John Oliver Forgives $15 Million of Debt on ‘Last Week Tonight’

John Oliver, host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, is rivaling Oprah in extraordinary gift giving.

During Sunday’s episode, one segment consisted of discussing debt collectors. He revealed that he set up his own debt collecting agency, and he only had to spend $50 to do so.

“Debt-buying is a grimy business and badly needs more oversight, because as it stands any idiot can get into it. And I can prove that to you because I am an idiot and we started a debt-buying company,” Oliver stated. “And it was disturbingly easy.”

He called his company Central Asset Recovery Professionals (or CARP, “for the bottom-feeding fish”), made himself chairman of the board, and bought nearly $15 million of medical debt from over 9,000 people for “less than half a cent on a dollar, which is less than $60,000.”

Oliver added that CARP received the names, personal addresses and Social Security numbers of those 9,000 people from the purchase.

“We bought it, which is absolutely terrifying because it means if I wanted to, I could legally have CARP take possession of that list and have employees start calling people, turning their lives upside down over medical debt,” he said.

“There would be absolutely nothing wrong with except for the fact that absolutely everything is wrong with that,” Oliver added. “We need much clearer rules and oversight.”

At the end of the segment, Oliver pushed a big red button and announced that in a partnership with RIP Medical Debt, he is forgiving that debt. This marks the biggest TV giveaway, beating out Oprah Winfrey biggest giveaway of $8 million in cars to her studio audience back in 2004.

Watch the segment below: