Waldron reports: "The Justice Department estimated that 4,000 troops were affected by Capital One’s violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act."
Capital One is one of the nation’s biggest consumer-financial companies. (photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)
Capital One Caught Financially Abusing Military Members
30 July 12
ust a week after it was ordered to pay $165 million in refunds and penalties for wrongful credit card practices, Capital One reached a settlement with the Department of Justice over charges that it financially abused active military members. Under the terms of the settlement, the bank will pay $12 million to American military members who were denied their legal right to reprieve from foreclosures, high interest rates, and auto reposession while on active duty.
The Justice Department estimated that 4,000 troops were affected by Capital One’s violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which grants certain financial protections to military members. Capital One will pay $55,000 in fines to DOJ while also providing settlement money to troops and restoring lost and damaged credit, the Washington Post reports:
Justice officials have asked Capital One to pay $7 million in damages to military personnel - including $125,000 for foreclosure, $10,000 for repossession, $500 for failed interest rate reduction and a refund of all the interest charged above 6 percen
The bank will provide another $5 million to service members who did not receive the full benefits allotted under the act. The settlement also requires Capital One to repair the credit of those affected by its actions, which occurred from July 2006 to November 2011.
But Capital One was hardly the only bank to take advantage of members of the military before and after the housing crisis. Ten lenders were accused last year of illegally foreclosing on thousands of military members, and multiple banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, have settled claims with the government over their abuses of servicemembers.
|
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community. |
 15 June 2013
|
 15 June 2013
|
 15 June 2013
|
 16 June 2013
|
 16 June 2013
|
 16 June 2013
|
 17 June 2013
|
 16 June 2013
|
 15 June 2013
|
Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.
Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.
- The RSN Team
Capital One had over $16 billion in revenues last year. The "damages" they are "asked" to pay are the equivalent of a $20 fine for a person who makes $50,000 a year. The fines for driving in the carpool lane and having a dog off leash are substantially heavier.
What do they mean “asked to pay”? Are the “damages” optional? And why are there service members who “did not receive the full benefits allotted under the act”?
This isn’t even a slap on the wrist. It’s a formality. Exactly how is this supposed to deter these scum bags from doing it again when our government proves over and over that crime pays if you cheat and steal from huge numbers of people.
It's got to start with criminal referrals and indictments of every CEO of the big banks (and, with respect to LIBOR, every trader involved, too). With respect to LIBOR, the regulators have sat on it so long that the statute of limitations is about to run out on a bunch of it, and if they continue to look the other way, there will be no way to prosecute them at all for $trillions in fraud.
jwb: The Justice Department isn't run by GOP/TP members. It's Eric Holder -- Barack Obama's Attorney General.
The outrage of shielding the banks from accountability is completely bipartisan.
What has Eric Holder got to do with what the banksters have done? Do you think he would get very far putting on trial many of them with the House's present members of stupid NeoCons and TPers? The last administration set all of this up whether you want to admit or not. All the suffering, all the economic problems, all the two war expenses not on the budget, all very methodically set up by the last most un-patriotic administration ever.
I do agree that we need to hold them ALL accountable and put some of these SOBs in JAIL.
The reason the bankers are heaping money on the Republicans right now is, essentially, extortion. Obama has been nothing but good to them, but being insatiably greedy slime bags, they want more.
By funding Romney, they are trying to force Obama (the one currently in a position to help or harm them the most) to do even more for them – in order to regain their support.
It's working, but I doubt they'll support him again. I don't think they care who wins. All they want is to extract every ounce of blood they can from whomever is in a position to benefit them. In Obama’s case, it’s by holding the we’re-supportin g-your-opponent -unless-you-do- more hatchet over his head.
The problem is that those that caused the damage are not going to jail. SEND THE CEOs TO JAIL!
RSS feed for comments to this post