March 12, 2012

A complaint has been filed and a consent judgment has been entered against the debt consolidation company United Financial Systems, Inc. and its principal, Christopher Boulahanis. The consent judgment awards damages against United Financial and Boulahanis in the amount of more than $595,000 in restitution and $500,000 in civil penalties.

This judgment follows the company's failure to pay promised refunds in accordance with a settlement agreement with the Attorney General's Office. Only a portion of the refunds due were actually paid by the company. The $100,000 paid to date under the settlement will be distributed pro rata to the injured consumers in March 2012. The Attorney General's Office will continue working diligently to collect the remaining monies in an effort to provide full refunds to all the injured consumers. The consent judgment also precludes the company and its representatives from engaging in any credit counseling, debt management or debt consolidation in Florida.

Consumers injured by United Financial who have already submitted an affidavit do not need to submit any additional information. Distribution of the available funds will be made in March of 2012 on a pro rata basis based upon the company records and the affidavits from injured consumers documenting the amount of their loss. The March 2012 payment is expected to be only a portion of the total loss to each injured consumer. The Attorney General's Office will continue its efforts to collect the total amount owed in order to provide additional payments to the injured consumers.

A copy of the Consent Judgment is available by clicking on the link on the right titled "Consent Judgment" under the heading "United Financial System Links."

For this or any other case in which consumers suspect fraud, consumers can call the fraud hotline at 1-866-966-7226 (toll-free within Florida).

This website is the most current and best source of the current status of this matter. This page will be regularly updated. Please visit this website on a regular basis for the most current information.

Background
United Financial Systems, Inc. was a Florida corporation that provided debt consolidation services to consumers nationwide. The company shut down operations as of December 2010. The Office of the Attorney General initiated an investigation in January 2011. In response to the Attorney General investigation, the company agreed to refund all consumers by August 31, 2011. The refunds were not timely made by the company, however, and the Attorney General pursued the investigation toward litigation. In December 2011, the Attorney General signed a settlement agreement with United Financial in which the company will pay the Attorney General the full amount due to the consumers in a series of monthly installments, and the Attorney General will distribute the funds to the defrauded consumers.