A South Carolina attorney who banked, litigated for, and collected on a veteran pension-buyout scheme for seven years
The CFPB, the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs and the Arkansas Attorney General sued attorney Candy Kern-Fuller, Howard Sutter III and Upstate Law Group LLC in February 2020, alleging Kern-Fuller acted as banker, legal counsel and debt collector for a pension-buyout network that wired millions of dollars between veterans and investors for nearly seven years, and separately misrepresented that non-paying consumers could face criminal prosecution. A stipulated final judgment in January 2021 imposed $725,000 in consumer redress and a permanent ban from the business.
- Year
- 2021
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $725,000
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Pension advance scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-27
The facts, as recorded
- The CFPB, the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs and Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a joint complaint against Candy Kern-Fuller, Howard Sutter III and Upstate Law Group LLC on February 20, 2020 in the US District Court for the District of South Carolina (Docket 6:20-cv-00786).
- The complaint alleged Kern-Fuller effectively operated as banker, legal counsel and debt collector for the pension-buyout operation for nearly seven years, with Upstate Law Group's accounts used to wire millions of dollars between veteran consumers and the investors funding their lump-sum payments.
- The Bureau alleged the defendants developed the underwriting and risk-assessment process for the contracts, processed payments, executed the paperwork, and filed collection suits against consumers who stopped paying, including representations that non-payment could expose a consumer to criminal prosecution, which was never actually possible.
- A stipulated final judgment entered January 21, 2021 imposed $725,000 in equitable monetary relief for consumer redress and permanently barred the defendants from brokering, arranging or collecting on any pension or disability-payment sale agreement.
- Consumers harmed by this operation were among those who received checks in the CFPB's December 2023 distribution of nearly $6 million to victims of pension-advance schemes, alongside the related Corbett/Gamber and Snyder/Performance Arbitrage networks.
Why this case matters
This is the most structurally central of the three documented networks: rather than a broker who arranged contracts or a company that funded them, the complaint describes a licensed attorney whose law firm’s own bank and trust accounts served as the plumbing for the entire operation, underwriting, moving money, and then suing consumers who stopped paying.
A law license, used as credibility
The CFPB’s complaint alleges Kern-Fuller did not simply refer clients to a pension-buyout company; she built and ran the underwriting and collection functions herself, through Upstate Law Group, for nearly seven years. A practising attorney’s involvement gives a contract a legitimacy an anonymous broker cannot offer, one reason regulators pursued her individually rather than only the corporate entity.
Threatening a prosecution that could not happen
Among the specific allegations: consumers who stopped paying were told they could face criminal prosecution for breaching the contract. The CFPB’s complaint states this was never actually possible, a nonpayment on a void, unenforceable contract is a civil matter, not a criminal one, and the representation existed to pressure continued payment through fear rather than any real legal exposure.
The caveat
This case ended in a stipulated settlement in which the defendants did not admit or deny the CFPB’s specific factual allegations as a matter of adjudicated fact. What is a matter of public record: the complaint was filed, the court entered the $725,000 judgment and permanent ban described above, and Kern-Fuller’s role as an attorney is a matter of her public license record. The characterization of the underlying conduct, the seven-year operational role, the underwriting process, and the false prosecution-threat allegation, reflects the Bureau’s allegations as resolved by settlement, not a trial verdict on the merits.
Sources
- Candy Kern-Fuller, Howard Sutter III, and Upstate Law Group LLC. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Accessed 2026-09-27. Supports: The February 2020 complaint, the court and docket number, the seven-year duration of Kern-Fuller's role, the underwriting/collection allegations, the false-prosecution-threat allegation, the January 2021 stipulated judgment, and the $725,000 redress figure.
- CFPB to distribute nearly $6 million to consumers harmed by predatory loans to veterans. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Accessed 2026-09-27. Supports: The link between this case and the CFPB's December 2023 distribution of relief to victims of related pension-advance networks.