Wells Fargo Settles for Discriminatory Lending Practices

By Marlene Koury Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $175 million to settle government charges that it discriminated against qualified African-American and Latino borrowers in its mortgage lending from 2004 through 2009.  The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the settlement on July 12, 2012, making it the second largest fair lending settlement in the DOJ’s history after its December 2011 settlement with Bank of America for $335 million. The DOJ...

Wells Fargo A Day Late And A Dollar Short In Bid For Visa Check/MasterMoney Settlement Funds

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a district court ruling that dismissed belated claims by Wells Fargo to participate in the groundbreaking settlements of the Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation. The settlements, finalized in 2005, involved payment of $3.05 billion by defendants Visa and MasterCard to a plaintiff class of millions of U.S. merchants afflicted by the defendants’ “Honor All Cards” policies – polices that illegally tied debit cards...

September 27, 2021

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. will pay $72.6 million to resolve claims that it violated the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”) by overcharging commercial customers from 2010 to 2017 for foreign exchange (“FX”) service. The government alleged that the bank fraudulently marked up the prices on currency it was selling and marked down the prices on currency it was buying, and concealed those markups from customers through various...

Payments News Update – October 8, 2020

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: House Panel Says Big Tech Wields Monopoly Power Wall Street Journal – October 6, 2020 America’s biggest technology companies have leveraged their dominance to stamp out competition and stifle innovation, according to a Democratic-led House panel, which said Congress should consider forcing the tech giants to separate their dominant online platforms from other business lines. The report released Tuesday from Democratic staff of the House...

November 8, 2019

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. will pay $14.475 million -- a $10 million penalty, and $4.475 million in restitution -- to resolve CFTC charges related to the bank's actions in a single 2014 FX forward contract trade valued at approximately $4 billion.  The contract required Wells Fargo to calculate the price based on a weighted average spot rate on the relevant day.  However, Wells Fargo had no system in place to...

Top Ten Federal Financial Fraud Recoveries of 2018

While 2018 has been a banner year for FCPA, Tax, and SEC & CFTC recoveries, in the bottomless pit of financial frauds that hurt taxpayers, the government, consumers, investors, and the American economy, 2018 brought us additional stunning recoveries for violations related to residential-mortgage backed securities, international economic sanctions, consumer protection, anti-money-laundering, EB-5 investment fraud, and even investment fraud in the Fyre Festival. Constantine Cannon's Top Ten Financial Fraud Recoveries...

August 1, 2018

Wells Fargo Bank has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $2.09 billion to settle allegations that it knowingly misrepresented the quality of its mortgage loans to investors, in violation of FIRREA, in order to double its production of subprime and Alt-A loans. Nearly half of those loans subsequently defaulted, leading to billions of dollars in losses for investors, including federally insured financial institutions. DOJ; USAO NDCA

April 20, 2018

The CFPB assessed a $1 billion penalty against Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. for violating the CFPA in how it administered a mandatory insurance program related to its auto loans and how it charged certain borrowers for mortgage interest rate-lock extensions. CFPB

Whistleblower News From The Inside -- December 28, 2016

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team Defense contractor settles FCA case for $4.5M – Advanced C4 Solutions settled charges it inflated invoices for project management and labor services for an Air Force technology project.  The settlement resolves allegations that the contractor charged for labor hours not actually worked, and charged at job classification rates for which personnel did not have the requisite credentials.  DOJ DOJ orders whistleblower to testify in...

September 29, 2016

Wells Fargo Bank N.A., doing business as Wells Fargo Dealer Services, agreed to change its policies and pay over $4.1 million to resolve allegations that it violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by repossessing 413 cars owned by protected servicemembers without obtaining a court order.  DOJ