Ms. Kardashian found herself on the wrong side of the law Monday, when the SEC entered a cease-and-desist order against her (the “Kardashian Order”), finding her in violation of Section 17(b) of the Securities Act of 1933....more
10/6/2022
/ Cease and Desist Orders ,
Celebrity Endorsements ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Ethereum ,
Initial Coin Offering (ICOs) ,
Investor Protection ,
Kim Kardashian ,
Popular ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations
The United States District Court for the District of Oregon recently denied a marijuana grower’s motion to dismiss a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”) lawsuit in Momtazi Family, LLC v. Wagner et al.,...more
10/4/2019
/ Adjacent Property Owners ,
Agribusiness ,
Farms ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Loss of Value ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Cultivation ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Property Owners ,
Property Valuation ,
Real Estate Market ,
RICO
Late last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held in Regions Bank v. Legal Outsource PA, No. 17-11736, 2019 WL 4051703 (11th Cir. Aug 28, 2019), that a loan guarantor does not qualify as an “applicant”...more
9/20/2019
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Breach of Contract ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Default ,
Discrimination ,
ECOA ,
Foreclosure ,
Guarantors ,
Line of Credit ,
Loans ,
Mortgages ,
Promissory Notes ,
Standing
Last week, on the heels of a significant decline in Bitcoin prices, Forbes reported that China’s Central Bank is set to launch the world’s first state-backed cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency will be made available initially...more
9/9/2019
/ Alibaba ,
Bitcoin ,
China ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Digital Currency ,
Digital Wallets ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Transactions ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Mt.Gox ,
Personal Jurisdiction ,
Popular ,
Putative Class Actions
Eighty-six years after the repeal of Prohibition, Bacardi USA and Winn-Dixie are facing a putative class action predicated on Florida Statute Section 572.455, a 150 year-old remnant of the temperance movement. In Uri...more
Here is a situation that comes up quite a bit in the world of business contracts containing indemnification provisions, and in the insurance industry as well. First, a party (“Party A”) gets sued, or threatened with a suit,...more
2015 is leaving Standard and Poor’s (S&P) quite a bit poorer. Yesterday, the major credit rating agency agreed to pay $1.375 billion to resolve lawsuits brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice and attorney...more
Earlier this month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”) ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to begin making contributions to the Housing Trust Fund (“HTF”) and the Capital Magnet Fund (“CMF”). The HTF is a formula...more
According to Freddie Mac, things are looking up for the South Florida housing market. The August Multi-Indicator Market Index (MIMI) ratings, released last Friday, awarded the Miami Metro Area a score of 69.2. While Miami is...more
Last month, the Miami-Dade Circuit Court stripped St. Jude Melkite Catholic Church of its recently acquired historic designation. This church is located at 1501 Brickell Avenue, in the midst of multiple high rise condominiums...more
A team of Dutch developers would like to bring a little bit of Atlantis to Miami. Earlier this month, Dutch Docklands submitted a letter of intent and request for zoning variance to the City of North Miami Beach in order to...more
This Monday, online real estate listing company Zillow announced that it will acquire its biggest competitor, Trulia, in a stock-for-stock purchase transaction. The acquisition has already raised the stock values of both...more
Recently, the defendants in FDIC as Receiver for Colonial Bank v. Chase Mortgage Finance Group, et al (Civ No. 1:12-cv-06166) filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, asking the court to dismiss as time-barred the...more
Last week, Judge Kathleen Williams of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions against Donald Trump for his initial failure to disclose a relevant insurance policy...more
Earlier this month, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley initiated an action against Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Finance Agency for allegedly illegally impeding non-profit foreclosure buyback...more
As the housing market springs back to life, one demographic remains underrepresented among homebuyers. U.S. census data shows that the rate of homeownership for adults under the age of 35 has declined by almost 8% in the last...more
Last week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) put Freddie and Fannie to the test, and the results were grim. Dodd-Frank mandated “stress tests,” designed to evaluate a financial institution’s ability to withstand an...more
Could the answers to crushing mortgage debt, homelessness and ecological degradation be one and the same? Across the globe, a ‘tiny’ movement is taking root....more
Last week, Magistrate Judge David S. Cayer of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina denied Bank of America’s motion to dismiss the Security and Exchange Commission’s claims against it in SEC v....more
Last Friday, a former Wells Fargo branch manager, sales manager and loan officer, Robert Serao, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The charge stems from Serao’s involvement in a $40.8 million mortgage fraud...more
Last week, the Florida Third District Court of Appeal dealt the final blow to an often-used strategy by condominium associations. In the second iteration of Aventura Management, LLC v. Spiaggia Ocean Condominium Association,...more
3/14/2014
Wells Fargo has announced that it plans to begin originating FHA-backed loans for borrowers with credit scores as low as 600. This new cut-off is 40 points below Wells Fargo’s current floor, and 20 points below what has...more
The days of exotic mortgage programs like “no doc” and balloon loans may be over.
Earlier this month, the long awaited (and by many lenders and experts, dreaded), lending restrictions codified in the Dodd Frank Act...more
Last Friday, the Federal Housing Administration announced that it will reduce the maximum threshold for the high-price mortgages it is willing to insure. This change was called for by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of...more
Late last month, we commented on JP Morgan Chase’s $5.1 billion settlement with the Fair Housing Financing Agency (FHFA), as conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Wall Street Journal has since reported that JP Morgan...more