Consumers on Ice: Dozens of CFPB Enforcement Actions in Jeopardy During Trump/Mulvaney “Coup”

Uncertainty Over 38 “Open” or “Active” Enforcement Actions Including Case Involving Scammed 9/11 First Responders

According to an Allied Progress analysis, there are currently 38 “open” or “active” CFPB enforcement actions covering a broad range of consumer issues from illegal foreclosures and debt collection practices to deceiving payday loan borrowers about the cost of loans and charging students for financial aid that was never delivered. In one case, the CFPB has sued a company for scamming 9/11 first responders out of court awarded settlements.

The “open” and “active” enforcement actions could impact consumers both nationally and on the state level in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

“While the courts determine the legality of Trump’s CFPB coup by appointing Mick Mulvaney as ‘acting director,’ tremendous damage is already being done and it is the very people he promised to help, people who can least afford it, who will be hardest hit,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of the consumer watchdog organization Allied Progress.

He continued, “Mulvaney has wasted no time going to bat for big banks, debt collectors, payday lenders, and other financial predators. Putting a ‘freeze’ on the important work of the CFPB may earn him pats on the back from Trump and his friends on Wall Street, but it is consumers that he is really putting on ice. They are the ones who will pay the price for his callous abdication of responsibility.”

To speak with Karl Frisch about Mulvaney and the CFPB, please contact Annette McDermott at 202-697-4804 or annette@alliedprogress.org.

38 Pending CFPB Enforcement Actions

The below represent “open” or “active” CFPB enforcement actions. They are sorted by date with those started most recently appearing first. The designations come from the CFPB’s enforcement actions website. Each action is also track on Allied Progress’ CFPB Action Tracker: CFPBactiontracker.com

