BATON ROUGE, La., – Attorney General Jeff Landry has announced Louisiana-based company VetAttend Professional has been shut down for “unfair and deceptive trade practices.”

The company is owned by John Sutton and Marc Quiroz and was operating without accreditation from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). They were also operating as a home care business without a license from the State of Louisiana.

Landry said, “VetAttend misrepresented to veterans, their spouses, and their family members that they were experts qualified to assist veterans with preparing and submitting their claims for benefits to the VA. In exchange for submitting veterans’ claims to the VA ‘free of charge’ – VetAttend required veterans to sign three-year contracts to use VetAttend’s home care services, giving all or a portion of the veterans’ benefits to VetAttend.”

A judgment filed in the 22nd Judicial Court states VetAttend can no longer operate any business related to preparing and submitting claims for veterans’ benefits without accreditation; operating all business that provides home care services without a license from Louisiana; and accessing veterans’ benefits or charging fees that are contingent on veterans’ receipts of benefits. He also says the order requires VetAttend to cancel all contracts and payment authorization currently in place.

Attorney General Landry encourages consumers who engaged VetAttend for assistance with their VA claims for benefits to contact a VA accredited agent, VA recognized veteran service organization representative, or an accredited attorney for information about their benefit claims and their options for utilizing their benefits.

“As a proud veteran and the State’s chief legal officer, I will continue doing all that I can to protect our military community from being exploited,” and, ““Our veterans earned their benefits by putting their lives on the line for our freedoms; the least we can do is fight to defend them from unscrupulous schemes that violate our consumer protection laws,” Landry said.

Information on accredited agents, veteran service organizations (VSOs), and attorneys can be found at www.va.gov/ogc/accreditation.asp. Consumers are also encouraged to contact the VA at 1-800-827-1000 to cancel any authorizations on file that may allow the VA to disclose their information to VetAttend and to update their mailing address to ensure they receive their funds and correspondences directly