'Shady' student loan refinance company accused of paying Turning Point USA for speaking slots so it can pitch to college kids: 'The biggest regret of my life'

By SUSAN GREENE, US SENIOR REPORTER Published: 20:01, 26 June 2026 | Updated: 20:17, 26 June 2026 A student loan refinancing company with a documented history of misleading investment claims has been paying Turning Point USA for coveted speaking slots at its campus events so it can pitch its controversial lending and investment options to college kids and their families, the Daily Mail can reveal. Yrefy last year faced $750,000 in state sanctions in a settlement of accusations of deceptive marketing and investment materials aimed at private funders who bankroll its refinancing of distressed and defaulted college loans. The company did not admit or deny the accusations. Watchdogs are sounding the alarm that its sponsorship deal with Turning Point has turned the late Charlie Kirk's nonprofit into a platform for what they say are potentially misleading financial deals. ‘This is a shady company,’ warned Alan Collinge, founder of Student Loan Justice, a consumer protection group. ‘Charlie Kirk promoted fiscal responsibility. It’s very ironic that his group would be working with a company that has been caught deceiving investors.’ Turning Point has refused to comment for this story. Yrefy’s co-founder Laine Schoneberger told us his company has made changes to its investment marketing materials and has put 'to bed’ potentially $2.1 million in regulatory woes it had in Massachusetts in 2025. He founded the company with Dennis Fenstermaker in 2017 Based in Phoenix, where Turning Point also has its headquarters, Yrefy identifies borrowers with private student loans that are already in default or serious delinquency. It buys those distressed loans from original lenders for pennies on the dollar, then refinances them into new loans – often with lower monthly payments, but with five percent origination fees and other potential costs to borrowers. Yrefy's co-founder Laine Schoneberger regularly kicks off Turning Point USA events across the country before pitching its lending options to college students The company has a C+ rating on Educationdata.org’s review of student loan refinance services. Watchdogs warn that it banks on people being desperate or naive enough to accept financing terms they would almost certainly otherwise agree to. They note that some borrowers end up defaulting on their loans, tanking their credit, in order to become Yrefy customers. The company says it has a 'very strict policy' of not encouraging people to default on their loans. 'If they can afford to make their payments, they should do so,' said Schoneberger, who serves as the company’s managing partner and chief investment officer and touts Yrefy’s loans for their low, fixed-interest rates and custom terms built around borrowers’ ability to pay. It is unclear from public documents how much Yrefy paid for its sponsorship of Turning Point, but the arrangement afforded Schoneberger a prime speaking spot in at least 10 of its on-campus events. In addition to pitching loans to TPUSA’s audiences, he urges the group’s young followers – and their parents and grandparents – to become private investors in Yrefy as a stable, low-risk way to make money. ‘People just like you, looking to do well by doing good, helping the Yrefy mission,' he has said, repeatedly, on campuses. Yrefy’s investment pitch is where the company ran into regulatory trouble last year when the Massachusetts Security Division fined it $750,000 and ordered it to offer $1.4 million in refunds for making misleading and deceptive claims to investors. Regulators concluded that the company failed to disclose that it does not always pay a 10.25 percent fixed return on investments, as claimed by its paid endorsers, but rather up to 10.25 percent, depending on the term of the promissory note selected by the investor. Its marketing and investment materials did not, as required by law, disclose that Yrefy’s celebrity endorses were paid. Consumer watchdogs are sounding the alarm that Yrefy's sponsorship deal with TPUSA is turning the late Charlie Kirk's nonprofit into a platform for 'predatory' lending amid an ongoing student debt crisis Aside from Kirk, Yrefy’s big-name endorsers have included Dave Ramsey – a personal finance media personality and author best known for dispensing debt-elimination advice – and conservative radio hosts Dennis Prager and Larry Elder, among others. Regulators also found the company falsely claimed to investors that ‘there is no attack on your principal if you ever need your money back’ when Yrefy does in fact charge clients for early withdrawals. Yrefy entered a consent decree with state regulators in 2025 agreeing to payments without admitting or denying any wrongdoing. Anna Anderson, senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center and an expert on student loans, urges the public to beware of any lending company that has been sanctioned by a state, calling the Massachusetts penalties a “red flag.’ Schoneberger frequently appears on Turning Point’s campus tours extolling the virtues of ‘faith, freedom, family', and capitalism – ’getting the government out of the lending business and returning control to the private market'. Part of his schtick includes speaking about his closeness with Kirk, who appeared in a 60-second TV spot for Yrefy in 2025, months before his death, and whose Charlie Kirk Show was underwritten by the company. Schoneberger told a crowd in Minnesota how he witnessed Kirk's assassination at the Utah Valley University last September before launching into his business pitch. ‘I was there. I was in a very awkward moment where all of a sudden I found myself helping carry Charlie to the SUV. I knew that he… was in the arms of his savior. I could see it, I could feel it, but didn’t want to believe it,’ he said shortly after Kirk's slaying. ‘Fast forward, here we are now celebrating Charlie. … You are Charlie. I am Charlie. We are all Charlie,' he continued. 'So, what did Charlie see in Yrefy? … One of the things that Charlie saw was students in just a massively bad problem and that is student loan debt. … What he saw in us is that we figured out a solution. We figured out a way to allow students who had this insurmountable student loan debt, we gave them a way, a clear path to pay back that debt with dignity. That’s what Yrefy does.' ‘This is the turning point,’ he added. ‘Do it for Charlie, do it for you, do it for this country. For God, for family, for country. Thank you.’ Schoneberger has had a prime speaking spot in multiple Turning Point USA on-campus events, including one at the University of Georgia in April A week later, Schoneberger opened TPUSA’s event at Utah State University, saying Kirk partnered with Yrefy ‘because we figured out how to help you. And, well, what does Charlie do? He loves you guys, right? He cares about you tremendously, so he wanted to work with us because we care about you tremendously. So that’s the reality of it all.’ Warming up for speakers such as Vice President JD Vance, Erika Kirk, members of the Trump family and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Schoneberger went on to do main-stage speaking appearances at major TPUSA events at Montana State University, University of Mississippi, Indiana University, Louisiana State University, University of Idaho, Auburn University, George Washington University, University of Georgia, Ohio State University – all packed with crowds of potential young borrowers and investors. At many of those events, he led chants among students roaring, ‘Charlie, Charlie.’ ‘The hook that Yrefy had with Charlie Kirk was deeper than I suspected,’ claimed Collinge, author of The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in US History and How We Can Fight Back. He said he was 'gobsmacked’ to learn of TPUSA’s affiliation with a lender that profits off of distressed student loans, especially because Turning Point emphasizes fiscal responsibility as part of its nonprofit mission. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he was invested in the company. Why else would he have been so willing to sell out his followers?’ Turning Point USA would not respond to our inquiries asking about potential financial ties beyond an endorsement deal. Schoneberger, too, stayed mum on that topic. Donald Fenstermaker founded Yrefy in 2017 with Schoneberger. Since then the Arizona-based company has emerged as a giant in the student loan refinancing market Kirk left behind a financial legacy of more than $20 million for his children and owned some for-profit companies in addition to running his $100 million nonprofit organization, according to a Daily Mail investigation. He reportedly charged between $10,000 and $20,000 for virtual appearances and between $50,000 and $100,00 for live speaking events Refinancing student loan debt is big business. Currently, about 45 million borrowers across the US collectively owe roughly $1.8 trillion in student loans, making them one of the largest kinds of household debt after mortgages, surpassing auto loans and credit card debt. Graduate and professional students have taken on the largest loan amounts, though undergraduate debt is more widespread. Low-income, first-generation students – especially those who are black and Latino – carry disproportionately higher debt burdens relative to wealth and earnings. And millions of borrowers in the 40s, 50s and older are saddled with old loans or loans they co-signed for their kids. Watchdogs have urged borrowers to be skeptical of Yrefy’s claims that its refinancing saves them money, brings them ‘financial freedom’ and allows them to pay off loans ‘with dignity'. They also advise borrowers to avoid defaulting on loans whenever possible. ‘Defaulting on a student loan is rarely a good idea. Young people can be especially vulnerable to companies like these that promise easy fixes to complex problems,’ Anderson said. In addition to credit downgrades, she also warns about collections fees and lawsuits that often come with defaulting on student debt – not just for borrowers but also for parents and grandparents who may have co-signed for them. ‘You could end up with a judgment against you more than what you owe on the loan,’ she said. Those burdens, she and other experts point out, often delay borrowers’ abilities to buy homes or have families, make it harder to start businesses or build wealth, eat into retirement savings and cause financial anxiety. Betsy Mayotte, president and founder of the Institute of Student Loan Advisors, urges distressed borrowers to try to work with their current lenders rather than refinancing with companies like Yrefy. But for borrowers who are already in default, she said those loans can be among their ‘few options’ available. ‘For some people, it’s a last resort.’ No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.