$7.6m collected with threats of jail, and calls to the family
The FTC sued Global Circulation, Inc. and its owner in November 2024 over allegations that it collected more than $7.6 million in bogus debt by threatening consumers with jail, calling their relatives with the same threats, and failing to identify itself as a debt collector. A court froze its assets and appointed a receiver. In May 2025 the company and its owner agreed to a stipulated order permanently banning them from debt collection, with a suspended $9,684,338 monetary judgment. The allegations were resolved by that settlement, not proven at trial.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $7.6 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Phantom debt collection
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-10
The facts, as recorded
- The FTC announced the action on 4 November 2024 against Global Circulation, Inc. and its owner Kenneth Redon, III.
- The FTC alleges the company tricked consumers into paying more than $7.6 million in bogus debt.
- Alleged tactics included threatening consumers with jail time, arrest, wage garnishment and lawsuits.
- The company allegedly made incessant calls, sometimes several times a day, and contacted consumers' family members with similar threats.
- It allegedly failed to identify itself as a debt collector, as the law requires.
- The FTC alleges the debts it was attempting to collect either do not exist at all, or are not debts it can legally collect.
- It operated under fictitious names including Total Mediation Solutions, Total Consumer Solutions and Consumer Impact Recovery.
- A federal court issued a temporary restraining order on 29 October 2024, freezing assets and placing the company under a court-appointed receivership.
- The charges are brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. These are allegations that have not been proven at trial.
- On 1 May 2025 the FTC announced that the Commission had voted to authorise staff to file a first amended complaint and a stipulated final order against Global Circulation, Inc. and Kenneth Redon III in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
- The amended complaint added allegations that the defendants falsely claimed affiliation with lenders in violation of the FTC's Impersonation Rule and violated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.
- The order permanently bans the company and Redon from debt collection and debt brokering, bars misrepresentations and false claims of affiliation, and imposes a monetary judgment of $9,684,338 that is suspended once they turn over their remaining assets; the full amount becomes due if they are found to have misrepresented their finances.
- A law-firm news report states that the court ordered the stipulated order on 9 May 2025; the FTC release says such orders have the force of law once approved and signed by the judge.
- The sources reviewed do not say whether the defendants admitted the allegations.
Why this case matters
The allegation contains a distinction worth pausing on. The FTC says the debts Global Circulation was chasing either do not exist at all, or are not debts it can legally collect.
Two different things, and the second is the more interesting one.
A debt that never existed is fabrication. A debt that exists but cannot legally be collected is something else: a real obligation that has passed its statute of limitations, or been discharged in bankruptcy, or already been paid, or was sold on so many times that nobody can prove who owns it.
That second category is the raw material of this industry. Portfolios of old, expired and disputed debts change hands cheaply precisely because they cannot be enforced, and their value to a fraudulent collector is that the person on the other end may half-remember the original obligation and assume the demand is legitimate.
The escalation to family
The tactic that separates this case is calling relatives with the same threats.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act a collector may contact third parties only to locate somebody, and may not discuss the debt. Calling a consumer’s family to repeat threats of jail is not a debt collection practice at all; it is pressure applied through people who have no involvement and no way to check.
It also explains the “incessant” calls, sometimes several times a day. The product being sold is relief from the calling.
The names again
Total Mediation Solutions. Total Consumer Solutions. Consumer Impact Recovery.
The same pattern as Blackstone Legal: several neutral, official-sounding trading names over one operation, so that no single name accumulates a searchable reputation.
Why “failed to identify itself” is a real charge
It sounds like paperwork. It is not.
A debt collector is legally required to say that it is one, and to send a written validation notice setting out the debt and the consumer’s right to dispute it. That notice is the mechanism by which a person can demand proof, and demanding proof is the single action that ends a phantom debt.
An operation that never identifies itself as a collector never triggers the obligation to prove anything. Skipping the disclosure is not an oversight; it removes the consumer’s only lever.
The caveat
This case ended by settlement rather than trial. The FTC’s allegations, including the $7.6 million, the threats of jail and the calls to relatives, were set out in its complaints and have not been tested in court. What is established is the agreed order: a permanent ban from debt collection and debt brokering for Global Circulation, Inc. and Kenneth Redon III, and a $9,684,338 monetary judgment that is suspended once they turn over their remaining assets. A stipulated order is an agreement the defendants accepted, not a finding of liability after trial, and the sources reviewed do not say whether they admitted the allegations.
Sources
- FTC Takes Action Against Phantom Debt Collector That Collected Millions In Bogus Debt From Consumers. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 4 November 2024 action, the defendants, the $7.6m, the jail and garnishment threats, the calls to family members, the failure to identify as a collector, the fictitious names, the 29 October 2024 restraining order and receivership, and the FDCPA charge.
- FTC to Ban Debt Collector Who Allegedly Coerced Consumers into Paying Debt They Didn't Owe. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The 1 May 2025 filing of the amended complaint and stipulated final order, the permanent ban from debt collection and debt brokering, the $9,684,338 suspended monetary judgment, the Impersonation Rule and Gramm-Leach-Bliley allegations, and the quoted FTC official.
- Federal Trade Commission v. Global Circulation, Inc. and Kenneth Redon III (case page). US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The case caption, the November 2024 complaint and restraining order, and the May 2025 amended complaint and stipulated motion to enter an order for permanent injunction and monetary judgment.
- FTC Enters Into Stipulated Order to Permanently Ban Global Circulation and Its Owner From Debt Collection Industry. Consumer Finance Monitor (Ballard Spahr). Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The report that the court ordered the stipulated order on 9 May 2025 and the $9,684,338 suspended judgment.