The owner of a collections agency that was shut down in 2015 and forced to write off more than $3 million in debt by Georgia's consumer protection agency is now the subject of a collection action himself after failing to pay nearly a half-million dollars in fines.

A petition to enforce judgment filed Monday by the office of Attorney General Chris Carr said Earnest Earvin IV, owner of the now-defunct Zenith Financial Group, agreed to pay $460,000 as part of a compliance agreement with what was then the Governor's Office of Consumer Protection.

The agreement stipulated that Earvin would make 36 monthly payments of $416.66 and a final payment of $445,000. He also agreed to stay out of the debt-collecting business for five years. Under the terms of the agreement, the final payment of $445,000 would be waived if Earvin lived up to the rest of agreement.

Instead, he only made eight months' worth of payments totaling $3,742, leaving a balance owed of $456,257. Zenith was administratively dissolved by the Secretary of State's office at the end of 2015.

The consumer protection agency was placed under the aegis of the AG's office in 2015, and the petition includes an October 2016 letter from Assistant AG Christine Hom giving Earvin 10 days to explain why he should not be held in default. Earvin never responded.

The petition asks for Earvin and Zenith to be held jointly and severally liable for the outstanding debt.

A spokesman for Carr said there would be no comment on the pending litigation, and neither of two phone numbers apparently belonging to Earvin was functional.

As detailed in the 2015 consent order, Earvin and Zenith were accused of violating the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act by threatening consumers with arrest or imprisonment and concealing that its collectors were contacting consumers to collect a debt.

The agreement required Zenith to write off more than $3.1 million in debt from 9,259 accounts.

Between May 2013 and the time of its closure, Zenith was the subject of 33 Better Business Bureau complaints, many involving calls to homes or workplaces from people identifying themselves as “investigators” or “detectives,” who sometimes threatened recipients with criminal warrants, arrest or physical violence.