All Thompson had to do was take a casual or cursory look at the interest rates that Providian was charging, that should have raised a red flag immediately.
Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson was a board member at Providian Financial Corp. (NYSE:PVN - News) and chairman of its audit and compliance committee from 1997 until he was named to his new job in the Bush government in May 2001, the newspaper reported.
"The deputy attorney general is proud of his service on the board of Providian. He only became aware of the issues when regulators began to make inquiries," the newspaper quoted Thompson's spokesman Mark Corallo as saying.
hey, at least all they do is whack their customers with incredibly obnoxious fees and interest rates when they don't pay on time, and sometimes even when they do (the old trick of not crediting payments in a timely manner, among others)
a real loan shark sends guido out to rearrange your face
and, they do provide a service, namely providing extremely expensive credit to those nobody else will touch, kind of like rent-to-own furniture outfits and buy-here-pay-here used car lots
it really ain't our job to protect people from their own stupidity
Don't be so tough on the guy. He was only an attorney, a board member at Providian Financial Corp and chairman of its audit and compliance committee. Maybe he was in charge of the sensitivity and corporate ethics/integrity training seminars, and there just wasn't enough time to worry about rates and such. Besides, if we give him too much trouble, George will promote him. Maybe with the loan sharking oversight background, the Federal Reserve might give him a shot.