John Oliver Forgives $15M In Medical Debt [VIDEO]

TIME reports:



The debt-buying industry has lead to some unscrupulous practices among debt collectors and debt collection proceedings are clogging up courts across the country with lawsuits, the vast majority of which go unanswered. Many debt collectors also seem to have little respect for consumers and simply do whatever is necessary to make more money. So Oliver did the only logical thing and decided to get into the debt-buying business himself. He set up an organization called Central Asset Recovery Professionals (or CARP, for the bottom-feeding fish) and bought $14,922,261.76 of medical debt from over 9,000 people. And then he decided to give it all away in the biggest giveaway in television history, even managing to out-do Oprah Winfrey whose biggest giveaway totaled a mere $8 million.