Law and legal issues

Carrie Tolstedt, scheduled to be sentenced Friday for her role in the company's phony-accounts scandal, has already paid for her crime and should receive three years probation, her attorneys argue in a sentencing memo. Prosecutors have recommended a year in prison.

The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defended the agency and its mortgage rules in particular on the 15th anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

A district court judge ruled that Congress did not give the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau broad authority to look for discrimination, putting a major dent into the bureau's efforts to apply anti-discrimination principles to non-lending products such as advertising.

The deal, approved by a federal judge on Friday, resolves claims alleging that former CEO Tim Sloan and other bank executives made misleading statements to investors, the media and Congress.

Protesters gathered outside the New York bank's headquarters last week, demanding restitution for what they allege was mismanagement. The bank did not give ground in its response to the demonstration.

The settlement resolves allegations dating to 2014 and covers 85 minority employees who alleged they were paid lower wages than their white counterparts and faced retaliation.

The Department of Justice is recommending a sentence of 12 months behind bars for Carrie Tolstedt, a former Wells executive who has pleaded guilty to obstructing a bank examination. That's harsher than the recommendation of the U.S. Probation Office.

Kevin Meyersburg, who is white, says in a lawsuit that the Wall Street investment bank terminated his employment and replaced him with a Black woman who is less qualified for the position. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Two related cases the Supreme Court is considering hing on whether state laws preempt the National Banking Act on the payment of interest on mortgage escrow accounts.

The Department of Justice cited American Bank of Oklahoma's lending record, as well as racially inflammatory emails it claims bank employees forwarded, in support of its redlining claims.

The company is paying $75 million in penalties and restitution in connection with SEC allegations that its investment advisory arm overcharged customers it inherited in its Wachovia acquisition in 2008. The settlement is said to show the importance of conducting extensive compliance checks in a rapidly consolidating industry.

The lender was accused in a recent lawsuit of failing to meet its obligations to underserved borrowers in lieu of wealthy clients.

Comerica CEO Curt Farmer and CFO James Herzog as well as the company itself face a purported class action by shareholders for allegedly making false and misleading statements about the Dallas company's oversight of the Treasury Department's Direct Express program.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan came in a securities fraud lawsuit brought by a trustee for note purchasers in a 2014 syndicated loan deal led by JPMorgan Chase.

A co-founder of Totem, a neobank for Native Americans, initiated legal action against his counterpart. Disputes are not uncommon in the startup world.

While federal efforts to provide funding for minority small businesses wither, a lawsuit seeks to shut down an effective source of private capital.

Roughly 55% of people sentenced for embezzling funds from 2007 to 2017 were women, according to new research. Some experts suggest women are more likely to hold accounting and money-handling jobs, while others say the trend is a reflection of biases by employers and law enforcement.

The SEC and CFTC charged 11 Wall Street firms $549 million in penalties over recordkeeping violations. The agencies vow to continue enforcing compliance throughout the industry.

The verdict ends a decade-long lawsuit over the Federal Housing Finance Agency's amendment to a stock repurchase agreement in 2012.

Chief Executive Andy Cecere is among the defendants in a shareholder lawsuit that alleges that top officials at the Minneapolis bank profited from the concealment of employee misconduct. A U.S. Bancorp spokesperson denied the allegations.