ALBANY, N.Y. – New York state's attorney general says an agreement with a finance company will clear $3.5 million in debt for nearly a thousand soldiers who bought electronics at highly inflated prices and credit terms.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman says the soldiers shopped at a retailer outside the Army's Fort Drum military base, in northern New York.
He says Concord, Calif.-based Rome Finance Co. Inc. agreed through its bankruptcy trustee to take steps to restore the credit histories of hundreds of people. Calls to the trustee Tuesday haven't been returned.
A lawsuit filed by the attorney general's office accuses electronics retailer SmartBuy of defrauding soldiers through "wildly inflated" prices and high interest rates paid directly from military paychecks.
Fayetteville, N.C.-based SmartBuy last year closed a kiosk and storefront at a shopping mall near Fort Drum. It has denied wrongdoing.
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