Richmond Capital Group Suit
3 Points to Address in the First 48 Hours

The caption carries more history than most plaintiffs disclose. A summons bearing the Richmond name arrives with a public record of enforcement actions, adverse findings, and industry bans that the papers themselves will never mention.

Three points govern the first 48 hours. Name the parties behind the caption and calendar the deadline. Preserve the agreement, the debits, and every paragraph the funder hopes you will not reread. Place counsel between you and every response. What the owner discloses, or withholds, in those hours shapes the answer that follows.

What a Richmond Caption Carries

Richmond Capital Group LLC later operated as RCG Advances LLC, also doing business as Viceroy Capital Funding and Ram Capital Funding, alongside RAM Capital Funding LLC and individual principals including Robert Giardina, Jonathan Braun, and Tzvi Reich, according to the FTC case record. The caption therefore names a network rather than a single lender, a distinction extremely easy to miss on first reading. Before the answer is drafted, before counsel sees the exhibits, the deadline stated in the papers is already running.

In 2023, after a hearing of some seven days, a New York court granted the state attorney general petition against Richmond and its affiliates, finding fraud in the origination and collection of the advances, described in the Richmond Capital decision. Federal enforcers charged deception reaching back to 2015, unauthorized withdrawals, and collection threats that included physical violence. Settlements banned the settling parties from the industry, ordered judgments vacated and liens released, and produced a twenty million dollar judgment against one principal, though the dockets behind these figures are New York dockets. And the caption tells only who sued, not what the papers claim, so the agreement underneath the caption deserves the first reading.

Parties, Court, and Deadline

Read the summons for four facts: the parties named, the court, the index number, and the answer date the papers impose. The summons arrives with an outlandish calm for a document that can end the business. Confirm whether the plaintiff sues as the original funder, an assignee, or a successor entity trading on a familiar name. The enforcement history belongs to specific parties, and the owner should know which party stands across the caption before borrowing any inference from that history.

Where the agreement contains a confession clause, judgment can arrive without trial, and the posture differs in kind from ordinary collection litigation. New York procedure requires a sworn affidavit stating the sum, the county of residence, and the facts of the debt, with filing limited to a three year window in the county of residence, under CPLR 3218. The confession affidavit is drafted in order to look routine (which the industry will describe as standard paperwork, though the Richmond record showed what routine affidavits can conceal), and routine paper still transfers the case from defense to damage control. You signed the papers and now the papers are suing you.

The deadline runs while the owner reads.

The Record to Preserve

Gather and hold every document before drafting any response. The Richmond record turned on paper: agreements that left the Specified Percentage blank, daily sweeps never reconciled to collected receivables, and an addendum that priced each bounced debit at fifty dollars with three allowed before default. The court found the slow remittance language a sham on that record and the supporting affidavits false. Whether the owner agreement shares any of these features is a question the file answers, not memory.

New York courts test substance over form before deciding what an advance is in law, weighing reconciliation behavior, finite term, and bankruptcy recourse, under LG Funding v. United Senior Properties. How a New Jersey court would characterize the agreement on these facts is beyond what any article can settle. That uncertainty is why the underlying records matter more than the caption above them.

• The summons with all exhibits, riders, and the affidavit of service showing when the clock began.
• The executed agreement with every amendment, addendum, guaranty, and the Specified Percentage page.
• Bank statements showing each debit, matched where possible against receivables for the same dates.
• Prior correspondence, reconciliation requests, and any notice of default or acceleration received.

Most owners read the summons at night, at the kitchen table, after the business is closed. The impulse to call the funder in the morning is human. I understand the impulse, having watched that call become an exhibit. Change nothing about the accounts until counsel advises, since stopping debits or moving receivables can breach the agreement anew.

Counsel as the Only Channel

Every communication with the funder, even casually, can alter the posture of the case. Delay is extremely expensive in a case with a confession clause. Resist the urge to answer the complaint to save the fee, since a rushed answer can admit the balance and waive defenses at once. Counsel enters the appearance so the owner can return to the business.

The First 48 Hours Decide the Posture

Delancey Street offers a free confidential initial review for owners served in funder suits, and the review can weigh and test whether the posture, the paperwork, and the timeline fit a negotiated resolution alongside independent defense counsel. The company works as a settlement company and coordinates legal strategy with independent counsel, since it is not a law firm. Counsel should ensure the answer deadline is calendared from the papers, and the objective is to ensure no statement reaches the funder without review. Simply bring the caption, the calendar, and the debits to the first conference.

Seldom does a two day delay matter as much as it matters here. The agreement promised reconciliation. The debits never waited for it. That gap, documented or not, is where the defense begins, and the file the owner builds in the first two days becomes the foundation of everything that follows. The case against you started without you. The response should not proceed that way.