On May 1, 2018, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) entered into a consent order with a national bank for deceptive marketing and banking practices that allegedly resulted in violations of federal law. According to the consent order, the OCC alleged that the bank had violated Section…
On April 20, 2018, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) each announced settlements totaling $1 billion with a national bank resulting from a coordinated action between the two agencies. The OCC found that deficiencies in the bank’s enterprise-wide compliance risk management program…
On April 12, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced proposed settlements with three marketers for illegal debt relief and loan services. In May 2017, the FTC filed an action against the three marketers and eleven related corporate entities claiming that the defendants engaged in a wide-scale debt relief scheme…
On March 22, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in conjunction with the New York Attorney General (AG), announced that it had entered into settlements with debt collection companies and their operators over allegedly deceptive and unlawful debt collection practices. In a February 2015 complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Western…
On March 7, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced that it reached a settlement with a Delaware bank, resolving allegations that the bank engaged in unfair and deceptive practices in violation of Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (the “FTC Act”) and violated the Electronic Funds Transfer Act,…
On February 7, 2018, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced an enforcement action against a student loan debt relief operation, claiming it deceived consumers out of $28 million by falsely promising that their monthly payments would go towards their student loans. In the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern…
On November 28, the Federal Reserve announced that it had entered into a consent order with a Kansas state bank, resolving allegations that the bank engaged in deceptive residential mortgage lending practices in violation of Section 5 the Federal Trade Commission Act. According to the consent order, the bank’s loan officers often gave borrowers…
On September 20, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California entered summary judgment against two law firms and two individuals for their participation in an allegedly fraudulent mortgage relief scheme. According to the FTC, the law firms misrepresented to consumers that they could obtain monetary recoveries…
On July 10, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) halting operations and freezing the assets of a debt collection operation, at the request of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). The FTC charged the defendant company and individuals with violating Section 5(a)…
On June 23, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina against a North Carolina debt collection company and its owner, alleging that the defendants took money from consumers for fake or “phantom” debts they did not owe. According…
On June 5, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a federal district court had entered its eighth order against the remaining defendants in an illegal robocall ring in which defendants promised to help consumers lower their credit card interest rates. The FTC, in conjunction with the Florida Office of the Attorney…
On May 25, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it filed a complaint in federal court in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida against a student loan debt relief and credit repair company, its affiliated companies, and owner. The complaint alleged that the defendants operated an…
On May 11, 2017, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced a settlement with a Wisconsin bank and two affiliated institutions, resolving allegations that the three lenders violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive practices. The lenders allegedly violated this provision by: (1) charging…
On March 31, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it had agreed to settle charges with a prepaid debit card provider for $53 million in monetary relief applied to balances and fees in customers’ accounts. According to the complaint brought by the FTC in the Northern District of Georgia, the company was alleged to…
On February 23, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it entered into a settlement with the final individual defendant in an alleged mortgage relief scheme worth over $1.7 million. As a result of a joint federal-state enforcement sweep known as “Operation Mis-Modification,” the FTC filed a complaint in…
On February 14, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had entered into a stipulated order with a student loan debt collector, resolving allegations that the debt collector violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act) in its servicing of over two million accounts in…
On January 24, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Florida Attorney General’s Office announced a settlement with student loan debt relief providers alleged to have participated in a student loan debt relief scheme, resolving allegations that the providers violated the Federal Trade Commission Act, Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act,…
On January 9, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas against one individual and affiliated companies, alleging that they sold portfolios of nonexistent payday loans to debt collectors. The complaint alleges that the companies fabricated lenders and loan…
On November 30, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Florida Attorney General (AG) announced several settlements totaling approximately $27 million in an alleged fraudulent credit card debt reduction scheme. In a set of stipulated orders, all but one defendant agreed to monetary judgments, as well as bans on future telemarketing, selling debt relief services, and credit…
On October 31, the United States District Court for the Western District of New York granted the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) motion for summary judgment against a group of debt collectors, finding that the debt collectors violated the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA) and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)….