们是否已经冻结了你的银行账户，但他们现在正在采取行动，”他在当天早些时候的一封电子邮件中写道。
He described the lender as âEXTREMLY AGGRESSIVE.â Her only hope, the man said, was to pull all her money out of the bank immediately.
他形容贷款人“极其咄咄逼人”。该男子说，她唯一的希望就是立即从银行取出所有钱。
His story sounded fishy to the Duncans.
邓肯夫妇觉得他的故事很可疑。
They had borrowed $36,762 from a company called ABC Merchant Solutions LLC, but as far as they knew they were paying the money back on schedule.
他们从一家名为 ABC Merchant Solutions LLC 的公司借了 36,762 美元，但据他们所知，他们正在按计划偿还这笔钱。
Doug dialed his contact there and was assured all was well.
道格拨通了那里的联系人，并确信一切都很好。
They checked with a lawyer; he was skeptical, too.
他们咨询了律师；他也持怀疑态度。
What kind of legal system would allow all that to happen 1,000 miles away without notice or a hearing?
什么样的法律制度会允许这一切发生在 1000 英里之外而不需要通知或听证会？
They shrugged off the warning as a scam.
他们对这个警告不屑一顾，认为这是一个骗局。
But the caller was who he said he was, and everything he predicted came true.
但来电者就是他所说的那个人，他所预言的一切都成真了。
The following Monday, Doug logged in at the office to discover he no longer had access to his bank accounts.
接下来的周一，道格登录办公室，发现他无法再访问自己的银行账户。
A few days on, $52,886.93 disappeared from one of them.
几天后，其中一台手机上消失了 52,886.93 美元。
The loss set off a chain of events that culminated a month later in financial ruin.
这次损失引发了一系列事件，最终在一个月后导致了财务破产。
Not long after her agency went bankrupt, Janelle collapsed and was rushed to the hospital, vomiting bile.
就在她的经纪公司破产后不久，珍妮尔晕倒了，被送往医院，吐出胆汁。
As the Duncans soon learned, tens of thousands of contractors, florists, and other small-business owners nationwide were being chewed up by the same legal process.
邓肯夫妇很快了解到，全国数以万计的承包商、花店和其他小企业主正在受到同样的法律程序的制裁。
Behind it all was a group of financiers who lend money at interest rates higher than those once demanded by Mafia loan sharks.
这一切的背后是一群金融家，他们以高于黑手党高利贷者曾经要求的利率放贷。
Rather than breaking legs, these lenders have co-opted New Yorkâs court system and turned it into a high-speed debt-collection machine.
这些贷方并没有断腿，而是选择了纽约的法院系统，并将其变成高速追债机器。
Government officials enable the whole scheme.
政府官员支持整个计划。
A few are even getting rich doing it.
有些人甚至因此致富。
The lendersâ weapon of choice is an arcane legal document called a confession of judgment.
贷款人选择的武器是一份神秘的法律文件，称为判决书。
Before borrowers get a loan, they have to sign a statement giving up their right to defend themselves if the lender takes them to court.
在借款人获得贷款之前，他们必须签署一份声明，如果贷方将他们告上法庭，他们将放弃为自己辩护的权利。
Itâs like an arbitration agreement, except the borrower always loses.
这就像一份仲裁协议，只不过借款人总是输家。
Armed with a confession, a lender can, without proof, accuse borrowers of not paying and legally seize their assets before they know whatâs happened.
有了供述，贷款人就可以在没有证据的情况下指责借款人不付款，并在他们知道发生了什么之前合法地扣押他们的资产。
Not surprisingly, some lenders have abused this power.
毫不奇怪，一些贷方滥用了这一权力。
In dozens of interviews and court pleadings, borrowers describe lenders whoâve forged documents, lied about how much they were owed, or fabricated defaults out of thin air.
在数十次采访和法庭诉状中，借款人描述了贷款人伪造文件、谎报欠款金额或凭空捏造违约的情况。
âSomebody just comes in and rips everything out,â Doug said one evening in August, pulling up a stool at a Starbucks and recounting the events that killed the Duncansâ business.
“有人进来，把所有东西都撕掉了，”道格在八月的一个晚上说道，他在星巴克拉起一张凳子，讲述了那些扼杀邓肯生意的事件。
After a long day spent selling houses for another company, the name tag pinned to his shirt had flipped upside down like a distress signal.
在为另一家公司出售房屋一整天后，他衬衫上别着的名牌上下颠倒了，就像求救信号一样。
âItâs cannibalized our whole life.â
“它蚕食了我们的一生。”
Confessions of judgment have been part of English common law since the Middle Ages, intended as a way to enforce debts without the fuss and expense of trial.
自中世纪以来，判决自白一直是英国普通法的一部分，旨在作为一种无需繁琐和昂贵的审判即可强制执行债务的方式。
Concerns about their potential abuse are almost as old.
对他们可能受到虐待的担忧几乎同样由来已久。
In Charles Dickensâs 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers , a landlady whoâs tricked into signing one ends up in debtorsâ prison .
在查尔斯·狄更斯 1837 年的小说《匹克威克外传》中，一位女房东被骗签署了一份文件，最终被关进了债务人的监狱。
Some U.S. states outlawed confessions in the middle of the 20th century, and federal regulators banned them for consumer loans in 1985.
美国一些州在 20 世纪中叶宣布认罪为非法，联邦监管机构于 1985 年禁止将认罪用于消费贷款。
But New York still allows them for business loans.
