On October 3, 2016, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that two Utah-based Direct Endorsement (DE) lenders agreed to pay $5 million and $4.25 million dollars to settle separate cases relating to their origination and underwriting of mortgage loans insured by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s…
On September 29, the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD OIG) announced the termination of an investigation of a national mortgage lender relating to a purported mortgage fraud scheme. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey assisted in…
On September 29, 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its Office of Inspector General (HUD OIG) announced a settlement with a mortgage lender relating to two audits of the lender’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured loans. The audits allegedly determined that the lender underwrote FHA-insured loans with…
On September 29, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had secured a settlement from a national lender, resolving allegations that the lender violated the False Claims Act, Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 in its underwriting of Federal…
On September 29, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a national bank over allegations that the bank had engaged in unlawful debt collection practices, in violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The SCRA extends additional protections from certain debt…
On September 29, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against nine auto dealers for purportedly engaging in deceptive and unfair financing practices. The complaint alleges that these auto dealers targeted non-English speaking consumers…
On September 28, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had entered into a consent order with a bank to resolve allegations that the bank discriminated against Hispanic borrowers. The DOJ’s complaint, filed along with the consent order in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas,…
On September 28, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office announced that it had entered into a settlement with a national mortgage servicer to resolve allegations that the servicer had engaged in abusive debt collection practices affecting over 5,000 Massachusetts consumers. The assurance of discontinuance, filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, alleged…
On September 27, 2016, the Kentucky Attorney General announced that on September 15, 2016, a Franklin Circuit Judge ordered a Florida-based student loan company to cease all operations in Kentucky. The Attorney General’s lawsuit was filed after the Attorney General launched an investigation “into the company’s potentially misleading college loan forgiveness claims aimed…
On September 23, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that on April 7, 2016 it had entered into a settlement with a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) approved lender over allegations that the lender violated FHA underwriting requirements. The lender participated in HUD’s direct endorsement lender program, which…
On September 27, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had entered into a consent order with an online lender, after a joint investigation with the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO), over allegations that the lender deceptively marketed its loan products and hid the true cost of credit…
On September 26, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) entered into a consent order with one of the country’s largest auto title lenders over allegations that the lender misled consumers about the terms and costs of their loan agreements and engaged in unlawful debt collection activities. The CFPB alleged that…
On September 22, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against a credit repair company for allegedly making misleading representations and charging illegal fees. The case, CFPB v. Prime Marketing Holdings, LLC, No. 2:16-cv-7111 (C.D. Cal.),…
On September 23, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed suit against a credit repair company in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, for alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), and the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention…
On September 22, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued a permanent injunction prohibiting five defendants involved in mortgage relief scams from mortgage loan modification and debt relief business. The FTC brought a lawsuit against the five defendants in…
On September 21, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas entered a stipulated order for a permanent injunction and civil penalty judgment against the vice president of a debt collector. Following an investigation of the debt collector by the Federal Trade Commission,…
On September 21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed five individual administrative lawsuits against Arizona title lenders. Each suit concerns allegations that the title lenders’ online advertisements failed to disclose title annual percentage rates, in violation of the Truth in Lending Act. Instead, the Bureau alleged, the companies…
On September 21, 2016, a mortgage lender settled an action brought by the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks by stipulating to the entry of a consent order to resolve claims of “alleged non-compliance with applicable Massachusetts and federal statutes, rules, and regulations governing the conduct and licensing of those engaged in the…
On September 13, 2016, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced a settlement agreement with a bank for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by improperly underwriting and originating of FHA-insured mortgage loans. According to the DOJ, from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2011, the lender was improperly underwriting and certifying that mortgage loans…
On September 12, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced the issuance of a consent order with a for-profit college chain that allegedly deceived its students into taking out loans that were more expensive than advertised. For the last several years, the for-profit education company allegedly had enrolled hundreds of thousands of…