God proves his existence in Brooklyn court after Equifax threatens to deny him credit over divine name
BY John Marzulli
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, May 28, 2015, 12:09 PM
It’s official: God does exist.
God Gazarov of Brooklyn, that is.
Gazarov, 27, settled his lawsuit Wednesday against Equifax for messing with his ability to secure loans because the credit reporting agency did not recognize his first name.
The suit alleged that an Equifax official told Gazarov it could not provide him or a lender with his credit file “because it could not process his name as ‘God’ and suggested that he should consider changing it.”
Equifax now believes in God and no less an authority than Brooklyn Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes has accepted the settlement to be true.
“I’m happy my credit is fixed and I just hope it doesn't happen to anyone else,” Gazarov said outside Brooklyn Federal Court.
There could be other Gods out there, believe it or not, because it happens to be a common name in Russia, Gazarov said. He is named after his grandfather.
Gazarov, who owns a cash-for-gold business in Brooklyn, was denied a loan for an Infiniti car in 2013 because the lender could not obtain a financial report on him from Equifax, according to the suit.
He opted to buy a Honda and was charged a higher rate of interest because his credit score was “9002” — which essentially means he had no credit history.
Gazarov’s lawyer, James B. Fishman, said his client’s credit rating was corrected by Equifax shortly after the lawsuit was filed last year. Gazarov will also receive a monetary settlement but the amount is confidential, Fishman said.
Equifax’s lawyers declined to comment.