但纽约仍然允许他们申请商业贷款。
For David Glass, they were the solution to a problem: People were stealing his money.
对于大卫·格拉斯来说，它们解决了一个问题：人们在偷他的钱。
Among the hustlers and con men who work the bottom rungs of Wall Street, Glass is a legend.
在华尔街底层的骗子和骗子中，格拉斯是一个传奇人物。
Before he was 30, heâd inspired the stock-scam movie Boiler Room .
30 岁之前，他就为股票诈骗电影《锅炉房》提供了灵感。
Later busted by the FBI for insider trading, he avoided prison by recording incriminating tapes of his old colleagues.
后来他因内幕交易被联邦调查局逮捕，他通过录制老同事的犯罪录音而避免了牢狱之灾。
Even his enemies say Glass, who declined to comment for this story, is one of the sharpest operators theyâve ever dealt with.
就连他的敌人也表示，格拉斯是他们打过交道的最敏锐的操作员之一，但他拒绝对本文发表评论。
In 2009, while still on probation, Glass and a friend named Isaac Stern started a company called Yellowstone Capital LLC.
2009 年，在缓刑期间，格拉斯和一位名叫艾萨克·斯特恩的朋友创办了一家名为 Yellowstone Capital LLC 的公司。
(ABC, the firm that wiped out the Duncans, is one of more than a dozen corporate names used by Yellowstoneâs sales force.) Operating out of a red-walled office above an Irish bar in New Yorkâs financial district, these salespeople phoned bodegas and pizzerias and pitched their owners on loans.
（消灭邓肯家族的美国广播公司（ABC）是黄石公园销售人员使用的十几个公司名称之一。）这些销售人员在纽约金融区一家爱尔兰酒吧上方的红墙办公室里开展业务，给酒馆和比萨饼店打电话，向他们的老板推销贷款。
The rates sometimes exceeded 400 percent a year, and daily payments were required, but borrowers were desperate.
年利率有时会超过 400%，并且需要每日还款，但借款人却陷入了绝望。
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, banks were cutting back on lending just when small businesses most needed cash.
金融危机过后，银行在小企业最需要现金时削减了贷款。
Companies such as Yellowstone stepped in.
黄石公园等公司介入其中。
They got around lending regulations by calling what they did âmerchant cash advances,â not loansâa distinction judges recognize though thereâs little practical difference.
他们通过称自己的行为为“商业预支现金”而非“贷款”来规避贷款法规，法官们承认这一区别，但实际区别不大。
The same people whoâd pushed stock swindles in the 1990s and subprime mortgages a decade later started talking small businesses into taking on costly debt.
那些在 20 世纪 90 年代推动股票诈骗和十年后推动次级抵押贷款的人开始说服小企业承担昂贵的债务。
The profits were huge , and the industry grew.
利润巨大，行业发展壮大。
Last year it extended about $15 billion in credit, according to an estimate by investment bank Bryant Park Capital.
据投资银行 Bryant Park Capital 估计，去年它提供了约 150 亿美元的信贷。
Yellowstone would hire anyone who could sell.
黄石公园会雇用任何能卖东西的人。
A nightclub bouncer sat next to ultra-Orthodox Jews fresh out of religious school.
一名夜总会保镖坐在刚从宗教学校毕业的极端正统犹太人旁边。
The best brokers earned tens of thousands of dollars a month, former employees say; others slept at the office, fought, sold loose cigarettes, and stole from each other.
前雇员称，最优秀的经纪人每月收入数万美元；其他人则睡在办公室、打架、出售散装香烟、互相偷窃。
A video posted on YouTube shows Glass firing an employee.
YouTube 上发布的一段视频显示 Glass 解雇了一名员工。
âGet the f--- out of my firm,â he yells.
“滚出我的公司，”他喊道。
âWhy are you still sitting there, fat ass?
——你为什么还坐在那里，胖子？
Get out of my company!â To keep the troops focused, management would stack a pile of cash on a table and hold a drawing for closers.
滚出我的公司！——为了让团队集中注意力，管理层会在桌子上堆放一堆现金，并拿着一张供闭门器使用的图纸。
Glassâs problem was that some borrowers took Yellowstoneâs money with no intention of paying it back.
格拉斯的问题是，一些借款人拿了黄石公园的钱，却无意偿还。
Lawsuits against deadbeats proved pointless, dragging on for months or years.
针对赖账者的诉讼被证明是毫无意义的，拖延了数月或数年。
Then a lawyer who worked for Yellowstone and other cash-advance outfits came up with the idea of requiring borrowers to sign confessions of judgment before receiving their loans.
然后，一位在黄石公园和其他预付现金机构工作的律师提出了要求借款人在收到贷款之前签署判决书的想法。
That way, at the first sign of trouble, lenders could start seizing assets, catching borrowers unawares.
这样，一旦出现麻烦迹象，贷方就可以开始扣押资产，让借款人措手不及。
In May 2012, Yellowstone became what appears to be the first company in the industry to file a confession in court.
2012 年 5 月，Yellowstone 成为业内第一家在法庭上认罪的公司。
Others copied the trick.
其他人也效仿了这一招。
The innovation didnât just make collections easier; it upended the industryâs economics.
这项创新不仅使收藏变得更加容易，而且还使收藏变得更加容易。它颠覆了行业的经济状况。
Now, even if a borrower defaulted, a company stood a chance of making a full recovery.
