Tennessee House Speaker appoints payday lender Advance Financial lawyer to Nashville Airport Board

Cheadle is a Nashville-based lawyer whose firm is the primary representative Advance uses to sue borrowers for defaulting on loans with triple-digit interest rates. The firm, which includes him and several attorneys, specializes in consumer debt collection.

Sexton has a strong professional relationship with Advance and its owners. The payday lender is one of the top financial contributors to his campaign account and political action committee. He fought to protect the Advance owner’s sports gambling company and helped usher in legislation creating a new payday loan at the company’s owner’s behest.

This lender said its loans would help Tennesseans. It has sued more than 110,000 of them.

The lending product, called a Flex Loan, removed various consumer protections on high-interest lending products, including the ability to charge attorney fees when suing over a defaulted loan.

Since creating it in 2015, Advance has sued 110,000 Tennesseans over defaulted Flex Loans, making the company one of the largest single plaintiffs in the state, an investigation by Lookout and ProPublica found.

In several cases detailed by the Lookout, borrowers would take out a loan and pay it back several times over, but because of the interest rate, they would eventually default. Advance then keeps the loan open for several months, allows it to grow, then sues borrowers for a new, larger amount, adding thousands of dollars in attorney fees. Most borrowers don’t have lawyers, but in previous stories by the Lookout, they’ve detailed Advance representatives’ aggressive tactics in court to pursue these debts, including wage garnishments.

Sexton said in a statement Cheadle and his other appointee were chosen for their aviation expertise.

“Their list of accomplishments are vastly superior to anyone the Mayor has currently appointed. Merit-based appointments may not be the norm in liberal circles but with conservatives we value the expertise and experiences as well as their ability to logically think and understand complex issues,” Sexton said.

The Lookout asked Sexton about Cheadle’s and his connection to Advance. He didn’t respond to the specific question.

Cheadle said by email that he didn’t think his appointment was related to his work with Advance, adding that he practices aviation law and has owned airplanes based at Nashville’s airports for 42 years.

“I would immodestly say I am one of the more qualified to sit on the Nashville Airport Authority,” Cheadle said. “Long-time members of the Nashville Airport Authority are my friends, some dating to childhood and some from our flying histories.”

How Tennessee’s House speaker helped keep a payday lender’s struggling sports gambling company alive

The new airport board

State lawmakers passed legislation this year to allow Sexton, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, and Gov. Bill Lee to make the majority of appointments to all the boards that oversee Tennessee’s airports.

Sexton appointed Cheadle and Bobby Joslin, the owner of a sign company. McNally appointed Jimmy Granbery, the head of H.G. Hill Realty, and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Dennis Cavin. Lee appointed Stuart McWhorter, the state Economic and Community Development commissioner, and Tony Giarratanna, a downtown Nashville real estate developer.

The rest of the board is supposed to be appointed by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, but the city is currently suing the state over the law creating the new board. The case is ongoing.

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