FDIC, OCC Rule Proposals Seek To Rein In Bank Supervision

By Jon Hill

Federal banking regulators on Tuesday unveiled a pair of proposed curbs on their supervision programs that would formally ban the use of reputation risk as an exam factor and constrain what examiners can call out for criticism as an "unsafe or unsound" practice.

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Mortgage Giants Shared Data To Fix Rates, Homeowners Say

By Katryna Perera

A proposed class of homeowners has launched a sweeping class action against Rocket Mortgage, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and more than two dozen other mortgage lenders, accusing them of conspiring through Optimal Blue's pricing software to secretly share sensitive data and fix mortgage rates nationwide, allegedly inflating costs and deepening the U.S. housing affordability crisis.

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Feds Seek 6 Years For Ex-Frank Exec's 'Brazen' $175M Con

By Craig Clough

Prosecutors asked a New York federal judge Monday to sentence a former executive at financial aid startup Frank to six years in prison for helping its founder Charlie Javice trick JPMorgan Chase & Co. into buying the company for $175 million, saying he deserves no leniency for the "brazen" fraud.

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Bank's Ex-Compliance Chief Sues Over 'Bad Faith' Termination

By Sarah Jarvis

A Florida community bank has been sued in New Jersey federal court by its former chief risk and compliance officer, who claims that he was fired without cause just months after signing a three-year contract with the bank at a $250,000 annual salary.

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SEC's Atkins Wants To 'Future-Proof' Deregulatory Agenda

By Jessica Corso

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins said Tuesday that he hopes that moving quickly to adopt new rules deregulating the public and private markets will "future-proof" his agenda against potential tampering by succeeding presidential administrations.

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Wine Co. Exec Cops To Wire Fraud Conspiracy In $99M Scam

By Gina Kim

A United Kingdom wine company executive pled guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in New York federal court Tuesday in a criminal case accusing him of scamming investors out of $99 million after persuading them to make loans using wine collections as collateral.

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11th Circ. Wary Of IRS Procedure In FBAR Penalty Appeal

By Kelcey Caulder

An Eleventh Circuit panel Tuesday appeared concerned about IRS procedures that could keep a man from recouping $419,000 he paid to resolve his failure to disclose funds held in foreign bank accounts as he appeals a district court determination that he actually owes $2.2 million.

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Title Insurer Fights Mortgage Lender's Fraud Claim

By Hope Patti

A title insurer has no duty to pay a mortgage lender's claim over a $510,000 loan a borrower alleged was fraudulent, it told a North Carolina federal court, saying its closing protection letter explicitly excludes coverage for third-party fraud and that no policy was ever issued.

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Ex-Prisoners Push Back On Bid To Decertify Debit Card Class

By Sydney Price

Former prisoners accusing Central Bank of Kansas City of charging excessive fees on prepaid debit cards have pushed back on the bank's effort to undo their certified class, arguing they were subject to a "uniform pattern of conduct" that forced them to accept the cards.

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Arnold & Porter Finance Leader Joins Seyfarth With 2 Peers

By Andrea Keckley

Seyfarth Shaw LLP announced Tuesday that it has hired the former chair of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP's structured finance and derivatives practice to co-lead its structured finance team, as well as two of his colleagues.

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5 Evolving Marketing Risks That Finance Cos. Should Watch

Financial services providers should beware several areas where consumer protection regulators are broadening their scrutiny of modern marketing practices, such as the use of influencer testimonials or advertisements touting artificial intelligence-powered products, so they can better adapt to changing expectations for compliance, say attorneys at Hinshaw.

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Regulatory Uncertainties Loom As Fed Ends Crypto Oversight

The Federal Reserve Bank's recently ended crypto supervisory program headlines other recent federal actions from Congress, the White House and relevant agencies that may complicate financial institutions' digital-asset use and attendant compliance strategies, say attorneys at Buchalter.

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Hybrid Claims In Antitrust Disputes Spark Coverage Battles

Antitrust litigation increasingly includes claims for breach of warranty, product liability or state consumer protection violations, complicating insurers' reliance on exclusions as courts analyze whether these are antitrust claims in disguise, says Jameson Pasek at Caldwell Law.

