Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice

Two collection agencies - which bought delinquent credit card and other bank debt - raised millions based upon misrepresented collection histories and the misapplication of GAAP.   

Bill Bartmann liked to be larger than life. After the death of his failed oil services company in the 1980s, and his traumatic experiences with creditors (whom he owed nearly $1 million), Bartmann became oddly destined to be what he liked to call a "collector with a heart."

Starting with $13,000 in working capital in 1986, in the midst of the thrift industry failure, Bartmann formed Commercial Financial Services (CFS) and began purchasing defaulted loans at steep discounts from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). By 1992, Bartmann's collection success produced a viable business with 45 employees.

Six years later, CFS had sold $2 billion in delinquent credit card receivable and other bank debt-backed securities and CFS had grown to 3,900 employees, making it Tulsa, Oklahoma's ninth-largest employer. CFS made Inc. Magazine's fastest growing company list three consecutive times and Forbes estimated that Bartmann and his wife, Kathryn, were worth $530 million - each.