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CFPB Temporarily Enjoined from Naming Company Under Investigation
On February 17, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras issued an Order granting in part a motion filed by a unnamed "John Doe" recipient of a CFPB civil investigative demand (CID) for an injunction preventing the Bureau from disclosing its identity pending its petition to the Court of Appeals for a stay of the CID. Specifically, Judge Contreras ordered that: “Defendants are ENJOINED, until March 3, 2017” from “publicly disclosing the identify of Plaintiff John Doe Company, by taking actions including, but not limited to, the public filing of either the civil investigative demand . . . or the Director’s Decision and Order [denying] Plaintiff’s Petition" to set aside the CID.
As previously covered by InfoBytes, the John Doe company filed an action against the CFPB back in January seeking to enjoin the Bureau from, among other things, disclosing the existence of an investigation and taking any action against the company unless and until the CFPB is constitutionally structured. The company argued, among other things, that the agency should not be able to identify it as the target of an investigation as publication of the company’s name would bring “irreparable harm” as it tries to defend itself against any enforcement action. Immediately following the District Court's ruling against the company, it lawyers filed a Notice of Appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to try to stop the agency from moving forward.
CFPB Files Suit Against Nation's Largest Student Loan Company
On January 18, the CFPB initiated an enforcement action against the nation’s largest student loan servicer based upon alleged violations of the CFPA, FCRA, and FDCPA. In a complaint filed with the Middle District of Pennsylvania, the Bureau charged that the student lender “systematically and illegally” created “obstacles to repayment” and “cheated” many borrowers out of their rights to lower repayments, causing them to pay much more than they had to for their loans. The CFPB “seeks to obtain permanent injunctive relief, restitution, refunds, damages, civil money penalties, and other relief.”
Later that day, the lender issued a statement categorically rejecting the CFPB's charges, explaining: “[T]he suit improperly seeks to impose penalties [] based on new servicing standards applied retroactively and applied only against one servicer. The regulator-asserted standards are inconsistent with Department of Education regulations, and will harm student loan borrowers, including through higher defaults.” The company also noted that “the timing of this lawsuit—midnight action filed on the eve of a new administration—reflects their political motivations.”
New Fed. R. Crim. P. 41(b) Takes Effect; Cyber Warrants Can Now Cross State Borders
A change to Rule 41(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure took effect on December 1. Amended Rule 41(b) now allows courts to issue warrants for remote access to electronic data outside their jurisdiction if the location of the information has been “concealed through technological means” or when the data is in five or more districts. Thus, under the revised rule, a magistrate judge has the authority to issue a warrant outside of their district without specific knowledge of the location of the computers being searched. By contrast, warrant requests were previously limited to the search and seizure of property within the court’s own district.
FCC Enforcement Chief Touts Global Anti-Robocall Push
In an official FCC blog post published November 21, FCC Enforcement Chief Travis LeBlanc re-emphasized the agency’s efforts to work with international law enforcement partners to target fraudsters who might otherwise be outside the FCC’s reach. As explained by Mr. LeBlanc:
“Unsolicited calls and text messages are more than just a nuisance these days. They are used to perpetrate criminal fraud, phishing attacks, and identity theft schemes all around the world. These calls often overwhelm facilities, including emergency or 911 call centers. Those responsible for sending unwanted calls and texts often operate from outside of the United States, too often allowing them to evade our enforcement. Indeed, it is very easy for these scammers to operate from multiple countries, hide their locations, change their phone numbers between calls, trick caller ID systems into displaying false or trusted numbers, increasingly demand payments in hard-to-trace forms such as cash or gift cards, and move quickly to avoid detection and prosecution in our increasingly mobile world.”
Earlier this year, the FCC signed a memorandum of understanding with members of the “Unsolicited Communications Enforcement Network,” a global network of law enforcement authorities and regulatory agencies that have agreed to share intelligence, identify common threats, learn from each other’s best practices and assist each other with investigations where permissible to combat unsolicited communications.
Fed Extends Post-Employment Restrictions for Senior Examiners
In a press release on November 18, the Fed announced revised post-employment restrictions that more than double the number of senior staff examiners barred from leaving a Federal Reserve Bank and going right to work for a bank they had supervised. By law, senior bank examiners are prohibited for one year from accepting paid work from a financial institution that they had primary responsibility for examining in their last year of Reserve Bank employment. This post-employment restriction has previously applied only to central points of contacts (CPCs) at firms with more than $10 billion in assets. The revised policy expands this post-employment restriction to deputy CPCs, senior supervisory officers (SSOs), deputy SSOs, enterprise risk officers, and supervisory team leaders, which has the effect of more than doubling the number of senior examiners covered. The policy—which takes effect January 2, 2017—does not apply to senior examiners responsible for multiple unaffiliated banks.
