Archive

April 15, 2016

New Jersey-based Freedom Mortgage Corporation agreed to pay $113 million to resolve allegations it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly originating and underwriting single family mortgage loans insured by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that did not meet applicable requirements for the FHA insurance program.  DOJ

April 11, 2016

Goldman Sachs agreed to pay $5.06 billion to settle charges relating to alleged misconduct in the sale of its residential mortgage-backed securities or what the government described as "serious misconduct in falsely assuring investors that securities it sold were backed by sound mortgages, when it knew that they were full of mortgages that were likely to fail."  Whistleblower Insider

April 29, 2016

Accounting firm Santos, Postal & Co. P.C. and one of its partners, Joseph Scolaro, will pay collectively about $59,000 to settle charges that they conducted deficient surprise custody examinations of SFX Financial Advisory Management Enterprises and did not adequately consider fraud risk factors.  Santos Postal was hired to conduct surprise examinations of client assets at investment advisor SFX Financial.  The SEC charged that Santos Postal performed inadequately as SFX’s president secretly stole money from accounts belonging to professional athletes.  SEC

March 30, 2016

Chung Yu Yeung (aka Louis Yeung), former vice president of Eastern Tools and Equipment Inc., a California wholesale equipment company that sold portable generators to retailers across the country, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with a bank fraud scheme.  Yeung admitted that he and his co-conspirators defrauded Pasadena-based East West Bank in connection with a line of credit for Eastern Tools by misrepresenting to the bank Eastern Tools’ accounts receivable and its financial statements.  Eastern Tools ultimately defaulted causing more than $9 million in losses to the bank.  DOJ

March 28, 2016

California announced a $8,500,000 settlement with Wells Fargo Bank over privacy violations that included recording consumers’ phone calls without timely telling consumers they were being recorded, as required by California law. As part of the settlement, which is in the form of a stipulated judgment, Wells Fargo will pay civil penalties totaling $7,616,000 and will reimburse the prosecutors’ investigative costs of $384,000. In addition, Wells Fargo will contribute $500,000 to two statewide organizations dedicated to advancing consumer protection and privacy rights. CA

March 23, 2016

Gilbert G. Lundstrom, the former CEO of TierOne Bank -- a $3 billion publicly-traded commercial bank formerly headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska -- was sentenced to 132 months in prison and to pay a $1.2 million fine for orchestrating a scheme to defraud TierOne’s shareholders and to mislead regulators by concealing more than $100 million in losses on loans and declining real estate.  DOJ

February 25, 2016

Gary Patton Hall Jr., former president and CEO of Georgia-based Tifton Banking Company, was sentenced to 84 months in prison and to pay $3,931,018 in restitution for his role in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud.  Hall admitted he engaged in a scheme to mislead the bank and its loan committee about loans TBC made to local individuals and businesses.  Hall hid past-due loans from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the TBC loan committee, which resulted in the bank continuing to approve and renew delinquent loans and loans for which the collateral was lacking.  Several of the borrowers eventually defaulted on the loans, resulting in millions of dollars in losses to TBC and others.  In November 2010, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed TBC because of its poor financial condition.  DOJ

February 24, 2016

New York, together with 21 other states, announced multimillion dollar settlements with Natixis Funding Corp. and Societe Generale for fraudulent and anticompetitive conduct in municipal bond derivative transactions with state and local government entities and nonprofits across the country. Natixis and Societe Generale will pay $29,950,000 and $26,750,000 respectively as part of a coordinated 22-state and private class settlement. Pursuant to the settlements, $53,865,000 will be paid into a Settlement Fund and largely applied to restitution for municipalities, counties, government agencies, school districts and nonprofits that the states allege were harmed when they entered into municipal derivatives contracts with Natixis or Societe Generale. NY, NJ, FL

February 11, 2016

Morgan Stanley agreed to pay a $2.6 billion penalty “for misleading investors about the subprime mortgage loans underlying the securities it sold” in the period leading up to the financial crisis.  As part of the agreement, Morgan Stanley admitted that it failed to disclose critical information to prospective investors about the quality of the mortgage loans underlying its residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) which ultimately caused investors, including federally insured financial institutions, to lose billions of dollars from investing in Morgan Stanley in the 2006-07 timeframe.  The $2.6 billion civil penalty resolves claims under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA).  In addition, the states of New York and Illinois announced their own settlements with Morgan Stanley for $550 million and $22.5 million, respectively.  When combined with prior settlements with other regulators -- $225 million to the National Credit Union Administration; $1.25 billion to the Federal Housing Finance Agency; $86.95 million to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; and $275 million to the SEC -- this brings to almost $5 billion the total payout by Morgan Stanley in connection with its fraudulent sales of RMBS.  Whistleblower Insider

February 11, 2016

New York, in conjunction with members of a state and federal working group announced a $3.2 billion settlement with Morgan Stanley over the bank’s deceptive practices leading up to the financial crisis. The settlement includes $550 million – $400 million worth of consumer relief and $150 million in cash – that will be allocated to New York State. The resolution requires Morgan Stanley to provide significant community-level relief to New Yorkers, including loan reductions to help residents avoid foreclosure, and funds to spur the construction of more affordable housing. Additional resources will be dedicated to helping communities transform their code enforcement systems, invest in land banks, and purchase distressed properties to keep them out of the hands of predatory investors. NY