Attorney General's News Release

December 22, 2011

Attorney General Koster sues used car business for credit, title and warranty violations --seeks to shut down McMullen Auto Credit--

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster today filed a lawsuit against McMullen Auto Credit in St. Louis and its operators, Nikki Darlene McMullen, James L. McMullen, Sr., and James L. McMullen, Jr., for violating multiple laws, including demanding payments from customers not due to them, and not providing titles for cars purchased by customers.

The Attorney General is seeking a restraining order to prevent the McMullens from operating their business as well as restitution for customers.

According to Koster, the McMullens violated the law in multiple ways, including:

• Failing to provide titles to customers who purchased vehicles as required by law, and selling vehicles for which the business did not have the titles;
• Failing to provide warranties as promised to customers;
• Misrepresenting the annual percentage rate on vehicle loans;
• Collecting payments for McMullen Auto Credit after the business had sold the customers’ installment loan contracts to another business and McMullen was no longer entitled to collect the money; and
• Threatening to repossess vehicles for lack of payment to McMullen Auto Credit when customers were making payments to the business that owned their loan.

“There are clear laws in Missouri to protect buyers of used vehicles,” Koster said. “When these laws are violated we will act aggressively to stop the violations and seek restitution for those harmed.”

In addition to seeking the closure of the business and restitution for consumers, Koster is also asking the court to order civil penalties of $1,000 per violation and to require the defendants to pay for all court, investigation and prosecution costs.