现在，即使借款人违约，公司也有机会完全恢复。
By tacking on extra fees, it might even make more money, and faster, than if the borrower had never missed a payment.
通过收取额外费用，与借款人从未错过还款的情况相比，它甚至可能赚更多的钱，而且速度更快。
In some cases, the collections process became a profit engine.
在某些情况下，收款流程成为利润引擎。
Confessions arenât enforceable in Florida, where the Duncans signed theirs.
邓肯夫妇在佛罗里达州签署了认罪书，但认罪书在佛罗里达州是不具有执行力的。
But New Yorkâs courts are especially friendly to confessions and will accept them from anywhere, so lenders require customers to sign documents allowing them to file there.
但纽约法院对认罪特别友好，会接受来自任何地方的认罪，因此贷方要求客户签署允许他们在那里提交的文件。
Thatâs turned the state into the industryâs collections department.
这使得国家变成了行业的收藏部门。
Cash-advance companies have secured more than 25,000 judgments in New York since 2012, mostly in the past two years, according to data on more than 350 lenders compiled by Bloomberg Businessweek .
根据《彭博商业周刊》汇编的超过 350 家贷款机构的数据，自 2012 年以来，现金预支公司已在纽约获得了超过 25,000 份判决，其中大部分是在过去两年。
Those judgments are worth an estimated $1.5 billion.
这些判决的价值估计为 15 亿美元。
The biggest filer by far, with a quarter of the cases: Yellowstone Capital.
迄今为止最大的申请者，占案件的四分之一：黄石资本。
The Duncansâ ordeal began in November 2017 with an unsolicited fax from a broker promising term loans of as much as $1 million at a cheap rate.
邓肯一家的磨难始于 2017 年 11 月，当时一位经纪人主动发送了一份传真，承诺以低廉的利率提供高达 100 万美元的定期贷款。
The couple had owned their agency, a Re/Max franchise, for three years and now had 50 employees, but they still werenât turning a profit.
这对夫妇拥有 Re/Max 特许经营机构三年了，现在拥有 50 名员工，但他们仍然没有盈利。
A planned entry into the mortgage business was proving more expensive than expected.
事实证明，计划进入抵押贷款业务的成本比预期要高。
Doing some quick math, Doug figured he could borrow $800,000 to fund the expansion, pay off some debt, and come out with a lower monthly payment.
道格快速算了一下，他认为他可以借入 80 万美元来为扩张提供资金，还清一些债务，并每月支付较低的费用。
The spam fax felt like a gift from God.
垃圾传真感觉就像是上帝的礼物。
On the phone, the broker said that to qualify for a big loan, Doug would first have to accept a smaller amount and make a few payments as a tryout.
经纪人在电话中表示，为了获得大笔贷款的资格，道格首先必须接受较小的金额，并支付一些款项作为试用。
He sent over the paperwork for a cash advance, not a term loanâand included confessions for both Doug and Janelle to sign.
他寄出了预支现金的文件，而不是定期贷款，并附上了供道格和珍妮尔签署的供词。
Without talking to a lawyer, they did.
他们没有与律师交谈，就这么做了。
Why not?
为什么不呢？
Doug thought.
道格想。
They intended to pay the money back on time.
他们打算按时还钱。
The advance turned out to be for $36,762, repaid in $800 daily debits from their bank account starting the day after they got the money.
结果预付款为 36,762 美元，从他们收到钱的第二天开始，每天从他们的银行账户中扣除 800 美元。
This would continue for about three months, until theyâd repaid $59,960, amounting to an annualized interest rate of more than 350 percent.
这种情况会持续大约三个月，直到他们偿还 59,960 美元，年化利率超过 350%。
A small price to pay, Doug figuredâsoon heâd have all the money he needed in cheaper, longer-term debt.
道格认为，付出的代价很小，很快他就能通过更便宜、更长期的债务获得所需的全部资金。
But when he followed up the next month to inquire about the status of the bigger loan, he got no response.
但当他在下个月跟进询问更大一笔贷款的状况时，却没有得到任何答复。
The trouble started soon after.
麻烦很快就开始了。
Borrower signs a confession of judgment as part of the application, agreeing to lose any dispute
借款人签署一份判决书作为申请的一部分，同意在任何争议中败诉
A few hours after learning that their bank accounts had been frozen, the Duncans met with a local attorney, Jeffrey Dowd, in a law office squeezed between a nail salon and a transmission shop.
在得知自己的银行账户被冻结几个小时后，邓肯一家在一家美甲沙龙和一家变速箱店之间的律师事务所会见了当地律师杰弗里·多德。
Their bank, SunTrust, refused to tell them who was behind the freeze.
他们的银行 SunTrust 拒绝告诉他们谁是冻结的幕后黑手。
It wasnât clear why Yellowstone would target them.
目前还不清楚为什么黄石公园会针对他们。
Their contact there was still pleading ignorance; the lender had collected its $800 payment as recently as the previous business day.
他们在那里的接触仍然是借口不知情。贷方最近在前一个工作日收到了 800 美元的付款。
Janelle was on the verge of tears.
珍妮尔快要哭了。
A broad-shouldered man with a white goatee, Dowd handles everything from wills to lawsuits for small-business owners in the Tampa suburbs.
多德是一位宽肩膀、留着白色山羊胡的男人，为坦帕郊区的小企业主处理从遗嘱到诉讼的各种事务。
After assuring the Duncans heâd get to the bottom of it, he logged on to his computer.
