Easley attorney Candy Kern-Fuller will end her firm's involvement in buying and selling military benefits, according to a settlement of three federal lawsuits filed in Greenville by nine veterans who claimed to be victims of a financial scam.

The settlement calls for U.S. District Judge Donald C. Coggins Jr. to issue permanent injunctions against Kern-Fuller, her law firm Upstate Law Group, two other companies and three other individuals, according to a 140-page court filing submitted Friday night.

As part of a continuing investigation, The Greenville News and Anderson Independent Mail reviewed a 1,139-page transcript that was filed last week from an August hearing in Phoenix, where details of the alleged scam were laid out before an Arizona regulatory agency.

The injunctions proposed Friday night, which would take effect with Coggins' approval, will prevent Kern-Fuller and the accused parties from "initiating any new transactions involving the alleged assignment of veterans’ benefits or attempting to enforce existing contracts for the alleged assignment of veterans’ benefits."

Coggins also is being asked to enter default judgments against Arkansas businessman Andrew Gamber, Texas businessman David Woodard and three of their companies that failed to respond to the civil suits.

The proposed judgments find that Gamber, Woodard and their companies took part in a "civil conspiracy" to induce veterans to "enter into costly, unconscionable agreements that directly violate" federal laws prohibiting the sale of military benefits.

Besides barring the practice, the judgments would require Gamber, Woodard and their companies to repay more than $150,000 to five of the veterans involved in the suits.

Friday's court filing seeks to wrap up two years of federal litigation in Greenville stemming from the actions of Gamber, Kern-Fuller and their co-defendants, who targeted financially desperate veterans. Gamber, 39, was described in the civil suits as the enterprise's mastermind while Kern-Fuller, 51, was portrayed as the central banker.

The scheme involved providing veterans with cash advances from investors. The veterans then agreed to repay the money over a period of years with money from their monthly military disability or pension payments.

Friday's filing states that Gamber "extracted" up to half of the money from investors as commissions.

Reached Saturday morning, Kern-Fuller declined to comment.

"You're going to have to talk to my lawyers," she said.

Three publicly listed phone numbers for Gamber have been disconnected. A fourth number included an automated response saying the cellular customer was unavailable, and there was no opportunity to leave a message.

Veteran who sold her benefits: 'It was a big ol' scam'

“It was a big ol' scam,” Charlotte McFerren, one of the veterans involved in the suit, said during an interview earlier this year with The Greenville News and Anderson Independent Mail.

McFerren, 37, who lives in Duluth, Minnesota, receives disability pay for a back injury that she suffered in basic training after enlisting in the Army. When her husband was hurt on the job, she filled out a form on a website in 2017 in hopes of improving the couple's credit score or obtaining enough money for a down payment for a house where they could live with their two daughters.

Although most of the cash advance that McFerren received went to pay debts, her credit score did not improve, and she and her husband weren't able to buy a house, she said.

One of the other plaintiffs in the federal civil suits filed in Greenville is an Army veteran from Georgia who served in Iraq and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after she she saw several of friends burn to death in an armored tank.

There also is an Army medic who took part in 700 combat missions before a roadside bomb exploded under his vehicle, leaving him totally disabled, as well as another Army veteran who sold his benefits to prevent his family from becoming homeless.

Federal, state regulators have taken other actions against Andrew Gamber

Friday's filing includes a copy of a judgment against Gamber that was issued earlier this month after he was sued by the state of Arkansas and the federal Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

The judgment permanently bans Gamber from buying and selling pensions. It also calls for him to pay $2.7 million, but that amount will be reduced to $275,000 if paid within 90 days.

The federal Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection also reached an agreement in January with Mark Corbett, one of the businessmen named in Friday's settlement. As part of the agreement, Corbett agreed to cooperate with investigators. Although he was fined only $1, the bureau has set aside more than $9 million to compensate veterans who sold their benefits in deals brokered by Corbett since 2011, records show.

Nine states have issued orders barring Gamber and his companies from buying and selling veterans' benefits. Arizona was one of the most recent states to act, issuing a cease-and-desist order in April that requires Gamber and his companies to repay nearly $2.7 million from 53 transactions that took place there from 2013 to 2015.

The Arizona Corporation Commission also is seeking to take enforcement action against Kern-Fuller. An expert witness, retired University of South Carolina law professor John Freeman, said in a report that facts show that Kern-Fuller "participated in illegal activity so egregious it could lead a reasonable person to conclude that she operated or managed a criminal enterprise."

During a six-day hearing in front of the commission in Phoenix last month, Kern-Fuller invoked her 5th Amendment right to remain silent at least 160 times.

California businessman Scott Kohn and three of his associates are facing federal criminal charges in Greenville related to a far larger enterprise that bought and sold veterans' benefits. After six months as a fugitive, Kohn was apprehended a week ago by the U.S. Marshal's Service on a beach in San Diego.

Follow Kirk Brown on Twitter @KirkBrown_AIM

Coming soon: A 12-month investigation by The Greenville News details through court documents and exclusive interviews how investment brokers specifically targeted often-vulnerable veterans by offering cash in exchange for military benefits, often leaving both the veterans and investors in worse financial straits.

Billion-dollar Ponzi scheme:Marshals capture Scott Kohn, accused in Greenville of preying on veterans and investors

Facing accusations:Easley lawyer accused of ethical violations that targeted veterans and bilked investors