Makwa Finance Closed
Lac du Flambeau Band (LDF Holdings) · 2018–2023
If you have a Makwa Finance balance from before October 2023, you almost certainly do not owe it — it was cancelled as part of roughly $1.4 billion in Lac du Flambeau debt wiped out in the Fitzgerald settlement.
Do I still owe Makwa Finance?
- Collection status
- Stopped December 17, 2024
- Debt relief
- All LDF-brand loans made Jul 2016 – Oct 2023 cancelled (~$1.4B across the portfolio)
- Cash fund
- $37.35M (portfolio-wide)
- Claim site
- consumerloansettlement.com
- Closed
- 2023
Wound down around the Fitzgerald v. Wildcat litigation against LDF Holdings brands.
Makwa Finance at a glance
Closed- Owning tribe
- Lac du Flambeau Band (LDF Holdings)
- Lending since
- 2018
- Loan amounts
- $100–$2,500
- APR range
- 500–800%
- Product
- installment
- Website
- makwafinance.com
What a Makwa Finance loan cost
Makwa Finance lent $100 to $2,500 at APRs above 500% before it wound down around 2023. Its cost profile was the standard Lac du Flambeau installment model: bi-weekly ACH payments, front-loaded interest, and a total repaid several times the amount borrowed.
It is one of roughly twenty near-identical LDF brands — a structure that let the same operation keep lending under fresh names.
The settlement that cancelled your loan
Makwa Finance is covered by Fitzgerald v. Wildcat (W.D. Va.), the largest tribal-lending settlement to date.
It cancelled roughly $1.4 billion in loan debt across the Lac du Flambeau Band's brands — Lendumo, Lendgreen, Makwa, Sky Trail Cash, Greenline and others — for loans made between July 24, 2016 and October 1, 2023, and created a $37.35 million cash fund.
Cancellation is automatic for unpaid class loans; the effective date was January 16, 2025, and covered loans cannot be sold or transferred.
Practically: if anyone contacts you demanding payment on a Makwa loan from that window, the debt was cancelled. Check consumerloansettlement.com and do not pay before verifying.
Frequently asked questions
Is Makwa Finance still lending?
No. Makwa wound down around 2023 amid the Fitzgerald litigation against the Lac du Flambeau brands. Its sibling brands Lendumo and Loan at Last continued.
Makwa is still on my credit report — what do I do?
Under the settlement, tribal officials agreed to request deletion of tradelines for covered loans. If a Makwa account still appears, dispute it in writing with the bureau and cite the settlement.
This brand is one of many that stopped lending — and in several cases the balances were legally wiped out in a settlement. See the full picture: which tribal lenders shut down, and were the debts cancelled?