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Compliance Pointers Amid Domestic Terrorism Clampdown

A recent presidential memorandum marks a shift in federal domestic-terrorism enforcement that should prompt nonprofits to enhance diligence related to grantees, vendors and events, and financial institutions to shore up their internal resources for increased suspicious-activity monitoring and reporting obligations, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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Williams & Connolly Says It Was Targeted By Foreign Hackers

By Lauren Berg

Williams & Connolly LLP recently discovered that hackers had wormed their way into a few attorney email accounts but that there is no evidence the threat is ongoing, the firm told Law360 Tuesday, amid other attacks on the legal and technology sectors by hackers with suspected ties to the Chinese government.

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Musk Atty Alex Spiro Faces DQ Bid Ahead Of Twitter Deal Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

A certified class of former Twitter investors accusing Elon Musk of tanking the social media platform's stock during acquisition negotiations has urged a California federal judge to disqualify Musk's proposed lead trial counsel Alex Spiro before a January trial, arguing he's a "critical first-hand witness" and may testify, according to documents unsealed Monday.

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Judge Concerned As Feds Keep Immigration Atty's Phone Data

By Julie Manganis

A federal prosecutor told a Massachusetts judge on Tuesday that the government has returned a phone it seized from an immigration lawyer but does not intend to delete data it pulled from the device, prompting the court to raise concerns that the information could be used to identify and arrest immigrants.

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Goldstein's $968K Border Cash Claim To Be Admitted At Trial

By Jared Foretek

A Maryland federal jury will hear claims from prosecutors that SCOTUSblog publisher Tom Goldstein told Dulles International Airport border guards that the $968,000 in cash he brought into the country in 2018 had been gambling winnings, after a judge shot down his efforts to suppress his alleged statements Tuesday.

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Fed. Circ. Talks Judge Denzel Washington, AI Susan Sarandon

By Dani Kass

More than half of the Federal Circuit's judges were in Boston on Tuesday conducting out-of-town oral arguments, and afterward they discussed the most concerning and most promising elements of artificial intelligence, how to write a good brief, why en banc hearings are rare and which celebrities they'd love to see on a panel.

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Bondi Declines To Discuss James Comey Indictment

By Courtney Bublé

Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected when questioned on the recent indictment of former FBI Director James Comey and other controversies involving the U.S. Department of Justice. 

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Fitch Even's $1.2M Fee Fight Appears Headed To Arbitration

By Lauraann Wood

Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery LLP's $1.2 million fee dispute with a former client and a litigation funder's CEO may be paused and sent to arbitration before the firm can convince an Illinois federal judge to halt any alleged use or transfer of the money at issue.

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Ex-Reed Smith Atty Says NJ Pay Bias Law Goes Back 6 Years

By Jake Maher

A former Reed Smith LLP attorney suing the firm for gender discrimination told a New Jersey appeals court Tuesday that a 2018 equal pay law was intended by the Legislature to be a "game changer" and be applied retroactively, expanding the scope of her claims.

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NJ Justices Won't Disturb Locke Lord Win In Oil Co.'s Suit

By Jake Maher

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to review a lower appellate court decision handing a victory to Locke Lord LLP over malpractice claims from an oil processing company on the grounds that the firm does not have a significant connection to New Jersey and cannot be sued in the state's courts.

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Senate Confirms Boyden Gray Atty As Trump's Labor Solicitor

By Max Kutner

The Senate confirmed on Tuesday a Boyden Gray PLLC managing partner as President Donald Trump's nominee for labor solicitor, the third-highest-ranking position at the U.S. Department of Labor.

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Senate Confirms 2 DOJ Nominees, 16 US Attys

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate voted 51-47 Tuesday, along party lines, to confirm a slew of nominees for the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Attys Urge Mass. Courts To Protect Immigrants' Court Access

By Rae Ann Varona

Civil rights lawyers urged the Massachusetts trial court system to better protect migrants' due process rights amid increasing arrests by federal immigration officers inside and outside courthouses, saying Tuesday the court is "well within its right" to do so.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Kaplan On Suit Against The Gov't

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Elaine Kaplan's docket doesn't always garner attention in the same way trial court cases do, but that may change as the executive branch makes sweeping budget and policy changes that could lend more political significance to monetary claims against the government.

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