• CALIFORNIA: The CFPB has sued Golden Valley Lending, a California based company, among others for illegally taking money out of consumer accounts for debts on loans that violated state laws.  [“CFPB v. Golden Valley Lending, Inc., Silver Cloud Financial, Inc., Mountain Summit Financial, Inc., and Majestic Lake Financial, Inc.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued Ocwen Financial, a Georgia based company and a repeat offender, for illegal foreclosures after they failed to “clean up their act” despite previously paying a $2 billion fine. [“CFPB v. Ocwen Financial Corporation, Ocwen Mortgage Servicing, Inc., and Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• OHIO: The CFPB has sued Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Co., L.P.A., a debt collection law firm, for failing to verify that people actually owed them money before demanding consumers pay them. [CFPB v. Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Co., L.P.A., CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NEW YORK and NEW JERSEY: The CFPB has sued RD Legal Funding, among others, for “scamming” 9/11 first responders and NFL players out of court awarded settlements. [“CFPB, Attorney General-NY v. RD Legal Funding, LLC, RD Legal Finance, LLC, and RD Legal Funding Partners, LP, and Roni Dersovitz,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• CALIFORNIA, KANSAS, and MISSOURI: The CFPB has sued Vincent Howard, among others, for “debt settlement scams” where Howard and his associates would collect fees from consumers before actually reducing their debts. [CFPB v. Vincent Howard, Lawrence W. Williamson, Howard Law, P.C., The Williamson Law Firm, LLC, and Williamson & Howard, LLP, CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued Navient Corporation, a Delaware based company and a student loan servicer, for failing to “apply borrower repayments accurately.” Navient even failed disabled veterans by inaccurately reporting that they had defaulted on their loans when the veterans were eligible for loan forgiveness under federal programs. [“CFPB v. Navient Corporation, Navient Solutions, Inc. and Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc..,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• VIRGINIA: The CFPB has sued Fredericksburg Gold & Pawn and Spotsylvania Gold & Pawn Inc. for advertising loans with “deceptively low [interest rates].” [“CFPB v. A To Z Pawn, Inc., Pawn U.S.A., Inc., Fredericksburg Gold & Pawn, Inc., and Spotsylvania Gold & Pawn, Inc. (four separate legal filings),” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• MARYLAND: The CFPB has sued Access Funding, LLC, among others, for persuading lead poisoning victims, many of whom were mentally disabled, to sell “large payouts for a fraction of their value under false pretenses.” [“CFPB v. Access Funding, LLC, Access Holding, LLC, Reliance Funding, LLC, Lee Jundanian, Raffi Boghosian, Michael Borkowski, and Charles Smith,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NEW YORK: The CFPB has sued Northern Resolution Group, LLC, among others, for taking “in ‘tens of millions of dollars’ a year by harassing, threatening and deceiving consumers” and collecting debts that “consumers did not owe.” [“CFPB v. Northern Resolution Group, LLC, Douglas MacKinnon, Mark Gray, Enhanced Acquisitions, LLC, and Delray Capital, LLC,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• ARIZONA: The CFPB has sued Auto Cash Leasing LLC, among others, for advertising loans without disclosing annual percentage rates that would force many customers into cyclical debt. [“CFPB – Auto Cash Leasing, LLC, Interstate Lending, LLC, Oasis Title Loans, LLC, Phoenix Title Loans, LLC, Presto Auto Loans, Inc.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• MASSACHUSETTS: The CFPB has fined Santander Bank for charging “illegal overdraft fees” when Santander’s telemarketers enrolled customers in an overdraft program “without their consent.” [“CFPB – Santander Bank,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• MISSISSIPPI: The CFPB has sued All American Check Cashing Inc. for instructing their employees to not disclose fees they were charging to their customers and for overcharging customers. [“CFPB v. All American Check Cashing,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NEW JERSEY: The CFPB has fined Pressler and Pressler LLP and New Century Financial Services for debt collection actions that were “based on flimsy or non-existent evidence.” [“CFPB – Pressler & Pressler, LLP, Sheldon H. Pressler, and Gerard J. Felt, New Century Financial Services, Inc.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• CALIFORNIA: The CFPB has sued Dmitry Formichev for buying and selling payday and installment loans “without…vetting buyers and sellers.” [“CFPB v. Davit Gasparyan aka David Gasparayan (Dmitry Fomichev),” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued T3 Leads, a California based company and “a consumer information aggregator,” in addition to its “chief officers” Grigor and Marina Demirchyan, for allegedly failing to “properly vet lead purchasers.” [“CFPB v. T3Leads,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• MASSACHUSETTS: The CFPB has fined Collecto Inc. for collecting cell phone debts consumers had already paid as well as debts that they could not verify that consumers owed. [“CFPB v. EOS-CCA,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has taken action against Integrity Advance, a Delaware based company and an online payday lender, for deceiving customers about the cost of loans and making automatic withdrawals from customer accounts, even after customers had “revoked authorization for automatic withdrawals.” [“CFPB – Integrity Advance, LLC,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• CALIFORNIA: The CFPB has sued Global Financial Support, Inc., a company that helped students find and obtain financial aid, for tricking “thousands of students and their families” into paying for financial aid research that they never delivered. [“CFPB v. Global Financial Support, Inc.