The DOJ filed suit on March 3, 2023 against Goines Towing and Recovery near a Marine Corps base in North Carolina, alleging the company failed to make good-faith efforts to determine military status before filing court affidavits claiming status could not be determined, and auctioned a Marine Corporal's SUV while he was deployed in Okinawa, according to the Consumer Finance Monitor. Goines was eventually ordered to pay $66,805 in relief to affected servicemembers and a $30,000 civil penalty.
Operator takeaway
Filing a false affidavit claiming you could not determine military status when you did not check is a federal violation — the DOD Manpower database lookup takes minutes and costs nothing.