A South Carolina pension-buyout broker permanently banned from consumer finance
The CFPB and the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs sued Katharine Snyder and her companies, Performance Arbitrage Company Inc. and Life Funding Options Inc., in October 2019, alleging the same purchase-not-loan pension-buyout structure documented in related CFPB cases, targeting disabled veterans and other pensioners. A stipulated final judgment entered in November 2020, after Snyder filed personal bankruptcy, permanently barred her and her companies from ever again collecting on the affected contracts or offering any consumer financial product or service.
- Year
- 2020
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Pension advance scams
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-27
The facts, as recorded
- The CFPB and the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs filed a complaint against Katharine Snyder, Performance Arbitrage Company Inc. and Life Funding Options Inc. on October 1, 2019 in the US District Court for the District of South Carolina (Docket 6:19-cv-02794).
- The complaint alleged Snyder's companies brokered high-interest credit contracts with veterans and other consumers while misrepresenting the contracts as valid, enforceable sales of future pension and disability payments, when the underlying assignments are void under federal and state law, and failed to disclose the applicable interest rate.
- Snyder filed personal bankruptcy in May 2020, during the litigation.
- A stipulated final judgment approved November 12, 2020 imposed a permanent ban on Snyder and her companies from collecting on the affected consumers' existing contracts and from offering any consumer financial product or service ever again, along with civil penalties of $500 to the CFPB and $500 to South Carolina. Snyder had filed for personal bankruptcy in May 2020.
- 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 Kern-Fuller/Upstate Law Group networks.
Why this case matters
This case shows the same pension-buyout structure operating out of a second state, under different company names, at the same time regulators were pursuing the Voyager/Gamber network in Arkansas, direct evidence that the “purchase, not a loan” model was not confined to one broker or one company, but was a template multiple, apparently unconnected operators used.
Bankruptcy did not stop the judgment
Snyder filed for personal bankruptcy in May 2020, partway through the litigation. The judgment paired nominal civil penalties with a permanent industry ban, which does not depend on collecting a large dollar judgment to take effect.
A ban that outlasts a small penalty
The $500 civil penalties paid to the CFPB and South Carolina are far smaller than the harm alleged in the underlying complaint. The more consequential term of the settlement is the permanent bar on Snyder or her companies ever again collecting on the contracts already sold to consumers, or offering any consumer financial product or service in the future, a lifetime restriction regardless of what she was able to pay.
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, Snyder’s bankruptcy is a matter of court record, and the court entered the judgment and permanent ban described above. The characterization of the underlying conduct, that the contracts misrepresented validity and interest rates, reflects the Bureau’s allegations as resolved by settlement, not a trial verdict on the merits.
Sources
- Katharine Snyder, Performance Arbitrage Company, Inc., and Life Funding Options, Inc.. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Accessed 2026-09-27. Supports: The October 2019 complaint, the court and docket number, the May 2020 bankruptcy filing, the November 2020 stipulated judgment, the lifetime ban terms, and the $500/$500 civil penalties.
- 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.