March 14, 2013
FIRREA Factors for Determining Civil Penalties
Andrew Schilling, Ross Morrison and Michelle Rogers wrote a short article (here, behind a paywall) about a recent case, U.S. v Menendez, No. C.V. 11-06313 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 6., 2013) that sets forth the eight factors that are to govern … Continue reading
March 14, 2013 in Government lawsuits | Permalink | No Comments
March 13, 2013
MERS-Y! MERS-Y!
Dustin Zacks has posted Revenge of the Clerks: MERS Confronts County Clerk and Qui Tam Lawsuits, a short article that reviews litigation brought by “county clerks and private qui tam actions assert that MERS has cheated county recorders out of … Continue reading
March 13, 2013 in Government lawsuits | Permalink | No Comments
March 11, 2013
Reiss on Booming Structured Finance Litigation
Law360 interviewed me about the boom in structured finance litigation arising from the Financial Crisis (here, behind a paywall): banks will not be able to let their guard down anytime soon, thanks to the U.S. Department of Justice’s rediscovery of … Continue reading
March 11, 2013 in Government lawsuits | Permalink | No Comments
February 15, 2013
California’s S&P Suit
The California complaint follow on the heels of the DoJ complaint but it hangs its hat on an aggressive theory — that S&P’s ratings violate California’s False Claims Act. While I do not yet have an opinion about whether that … Continue reading
February 15, 2013 in Government lawsuits | Permalink | No Comments
February 8, 2013
More on DoJ’s S&P Complaint
I highlighted some of the juicy bits of the complaint a few days ago. There has been a lot of discussion of the suit and related issues. Here is my two cents’ worth. FIRREA, an untested enforcement statute, has gone … Continue reading
February 8, 2013 in Government lawsuits | Permalink | No Comments
February 6, 2013
$127 Million LPS Robo-Signing Settlement with 47 A.G.s
The Lender Processing Services, Inc. press release is here. The $2.5 million Michigan settlement relating to the overall total $127 million settlement can be found here. In the Michigan settlement, LPS did not admit “any violation of law.” (2) Nonetheless, … Continue reading
February 6, 2013 in Government lawsuits | Permalink | No Comments
February 5, 2013
S&P Complaint, Bombshell upon Bombshell!
DoJ’s complaint is chock full of interesting allegations. Previous critiques of the rating agencies rehashed a handful of embarrassing emails that made their way into an SEC staff report a few years ago (“It could be structured by cows and … Continue reading
February 5, 2013 in Government lawsuits | Permalink | No Comments