Archive

September 26, 2016

The CFPB took action against TitleMax parent company TMX Finance LLC for luring consumers into costly loan renewals by presenting them with misleading information about the deals’ terms and costs. The lender also used unfair debt collection tactics that illegally exposed information about debts to borrowers’ employers, friends, and family. TMX Finance was ordered to stop its unlawful practices and pay a $9 million penalty.  CFPB

September 23, 2016

The CFPB filed a federal lawsuit against the credit repair company Prime Marketing Holdings, LLC alleging it charged consumers a series of illegal advance and also misrepresented the cost and effectiveness of its services. The CFPB is seeking to halt the company’s harmful conduct and to obtain relief for consumers, including refunds of fees paid to the defendant.  CFPB

September 21, 2016

The CFPB sued five Arizona title lenders— Auto Cash Leasing, LLC; Interstate Lending, LLC; Oasis Title Loans, LLC; Phoenix Title Loans, LLC; and Presto Auto Loans, Inc. — for failing to disclose the annual percentage rate in online advertisements about title loans. The companies allegedly advertised a periodic interest rate for their loans without listing the corresponding annual percentage rate. The CFPB is seeking civil monetary penalties and administrative orders requiring the companies to correct their practices.  CFPB

September 21, 2016

The CFTC ordered Chicago-based Advantage Futures LLC, its CEO Joseph Guinan, and former Chief Risk Officer William Steele to pay a $1.5 million penalty for supervision and risk management failures and making inaccurate statements in filings with the CFTC.  CFTC

September 20, 2016

Raja Michael Mawad and his company, RNS Holdings LP, a Texas corporation headquartered in Houston, Texas, agreed to pay more than $389,000 to settle charges that they engaged in fraud upon participants in a commodity pool they operated and for failing to file required annual reports.  CFTC

September 14, 2016

Grace Elizabeth Reisinger of Grand Island, Nebraska, was found liable by jury verdict for  fraudulently soliciting at least $2.75 million from investors in a commodity pool scheme.  CFTC

September 12, 2016

A federal court in North Carolina ordered James A. Shepherd and his company, James A. Shepherd Inc. to pay more than $15 million in penalties and restitution for engaging in a commodity pool fraud scheme.  CFTC

September 7, 2016

The CFTC filed a civil injunctive enforcement action against Fan Wang a.k.a. Alex Wang, a Chinese national who resides in Short Hills, New Jersey, charging Wang with making false reports in connection with commodity futures contracts he purchased for his employer’s proprietary trading account.  CFTC 

August 26, 2016

The SEC charged the California-based company Enviro Board Corporation and its two co-chairmen/CEOs Glenn Camp and William Peiffer with using baseless financial projections and other misleading statements to defraud investors in their venture to manufacture environmentally-friendly building materials.  The SEC alleges that the defendants raised approximately $6 million over a four-year period by using documents predicting company earnings of $18 million to $95 million per year.  The SEC alleges that they lacked any reasonable basis for these estimates.  The defendants made additional misstatements and omissions to fraudulently induce investment.  Meanwhile, according to the SEC’s complaint, Camp and Peiffer and their primary salesman, Joshua Mosshart, paid themselves approximately $2.6 million in compensation. Mosshart is charged with selling unregistered securities and acting as an unregistered broker.  SEC

August 25, 2016

The SEC announced penalties against 13 investment advisory firms found to have spread false claims made by investment management firm F-Squared Investments about its flagship product Alphasector.  An SEC sweep found that the 13 firms accepted and negligently relied upon claims by F-Squared that its Alphasector strategy for investing in exchange-traded funds had outperformed the S&P index for several years.  The firms repeated many of F-Squared claims while recommending the investment to their own clients without obtaining sufficient documentation to substantiate the information being advertised.  The penalties assessed against the firms range from $100,000 to a half million based upon the fees earned by each firm related to Alphasector.  SEC