Last Thursday, December 4, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) reached a settlement agreement with Premier Consulting Group LLC and the Law Office of Michael Lupoloverrequiring the defendants to pay a fine of roughly $69,000 for allegedly charging consumers illegal upfront fees for debt relief services. The Telemarketing Sales Rule prohibits companies from collecting fees
A Question of Ethics: The Year in Government Ethics
Roll Call | December 9, 2014
As long as there are governments, there will be government corruption. The temptations to abuse power are never going away, and neither is human frailty, which means government ethics will remain an important issue for, well, forever.
A look back on 2014 reveals yet another year of explosive government
With Record-Setting False Claims Act Recoveries, What Will DOJ Do for an Encore?
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had collected a record $5.69 billion in False Claims Act (FCA) settlements and
recoveries over the past year, marking the first time that recoveries have breached the $5 billion threshold. The DOJ press release announcing this accomplishment highlighted two key areas of recovery: healthcare and
DOJ Wields Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act Against Financial Institutions
In 2012 and 2013, the Department of Justice brought a slew of actions against several financial institutions under a rarely used and little-known statute from the late 1980s for conduct related to the mortgage crisis. Outcomes in these cases in recent months show the statute’s potency and likely indicate that the government will continue to
FCA Enforcement Performance: Part 2 – The Forex Effect
Only a couple of weeks ago I was commenting on a NERA report that had found that in the period between April 2012 and October 2014 the FCA had imposed fines of over £1bn, in sharp contrast to the preceding decade during which a paltry £320m had been levied.
Now, on 12 November 2014, the
Taking Aim – the SEC’s Continued Focus on Hedge Funds
“It is difficult to overstate how much the regulatory landscape for hedge fund managers has changed over the past four years.” So said Norm Champ, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Investment Management, in a recent speech wherein he outlined how the SEC has built on its newfound authority to regulate private
Update: Supreme Court Declines to Define Instrumentality under FCPA
On October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an August 14, 2014, petition for writ of certiorari by Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriquez, former owners of Terra Communications (Terra). The petition asked the court to define who counts as a foreign official under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
In 2011, Esquenazi and Rodriquez
One Year Later: SEC Sanctions Under Rule 105 of Regulation M
On September 16, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced enforcement actions against 19 firms and an individual trader for short sales in violation of Rule 105 of Regulation M. The SEC’s latest crackdown on short-selling violations in advance of stock offerings came one day shy of the one-year anniversary of enforcement actions against 23
Higher Education Facing Scrutiny from CFPB
Colleges, universities and anyone offering postsecondary education, take note: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to target alleged unfair and deceptive practices related to the student loan and financial aid process. A few weeks ago, the CFPB filed suit against Corinthian Colleges in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleging violations
SFO Bashing, Chapter 49.
No one could accuse the Serious Fraud Office of living a charmed life. It is regularly accused of stupidity and inefficiency by a hostile press, and not infrequently the government weighs in with destabilising tactics, either by slashing its paltry budget, or by planning to redesign the counter fraud landscape.
A report this week in