Debt Collectors Need More Restrictions, Courtesy of Bill Bartmann

Bill Bartmann might be the future of debt collection. Probably because he was once the past of debt collection. He might also be the Matrix. Point is: he’s back.

Bill Bartmann — former traveling carnival denizen, former paraplegic, former strike arranger, former BFF of Mother Theresa (he claims all of those, fwiw) — had also previously been the owner of Commercial Financial Services, a debt-buying outfit he started to get out of dutch with some collection agencies. (Using the patented “The Calls Are Coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!” strategy, Bartmann used money borrowed from the bank he was already in debt to.)

Bartmann’s success was unprecedented, and tales of his largesse were the stuff of legend. (Well, at least water-cooler talk; it’s not like Commercial Financial Services beheaded a gorgon or slept with its own mother.)

CFS’s downfall was equally operatic: in 1998, Jay Jones, a then shareholder, fiddled with the books Enron-style, plunging the company into bankruptcy and himself into prison. Even though Bartmann escaped the destruction personally unscathed, CFS could no longer obtain any financing and the company was shuttered.

Fast forward 12 years, to July of 2010. After success with Bill Bartmann Enterprises, an outfit Bartmann created to take advantage of banking bailouts and TARP subsidies, Bartmann established a new debt collection company, CFS II. CFS II was to be what CFS was, only with Roman numerals and less accounting malfeasance. In the same vein as “We’ve always been at war with Oceania,” Bartmann opened up shop as CFS II in the same location as the old CFS.

While working as a debt collection agency, though, Bartmann is making sure to be as public as possible about how he’s not necessarily down with all those other collection agencies. Seeing how well it worked for the Founding Fathers, on Wednesday Bartmann, at a press conference attended by local media, released what he calls the Bartmann Bill, a proposal to change debt collection laws in Oklahoma. The highlight was his own Bill of Rights for Ethical Debt Collection (up from the original eight listed on his new site, StopTheseCriminals.com):

1. Grant the Attorney General power to prosecute violations
2. Require licensing of collection agencies
3. Require licensing of agents
4. Ban collection on time-barred “zombie” debt
5. Provide more disclosure to consumers
6. Require response to a consumer’s request for verification
7. Require verification before litigation
8. Require proof of personal service before litigation
9. Require debt sellers to transfer consumers’ information
10. Authorize consumers to record collection calls

Most of these are already codified in official legislation like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) or the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). But who doesn’t love a list on giant poster board? (You can view the list, and Bartmann waxing eloquent about it, below our poll, video courtesy of Oklahoma’s Own News on 6 site). It’s savvy positioning on Bartmann’s part, and good marketing for his ongoing Bill Bartmann Enterprises concern, which offers training on debt-buying.