Jay McGraw, son of famed daytime talk show host “Dr. Phil” McGraw, reportedly profited handsomely from a lending business targeting low-income people with high-interest loans, some with interest rates as high as 700 percent.
Jay McGraw, a successful TV producer, was once listed as president and secretary of a company called CreditServe, which helps arrange small, high-interest loans through a company owned by a Native American tribe in Alaska, according to records obtained by an investigation from ProPublica and the Anchorage Daily News.
Though records no longer list McGraw as a top officer in the company, a federal lawsuit filed in Illinois in November accused McGraw of providing “tens of millions of dollars” in capital for the loans and serving as the “principal beneficiary” of the business, only using the tribal corporation as a “front.” (The suit settled confidentially in May.)
The loans went out through a company called Minto Money, which is based in the tribal community of Minto, Alaska, a remote log-cabin village of about 160 people.
The company’s operations grew from $2 million in annual revenue in 2020 to roughly $12 million by 2024, according to the investigation, generating millions of dollars for the Minto community.
Minto Money has been the subject of more than 280 consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, according to the investigation, and holds an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau.
“What these people are doing should be illegal,” one individual wrote in an anonymous complaint to the Bureau in February. “They’re charging me over 700% interest. It makes it impossible to pay off the loan! They’re taking $400 of my money every month and I only borrowed $725. After months of payments I’ve only paid $35 toward the balance!”
The Independent has contacted Jay McGraw, CreditServe, and Minto Money for comment.
Dr. Phil is not linked to the lending operation, and Merit Street Media, which airs his show, defended Jay McGraw in a statement to ProPublica.
“Dr. Phil knows his son Jay to be a smart, strong, caring human being, and while he does not know his business, Dr. Phil supports him 100%,” the statement said.
Investors have been known to seek out tribes as business partners to avoid various forms of financial regulation, a strategy sometimes referred to pejoratively as “rent-a-tribe.”
While incomes in Minto are well below the state median, Jay McGraw appears to live a high-income lifestyle, with a lakeside mansion in Texas and trips to Paris, Palm Beach, and Napa.
