Banking Misconduct Blog

Bankruptcy is designed to provide a fresh start for honest but unfortunate debtors and to ensure creditors are treated fairly. A federal bankruptcy court judge in Manhattan recently ruled that Wells Fargo failed miserably in its treatment of several of its business clients. By taking money to which...

Most states have a Deceptive Trade Practices Act. These laws typically prohibit “unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices.” The first state to enact such a law was Massachusetts in 1967. Today just over half the states have enacted similar laws.
The...

“Can I sue my bank for breach of fiduciary duty” is a question we often hear. Many folks are quite surprised when they receive our answer. As a general rule, in most states banks do not owe a fiduciary duty to customers. There are exceptions, however.
There is a popular...

Lender’s frequently obtain confidential information from customers. Anyone who has ever completed a loan application or sought commercial financing knows how much data banks want… assets, profit projections, valuations, trade secrets, key personnel, even information about intimate...

This case is one from the archives but the principles and law behind the decision are still valid today. In 2009, a Philadelphia jury awarded Donald Mente and his new and used car dealership, Mente Chevrolet, $4 million after finding that GMAC had used thinly disguised pretexts to declare the...

We rarely write about residential foreclosure cases. Although we don’t typically handle cases for individual homeowners, we follow them closely. The same deceitful tricks banks use against helpless homeowners often find their way into commercial cases. Banks have deep pockets and know that...

A Vermont federal court judge refused to toss a RICO claim filed against the Chippewa Cree payday lender, Plain Green LLC. The court also refused to enforce a loan provision that prevented borrowers from filing lawsuits or making class action claims. The payday lender unsuccessfully argued that...

More bad news from the oil patch. Oil prices have been at historic lows since the summer of 2014. Although prices have rebounded a bit, prices are still well below the $65 per barrel benchmark that most companies need to be profitable. In recent months approximately 50 exploration and production...