In addition, another new Fed policy prohibits former Fed Bank officers from representing financial institutions and other third parties in matters before the Fed for one year after leaving their Federal Reserve position. This policy takes effect on December 5.
Trump Nominates Jeff Sessions to be Next Attorney General
On November 18, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he has chosen Sen. Jefferson Sessions (R-Ala.), to become the next U.S. Attorney General. Sessions served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama for 12 years and was the state's attorney general for two years. Trump also announced his intent to nominate U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) as Director of the CIA and Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.
Eleventh Circuit Stays Enforcement of FTC's LabMD Order
In an order released November 10 in LabMD, Inc. v. FTC, the Eleventh Circuit stayed the execution of an FTC data security enforcement order against LabMD Inc. pending the appellate court’s own ruling on whether the agency acted on an unreasonable interpretation of what security companies must provide. LabMD, Inc. v. FTC, No. 16-16270-D, Order Granting Stay (11th Cir. Nov. 10, 2016).
The FTC had ruled in July that LabMD’s data security practices violated the FTC Act, clarifying and expanding upon the FTC’s authority to regulate corporate data security practices. After an FTC administrative law judge denied LabMD’s request to stay enforcement until the medical company had exhausted its remedies on appeal, LabMD appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, which granted the stay in a unanimous decision.
Noting that the case turns upon whether the FTC’s interpretation of the FTC Act is reasonable, the Appellate cCourt granted the stay based on its finding that (i) “there are compelling reasons why the FTC’s interpretation may not be reasonable”; (ii) complying with the FTC’s Order would cause LabMD irreparable harm given its financial situation, (iii) there would be no substantial injury to other parties given that LabMD is no longer operating, and (iv) the public interest factor was neutral. The appeal will now proceed on the merits of LabMD’s arguments for reversal of the FTC’s enforcement order.
Revised MLA Examination Procedures Released
On September 29, the Federal Reserve released the interagency examination procedures for the DOD’s Military Lending Act (MLA) final rule published in July of 2015. Also on September 29, the CFPB released its own examination procedures under the final rule, providing guidance as to how the CFPB will conduct reviews under what will be a broader scope of coverage under the MLA, including credit cards, deposit advance products, overdraft lines of credit (not traditional overdraft services), and certain types of installment loans. The final rule goes into effect on Monday, October 3 for most extensions of consumer credit to active duty servicemembers and their dependents.
SEC Settles With Accounting Firm Over Alleged Lack of Auditor Independence
On September 19, the SEC announced that it had reached an agreement with a big four accounting firm regarding employee relationships with its auditing clients that violated rules designed to ensure objectivity and impartiality. The accounting firm agreed to pay approximately $4.8 million and $3.3 million in disgorgement, along with civil penalties of $1.2 million and $1 million respectively. In addition, the individual partners involved paid civil penalties of $45,000 and $25,000. Andrew Ceresney, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, indicated that these actions are the SEC’s first to address “auditor independence failures due to close personal relationships between auditors and client personnel.”
Multiple Federal Agencies Pursue International Payment Processor
The DOJ, OFAC and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), as part of an effort to stop an international network of mass mailing fraud schemes that target elderly and vulnerable victims, conducted a joint enforcement action against an international payments processor and money services business based in Canada. The agencies alleged that the payment processor engaged in money laundering and mail fraud by knowingly processing payments on behalf of the perpetrators of more than 100 different mail fraud campaigns, collectively involving tens of millions of dollars. OFAC designated the payments processor as a significant transnational criminal organization (TCO) pursuant to Executive Order 13581. OFAC also designated as TCOs a global network of 12 individuals and 24 entities across 18 countries based on their association with the payment processor. As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, USPIS obtained a warrant through the Eastern District of New York to seize the funds in a U.S. bank account that was allegedly used to process payments received through fraudulent mailings. According to OFAC, the payment processor “has a nearly 20-year history of knowingly processing payments relating to these fraudulent solicitation schemes, which result in the loss of millions of dollars to U.S. consumers.”