在向邓肯夫妇保证他会查清真相后，他登录到了自己的电脑上。
He soon found a legal website showing that Yellowstone had won a judgment against the Duncans a few hours after Janelle received the warning phone call.
他很快就找到了一个法律网站，显示在贾妮尔接到警告电话几小时后，黄石公园已经赢得了对邓肯夫妇的判决。
The lender had gone to a court in the village of Goshen, 60 miles north of New York City.
贷款人已向纽约市以北 60 英里的歌珊村的法院提起诉讼。
âI hereby confess judgment,â read the documents Doug and Janelle had signed.
“我在此承认自己的判断，”阅读道格和珍妮尔签署的文件。
Attached was a statement signed by the same person at Yellowstone whoâd assured Doug everything was fine.
随附的一份声明是由黄石公园的同一个人签署的，他向道格保证一切都很好。
It said the Duncans had stopped making payments.
据称邓肯家族已停止付款。
That wasnât true.
那不是真的。
The Duncansâ bank records show that Yellowstone had continued to get its daily $800 even after going to court.
Duncans 的银行记录显示，即使在上法庭后，Yellowstone 仍继续每天收到 800 美元。
The companyâs sworn statement also inflated the size of the coupleâs debt.
该公司的宣誓声明还夸大了这对夫妇的债务规模。
But by the time Dowd found the case, it was already over.
但当多德发现这个案子时，事情已经结束了。
A clerk had approved the judgment less than a day after Yellowstoneâs lawyer asked for it.
在黄石公园的律师提出要求后不到一天，一名书记员就批准了该判决。
No proof was demanded, no judge was involved, and the Duncans didnât have a chance to present their side in court.
没有要求任何证据，没有法官介入，邓肯一家没有机会在法庭上陈述自己的立场。
Beau Phillips, a Yellowstone spokesman, said in an email to Businessweek that the company was within its rights, because the Duncans had blocked one payment and never made up for it.
黄石公园发言人博·菲利普斯(Beau Phillips)在给《商业周刊》的一封电子邮件中表示，该公司有权利这样做，因为邓肯夫妇阻止了一笔付款，而且从未予以补偿。
The Duncans respond that if a block had taken place, it must have been a computer error.
邓肯夫妇回应说，如果发生了阻塞，那一定是计算机错误。
Why stop paying and then resume the next day?
为什么停止付款然后第二天又恢复？
The court papers revealed the name of Yellowstoneâs lawyer, and on a whim, Dowd searched for her other cases and found more than 1,500 results.
法庭文件透露了黄石公园律师的名字，多德一时兴起搜索了她的其他案件，发现了 1,500 多个结果。
The Duncansâ predicament was no aberration.
邓肯的困境并非特例。
âIt was like a rabbit hole,â Dowd says.
“这就像一个兔子洞，”多德说。
He dove in, clicking on case after case after case.
他投入其中，点击一个又一个的案例。
Goshen, N.Y., is a bucolic stop on the harness-racing circuit, just west of the Hudson River.
纽约州戈申是马术赛道上的一处田园风光站点，位于哈德逊河以西。
Not far from the track, in the Orange County Clerkâs office, women with ID lanyards around their necks sit behind Plexiglas windows, processing pistol permits and recording deeds.
离赛道不远的奥兰治县书记官办公室里，脖子上挂着身份证挂绳的妇女们坐在有机玻璃窗后面，处理手枪许可证并记录行为。
One clerk prints out proposed judgments sent electronically by cash-advance companies and makes them official with three rubber stamps.
一名职员打印出预付现金公司以电子方式发送的拟议判决，并盖上三枚橡皮图章使其正式生效。
Orange is one of a handful of counties in upstate New York that together handle an outsize share of the nationâs cash-advance collections.
奥兰治是纽约州北部为数不多的几个县之一，这些县共同处理了全国大部分现金预收款。
Industry lawyers pick offices known to sign judgments quickly; thereâs no need for the borrower or lender to have a connection to the area.
行业律师选择以快速签署判决而闻名的律师事务所；借款人或贷款人无需与该地区有联系。
In even smaller Ontario County, cash-advance filings make up about three-quarters of the civil caseload.
在较小的安大略县，预付现金申请约占民事案件量的四分之三。
No matter how abusive the confessions might be, clerks have no choice but to continue processing them, says Kelly Eskew, a deputy clerk in Orange County.
奥兰治县副书记员凯利·埃斯库 (Kelly Eskew) 表示，无论这些供词多么侮辱人，书记员别无选择，只能继续处理它们。
To obtain a judgment, a lawyer for a cash-advance company must send in the confession along with a sworn affidavit explaining the default and how much is still owed.
为了获得判决，现金预支公司的律师必须提交供述以及解释违约情况和尚欠金额的宣誓证词。
The clerk accepts the statement as fact and enters a judgment without additional review.
书记员接受该陈述为事实，并在没有额外审查的情况下作出判决。
Once signed, this judgment is almost impossible to overturn.
一旦签署，这个判决几乎不可能被推翻。
Borrowers rarely try.
借款人很少尝试。
Few lawyers will take on a client whose money is already gone, and getting a ruling can take monthsâtoo long to save a desperate business.
很少有律师会接手钱已经花光的客户，而且做出裁决可能需要几个月的时间——对于拯救绝望的企业来说太长了。
Itâs a trap with no escape.
这是一个无处可逃的陷阱。
Clicking around a database of New York state court records, Dowd did find some cases in which cash-advance borrowers had sought to overturn judgments.
多德浏览了纽约州法院记录数据库，确实发现了一些预付现金借款人试图推翻判决的案例。
Theyâd almost always failed.
他们几乎总是失败。
New York judges took the view that debtors waived their rights when they signed the papers.
纽约法官认为，债务人在签署文件时就放弃了自己的权利。
Dowd concluded it would probably cost the Duncans $5,000 to retain a lawyer to travel to Orange County.
多德得出的结论是，邓肯一家可能要花费 5,000 美元聘请律师前往奥兰治县。
He advised them not to bother.
他建议他们不要打扰。
Itâs possible that if the Duncans had tried to overturn the judgment, they would have discovered that the confessions theyâd signed were later altered.
如果邓肯夫妇试图推翻判决，他们可能会发现他们签署的供词后来被更改了。
The signed originals contain an apparent drafting error, failing to identify the Duncansâ company as subject to the judgment, a flaw that might have prevented Yellowstone from seizing their money.
签署的原件包含明显的起草错误，未能将邓肯斯公司列为受判决的对象，这一缺陷可能会阻止黄石公园没收他们的钱。
In the version filed in court , someone had replaced the first two pages of each confession with the mistake corrected.
在提交给法庭的版本中，有人替换了每份供词的前两页，并纠正了错误。
Asked by Businessweek about the discrepancy, Phillips didnât provide an explanation.
当《商业周刊》询问这一差异时，菲利普斯没有提供解释。
Borrowers have accused Yellowstone of forgery before.
借款人此前曾指控黄石公园伪造贷款。
Just in the past year, a Georgia contractor presented evidence in court that a confession used against him was a complete fabrication, and a Maryland trucker complained to Yellowstone that a key term in his confession had been changed after the fact, as had happened with the Duncans.
就在去年，佐治亚州的一名承包商在法庭上出示了证据，证明针对他的供词完全是捏造的，马里兰州的一名卡车司机向黄石公园抱怨说，他的供词中的一个关键术语在事后被更改了，就像邓肯一家的情况一样。
The company backed off from those borrowers but faced no further consequences.
该公司放弃了这些借款人，但没有面临进一步的后果。
Phillips declined to comment on the accusations.
菲利普斯拒绝对这些指控发表评论。
While Dowd didnât challenge the ruling against the Duncans in court, he did think he could get SunTrust to help them.
虽然多德没有在法庭上对针对邓肯夫妇的裁决提出质疑，但他确实认为他可以让太阳信托公司帮助他们。
He told the bank that one of the coupleâs accounts held funds that didnât belong to them because it was used to collect rent on behalf of landlords.
他告诉银行，这对夫妇的一个账户持有不属于他们的资金，因为这些资金被用来代表房东收取租金。
Dowd says a banker at the local branch wanted to help but was overruled by higher-ups.
多德说，当地分行的一名银行家想提供帮助，但被高层否决了。
The account remained frozen.
该账户仍被冻结。
A spokesman for SunTrust declined to comment.
SunTrust 发言人拒绝置评。
When Dowd finally reached Yellowstoneâs lawyer, she referred him to a marshal who she said was handling the case.
当多德最终联系到黄石公园的律师时，她将他转介给一位法警，她说这名法警正在处理此案。
Dowd was confused.
多德很困惑。
Why would a U.S. marshal be involved?
为什么美国法警会参与其中？
His clients werenât fugitives.
他的客户不是逃犯。
He called the phone number, and somebody with a Russian accent answered.
他拨通了电话号码，接听的是一个操着俄罗斯口音的人。
The person on the phone wasnât a federal official.
电话里的人不是联邦官员。
Dowd had reached the Brooklyn office of Vadim Barbarovich, who holds the title of New York City marshal.
多德已经到达了拥有纽约市元帅头衔的瓦迪姆·巴巴罗维奇（Vadim Barbarovich）位于布鲁克林的办公室。
Heâd stumbled onto an arcane feature of the cityâs government thatâs become another powerful tool for cash-advance companies.
他偶然发现了该市政府的一个神秘特征，该特征已成为预付现金公司的另一个强大工具。
New Yorkâs 35 marshals are government officers, appointed by the mayor, who collect private debts.
纽约的 35 名法警都是政府官员，由市长任命，负责追收私人债务。
They evict tenants and tow cars, city badges dangling from their necks.
他们驱逐房客并拖走汽车，脖子上挂着城市徽章。
When they recover money, they get a fee of 5â¯percent.
当他们收回钱时，他们会收取 5% 的费用。
The office dates to Dutch colonial days, formed by a decree of Peter Stuyvesantâs council .
该办公室的历史可以追溯到荷兰殖民时期，由彼得·史岱文森议会的一项法令组建。
Fees for the biggest jobs were initially set at a dozen stivers, less than one-tenth the price of a beaver pelt.
最大的工作的费用最初定为十几史莱，不到海狸毛皮价格的十分之一。
Barbarovichâs office is in the immigrant enclave of Sheepshead Bay.
巴巴罗维奇的办公室位于羊头湾的移民飞地。
Before he was appointed in 2013, heâd tracked inventory at a Brooklyn hospital and volunteered as a Russian translator.
在 2013 年被任命之前，他曾在布鲁克林一家医院跟踪库存，并自愿担任俄语翻译。
Heâs now the go-to marshal for the cash-advance business and has gotten rich in the process.
