Dept. of Justice

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Today’s podcast show features a discussion with David Dayen, executive editor of the American Prospect, which is an online magazine about ideas, politics, and power. He’s the author of “Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud,” which was published in 2016. David has written and published about 10 or so articles in which he chronicles in great detail the apparent effort by the Trump Administration, acting through Scott Bessent and Russell Vought, to dismantle the CFPB by abruptly ordering a cessation of all activities and layoffs of probationary and term employees and a plan to layoff 1,300 or so additional employees.… Continue Reading

The Justice Department is asking a federal court to issue a permanent injunction against cash advance firm Dave Inc. and its CEO Jason Wilk, alleging that the company uses misleading marketing tactics to deceive consumers about the amount of its cash advances, charges consumers undisclosed fees, and charges so-called “tips” to consumers without their consent.… Continue Reading

The Servicemember Civil Relief Act limits the amount of interest that may be charged on certain financial obligations that were incurred before military service began to no more than 6% percent per year, including most fees and charges, the CFPB and the Justice Department reminded financial institutions in a recent letter.… Continue Reading

The Justice Department announced that Citadel Federal Credit Union has agreed to pay more than $6.5 million to resolve allegations that it engaged in a pattern or practice of redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from at least 2017 through 2021 in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).… Continue Reading

Saying that reverse redlining is a form of discrimination, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has refused to dismiss a discrimination case alleging that Texas developer Colony Ridge specifically targeted Limited English Proficient (LEP) people.

In issuing the ruling, the court dismissed a mortgage processing company from the suit, saying that the firm had not been involved in any lending decisions.… Continue Reading

The FDIC, the OCC and the Justice Department earlier this month issued updated standards for bank mergers. The three agencies acted separately, although officials noted that they had worked with the other agencies involved.

“Continued engagement with our fellow regulators is vitally important, especially as it relates to evaluating the competitive effects of mergers,” FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said.… Continue Reading

Following a year of new DOJ policies and guidance designed to incentivize companies to self-report misconduct and to cooperate with government investigations, the DOJ has added a new pilot whistleblower rewards program.  In their remarks at the American Bar Association’s 39th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri both explained that the new whistleblower policy is designed to incentivize individuals to disclose corporate misconduct through financial rewards from any resulting forfeiture of criminal proceeds. … Continue Reading

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Patriot Bank (Patriot or Bank) has agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations that the Bank engaged in a pattern or practice of redlining majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee from 2015 to at least 2020, in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).… Continue Reading

A group of eleven Republican Senators who are members of the Senate Banking Committee have sent a letter to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to urge the CFPB and DOJ to retract the joint statement the agencies issued last month regarding “the potential civil rights implications of a creditor’s consideration of an individual’s immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).”… Continue Reading

Recently the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a proposed consent order with Ameris Bank to resolve allegations of redlining from 2016 through 2021 in majority Black and Hispanic areas in the Bank’s Jacksonville, Florida assessment area under both the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Fair Housing Act. In conjunction with the announcement of the proposed consent order, Attorney General Merrick Garland provided an update on the DOJ’s Combating Redlining Initiative that was launched in October 2021.… Continue Reading