Dean Tucci Challenges $43 Million CFPB Judgment

PALATINE, Ill., Oct. 21, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Dean Tucci, a businessman, is challenging a $43.24 million federal judgment in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, calling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) case an extraordinary example of government overreach.

The judgment includes $2.1 million in consumer restitution and a staggering $41.1 million civil penalty. Tucci, who sold the company in 2017 to Kenneth Halverson, states that the CFPB sued FDATR, Inc., a tax preparation and accounting firm, for alleged violations of the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule banning advance fees put in place in 2010 for credit card debt settlement firms. However, the Rule specifically exempted tax preparation firms, of which FDATR was one.

On November 20, 2020, the CFPB served the last owner of FDATR, Inc., Ken Halverson, at his home. Halverson tragically died by suicide 62 minutes after being served, as he was no longer an officer of the company and Illinois law required service on an officer or registered agent. The CFPB obtained a default judgment against FDATR, Inc., without ever proving any of its allegations, and pursued Tucci personally for more than five years for a self-calculated ridiculous fine of $43 million on a business that did $2 million in sales over three years.

Tucci, who sold FDATR, Inc., in 2017, states that the company worked hand in hand with the Department of Education, providing tax preparation and resolution services, and helping students get out of default and assisting with wage garnishments and tax refunds. The company closed in May 2019 and then dissolved in September 2020, before the CFPB filed suit. Tucci maintains that the $41 million fine was calculated for allegedly taking advance fees and acting as a credit repair agency, but every customer who paid for services received what they purchased, and for the small amount that could not be helped, they refunded it.

The CFPB identified approximately 6,046 paying customers in the FDATR database, but Tucci maintains that they failed to establish what each customer actually purchased nor did they match it against any bank records. Tucci also challenges the CFPB's reliance on customer database records to support its extraordinary monetary fine calculations. The case, CFPB v. FDATR, Inc. and Dean Tucci, Seventh Circuit No. 25-2607, has dragged on for almost six years, costing enormous legal expenses and devastating reputational damage.