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Page 15 of 176

July 29, 2022

Aegis Capital Corp., and two of its former representatives, Alan Z. Appelbaum and Paul F. Gallivan will pay around $2.5 million total for making materially false and misleading statements and making unsuitable investment recommendations, namely, variable interest rate structured products. Appelbaum, Gallivan, and 14 Aegis brokers recommended these highly complex and risky products to customers with “moderate” risk tolerance, despite having investment timelines inconsistent with the VRSP maturity dates. The targeted customers’ financial needs were disregarded, as were their risk tolerance, investment objectives, age, investment experience, and liquidity needs. SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations, Securities Fraud,

July 29, 2022

First American Payment Systems—a merchant payment processing provider—and two sales affiliates have been ordered to return $4.9 million to businesses harmed by FAPS’ hidden terms, surprise exit fees, and zombie charges. FAPS’ preyed mostly on merchants with limited English proficiency, promising low costs and an easy exit, but hit them with surprise fees and illegal charges when the customers tried to get out. In addition to the monetary penalty, FAPS is required to stop misleading customers about fees and pricing, stop unauthorized bank withdrawals, make service cancellation easier, and stop charging early termination fees. FTC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Misrepresentations,

July 28, 2022

Jaeson Birnbaum, disbarred attorney and owner of now-bankrupt litigation finance firm, Cash4Cases, will spend 3 years in prison for defrauding investors, in addition to paying over $2.6 million in restitution, and forfeiting another $2.6 million in fraud proceeds. Birnbaum offered sham “Investor Security Agreements,” allowing investors to share in recoveries from lawsuits supposedly purchased by Cash4Cases. Birnbaum netted over $3 million in investors’ funds through his fraud, misappropriated client funds for personal use, and directed his employee to falsify the company’s books and records to show already-paid-out funds as still available to be pledged as collateral to new investors. USAO SDNY

Tagged in: Accounting Fraud, Criminal Proceedings, Financial and Investment Fraud, Ponzi Schemes, Regulatory Violations, Securities Fraud,

July 28, 2022

U.S. Bank will pay a $37.5 million penalty and is required to make harmed customers whole for illegally accessing their credit reports and opening new, unauthorized accounts in these customers’ names. The bank’s actions violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Truth in Lending Act, and the Truth in Savings Act. The bank pressured its employees to hit certain sales goals and implemented an incentive-compensation program that financially rewarded employees for selling bank products. As a result, the bank’s customers held unwanted accounts, had negative effects on their credit profiles, and lost control over their personally identifiable information—not to mention the time-consuming hassle of closing unauthorized accounts and resolving other consequences stemming from this practice.  CFPB

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Financial Institution Fraud, Regulatory Violations,

July 27, 2022

Three registered broker-dealers have been ordered to pay civil penalties based on SEC findings that each had deficiencies in its programs to prevent customer identity theft, in violation of the SEC’s Identity Theft Red Flags Rule, or Regulation S-ID.  J.P. Morgan Securities LLC will pay $1.2 million, UBS Financial Services Inc. will pay $925,000, and TradeStation Securities, Inc. will pay $425,000.  The SEC found that the broker-dealers’ cybersecurity policies failed to detect identity theft red flags in connection with customer accounts or to incorporate those red flags into their programs, and that the firms failed to adequately train staff, failed to review and update the policies as required, did not include appropriate board oversight, and failed to oversee service provider arrangements.  SEC

Tagged in: Cybersecurity and Data Breaches, Financial and Investment Fraud, Financial Institution Fraud, Regulatory Violations,

July 26, 2022

Hyundai Capital America will pay $19 million for their failures to provide accurate information to nationwide credit reporting companies, tarnishing the records of more than 2.2 million consumer accounts through no fault of their own. Between January 2016 and March 2020, because of their outdated systems and processes, Hyundai violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and failed to: report complete and accurate loan and lease account information; provide date of first delinquency information when required; modify or delete information when required; have reasonable identity theft procedures; and have reasonable accuracy and integrity policies and procedures. CFPB

Tagged in: Regulatory Violations,

July 22, 2022

Vanderpoel family members Neal J. II, Eileen, Ryan, and Neal J. IV will pay $1.88 million in penalties, disgorge their ill-gotten gains, and are barred from performing any loan modification, debt adjustment, or mortgage compliance in New Jersey because of their predatory mortgage adjustment services targeting distressed homeowners. The family violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and the Debt Adjustment Act, selling worthless loan modification and other adjustment services to borrowers, and charged excessive upfront fees. The entities used in furtherance of the fraud—Financial Services of America, Financial Processing Services, LLC, Tri-State Financial Relief, LLC, and Mortgage Help and Loan Audits of America, LLC—were also shut down. NJ OAG

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Financial Institution Fraud, Housing and Mortgage Fraud, Misrepresentations,

July 18, 2022

Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company has agreed to pay $50 million to settle charges of providing statements to 1.4 million variable annuity investors, which included public school teachers and staff, that failed to list all fees paid during the period.  In addition to the monetary settlement, Equitable has agreed to cease and desist from future violations and revise how it presents fee information.  SEC

Tagged in: Financial and Investment Fraud, Financial Institution Fraud, Misrepresentations, Regulatory Violations,

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