A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California recently ordered the defendants in CashCall, Inc. (which included CashCall Inc.’s CEO Paul Reddman) to pay $134 million in restitution and $33 million in civil penalties.  The decision comes after the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s 2016 award of summary judgment to the CFPB, finding the defendants had violated the CFPA. … Continue Reading

In Integrity Advance LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed a CFPB Order requiring Integrity, a lender making short-term loans, and its CEO, James Carnes, to pay $38.4 million in legal and equitable restitution and imposing civil penalties against Integrity ($7.5 million) and Carnes ($5 million), for alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, the Truth in Lending Act, and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. … Continue Reading

On August 11, the CFPB published a circular confirming that covered persons and service providers under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) may violate the CFPA’s prohibition against unfair acts or practices when they fail to adequately safeguard consumer information. However, the lack of clear substantive standards creates uncertainty as to what the CFPB would deem to be adequate data security practices.… Continue Reading

The CFPB has filed a lawsuit against Oakland, CA-based online lender LendUpLoans alleging that LendUp is in violation of a 2016 Consent Order that required the lender to pay over $3.5 million in consumer redress as well as civil penalties and to cease  misleading consumers with alleged false claims about the cost of loans and the benefits of repeat borrowing.… Continue Reading

On November 20, 2020, the CFPB filed a lawsuit against a student-loan debt-relief company, FDATR, Inc., and its owners, Dean Tucci and Kenneth Wayne Halverson. FDATR was an Illinois company that involuntarily dissolved in September 2020.  Through telemarketing and telephone sales, FDATR promised to provide student-loan debt-relief and credit-repair services to consumers.… Continue Reading

On November 5, 2020, the CFPB named Driver Loan, LLC (“Driver Loan”) and its Chief Executive Officer as defendants in a two-count complaint filed in a Florida federal district court that alleges they engaged in deceptive acts and practices in violation of the Dodd-Frank Act’s UDAAP prohibition in connection with taking deposits from and making loans to consumers.… Continue Reading

Almost five years after entering into an administrative consent order with Encore Capital Group, Inc., Midland Funding, LLC, Midland Credit Management, Inc., and Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. (collectively, “Defendants”) to resolve claims relating to the Defendants’ debt collection practices, the CFPB, on September 8, 2020, filed a five count complaint (the “Complaint”) in a California federal district court against the alleging that the Defendants’ collection and other practices violated the FDCPA, the CFPA, and the terms of the consent order.… Continue Reading

On July 15, 2020, the CPFB filed a complaint in federal court against Townstone Financial, Inc. (Townstone) representing the first ever redlining complaint against a non-bank mortgage lender. The complaint is brought under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), but not the Fair Housing Act (FHA).… Continue Reading

The CFPB announced on August 14, 2019 that, subject to the approval of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, the Bureau and the Arkansas Attorney General have entered into a proposed settlement with Andrew Gamber, Voyager Financial Group, LLC, BAIC, Inc., and SoBell Corp. to resolve the Bureau’s allegations that the defendants violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act and the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act while brokering contracts that offered high-interest credit to veterans and other consumers, through which these consumers received lump-sum payments in exchange for assigning their monthly pension or disability payments to investors.… Continue Reading