This week on The Perfect Scam.

These contracts are not only predatory, they're illegal, they're not allowed.

But I think that if there's nobody there to represent the veteran who has fallen prey to this,

then it's a default judgment. There's no argument to be had if they don't show up or nobody's there to represent them.

The whole situation was just terribly unfortunate. fortunate.

Welcome back to the perfect scam.

I'm your host Bob Sullivan.

When we left off last week, we were following the story of Michael Heron.

He's an Iraq war veteran who's fallen on hard financial times back home in the US.

During the war, he spent years driving around the outskirts of Baghdad looking for

improvised explosive devices, IEDs, which left him with PTSD. He gets a small disability payment but even with that and his salary

a divorce and expensive medical issues with his child pushes him to seek

financial relief. He thought he'd found that from an organization named

Voyager Financial which paid him a lump sum in exchange for five years worth of

disability payments. But that only made his money problems worse. Where we pick up the story,

Voyager has sued Michael and he's planning to travel from his home in Colorado to South Carolina

to defend himself.

To tell the court the debt should have been discharged in bankruptcy.

But as he works to find a local lawyer,

he makes a shocking discovery that impacts him and a whole lot of other veterans working with Voyager.

I read the federal regulations that cover veterans benefits and the assignment of veterans benefits.

The regulation says that any contract which assigns a benefit is void on inception is the word.

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