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Fintech
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January 30, 2025
Wise Reaches $2.5M CFPB Deal Over Disclosure, Fee Issues
In its first new enforcement action since President Donald Trump's return to office, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday ordered Wise, a global money transfer fintech, to pay nearly $2.5 million on allegations it committed misleading fee marketing and disclosure-related violations.
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January 30, 2025
PayPal Beats Investor Suit Over Inflated User Metrics Claims
A New Jersey federal court has dismissed a proposed class action that accused PayPal of misleading investors with user metrics inflated by a scam that took advantage of a PayPal promotion that paid people to set up new accounts, saying the investors did not show PayPal knew of the alleged scam when certain statements were made.
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January 30, 2025
Card Co. Netspend Inks $1.1M NY AG Deal Over Fees, Freezes
The New York Attorney General's Office said Thursday that Netspend, a fintech debit and prepaid card provider, will pay nearly $1.1 million to settle claims that it charged New Yorkers illegal fees and allowed debt collectors to seize protected funds.
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January 30, 2025
Pump.Fun Faces Suit Over Unregistered Memecoin Sales
Memecoin launchpad Pump.Fun and its executives should have registered the tokens spawned on its platform with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to a proposed securities class action brought by a purchaser in New York federal court.
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January 30, 2025
YouTube's 'Nelk Boys' Sued Over 'Snake-Oil' NFTs
A buyer of an apparently worthless crypto product has filed suit against a pair of influencers behind the YouTube channel "Nelk Boys," calling them "snake-oil salesmen" and claiming they talked up the products online, saying they were valuable when, in reality, the promised perks and returns on investment never materialized.
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January 29, 2025
'DO NOT RESPOND': CFPB Union Calls Buyout Email A Trap
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's union has urged staff at the agency to refrain from responding to the Trump administration's buyout offer for federal employees, describing it as a potential trap and suggesting they consider marking it as spam instead.
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January 29, 2025
Binary Options Fraudsters Must Pay $451.6M To CFTC
An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday ordered three Israeli businessmen and the overseas businesses they owned or ran to pay over $451.6 million to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, holding them liable for lying about the profitability of binary options transactions and misappropriating customer funds.
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January 29, 2025
Sports Co., Ex-CEO Must Pay $1.8M In SEC Fraud Suit
A D.C. federal judge has ordered sports business Crystal World, its ousted CEO and a related investment group to pay approximately $1.8 million in disgorgement and civil penalties for securities violations, lowering the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's bid for a $4.1 million total judgment.
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January 29, 2025
Dentons Taps SEC Enforcement Vet From Morrison Cohen
Dentons has brought on a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorney from Morrison Cohen LLP, where his work made headlines when he won a rare sanctions order against the regulator over its handling of a case against a client, the crypto project known as Debt Box.
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January 29, 2025
5th Circ. Rejects Outside Bid To Defend CFPB Small-Biz Rule
The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday stood by its decision to refuse two advocacy groups' request to help defend the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's small business lending data rule, a day after the bureau and the suing banking trade groups pushed back and said they are fine to litigate themselves, without intervention.
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January 29, 2025
AI Art Needs Human Input For Copyrights, Gov't Report Says
Simply directing artificial intelligence platforms to make art, music, videos and other creative works is not enough for users of AI systems to be considered authors entitled to copyright protection, the U.S. Copyright Office said Wednesday in a report that's part of a broader agency initiative to explore legal issues raised by the revolutionary technology.
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January 28, 2025
Sen. Warren Has 'Serious Concern' Over Lutnick's Tether Ties
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D.-Mass., has asked U.S. Secretary of Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick to provide more information on his involvement with the crypto firm Tether Ltd. Inc., saying his firm Cantor Fitgerald's stake in the success of a token allegedly favored by "outlaws" is cause for concern.
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January 28, 2025
CFPB, Bank Orgs Rebuff Intervention Bid In Data Rule Fight
In a moment of agreement, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a group of banking trade groups pushed back on Tuesday against a bid to intervene by two advocacy groups in a suit over the CFPB's small business lending data rule.
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January 28, 2025
Ex-SEC Enforcement Chief Says Staff Faced Uptick In Threats
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently departed enforcement chief said Tuesday he wishes he could have done more to insulate his staff from the uptick in threats they received while he headed the program, and he urged his successor to do what they could to protect the agency's attorneys.
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January 28, 2025
Wells Fargo Exits 2022 Order But Isn't Out Of CFPB Woods Yet
Wells Fargo announced Tuesday that it has wrapped up a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent order issued two years ago over its handling of auto loans, mortgages and deposit accounts, though the agency is cautioning that "serious issues" remain at the bank.
