A former bank CEO named his boat ‘Overdraft.’ Now that bank is in hot water over the fees.

Turns out overdraft fees are still big moneymakers for some banks. So much so that a former chief executive of a midsize bank named his boat after the fee.

That’s only one of the ways that bank employees celebrated the money they made from overdraft charges, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against TCF National Bank.

The government’s consumer watchdog alleges that lofty sales goals drove the Minnesota-based bank to mislead hundreds of thousands of consumers into signing up for overdraft services. Consumers typically face overdraft charges of about $35 when they use their debit cards to spend more money than they have in their accounts. Federal rules put in place after the financial crisis prohibit banks from charging the fees on debit purchases or ATM withdrawals unless consumers opt in to the program. But the CFPB alleges that TCF violated those rules. read more »

Goldman Sachs embroiled in $1bn Indonesian lawsuit

Latest legal test for foreign groups in Southeast Asia’s largest nation

Goldman Sachs plans to hit back at a $1.1bn lawsuit filed against it in an Indonesian court that has witnessed a series of battles between tycoon families and global investment banks.

Mr Tjokrosaputro says Goldman Sachs International conducted unlawful transactions in Hanson shares that belonged to him and will seek to recoup Rp15tn in damages, according to a statement from Lucas SH & Partners, a law firm representing Mr Tjokrosaputro.

The same suit will also seek unspecified damages from Citibank, which is a custodian bank for Goldman Sachs International. read more »

Whistleblower wins 13-year campaign against HSBC

Thousands of customers will be compensated for excessive credit card charges thanks to dogged efforts of 59-year-old Nicholas Wilson

A lone whistleblower has won a 13-year “David and Goliath battle” against HSBC and Britain’s chief financial watchdog, resulting in a multimillion-pound compensation payout to thousands of people.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said HSBC had voluntarily agreed to set up a £4m compensation scheme for people who had lost out financially as a result of having to pay “unreasonable” debt collection charges imposed by two subsidiaries of the bank. read more »

Western Union admits to aiding wire fraud, to pay $586 mln

Western Union Co, the world's biggest money-transfer company, agreed to pay $586 million and admitted to turning a blind eye as criminals used its service for money laundering and fraud, U.S. authorities said on Thursday.

Western Union, which has over half a million locations in more than 200 countries, admitted "to aiding and abetting wire fraud" by allowing scammers to process transactions, even when the company realized its agents were helping scammers avoid detection, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission said in statements. read more »

Walgreens to pay $50 mln to resolve U.S. prescription kickback case

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc will pay $50 million to resolve a U.S. lawsuit accusing it of violating federal law by providing beneficiaries of government healthcare programs discounts and other incentives to fill their prescriptions at its pharmacies.

The settlement, announced by Manhattan U.S Attorney Preet Bharara on Thursday, resolves a whistleblower lawsuit that the government joined related to the national pharmacy chain's Prescription Savings Club program.

Bharara said Walgreens allowed beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid to take part in the Savings Club program even though doing so violated a federal law against paying those beneficiaries kickbacks so they would choose Walgreens. read more »

New Zealand Court Keeps Jho Low Family Fight Alive in 1MDB Case

A New Zealand Court has ruled that Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho’s family can change trustees holding their assets, keeping alive a fight to stop the U.S. from seizing $650 million in real estate and business investments allegedly acquired with stolen funds.

The family of the businessman known as Jho Low claims the Swiss trustees holding their assets are afraid to fight back against the U.S. for fear of being prosecuted in a global game of investment hide-and-seek set off by the alleged disappearance of more than $3.5 billion of the $8 billion raised by 1Malaysia Development Bhd. The U.S. Justice Department is targeting real estate, investments and art works that were allegedly bought with money siphoned off from the state-owned investment and development fund known as 1MDB. read more »

Las Vegas Sands pays $7 million to end US criminal bribery case

Las Vegas Sands agreed to pay a $6.96 million criminal penalty to end a U.S. Department of Justice probe into whether it violated a federal anti-bribery law by paying a consultant to help it do business in China and Macau.

In a statement on Thursday, the Justice Department said the casino operator run by billionaire Sheldon Adelson also entered a non-prosecution agreement. read more »

Financial Company Charged With Improper Accounting and Impeding Whistleblowers

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Seattle-based financial services company HomeStreet Inc. has agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty to settle charges that it conducted improper hedge accounting and later took steps to impede potential whistleblowers. read more »

Ex-Visium Manager Found Guilty of Fraud in About 90 Minutes

A onetime portfolio manager for hedge fund firm Visium Asset Management LP was convicted of federal securities-fraud charges in the culmination of a three-year case that included the suicide of a fellow executive who was also charged.

The jury deliberated for a little more than 90 minutes before finding Stefan Lumiere guilty on all three counts related to inflating the price of bonds in the firm’s credit fund to hide losses from investors. His conviction comes as the U.S. steps up efforts to police multitrillion-dollar bond markets, where securities are traded between parties and not over an exchange.

Lumiere, 46, didn’t react as the verdict was read. His sentencing is scheduled for May 23, and he could face as much as 45 years in prison and a $5 million fine, though maximum penalties are rarely imposed. Jurors declined to comment. read more »

Uber to pay $20 million to settle U.S. claims it misled drivers

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc has agreed to pay $20 million to settle claims by the U.S. government that it exaggerated prospective earnings in seeking to recruit drivers, documents filed with a federal court on Thursday showed.

The company had posted on its website that some Uber drivers made more than $90,000 in New York and $74,000 in San Francisco when the real earnings were considerably less, the Federal Trade Commission said in a court filing. read more 

 

Enforcement Chief to Step Down at Financial Derivatives Regulator

One of the Obama administration’s few remaining Wall Street enforcers is stepping down.

Aitan Goelman, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s enforcement division, announced his departure on Wednesday during a broad exodus of prosecutors and regulators in the Obama administration’s final days. read more »

How Forex Brokers Went Bankrupt Overnight amid EURCHF Flash Crash

Jan 15, 2015 was the day when a Tsunami hit the financial markets. It was the day when millions of dollars were wiped out from global financial markets and many big players of the forex exchange market suffered heavy losses while some even announced bankruptcy. On Jan 15 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) suddenly and unexpectedly removed the EURCHF price peg, triggering a flash crash in the price of EURCHF currency pair which consequently affected almost all currencies and stock markets around the globe. read more »