The Senate voted on Monday evening to confirm Wilbur Ross as secretary of commerce. The 79-year-old billionaire private equity investor is President Donald Trump’s 10th cabinet nominee to be confirmed, and remarkably, is the second member of Trump’s cabinet who was deeply involved in companies that swept up the housing crisis with foreclosures marred by …
Month: February 2017
Petition asks city of Decatur to stop doing business with Wells Fargo
An online petition is asking the city to discontinue its business relationship with Wells Fargo bank. One of the concerns cited by petition organizers is Wells Fargo’s role in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline, a controversial oil pipeline project that is opposed by many Native Americans. “Wells Fargo is the City of Decatur’s primary bank,” the petitions …
90-year-old woman foreclosed, evicted from home of over 60 years
Gloria Turano thought she’d be living on Skillman Avenue when she died, in the ranch home her late husband Louis built for them in 1953. She never wanted to leave it, and the decades of memories of raising a family it holds for her. “I thought the undertaker would take me out of here,” the …
Citigroup, JPMorgan Face Euribor Antitrust Class Action
Law360, New York (February 21, 2017, 10:34 PM EST) — A New York federal judge on Tuesday trimmed a putative class action brought by investors who say they lost money in derivatives transactions because big banks conspired to manipulate Euribor, the euro interbank offered rate. But two plaintiffs, including a California retirement fund, still have …
Protesters urge Sammamish City Council to divest from Wells Fargo
Protesters from Sammamish and the greater Seattle area flooded Sammamish City Hall on Tuesday urging City Council members to divest the city’s money from its banker, Wells Fargo, due to the bank investing in the Dakota Access Pipeline. Roughly 30 protesters were in attendance, with nine addressing the council over the course of a half …
Ocwen SEC filing reveals details of CFPB mortgage servicing investigation
During a call with investors to discuss the company’s fourth-quarter earnings, Ocwen Financial CEO Ron Faris said resolving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s investigation into the company’s mortgage servicing practices is a top priority in 2017. In Ocwen’s third-quarter 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company revealed that it could be facing a fine …
City of Alameda moves to divest from Wells Fargo
ALAMEDA — The city of Alameda has taken the first steps toward divesting more than $36 million from its accounts at Wells Fargo over the bank’s involvement with the Dakota Access pipeline and the bank’s history of controversial practices. The City Council voted unanimously early Wednesday morning to immediately refrain from investing in the bank’s …
Not that it matters now, but here are the EPA Chief Scott Pruitt emails.
Center for Media and Democracy released 7,564 pages of e-mails Organization sued to get documents from Oklahoma state Newly installed EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt closely coordinated with major oil and gas companies, refiners and groups linked to the billionaire Koch brothers to combat environmental regulations during his time as Oklahoma attorney general, according to thousands …
Hedge Funds Can’t Sue Over Investments in Fannie and Freddie
Hedge funds largely failed in their legal challenge to the U.S. government’s capture of billions of dollars in profits generated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after their bailout, sending shares of the mortgage guarantors plunging. Perry Capital LLC, the Fairholme Funds and other big investors lost a bid to overturn a judge’s ruling that …
Supreme Court breathes new life into whistleblower case against Wells Fargo
With a ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court revived a long-running whistleblower lawsuit that accused Wachovia’s investment bank of violating accounting rules and skirting internal controls to pursue short-term profits. The Supreme Court vacated a judgment in August 2016 by the U.S. Appeals Court for the Second Circuit that had affirmed a lower court’s decision …