Arizona § 13-2302 - Making extortionate extensions of credit; classification

§ 13-2302. Making extortionate extensions of credit; classification

A. Any person who makes an extortionate extension of credit is guilty of a class 5 felony.

B. In any prosecution pursuant to this section, if it is shown that all of the following factors were present in connection with the extension of credit, there is prima facie evidence that the extension of credit was extortionate:

1. The repayment of the extension of credit, or the performance of any promise given in consideration thereof, would be unenforceable at the time the extension of credit was made through civil judicial processes against the debtor in the county within which the debtor, if a natural person, resided or in every county within which the debtor, if other than a natural person, was incorporated, or qualified to do business.

2. The extension of credit was made at a rate of interest in excess of an annual rate of forty-five per cent calculated according to the actuarial method of allocating payments made on a debt between principal and interest, pursuant to which a payment is applied first to the accumulated interest and the balance is applied to the unpaid principal.

3. At the time the extension of credit was made, the debtor reasonably believed that either of the following:

(a) One or more extensions of credit by the creditor had been collected or attempted to be collected by extortionate means, or the nonrepayment had been punished by extortionate means.

(b) The creditor had a reputation for the use of extortionate means to collect extensions of credit or to punish the nonrepayment thereof.

4. Upon the making of the extension of credit, the total of the extensions of credit by the creditor to the debtor then outstanding, including any unpaid interest or similar charges, exceeded one hundred dollars.

C. In any prosecution pursuant to this section, if evidence has been introduced tending to show the existence of any of the circumstances described in subsection B, paragraph 1 or 2, and direct evidence of the actual belief of the debtor as to the creditor's collection practices is not available, then for the purpose of showing the understanding of the debtor and the creditor at the time the extension of credit was made, the court may in its discretion allow evidence to be introduced tending to show the reputation as to collection practices of the creditor in any community of which the debtor was a member at the time of the extension.