compuCredit

facing so
steele:
Some of the deals Steele made between SCLC and business interests

proved controversial. In 2008, for example, an op-ed bearing Steele's

byline appeared in a number of Southern U.S. newspapers criticizing

federal legislation to reduce credit card fees by arguing that it would

boost the profits of major retailers including Wal-Mart. But it turned

out Steele didn't write the editorial and was angry the P.R. firm that

did put his name on it because, as the Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/28/AR2008072802260.html">reported</a>,

Wal-Mart "is listed on the SCLC's Web site as a sponsor of the

organization. No one at the SCLC would want to insult a large

benefactor."

That same year, Steele had an op-ed published in the Washington Post

that noted the devastating effect the subprime mortgage crisis was

having on minority homeowners. But rather than supporting proposals to

better regulate credit markets, Steele attacked them -- while defending

companies that issued high-interest credit cards to people with bad

credit. As Mother Jones <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/08/civil-rights-groups-defending-predatory-lenders-priceless">observed</a>

at the time, that's not altogether surprising when you consider that a

year earlier "the SCLC formed a partnership with CompuCredit, a subprime

credit card issuer and payday lending company."

The Federal Trade Commission eventually sued CompuCredit for unfair and

deceptive trade practices and for violating the Fair Debt Collection

Practices Act, charging that it cheated consumers out of more than $200

million through a scheme in which they paid so much in fees that they

had little credit available.

But Steele defended the company even then, saying that it "has been a true friend to the SCLC."==