Bank of America to Pay $250 Million over Junk Fees and Fake Accounts

Government regulators this week ordered Bank of America to pay $250 million for engaging in a string of illegal banking practices that harmed hundreds of thousands of consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) accused Bank of America of double-dipping on junk fees, withholding promised credit card rewards, and opening fake credit card accounts. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) also accused Bank of America of illegally...

Celebrating Whistleblowers on World Whistleblower Day

Today (June 23) is World Whistleblower Day.  It was originally created in 2019 by a group of NGOs to raise global awareness of the critical role whistleblowers play in combatting fraud and corruption.  One of the principal groups behind the special day, and the one that promotes it the most widely, is Transparency International.  It is the independent, not-for-profit NGO  dedicated to stopping corruption and promoting transparency, accountability and integrity...

June 8, 2023

Billy Joe Taylor of Lavaca, Arkansas, will spend 15 years in prison and will pay nearly $30 million in restitution for submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor and his co-conspirators misused medical information and private personal information for Medicare beneficiaries, and then used that information to repeatedly submit fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary diagnostic laboratory testing. USAO WDAR

Top Ten Tax Enforcement Actions of 2022

Tax fraud can take many forms, but each form results in shortchanging government coffers.  More seriously, with our tax system depending heavily on taxpayers’ willingness to voluntarily file tax returns and pay taxes, tax fraud undermines confidence in the system.  Enforcement of tax laws builds confidence in the system, and deserves to be a law enforcement priority. The top tax recoveries in 2022 start with the IRS’s involvement in cryptocurrency...

December 20, 2022

Following his conviction on charges related to his direction of a Ponzi scheme and the fraudulent sale of purported N95 masks during the pandemic, Christopher Parris was sentenced to 20.3 years in prison.  In the Ponzi scheme, which collapsed in 2018, Parris and co-conspirators – including Perry Santillo, obtained at least $115.5 million from approximately 1,000 investors, with claims that they were investing in a diversified investment portfolio when, in...

July 21, 2022

Jermaine Rose will spend 2 years in federal prison for abusing his position with the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency, using his insider access as a lead claims examiner to approve and release payment on fraudulent UI claims filed by his co-conspirators. In exchange, Rose received kickbacks ranging from $50 to $150 for each fraudulent claim he touched—claims which were submitted using fictitious or stolen identities. Rose, in his plea agreement,...

July 14, 2022

Bank of America will pay fines totaling $225 million to following federal investigation into its administration of state unemployment insurance and other public benefit programs, which it provided pursuant to contracts with 12 states to deliver benefits through prepaid debit cards. When demand for benefits surged with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank adopted automated fraud detection practices which it the government alleged it knew or should have known would lead...

Payments News Update - June 24, 2022

Legal and Regulatory Developments SPOTLIGHT: UK Watchdog to Review Post-Brexit Visa and Mastercard Fees Reuters – June 21, 2022 Britain's payment systems regulator (PSR) will conduct two market reviews of card fees charged by Visa and Mastercard, the U.S. companies that account for 99% of debit and credit card payments in the UK. The PSR's announcement on Tuesday follows heavy pressure from lawmakers to launch full market reviews to tackle...

May 31, 2022

Healthcare company SCWorx Corp. has agreed to resolve SEC charges that it made false and misleading statements in an April, 2020 press release, claiming in a press release that it had received a purchase order for millions of COVID-19 rapid test kits.  The announcement caused the company’s stock price to surge, but the SEC alleged that the company had neither a legitimate supplier of COVID-19 test kits nor an executed...

Antitrust Matters Episode 6: The NCAA

Antitrust Matters provides engaging and timely conversations about competition policy in the digital age. Antitrust has always mattered to consumers and businesses, and to antitrust lawyers and economists, but today it also is in the political and public discourse more than ever. From the prices we pay for food, travel, financial services, payments to the way we interact daily using digital apps and platforms, antitrust touches each and every one...