NorVergence Lease “Dirty Dora”

by Christopher Menkin

In the card game of hearts, each heart is worth one penalty point and the queen of spades is worth 13 penalty points. Players win tricks by having the highest card showing. There are many names for this queen of spades. Here in America, it is known mostly as “Dirty Dora.”

Normally, each player scores penalty points for cards in the tricks which they won. Each heart scores one point, and the queen of spades scores 13 points. However, if you manage to win all the scoring cards (which is known as a slam or shooting the moon), your score is reduced by 26 points, or you may choose instead to have all other players' scores increased by 26 points.

Now the bad news, it is very difficult to “shoot the moon” with four players. The normal goal is to wind up with the lowest score, just like in golf. The goal was not to keep “Dirty Dora,” but pass her off at the beginning in exchanging cards. If you got caught holding her because a play was out of the suit and laid it down in your winning trick, you would get 13 points. Surely you would be the loser of the game.

The allegory here is that the Federal Trade Commission is the “Dirty Dora” in the legal wrangle over alleged “hell and high water” NorVergence Equipment Rental Agreements.

The fact is several of the AG's settlement agreements will be null and void if a full restitution is required by law, whether class action, state, and more importantly, federal.

The Federal Trade Commission is the “Dirty Dora” in this legal battle, as it looks at all these transactions as "consumer," and their role is to protect the consumer, obtaining full restitution. If they prevail, no matter what settlement is signed in any state, the party will receive full restitution---and there may be other costs recovered, too.

Here is a statement from the Washington, DC, Federal Trade Commission, in an exclusive to Leasing News:

“The FTC Act prohibits unfair or deceptive acts and practices in or affecting commerce. The FTC enforces this law in the general public interest, and this enforcement responsibility cannot be waived or foreclosed by individual consumers. There have been many cases in which companies have purported to obtain waivers as a way of avoiding prosecution or preventing defrauded consumers from defending against private suits, but it does not work against the FTC.

“The same principle applies to restitution. Of course, if a consumer received, say, a partial refund or similar benefit from a private settlement, this could reduce their share in any recovery and distribution by the FTC.

“For the for purposes of the FTC Act, "consumers" may include small businesses, nonprofit organizations, churches and synagogues, and local government departments, all of which were victims of the NorVergence scam.”