On April 8, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) officially announced a $1.2 billion settlement with a national bank and one of its executives relating to the bank’s participation in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Direct Endorsement Lender Program. As part of the settlement agreement, the bank acknowledged that between the period of May…
On February 5, 2016, the Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 49 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia’s attorney general announced a $470 million settlement with a national bank to address alleged mortgage origination, servicing, and foreclosure abuses. …
On February 2, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a settlement with an auto manufacturer resolving claims of alleged discrimination under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Under the terms of the settlement, the auto manufacturer will pay “$21.9 million in restitution to thousands of African-American and Asian and Pacific Islander…
On February 3, 2016, a national bank announced in its SEC filing that it has reached a $1.2 billion agreement in principle with the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, and…
On January 19, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had reached a settlement with a national bank over allegations that the bank discriminated against mortgage loan applicants who had disabilities or received public assistance. The DOJ alleged in its simultaneously filed complaint that the bank violated the Fair Housing…
On December 2, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that a mortgage company settled claims that it violated the False Claims Act by originating and underwriting mortgage loans insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) by failing to comply with certain FHA requirements. The…
On December 1, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint and proposed consent order in the District of Massachusetts, resolving alleged Fair Housing Act (FHA) and Equal Credit Opportunity Ac (ECOA) claims against a regional bank. The complaint alleged that from 2011 to at least 2014, the bank engaged in a…
On November 16, 2015, the DOJ announced a settlement with a national for-profit education company over alleged violations of the False Claims Act and the Higher Education Act. The settlement resolves four separate qui tam suits filed against the company in federal court. In conjunction with the DOJ announcement, the Attorneys General…
On November 5, 2015, the DOJ’s U.S. Trustee Program announced that it entered into a nationwide settlement agreement with a national bank over allegations the bank failed to file mortgage payment change notices in bankruptcy proceedings. When a debtor has entered Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceedings, federal bankruptcy law requires mortgage…
On October 6, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced an $85 million settlement to resolve claims for civil fraud under the False Claims Act that a bank certified roughly 1,400 mortgage loans as eligible for FHA insurance, when the bank knew that the loans were in fact ineligible and failed…
On September 28, 2015, the CFPB and DOJ announced a consent order and settlement with a national bank to resolve allegations that the bank’s auto lending practices violated ECOA. The bank allegedly allowed its auto dealer partners to charge a “dealer markup” as high as 2.5 percent above the risk-based interest rate set by the…
On September 28, 2015, the acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced the filing of a civil suit against several mortgage lenders and a consumer counseling and relief fund. The suit alleges that the lenders conspired with the counseling fund in an effort to hide their high default…
On September 29, 2015, the DOJ announced that it had entered into a consent order with a regional bank over allegations that it engaged in redlining practices in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). The bank holds over $900 million in assets and offers traditional deposit accounts, mortgage…
On September 24, 2015, the DOJ and HUD announced that the owner and employees of a regional mortgage company had been sentenced for their participation in a $64 million mortgage fraud scheme. According to the DOJ, the Defendants operated a regional mortgage company, which specialized in securing Federal Housing Administration…
On September 4, 2015, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that a company engaged in reverse mortgage servicing agreed to pay $29.63 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) in connection with its participation in the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (“HUD”) Home Equity Conversion Mortgage…
On August 10, 2015, the American subsidiary of an automotive lending company disclosed in an SEC filing that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) had notified the company on July 31, 2015 that it had asked the DOJ to investigate the company’s potential violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. According to the filing, the CFPB’s referral…
On August 5, 2010, the American Bankers Association (ABA) announced that it had sent a letter to federal regulators and enforcement agencies, requesting that they confirm in their “interagency guidance, updated exam procedures, and where appropriate amended regulations” that the burden-shifting framework used by the Supreme Court in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v….
On August 5, 2015, a bank revealed in an U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Justice (collectively, the “Government”) are currently investigating whether the bank complied with underwriting requirements on loans…
On July 15, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that claims concerning an indirect auto finance company’s alleged discriminatory lending practices were settled as part of a consent order requiring $24 million in restitution payments to borrowers and changes to the lender’s dealer compensation system. The consent order alleges…
On July 14, 2015, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida announced that the owner of a Miami-area mortgage company, his business partner, and a senior mortgage underwriter each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. As part of the owner’s plea, he will forfeit $8…