他现在是预付现金业务的首席执行官，并在此过程中致富。
Last year, city records show, he cleared $1.7 million after expenses.
市政府记录显示，去年他扣除开支后结清了 170 万美元。
As soon as Yellowstone had obtained its judgment against the Duncans, it had sent a copy to Barbarovich, who issued legal orders demanding money from Atlanta-based SunTrust and another bank in Alabama where the couple kept their personal funds.
黄石公园一获得对邓肯夫妇的判决，就向巴巴罗维奇发送了一份副本，巴巴罗维奇发布了法律命令，要求向总部位于亚特兰大的太阳信托银行和阿拉巴马州的另一家银行索要资金，这对夫妇存放着他们的个人资金。
By law, New York marshalsâ authority is limited to the cityâs five boroughs, but a loophole vastly extends their reach: Theyâre allowed to demand out-of-state funds as long as the bank has an office in the city, as SunTrust does.
根据法律，纽约法警的权力仅限于该市的五个行政区，但一个漏洞极大地扩大了他们的管辖范围：只要银行在该市设有办事处，他们就可以要求州外资金，就像 SunTrust 所做的那样。
A few big banks refuse to comply with the orders, but most just hand over their customersâ money.
一些大银行拒绝遵守命令，但大多数银行只是交出客户的钱。
SunTrust proved accommodating.
事实证明，SunTrust 非常乐于助人。
Three days after freezing the Duncansâ accounts, it took $52,886.93 and mailed a check to Barbarovich, enough to satisfy the judgment plus the 5 percent marshalâs fee.
冻结邓肯一家的账户三天后，他们花了 52,886.93 美元，并将一张支票寄给了巴巴罗维奇，这足以满足判决的要求，再加上 5% 的执法费用。
Almost all of it was rent money the Duncans were holding for landlords, not their own funds.
几乎所有的资金都是邓肯家族为房东持有的租金，而不是他们自己的资金。
Barbarovich didnât respond to questions about the coupleâs case but said in an email that he follows the rules when issuing a demand for money.
巴巴罗维奇没有回答有关这对夫妇案件的问题，但在一封电子邮件中表示，他在发出金钱要求时遵守规则。
Phillips, the Yellowstone spokesman, said no one told the company that the money belonged to third parties until seven weeks after it was seized.
黄石公园发言人菲利普斯表示，直到这些钱被扣押七周后，才有人告诉该公司这笔钱属于第三方。
Even then, Yellowstone refused to return it.
即使如此，黄石公园仍拒绝归还它。
The Duncans scrambled to make up the shortfall.
邓肯家族争先恐后地弥补缺口。
Doug got another, larger cash advance from a different company to keep afloat.
道格从另一家公司获得了另一笔更大的预付现金以维持生计。
The daily payments on that loan were too much for them to handle, though, and they were soon short of cash again.
然而，这笔贷款的每日还款额对他们来说太大了，他们很快就再次出现现金短缺。
Sensing trouble, employees fled.
察觉到麻烦，员工纷纷逃离。
One evening, Janelle thought she was having a heart attack.
一天晚上，珍妮尔以为自己心脏病发作了。
Her pulse raced, her limbs went numb, and she grew nauseous.
她的脉搏加快，四肢麻木，而且感到恶心。
An ambulance rushed her to the hospital.
一辆救护车将她送往医院。
Her heart was fine.
她的心很好。
Her insurance claim was denied.
她的保险索赔被拒绝。
Unlike the Duncans, most of the dozens of borrowers interviewed by Businessweek really did fall behind on their debt payments.
与邓肯家族不同的是，接受《商业周刊》采访的数十名借款人中，大多数人确实拖欠了债务。
Their experiences were no less wrenching.
他们的经历同样令人痛苦。
They spoke of divorce, of lost friendships, of unpaid medical bills.
他们谈论离婚、失去友谊、未付医疗费。
âYou canât defend yourself,â says Richard Schilg, the owner of a human resources company in Ohio who borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars with at least six advances.
“你无法为自己辩护，”俄亥俄州一家人力资源公司的老板理查德·席尔格（Richard Schilg）说，他通过至少六笔预付款借了数十万美元。
âAs long as you still have a business, as long you have a personal checking account, theyâre going to hound you.
——只要你还有生意，只要你有个人支票账户，他们就会追捕你。
Your life is ruined by their contract.â Schilg says he always tried to honor his debts.
你的生活被他们的合同毁了。”席尔格说，他总是试图偿还债务。
But his access to money has been so restricted by cash-advance judgments that heâs had to sell furniture to buy food.
但他获得资金的途径受到预付现金判断的严重限制，以至于他不得不卖掉家具来购买食物。
Heâs one of many borrowers whoâve received nasty threats from debt collectors.
他是众多受到收债人恶意威胁的借款人之一。
âI will make this my personal business to f--- you,â a Yellowstone executive named Steve Davis told Schilg on a voicemail heard by Businessweek .
“我会把这当作我个人的事来操你，”一位名叫史蒂夫戴维斯的黄石高管在《商业周刊》听到的语音邮件中告诉席尔格。
Davis texted another: âI will watch you crash and burn.â Asked about the messages, Davis says, âPeople defraud us.
