Post Lake Lending Lawsuit: Kelly Guzzo Probe and Immunity Rulings

No lawsuit has been filed against Post Lake Lending as of mid-2026, and no court has issued a published ruling naming the online tribal lender as a defendant. A Virginia consumer law firm, Kelly Guzzo PLC, is actively investigating the company, and recent federal appeals decisions against similar tribal lenders have weakened the sovereign immunity defense that Post Lake Lending uses to shield itself from state lending laws.¹

The Active Investigation by Kelly Guzzo PLC

Kelly Guzzo PLC has publicly disclosed that it is investigating Post Lake Lending over loans allegedly carrying interest rates above 750% APR and over the company’s practice of asserting that tribal law, rather than the borrower’s home state law, governs the loans.¹ The firm has experience in this area. It represented borrowers in the class action against lenders operated by the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, which produced a pending settlement canceling roughly $1.4 billion in outstanding loans for about 980,000 borrowers and requiring $37.4 million in restitution from tribal officials and non-tribal partners.²

An investigation is not a filed suit. It signals that a firm is gathering borrower accounts, evaluating claims, and deciding whether litigation is viable. Borrowers who took loans from Post Lake Lending and want to be part of any eventual case can contact the firm directly.

Why Post Lake Lending Has Not Been Sued in Court

Post Lake Lending identifies itself as “an economic arm and instrumentality of the Sokaogon Mole Lake Band of Chippewa,” a federally recognized tribe in Crandon, Wisconsin, and says it is “not subject to the jurisdiction or laws of any state.” Its responses to consumer complaints routinely state that the tribe’s sovereign immunity is “expressly preserved.”³

The loan agreement channels disputes into arbitration through the American Arbitration Association and directs consumers to submit written complaints to a “Tribal Consumer Finance Department.” Class actions are prohibited, and no path to court is described.⁴ An attorney answering a borrower question on Justia in May 2025 noted that because the agreement points to arbitration and never mentions court, it is unlikely the lender itself could take a borrower to state court.⁵ Those same barriers work the other way: they are the reason a lawsuit against the company has not been straightforward to bring.

Recent Rulings Weakening the Sovereign Immunity Shield

Two recent decisions matter for anyone considering a suit against Post Lake Lending.

Ransom v. GreatPlains Finance (Third Circuit, August 2025)

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a tribal lender owned by the Fort Belknap Indian Community of Montana was not entitled to sovereign immunity. The court adopted a five-factor test and held that the financial relationship between the tribe and the lending entity is the “most important factor,” because sovereign immunity exists to protect the tribal treasury. Because GreatPlains was a separate LLC with no track record of returning profits to the tribe, its immunity claim failed. The court emphasized “substance over form”: incorporation papers and stated purposes carry less weight than evidence of actual financial flows and operational control.⁶ The plaintiff had borrowed $750 at approximately 700% interest, and the debt grew to nearly $4,000.⁷

The Lac du Flambeau Litigation

In Fitzgerald v. Wildcat, borrowers filed a federal class action in Virginia against a Lac du Flambeau tribal lending operation whose APRs frequently exceeded 600%.⁸ Rather than suing the tribe directly, the plaintiffs targeted individual tribal council members and non-tribal business partners, avoiding the immunity problem. A federal appeals court agreed in 2021 that tribal lending to out-of-state borrowers is off-reservation activity subject to state law.⁹ The California Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion in 2016 in a case involving five payday lending entities, requiring businesses claiming tribal immunity to demonstrate genuine tribal ownership, control, and financial benefit.¹⁰

Together, these rulings supply the legal template a suit against Post Lake Lending would likely follow: sue individuals and partners rather than the tribe, argue that lending to out-of-state borrowers is off-reservation conduct, and demand proof that profits actually reach the tribal treasury.

What Borrowers Complain About

The Better Business Bureau lists 204 consumer complaints against Post Lake Lending over the past three years, 121 of them closed in the most recent 12 months. The company is not BBB-accredited.³ The company’s own FAQ discloses APRs from roughly 550% to 815%, depending on payment schedule and term.¹¹

Complaints cluster around a few themes. Borrowers report paying multiples of what they borrowed without reducing principal: one consumer reported paying $5,852 on a $1,700 loan without satisfying the debt; another reported a $7,397 balance on a $2,555 loan, with interest consuming 80% of a weekly paycheck.³⁵ Others describe ACH debits that continued after they asked for withdrawals to stop, and wage-assignment agreements used to arrange paycheck deductions through employers. The company characterizes these wage assignments as voluntary, not garnishments, and says borrowers can revoke authorization in writing.

What You Can Do Now

Without a filed class action to join, borrowers who believe they have been harmed have a handful of practical steps, based on guidance from attorneys who have handled similar cases.⁵

File a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and with your state attorney general. Both track patterns and can trigger enforcement.
Revoke ACH authorization in writing. The company has acknowledged in its BBB responses that it processes revocations within three business days. You can also instruct your bank to block further debits.³
Revoke any wage-assignment authorization in writing, and notify your employer’s payroll office so deductions stop.
Contact Kelly Guzzo PLC if you took a loan from Post Lake Lending. The firm’s ongoing investigation is the most active legal effort targeting the company.¹
Keep records: the original loan agreement, every payment, every ACH debit, every communication with the company. If a class action is filed, that documentation is what makes a claim provable.

Post Lake Lending does not lend in about 20 states and the District of Columbia, so state-law exposure varies by where the borrower lives.¹²⁴¹³

1
Kelly Guzzo PLC. Payday and Online Loans
2
Top Class Actions. Historic $1.5B Settlement Seeks Payday Loan Forgiveness, Other Relief
3
Better Business Bureau. Post Lake Lending Complaints
4
Post Lake Lending. Resolving Consumer Disputes
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Justia. Can Post Lake Lending Take Me to Court
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Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Ransom v. GreatPlains Finance, No. 24-1908
7
NJ.com. Lenders Rent-a-Tribe Must Face Lawsuit Over 700% Interest Loans, Judge Rules
8
Wisconsin Watch. Wisconsin Lac du Flambeau Tribe Lending Loan
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ProPublica. Wisconsin Lac du Flambeau Tribe Predatory Lending Lawsuit
10
DFPI. DBO Wins Landmark California Supreme Court Ruling in Major Tribal Payday Lending Case
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Post Lake Lending. Frequently Asked Questions
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Post Lake Lending. Post Lake Lending Home
13
Public Justice. Tribal Immunity May No Longer Get Jail-Free Card for Payday Lenders