Financial Institution Fraud

December 7, 2020

The largest non-bank mortgage servicer in the country, Nationstar Mortgage, has agreed to pay $79.2 million in restitution to over 55,000 borrowers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia who were harmed by the lender’s noncompliance with numerous laws, including the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), and Homeowner’s Protection Action of 1998 (HPA), from 2011 to 2017.  Additionally, Nationstar will pay another $7.1 million in costs and penalties to government parties.  CFPB; DOJ; CA AG; NY AG; PA AG

November 13, 2020

The SEC has awarded over $1.1 million to a whistleblower who conducted an independent analysis of publicly available materials and submitted insights as a tip.  The whistleblower’s important new insights led staff to expand an ongoing investigation and helped protect investor assets from dissipation by the wrongdoer.  SEC

October 14, 2020

Michael Allen Worley of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced to 12 years in prison following his plea of guilty on charges including bank fraud.  Worley admitted that between 2014 and 2018 he fraudulently obtained more than $40 million in loans and investments from banks and private equity firms for himself and his businesses.  Worley’s fraud included false statements that inflated his assets, understated and omitted his liabilities, misrepresented his income, and misrepresented the intended use of loan proceeds. Worley was also ordered to pay $15.75 million in restitution to his victims.  USAO MD LA

October 13, 2020

Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation, an auto financing subsidiary of the car manufacturer, has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $4 million and provide up to $1 million in restitution to customers to settle charges that the company engaged in illegal collections and repossession practices.  The company was alleged to have repossessed cars despite the customer having made payments or taken other actions to avoid repossession; imposed improper storage fees; refused to return personal property to customers; overcharged customers making payments by telephone; and mislead customers regarding their right to bankruptcy relief.  CFPB

September 30, 2020

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC will pay a total of $10 million in civil monetary penalties to the SEC and CFTC.  In an agreement with the SEC, the company will pay a $5 million civil monetary penalty arising from charges that the firm violated the short sale procedures of Regulation SHO. Specifically, Morgan Stanley improperly used “long” and “short” aggregation units when it hedged synthetic exposure to swaps by purchasing or selling the securities referenced in the swaps.  The aggregation units were not independent and did not have separate trading strategies.  As a result, Morgan Stanley should have netted the long and short positions of both units together or across the entire broker-dealer and marked the orders as long or short based on that netting. The CFTC, which also imposed a $5 million penalty, charged that Morgan Stanley failed to comply with swap data reporting obligations, inaccurately reporting swap data for approximately three million swaps. SEC; CFTC

September 30, 2020

Marcus Schulz will pay over $1 million – a $670,000 penalty and $427,000 in disgorgement – to resolve CFTC allegations that, while employed as an energy trader, he passed on confidential information to an outside broker, including information about his employers block trade orders.  The broker would then arrange to take the other side of the order at prices that allowed the broker and others involved in the scheme to make a profit on offsetting trades, which profits they shared with Schulz.  CFTC

September 29, 2020

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $920 million to the CFTC and $35 million to the SEC, as well as enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the DOJ, in order to resolve charges of fraudulently engaging in unlawful trading in both the precious metals and U.S. Treasury futures contracts.  Between at least 2008 through 2016, numerous traders in JPMorgan’s New York, London, and Singapore offices—including the heads of both the precious metals and Treasuries sections—placed hundreds of thousands of spoof orders to artificially drive up supply and demand, ultimately succeeding in manipulating market prices.  Additionally, JPMorgan failed to identify, investigate, and stop the misconduct; JPMorgan also initially responded to government requests in a manner that was misleading.  The penalties imposed by the CFTC—which includes the highest restitution ($311.7 million), disgorgement ($172 million), and civil monetary penalty ($436.4 million) —amount to the highest monetary relief ever imposed by the CFTC in a spoofing case.  CFTC; SEC; USAO CT