戴维斯又发短信说：“我会看着你崩溃和燃烧。”当被问及这些信息时，戴维斯说，“人们欺骗了我们。”
When that happens we have to do whatâs best for us.â
当这种情况发生时，我们必须做对我们最有利的事情。”
Jerry Bush, who ran a plumbing business with his father in Roanoke, Va., signed confessions for at least six cash advances from companies including Yellowstone, taking one loan after another as his payments mounted to $18,000 a day.
杰里·布什 (Jerry Bush) 与父亲在弗吉尼亚州罗阿诺克 (Roanoke) 经营一家管道生意，他签署了从包括黄石公园在内的公司至少预付六笔现金的认罪书，他一笔接一笔地贷款，每天的付款额高达 18,000 美元。
In January, Davis called him while he was accompanying his wife to a chemotherapy appointment and threatened him with the confession in a dispute over payment terms.
一月份，当他陪同妻子去接受化疗时，戴维斯给他打电话，并威胁他要坦白支付条款纠纷。
Davis denies menacing Bush, but according to Bushâs account of their conversation, Davis said he would pursue Bush until his death and take all of his money, leaving nothing to pay for his wifeâs treatment.
戴维斯否认威胁布什，但根据布什对他们谈话的描述，戴维斯表示他将追捕布什直到他去世，并拿走他所有的钱，不留任何钱来支付他妻子的治疗费用。
Bush also says Davis then offered to send flowers to Bushâs wife.
布什还说，戴维斯随后主动提出要给布什的妻子送花。
In August, Bush closed his business, laid off his 20 employees, and stopped making payments on his loans.
8 月，布什关闭了自己的企业，解雇了 20 名员工，并停止偿还贷款。
Yellowstone never filed its signed confession in court, but other lenders went after him over theirs.
黄石公园从未在法庭上提交过签署的认罪书，但其他贷款机构却对他进行了追责。
One sunny day that month, he walked to a wooded area near his home, swallowed a bottle of an oxycodone painkiller, and began streaming video to Facebook.
那个月的一个阳光明媚的日子，他走到家附近的一片树林里，吞下了一瓶羟考酮止痛药，然后开始在 Facebook 上播放视频。
To anyone who might have been watching, he explained that heâd taken out cash advances in a failed attempt to save his business.
他向任何可能正在观看的人解释说，他预支现金是为了挽救自己的企业，但失败了。
Now the lenders had seized his accounts, Bush said, his voice wavering.
现在贷款人已经扣押了他的账户，布什声音颤抖地说。
One had even grabbed his fatherâs retirement money.
其中一人甚至抢走了他父亲的退休金。
âI signed âem, I take the blame for it,â he said.
“我签了字，我承担责任，”他说。
âThis will be my last video.
– 这将是我的最后一个视频。
I am taking this on me.â He asked his friends to take care of his family, then sobbed as he told his wife and teenage son he loved them.
我要承担这一切。”他要求朋友们照顾他的家人，然后抽泣着告诉他的妻子和十几岁的儿子他爱他们。
Someone who saw the video alerted the police.
有人看到视频后报了警。
They found Bush unconscious in the woods a few hours laterâhe credits them with saving his life.
几个小时后，他们发现布什在树林里昏迷不醒——他认为是他们救了他的命。
But the pressure from his confessions of judgment hasnât relented.
但他的判断所带来的压力并没有减弱。
âI wake up every morning afraid what else they will take,â he says.
“我每天早上醒来都担心他们还会拿走什么，”他说。
âAnd every morning I throw up blood.â
“每天早上我都会吐血。”
Bushâs contracts with Yellowstone show that the company advanced him a total of about $250,000 and that he paid them back more than $600,000.
布什与黄石公园的合同显示，该公司向他预付了总计约 25 万美元，而他则偿还了超过 60 万美元。
Davis, who parted ways with Yellowstone in August, says he didnât mistreat Bush or other borrowers and always followed the companyâs protocols.
戴维斯于八月份与黄石公园分道扬镳，他表示自己没有虐待布什或其他借款人，并且始终遵守公司的协议。
âYou know why people put the blame on me is because Iâm successful,â he says.
“你知道为什么人们把责任归咎于我，因为我很成功，”他说。
âItâs just haters.â
“这只是仇恨者。”
As for the Duncans, each morning at their house still begins with a prayer and a Bible verse.
至于邓肯一家，每天早上在他们家仍然以祈祷和圣经经文开始。
Their retirement savings evaporated with their agency, but theyâve been able to keep their house.
他们的退休储蓄随着他们的代理而蒸发，但他们仍然能够保住自己的房子。
They continue to believe God has a plan for every one of his children, but theyâve learned to trust some of those children less.
他们仍然相信上帝对他的每一个孩子都有一个计划，但他们已经学会了不再信任其中的一些孩子。
âIf we donât have peace from God, and we live in outrage, it destroys us,â Janelle says.
“如果我们没有从上帝那里得到平安，而我们生活在愤怒之中，我们就会被毁灭，”珍妮尔说。
âSo Iâm choosing to have hope to start again, and weâre relying on the Lord to replace what the enemy has stolen and turn it around for good.â
“所以我选择带着希望重新开始，我们依靠主来取代敌人偷走的东西，并永远扭转局面。”
By seizing their bank deposits, Yellowstone had managed to collect its money ahead of schedule and tack on $9,990 in extra legal fees, payable to a law firm in which it owns a stake.
通过扣押他们的银行存款，黄石公园成功提前收回了资金，并向其拥有股份的一家律师事务所支付了 9,990 美元的额外法律费用。
In about three months, the company and its affiliates almost doubled their money.
