Archive

April 21, 2015

National mortgage servicing company Green Tree Servicing LLC agreed to pay $63 million to resolve FTC charges that it harmed homeowners with illegal loan servicing and debt collection practices. The FTC alleged that Green Tree made illegal and abusive debt collection calls to consumers, misrepresented the amounts people owed, and failed to honor loan modification agreements between consumers and their prior servicers, among other charges. Green Tree has also agreed to create a home preservation plan for some distressed homeowners and take rigorous steps to ensure that it collects the correct amounts from consumers. FTC

April 21, 2015

The CFTC filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Sentry Asset Group, LLC of Boca Raton, Florida, and its owner and manager, John Pakel of Del Ray, Florida, alleging that they engaged in illegal, off-exchange transactions in precious metals with retail customers on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis.  CFTC

April 21, 2015

A CFTC civil enforcement action was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Nav Sarao Futures Limited PLC and Navinder Singh Sarao for price manipulation and spoofing.  CFTC

April 20, 2015

The CFTC announced that the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered an emergency restraining order freezing assets and prohibiting the destruction or concealment of books and records of Dorian A. Garcia, and his companies, DG Wealth Management, Macroquantum Capital LLC, and UKUSA Currency Fund LP, all of Naples, Florida.  The CFTC previously had filed a complaint charging the defendants with fraud in connection with their solicitation of customers for their foreign currency and options trading pools, misappropriation of customer funds, and their issuance of false statements and registration violations.  CFTC

April 17, 2015

The CFTC announced that it filed a civil enforcement action in a Chicago federal court against Matthew J. Marcus of California and his company, Tech Power, Inc., a Nevada corporation located in California, and John D. Briner, an attorney residing in Vancouver, Canada, and his company, MetroWest Law Corporation, a Canadian law firm, for engaging in fictitious single stock futures transactions on OneChicago LLC and trading non-competitively.  CFTC

April 16, 2015

A former retail insurance agent with Kilgore Insurance Agency, along with the agency’s owners, have been ordered to pay more than $3.5 million in restitution and interest for overcharging clients, mostly small business owners, by padding insurance premiums with hidden “agency fees.” MA

April 15, 2015

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a $10 million settlement of a lawsuit filed against the auditing firm Ernst & Young LLP over its involvement in a financial statement fraud at the now-defunct investment bank, Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. That money will be distributed as restitution to investors in Lehman securities, along with some $99 million being paid by Ernst & Young to settle a private federal class action that relied in part on facts uncovered by the Attorney General’s investigation. No other law enforcement authority has brought an enforcement action in connection with the 2008 collapse of Lehman and today’s settlement resolves the first lawsuit brought against an auditor of a public company under New York’s securities laws. NY

April 15, 2015

The CFTC ordered Hope Advisors LLC, a Brentwood, Tennessee, Commodity Pool Operator, to pay a $100,000 civil monetary penalty for acting as a CPO without registering with the CFTC, as required, and for providing monthly statements to pool participants that failed to show all the information required by Commission Regulation.  CFTC

April 6, 2015

The CFTC secured a permanent injunction against RFF GP, LLC, KGW Capital Management, LLC, and Kevin G. White, all of The Woodlands, Texas, requiring the defendants to pay $7.5 million for operating a fraudulent commodity pool.  CFTC

April 1, 2015

The New Jersey Bureau of Securities has ordered Charles J. Boyer III and James A. Wilson to pay $1 million for allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme under which they transferred approximately $177,000 of investor funds into their own personal accounts rather than investing the funds as represented to investors. NJ