Legal issues and news

Two months after the mysterious failure of the Heartland Tri-State Bank in Elkhart, Kansas, a news article sheds light on its downfall. CEO Shan Hanes was involved in a cryptocurrency hoax involving a $12 million wire payment, according to the Bloomberg Businessweek report.

The New Jersey senator, who is a powerful member of the Banking Committee, is facing calls from fellow Democrats to resign. He was released on Wednesday after posting a $100,000 bond.

Subjecting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to congressional appropriations would throw a wide range of essential regulatory activities into disarray, disrupting the industry and putting consumers at risk.

The $75 million deal between the megabank and the U.S. Virgin Islands includes various commitments, such as terminating customers' accounts if there is credible information that the accounts are involved in human trafficking.

A New York judge ruled Donald Trump is liable for fraud for exaggerating his net worth by billions of dollars a year on financial records submitted to banks and insurers, a major victory for the state's attorney general before a high-stakes civil trial over remaining claims in the case.

The suit alleged that many off-duty cops picked up shifts at TD as security guards, only to go unpaid or wait months for their paychecks. The settlement did not include an admission of liability by the bank.

The Securities and Exchange Commission — which charged Coinbase this year with operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker and clearing house — says Coinbase Global's proposed involvement in Celsius Network's plan to emerge from bankruptcy raises many of the same concerns as those in the agency's lawsuit.

Georgia United Credit Union is collaborating with the income-verification fintech Argyle to combat submissions of false documents and other crimes.

With class certification now in hand, the cities that brought the lawsuit have two weeks to outline how other municipalities will be provided notice of the chance to join.

Federal prosecutors say Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, accepted bribes in return for exerting political influence — including helping Fred Daibes, a small-bank executive who had been accused of loan fraud.

At the Sibos conference, cybersecurity leaders at banks and other experts debated how to train employees to thwart threats that AI has intensified.

The move to create data consortia and proprietary information networks is creating exactly the kind of information silos that money launderers exploit today.

The private equity firms accused the bank of concealing key changes to a credit agreement, in part because it wanted to win future muni bond business from Brightline Holdings.

Educational institutions ought to have some skin in the game when it comes to the student loan market.

The lawsuit takes issue with the agency's 2022 guidance on nonsufficient funds fees, a hot-button topic in the banking industry. The FDIC is asking a judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the plaintiffs lack standing to sue.

More elderly consumers are being diagnosed with Alzheimer's and dementia — making them vulnerable to scammers. Financial institutions are seeking special certifications to better equip themselves to help.

The managers of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX sued the parents of co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to "recover millions of dollars in fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds," according to a court filing.

The ruling comes in a lawsuit New York Attorney General Letitia James filed in 2020, claiming Jonathan Braun and others made thousands of merchant cash advances to small businesses, charged annualized interest that sometimes exceeded 1,000% and defrauded and harassed borrowers. 

Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said most small businesses will need to report information about their beneficial owners at the start of next year; certain financial and government entities are exempt because of their preexisting regulatory requirements.

Bancrédito International Bank and Trust Corp. "willfully violated" the Bank Secrecy Act, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The penalty was the first under a two-year-old federal rule aimed at closing gaps in anti-money-laundering enforcement.