Once the sin of accepting any interest at all, usury is a lesser crime today. Most States have laws which permit licensed, bonded small-loan companies to charge interest rates as high as 3½% a month (2½-3% in New York). In the last five years New York State Attorney General John James Bennett Jr. has been going after loan sharks who aren't satisfied even with this. In almost 200 convictions and injunctions he has secured the return of $278,000 to victims. Last week he got another: the biggest modern loan shark he had ever heard of.
Huge, obscure Pacific Finance Corp., a...
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