ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has sued companies he says preyed on Fort Drum soldiers by selling them laptops, televisions and other electronic goods on credit at wildly inflated prices. Cuomo says that the SmartBuy store operating out of Salmon Run Mall in Watertown sold products that were marked up an average of 225 percent above...
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has sued companies he says preyed on Fort Drum soldiers by selling them laptops, televisions and other electronic goods on credit at wildly inflated prices.
Cuomo says that the SmartBuy store operating out of Salmon Run Mall in Watertown sold products that were marked up an average of 225 percent above the original retail price and financed the sales illegally through automatic deductions from soldiers’ payrolls.
Cuomo’s lawsuit seeks to ban the defendants from doing business in New York and to obtain restitution.
He says the SmartBuy shop in Watertown is closed, but that the same companies operate stores near other military posts.
A lawyer for SmartBuy says the company does not deceive its customers.