Phantom Debt Collectors to Face Permanent Ban as a Result of FTC Lawsuit

Debt collection operation Blackstone Legal, along with its owners, will face a permanent ban from the debt collection industry as a result of the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit charging that they deceived and harassed consumers to collect fake debts the consumers did not owe.

Blackstone Legal, its associated companies, and its owners, Ryan and Mitchell Evans, were charged by the FTC in February 2025 with running an operation that convinced consumers to pay fake debts. Consumers were falsely told they were about to be sued, their credit damaged, and their wages garnished. Consumers lost millions of dollars.

“This operation collected on false debt and harassed consumers with fake threats of lawsuits and damaged credit if they refused to pay,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Scams like this cause significant harm to consumers and undermine legitimate debt collection activity, and the FTC will continue to act to stop them.”

The defendants have agreed to a proposed settlement order with the FTC that would:

• permanently ban all of the defendants from the debt collection industry;
• prohibit the defendants from making any material misrepresentations about any good or service they sell or market;
• prohibit the defendants from using false, fictitious, or fraudulent representations to get consumers’ financial information and from impersonating any business; and
• require the defendants to turn over substantially all their assets, including the contents of numerous bank and investment accounts.

The order contains a total monetary judgment of $8,254,368, which is partially suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay the full amount. If the defendants are found to have lied to the FTC about their financial status, the full judgment will be immediately payable.

The Commission vote approving the stipulated final order was 3-0. The FTC filed the proposed order in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

NOTE: Stipulated final orders or injunctions have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge.

The staff attorneys on this matter were Quinn Martin and Jason Sanders of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.