WASHINGTON — This new manager for the Federal Trade Commission’s customer protection device, a watchdog with broad investigative abilities over personal businesses, stands apart even yet in a management vulnerable to turning over authority that is regulatory pro-industry players.
The manager, Andrew M. Smith, has represented Facebook, Uber and Equifax — all businesses with things prior to the payment — and intends to recuse himself from a large number of instances given that he has got been verified for the post.
Plus in 2012, Mr. Smith ended up being additionally an element of the appropriate group that defended AMG Services, the payday loan provider created by the convicted racketeer Scott Tucker, whose predatory practices against impoverished borrowers sooner or later resulted in a $1.3 billion court-ordered settlement, the largest when you look at the commission’s history.
“It’s outrageous the F.T.C. would select the attorney for a criminally convicted racketeer’s pay day loan business as customer security chief,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, whom opposed Mr. Smith’s selection. “The agency should choose somebody by having a history of protecting customers, maybe maybe perhaps not businesses that cheat people.”