Mulvaney Drops CFPB Case Against Payday Lender Already Found Liable by Judge
REMINDER: Mulvaney Previously Lied about His Involvement in Dropping a Case Against a Predatory Lender and Has Taken More than $62,000 from the Industry
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Vox reports Mick Mulvaney’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is dropping its sanctions against yet another predatory payday lender, NDG Financial, after the company had already been found liable by a judge. Mulvaney had previously promised the Bureau would meet all of its legal deadlines.
“Mick Mulvaney has a debt to pay and consumers are the down payment. He took tens of thousands of dollars from payday lenders and now he has their back at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He’s willfully perverting the bureau’s mission by abandoning consumers to pay these financial bottom feeders back after years of taking their cash,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress.
He continued, “Don’t forget, Mulvaney has been caught lying about his role in dropping CFPB cases against predatory lenders before. There is no reason we should believe what he has to say about this case. We deserve a champion at the CFPB, not an industry stooge. It’s time for President Trump to appoint a fulltime director who will fulfill the mission of the bureau and hold bad financial actors like payday lenders and other cheats accountable.”
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- The CFPB “is taking it easy on payday lenders accused of preying on low-income workers” as evidenced by their “dropping sanctions against NDG Financial Corp.” The CFPB had previously “accused [NDG Financial] of running ‘a cross-border online payday lending scheme’ in Canada and the United States.” [Alexia Fernandez Campbell, “A payday lender is accused of stealing millions from customers. Trump’s CFPB is now letting them off the hook,” Vox, 04/20/18]
- The CFPB’s lawsuit against NDG Financial was ongoing “until Mulvaney took over the [CFPB].” “One of the lead attorneys defending the payday lenders” is now an “assistant attorney general at the US Justice Department” and was listed as an “active attorney” in the case after being sworn in at the Justice Department. [Alexia Fernandez Campbell, “A payday lender is accused of stealing millions from customers. Trump’s CFPB is now letting them off the hook,” Vox, 04/20/18]
- While Mulvaney’s CFPB had “dismissed charges” against six of the defendants in February, without an explanation, the CFPB “‘[terminated] sanctions’ against the remaining defendants” despite the fact that a judge “sanctioned” said defendants for being “uncooperative.” A judge had entered a judgment against them that would have “held them liable for the charges of unfair and deceptive business practices” and the CFPB is letting these defendants off the hook by not pursuing compensatory damages or recovery of attorney’s fees. [Alexia Fernandez Campbell, “A payday lender is accused of stealing millions from customers. Trump’s CFPB is now letting them off the hook,” Vox, 04/20/18]
- The CFPB sued NDG Financial because they were “illegally collecting [loans and fees]…that consumers had no obligation to pay.” NDG was accused of threatening borrowers with “lawsuits and prison.” [“CFPB – NDG Financial,” Allied Progress, accessed 04/20/18]
- Mulvaney previously misled the public about his involvement in dropping a case against payday lenders in January. [“MULVANEY LIED: TURNS OUT HE WAS INVOLVED IN CFPB DECISION TO DROP CASE AGAINST PREDATORY LENDER,” Allied Progress, 02/12/18]
- Mulvaney took more than $62,000 in campaign cash from the payday industry while serving in Congress. [“REPORT: TRUMP’S PAYDAY,” Allied Progress, 04/18/18]
- Mulvaney promised when he took over that the CFPB would meet its “statutory and legal deadlines.” [Brett Samuels, “Mulvaney on future of CFPB: I’m not going to blow it up,” The Hill, 11/27/17]
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