The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has dropped its investigation into a Public Square subsidiary which has ties to Donald Trump, Jr., saying it was conducted in a biased manner.
On Tuesday, the CFPB notified Credova Financial, a subsidiary of Public Square Holdings, for which Trump is a board member and investor, that it was no longer under investigation, The Associated Press reported. Public Square is a directory of businesses that sell American-made products marketed to conservative-leaning customers. Credova provides buy-now, pay-later services to Trump’s GrabAGun firearms marketplace, which went public this year.
The investigation began under the Biden administration. The bureau called it politically motivated against firearms companies and Trump.
The CFPB determined that the investigation âexemplifies the type of weaponization against disfavored industries and individualsâ that Trump and the bureau’s acting director, Russell Vought, are committed to ending, reads the letter sent to Public Square Holdings’s chief counsel. The letter also noted that, during former President Bidenâs term, the bureau ratcheted up settlement demands on the company the day Trump joined Public Squareâs board of directors.
Public Square’s chairman and CEO, Michael Seifert, said in a statement that the closure of the investigation âconfirms the strength and integrity of our company and validates the trust our merchants and consumers place in us,â and is âa win for our entire company, our board, our customers, and a 2nd Amendment community that has seen years of government attempts to regulate businesses like ours out of existence.â
More than 50 consumer complaints have been filed against Credova to the CFPB, many of which relate to debt collection practices, according to the AP’s search of the agency’s database.
The wire service’s search of the Better Business Bureau Database showed that 134 complaints have been filed against Credova in the past three years, with 21 closed in the past year. Many of those complaints are regarding customers being charged undisclosed junk fees.
Andy Surabian, a spokesman for Trump, said in a statement that the president’s son âhad nothing what so ever [sic] to do with this and itâs a classic cheap media tactic to imply otherwise when the AP knows that they have no evidence to the contrary.â
Trump owns 697,403 shares in Public Square, worth roughly $1.1 million.
