Archive

September 27, 2017

The CFPB ordered real estate settlement services provider Meridian Title Corporation to pay up to $1.25 million in redress to consumers for steering them to a title insurer owned in part by several of its executives without making disclosures about the businesses’ affiliation. CFPB

September 25, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an Order filing and simultaneously settling charges against Citibank, N.A. (CBNA) and Citigroup Global Markets Limited (CGML) (collectively, Citi), for failing to report Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) information for swap transactions properly to a Swap Data Repository (SDR), failing to establish the electronic systems and procedures necessary to do so, failing to correct errors in LEI data previously reported to an SDR, and failing to perform supervisory duties diligently with respect to LEI swap data reporting, all in violation of CFTC Regulations. CFTC; subsequent proceedings

September 22, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today issued an Order filing and simultaneously settling charges against Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (Merrill Lynch), a registered Futures Commission Merchant, for failing to supervise its employees’ and agents’ handling of the firm’s response to a CME Group Inc. (CME Group) investigation into futures block trade execution and recordkeeping practices at Bank of America, N.A. (BANA), a Merrill Lynch affiliate. The CFTC Order also finds that Merrill Lynch did not have adequate procedures to ensure that its employees and agents prepared and maintained accurate records of futures block trades executed by BANA and that Merrill Lynch failed to maintain records of certain futures block trades executed by BANA as required by Commission Regulations. CFTC

September 21, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of a federal civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Defendants Nicholas Gelfman, of Brooklyn, New York, and Gelfman Blueprint, Inc. (GBI), a New York corporation, charging them with fraud, misappropriation, and issuing false account statements in connection with solicited investments in Bitcoin, a virtual currency. The CFTC Complaint alleges that from approximately January 2014 through approximately January 2016, GBI and Gelfman, company Chief Executive Officer and Head Trader, operated a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme in which they fraudulently solicited more than $600,000 from approximately 80 persons, supposedly for placement in a pooled commodity fund that purportedly employed a high-frequency, algorithmic trading strategy, executed by Defendants’ computer trading program called “Jigsaw.” In fact, as charged in the CFTC Complaint, the strategy was fake, the purported performance reports were false, and — as in all Ponzi schemes — payouts of supposed profits to GBI Customers in actuality consisted of other customers’ misappropriated funds. CFTC

September 19, 2017

The CFPB filed a complaint and proposed consent order against Top Notch Funding, its owner Rory Donadio, and his business associate John “Gene” Cavalli, for lying in loan offerings to consumers who were awaiting payment from settlements in legal cases or from victim-compensation funds. The Bureau seeks $70,000 in civil money penalties and an order preventing Top Notch, Donadio, and Cavalli from offering or providing such products in the future. CFPB

September 18, 2017

The CFPB took action against the National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts and their debt collector, Transworld Systems, Inc., for illegal student loan debt collection lawsuits. The Bureau ordered National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts to pay at least $19.1 million. It also ordered Transworld Systems, Inc. to pay a $2.5 million civil money penalty. CFPB

September 6, 2017

The CFPB ordered Zero Parallel, LLC, an online lead aggregator, pay a $100,000 penalty for steering consumers toward lenders who offered illegal or unlicensed loans that were void in the consumer’s state. The CFPB also ordered Zero Parallel’s owner, Davit Gasparyan, to pay a $250,000 penalty for similar illegal conduct at his prior company, T3Leads, in a separate case. CFPB

September 6, 2017

– The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that on September 6, 2017, it filed a civil injunctive enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against three affiliated companies located in Newport Beach, California, Monex Deposit Company, Monex Credit Company, and Newport Services Corporation(collectively, Monex), and Monex’s principals Louis Carabini and Michael Carabini. The CFTC Complaint charges the Defendants, among other claims, with defrauding thousands of retail customers nationwide out of hundreds of millions of dollars, while executing thousands of illegal, off-exchange leveraged commodity transactions. CFTC

September 5, 2017

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today entered an Order requiring Dallas, Texas-based W Resources, LLC (W Resources) to pay a $150,000 civil monetary penalty for acting as a Commodity Pool Operator (CPO) without registering with the CFTC and to cease and desist from further violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), as charged. The Order finds that W Resources operated W North Fund LLC, W North Fund II LLP, and W North Fund III LLP (together, W North Funds) as commodity pools by trading commodity options to hedge financial exposure to physical oil and gas assets. However, the Order finds that, beginning in or about October 2013, W Resources operated and continues to operate the W North Funds without registering with the CFTC as a CPO, in violation of the registration provisions of the CEA. CFTC

August 30, 2017

The CFPB filed a proposed final judgment in a federal lawsuit against Prime Marketing Holdings, LLC for illegal credit repair practices. The proposed order would permanently ban the company from doing business within the credit repair industry and require a $150,000 civil money penalty. CFPB