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued Pension Funding LLC and Pension Income LLC, both California based companies, for deceiving customers “about the high rates of their loans” and “tricked consumers into borrowing against their pensions.” [“CFPB v. Pension-Funding-LLC and-Pension Income LLC,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued World Law Group, a law firm with offices around the World, for charging “illegal upfront fees” when promising consumers legal help to get out of debt. [“CFPB v. World Law Group,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued NDG Financial, a Canada based payday lender, among others, for illegally collecting loans and fees that “consumers had no obligation to repay” and even threatening borrowers with “lawsuits or prison.” [“CFPB – NDG Financial,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued Nationwide Biweekly Administration, an Ohio based company, its subsidiary Loan Payment Administration, and its owner Daniel Lipsky for claiming to save consumers money on mortgage payments, while they charged high fees that offset the savings. [“CFPB v. Nationwide Biweekly Administration, Inc., Loan Payment Administration LLC, Daniel S. Lipsky,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• MARYLAND: The CFPB has sued Genuine Title, a mortgage company, for a “mortgage kickback scheme with banks such as Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase” where Genuine Title “funneled cash payments” to the loan officers through LLCs the loan officers created for themselves. [“Attorney General-MD, CFPB v. Genuine Title, LLC, Brandon Glickstein Gary Klopp et al.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued Green Tree Servicing, a Pennsylvania based mortgage servicing firm, for “illegal loan servicing and debt collection practices,” including harassing telephone calls and failing to honor modification agreements between consumers and previous loan processors. [“FTC and CFPB v. Green Tree Servicing, LLC,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NEW MEXICO: The CFPB has sued Southwest Tax Loans, among others, for offering “consumers loans at high interest rates in anticipation of the tax refund” they would receive. [“Navajo Nation and CFPB v. S/W Tax Loans, Inc. formerly d/b/a Fast Refund Loans, Inc., J Thomas Development of NM, Inc. formerly d/b/a H&R Block, Dennis R. Gonzales, Jeffrey Scott Thomas,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• CALIFORNIA: The CFPB has sued National Corrective Group for using “intimidation tactics to collect debts for bounced checks,” including threatening consumers with criminal prosecution and jail time. [“CFPB v. National Corrective Group, Inc. (NCG), American Justice Solutions, Inc. d/b/a Corrective Solutions, et al.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued the “fraudulent debt-collection operation” run by Universal Debt Payment Solutions, a Georgia based company, among others, for using “robo-calls, harassment and deception to try to collect on ‘phantom’ consumer debts that the victims didn’t actually owe.” [“CFPB v. Universal Debt Payment Solutions, LLC, Universal Debt Solutions, LLC, WNY Account Solutions, LLC et al.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• MISSOURI: The CFPB has sued payday lender Hydra Group for buying information from online lead generators to “access consumers’ checking accounts to illegally deposit payday loans and withdraw fees without consent.” [“CFPB v. Hydra Group,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued California-based Clausen & Cobb Management Company for falsely promising distressed borrowers who paid to “lower an interest rate or stop a foreclosure,” without following through. [“CFPB v. Siringoringo, Clausen-&-Cobb Management-Co.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued the Illinois-based Mortgage Law Group, among others, for charging “illegal advance fees for services that falsely promised to prevent foreclosures or renegotiate troubled mortgages.” [“CFPB v. The-Mortgage Law-Group, LLP,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• GEORGIA: The CFPB has sued Frederick J. Hanna and Associates for running a scam lawsuit machine that churned out “thousands of poorly researched lawsuits aimed at intimidating victims into paying debts they sometimes already paid or don’t legally owe.”  [“CFPB v. Frederick-J. Hanna-and Associates,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued for-profit college chain ITT Educational Services, an Indiana based company, for “predatory lending practices, pushing prospective students into costly loans and misleading them about future job prospects.” [“CFPB v. ITT Educational Services,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NEW JERSEY and PENNSYLVANIA: The CFPB has sued PHH Corporation, a mortgage lending company, for “collecting kickbacks from mortgage insurers as part of a scheme dating back to 1995.” [“CFPB – PHH Corporation,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• ARIZONA and ARKANSAS and COLORADO and INDIANA and MASSACHUSETTS and NEW HAMPSHIRE and NEW YORK and NORTH CAROLINA: The CFPB has sued CashCall and its subsidiaries for “engaging in ‘unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices,'” including violating “federal law by seeking to collect on loans that were completely void or partially nullified.” [“CFPB v. CashCall, Inc., WS Funding, LLC, Delbert Services Corporation, J. Paul Reddam,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• KENTUCKY: The CFPB has sued law firm Borders & Borders, for “violating federal real estate law by paying local real estate and mortgage companies to send business its way.” [“CFPB v. Borders & Borders, PLC; Harry Borders; John Borders, Jr.; and J. David Borders,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]

• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued Morgan Drexen, a California based company, and its president Walter Ledda, for conning 22,000 people in debt into “signing up for costly bankruptcy-related services by telling them they would be ‘debt-free in months'” through false advertising. [“CFPB v. Morgan Drexen, Inc. and Walter Ledda,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]
• NATIONWIDE: The CFPB has sued the National Legal Help Center, a California based company, among others, for a scam where they charged homeowners large upfront fees to reduce their mortgage payments, and then did not follow through on that claim. [“CFPB v. National Legal Help Center; CFPB v. Chance Edward Gordon d/b/a Gordon & Associates, Abraham Michael Pessar et al.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]
• CALIFORNIA: The CFPB has sued the National Legal Help Center, among others, for a scam where they charged homeowners large upfront fees to reduce their mortgage payments, and then did not follow through on that claim. [“CFPB v. National Legal Help Center; CFPB v. Chance Edward Gordon d/b/a Gordon & Associates, Abraham Michael Pessar et al.,” CFPB Action Tracker, accessed 11/28/17]