在大约三个月的时间里，该公司及其附属公司的资金几乎翻了一番。
At that rate of return, one dollar could be turned into 10 in less than a year.
按照这样的回报率，不到一年，1 美元就可以变成 10 美元。
Everyone else involved in the collection process got a slice, too.
参与收集过程的其他人也都得到了一份。
SunTrust got a $100 processing fee.
SunTrust 收取了 100 美元的手续费。
Barbarovichâs office got approximately $2,700, with about $120 of that passed along to the city.
巴巴罗维奇的办公室得到了大约 2,700 美元，其中约 120 美元上缴给了市政府。
The Orange County Clerkâs office got $41 for its rubber stamps.
奥兰治县书记员办公室的橡皮图章获得了 41 美元。
The New York state court system got $184.
纽约州法院系统获得 184 美元。
To date, no state or federal regulator has tried to police the merchant-cash-advance industry.
迄今为止，还没有州或联邦监管机构试图监管商业预付现金行业。
Its lawyers designed it to avoid scrutiny, sidestepping usury laws and state licensing requirements by keeping the word âloanâ out of paperwork and describing the deals as cash advances against future revenue.
其律师设计该协议的目的是为了避免审查、规避高利贷法和国家许可要求，将“贷款”一词从文书中剔除，并将这些交易描述为针对未来收入的现金预支。
And because the customers are technically businesses, not individuals, consumer protection laws donât apply, either.
而且由于从技术上讲客户是企业而不是个人，因此消费者保护法也不适用。
With regulators sidelined and lawmakers oblivious, Yellowstone and its peers keep growing.
由于监管机构的冷落和立法者的忽视，黄石公园及其同行仍在不断发展。
After Glass stepped back a couple of years ago from day-to-day operationsâhis criminal record was making it harder to find investorsâWall Street investment bankers arranged a $120 million line of credit to finance more advances.
几年前，格拉斯退出日常运营后，他的犯罪记录让他更难找到投资者，华尔街投资银行家安排了 1.2 亿美元的信贷额度，为更多预付款提供资金。
In 2016 the company moved from its grimy downtown Manhattan offices to a shiny building in Jersey City, pocketing $3 million in state tax incentives .
2016 年，该公司从曼哈顿市中心肮脏的办公室搬到了泽西市一栋闪亮的大楼，并获得了 300 万美元的州税收优惠。
On Instagram, a top salesman shows off flights on private jets, a diamond-encrusted watch, and a Lamborghini.
在 Instagram 上，一位顶级推销员展示了私人飞机的航班、镶钻手表和兰博基尼。
Yellowstone advanced $553 million last year, its highest total ever.
黄石公园去年筹集了 5.53 亿美元，这是有史以来的最高总额。
In April, on the same day Janelle Duncan was selling the last of her office furniture, Yellowstone executives marked the companyâs ninth anniversary with a luncheon in Jersey City.
四月，就在加奈尔·邓肯 (Janelle Duncan) 出售最后一套办公家具的同一天，黄石公园的高管在泽西城举办了一场午餐会，庆祝公司成立九周年。
In a celebratory email marking the occasion, Stern, the co-founder, wrote, âI am continually blown away at the success and achievements we continue to have.â
联合创始人斯特恩在一封庆祝这一时刻的电子邮件中写道：“我们不断取得的成功和成就让我感到震惊。”
This is the first in a series of articles about the merchant cash-advance industry.
这是有关商家预付现金行业的系列文章中的第一篇。
Read more about how local, state and federal officials are trying to crack down on it as a result of the Bloomberg News investigation .
了解更多关于地方、州和联邦官员如何根据彭博新闻社的调查进行打击的信息。
Sources: Bloomberg News analysis of New York State Unified Court System documents; U.S. Census Bureau
资料来源：彭博新闻社对纽约州统一法院系统文件的分析；美国人口普查局
Design and development: Demetrios Pogkas and Christopher Cannon .
设计和开发：Demetrios Pogkas 和 Christopher Cannon。
With assistance from Dean Halford .
在迪恩·哈尔福德的协助下。
Notes: To compile data on the use of confessions of judgment, Bloomberg assembled a list of more than 500 cash-advance company names from sources including industry publications and lawyer client lists.
注：为了编制有关使用判决供述的数据，彭博社从行业出版物和律师客户名单等来源收集了 500 多家预付现金公司的名单。
Each name was then searched on the New York State Unified Court Systemâs electronic filing database to identify more than 30,000 civil court cases associated with these companies since 2012.
随后，纽约州统一法院系统的电子归档数据库对每个名字进行了搜索，以识别自 2012 年以来与这些公司相关的 30,000 多起民事法庭案件。
Details of each case were analyzed to identify those in which the plaintiff filed a confession of judgment and the court entered a judgment in the plaintiffâs favor.
我们对每个案件的细节进行了分析，以确定原告提交判决认罪书以及法院作出对原告有利的判决的案件。
The dollar value of about one-third of the judgments was available in the state court database.
州法院数据库中提供了大约三分之一判决的美元价值。
Bloomberg estimated the value of the remainder based on those values and a random sample of more than 1,200 cases where the amount in court filings hadnât been entered in the electronic database.
彭博社根据这些价值和 1,200 多起案件的随机样本估算了剩余价值，这些案件中法庭文件中的金额尚未输入电子数据库。