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January 28, 2025
Dolce & Gabbana Wants 'Worthless' NFT Outfit Suit Tossed
The U.S. division of Italian luxury fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana has urged a New York federal judge to toss a proposed investor class action accusing it of abandoning a nonfungible tokens project while retaining the more than $25 million that was used to fund it, arguing that the U.S. arm of the company was not at all involved in the project.
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January 28, 2025
SEC Wells Meetings Likely Back On The Table, Official Says
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's acting deputy director of enforcement said Tuesday that leadership was open to meeting more frequently with those facing SEC investigations and hinted at the possibility that it would pursue fewer industry bars against those who violate the securities laws.
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January 28, 2025
Silk Road Pardon Sparks Hope For More Crypto Clemency
President Donald Trump's decision to free the convicted Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht brought praise from crypto advocates and spurred some to seek the ear of the new administration in hopes that the president will pardon other alleged crypto criminals, too.
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January 28, 2025
Chinese Pair Sought To Fuel Fentanyl 'Grand Lab,' Feds Say
Prosecutors told a Manhattan federal jury Tuesday that two Chinese nationals sought to furnish chemicals for what they thought would be a huge fentanyl hub in New York City, pointing to what they called damning evidence such as recordings, texts and cryptocurrency transfers.
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January 28, 2025
TravelPerk Hits $2.7B Valuation, Announces Yokoy Buy
Spanish business travel platform TravelPerk, advised by Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC and Lenz & Staehelin, on Tuesday announced that it hit a $2.7 billion valuation after closing its Series E funding round with $200 million of commitments, while also announcing its acquisition of European expense, invoice and card payment processing platform Yokoy.
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January 27, 2025
CFPB's Chopra Sees Room For Rules To Stem Debanking
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra on Monday voiced support for regulatory action to address concerns about banks unfairly closing accounts, saying more transparency and "bright-line" limits may be needed to combat so-called debanking.
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January 27, 2025
Lummis Tells 2nd Circ. SEC 'Flouts' Congress In Crypto Cases
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R.-Wyo., told the Second Circuit that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's ongoing suit against Coinbase Inc. has complicated congressional efforts to set rules for digital assets, filing her support for the crypto exchange's bid for a quick ruling from the appeals court on how securities laws apply to the transactions on its platform.
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January 27, 2025
Crypto Exchange KuCoin Pleads Out, Agrees To Pay $297M
Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin on Monday pled guilty and agreed to pay $297 million for failing to implement anti-money laundering protocols and allowing more than $5 billion worth of criminal funds to flow through its trading platform.
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January 27, 2025
CFPB Says Acima Can't Use 'Lease' Label To Exit Suit
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urged a Utah federal court to not dismiss its predatory lending suit against Acima Leasing, arguing the fintech company and Rent-A-Center affiliate can't hide offering functional credit products by calling them rental purchases.
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January 27, 2025
Judge Grants Bid For Docs, Code In EPassport Fight
A Court of Federal Claims judge partially granted a German company's bid to secure discovery materials from the U.S. government and a French cybersecurity firm for its suit accusing the government of infringing on patents related to electronic passport readers.
Expert Analysis
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California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.
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Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.
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Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork
Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean
A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.
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8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney
A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.
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Challenge To Ill. Card Fee Law Explores Compliance Hurdles
A recent federal lawsuit challenging an Illinois law that will soon forbid electronic payment networks from charging fees for processing the tax and tip portions of card transactions, fleshes out the glaring compliance challenges and exposure risks financial institutions must be ready to face next summer, says Martin Kiernan at Amundsen Davis.
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Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures
Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.
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Opinion
This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process
In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Breaking Down CFTC's Novel Theory Driving Uniswap Action
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement action against Uniswap concerning digital asset liquidity appears to be a unilateral attempt to expand its regulatory authority in the absence of official congressional approval, putting forth a novel theory of liability that will likely be tested through litigation, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Series
Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers
Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.
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Proposed Mortgage Assistance Rule: Tips For Servicers
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recent proposal to alter Regulation X mortgage servicing procedures to broadly construe requests for assistance, and stay foreclosure proceedings during loss mitigation review, will, if finalized, require mortgage servicers to make notable procedural changes to comply, says Louis Manetti at Locke Lord.
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Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys
Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.
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Series
Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3
In the third quarter of the year, California continued to be at the forefront of banking regulation as it enacted legislation on unfair banking practices and junk fees, and the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation notably initiated enforcement actions focused on crypto-assets and student loan debt relief, say Stuart Richter and Eric Hail at Katten.
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2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules
In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.