N.J. mortgage lender fined $109M will pay $0 after Trump Administration drops kickback case

A Mount Laurel mortgage lender avoided a $109 million fine Thursday after a long-running case against them was dropped by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney said in legal filing that PHH Corporation Mount Laurel did not violate the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act which bans kickbacks in exchange for referrals, AmericanBanker.com reported.

In 2014, PHH was accused by the CFPB of running a 15-year kickback scheme that enabled the company to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit payments. CFPB said the mortgage lender collected illegal payments for referring business to mortgage insurance companies.

Over the past year, the Trump administration has stripped the CFPB of some of its enforcement powers. Mulvaney, President Trump's budget chief, is its director. Mulvaney fired the bureau's 25 member advisory board Wednesday after remarks from some of its members that criticized his leadership. New members are expected to be appointed in the fall.

http://www.nj.com/burlington/index.ssf/2018/06/nj_mortgage_lender_fined_109m_will_pay_0_after_trump_administration_drops_kickback_case.html

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This entire administration is a kakistocracy:

The wealthy[1] have taken control of every department of government, who are utterly unqualified and do not wish to serve the interests of their citizens,[2] instead they serve their own interests and are at the behest of extreme corporate greed.[3]

Not only are they incompetent at governing in the interest of their citizens, they passed massive tax cuts for themselves[4] leaving little to help the working class.[5]

His cabinet is taking advantage of the tax-payers at an unprecedented rate,[6] HHS was forced to resign[7] while others are under investigation. Then there is the Whitefish Energy scandal of pure, unabashed nepotism. The FBI has opened up an investigation into it.[8]

His cabinet appointees were and still are grifters who have violated government ethics regulations at an absurd rate. They include Tom Price, David Shulkin, Scott Pruitt, Ryan Zinke, Steven Mnuchin, Ben Carson, Wilbur Ross, and Rick Perry.[9] It is not at all surprising that his cabinet are not ashamed by their corruption, President Trump is on track to be the most corrupt president in U.S. history.[10] President Trump's administration are dismantling the government, from the State Department[11] to the Department of Education.[12] National Geographic created a running list of how President Trump is changing the environment, the majority of policies are detrimental to the well-being of this planet and its inhabitants.[13] Mick Mulvaney just fired all 26 members of the advisory board to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the board was meant to help the CFPB identify problems facing Americans who are treated unfairly by financial firms.[14]

Here are just a few examples of what Trump appointees have been up to and how they are eroding the institutions they are meant to lead;[15]

Over the weekend, the New York Times revealed that Betsy DeVos is scaling back a major Education Department investigation into fraud at for-profit colleges. Investigations into specific institutions are being ended, people working in the division are receiving new duties, and a former dean of one of the schools that had been the focus of department questions about possible fraud is now in charge of the investigative team.

•...At the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, acting director Mick Mulvaney, who previously described the agency as a “sick, sad” joke, has, like DeVos, shut down multiple investigations into financial-firm malfeasance that began during the Obama administration. He nixed a probe into the payday loan industry; supported a successful effort to roll back regulations meant to ensure African Americans and Latinos were not discriminated against when they sought auto loans; didn’t request money from the Federal Reserve to run his agency; and is now eyeing steps to shut down public access to a database of consumer complaints about financial-services firms.


•At the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Scott Pruitt is intent on seeing how much personal corruption he can pull off before getting shown the door. But that’s not all. He is also unraveling decades of environmental protections. In recent months, he backtracked on an EPA proposal to ban a pesticide that can cause brain damage in children. Pruitt is so gung-ho, he’s attempting to roll back auto emissions standards in excess of what the car industry itself wants. News emerged on Monday that the EPA blocked the publication of a study on water pollution.

The President continues to make a fortune using tax-payer's money on his exuberant and frequent trips to his golf courses.[16] Where of course the Secret Service has come out and stated that no one has been keeping a visitor's log.[17] President Trump's DC Hotel brought in $40 million last year, the hotel is the center of many lawsuits alleging President Trump is in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.[18] Moreover, President Trump continues to refuse to release copies of his income tax returns.

1) Forbes - The $4.3 Billion Cabinet: See What Each Top Trump Advisor Is Worth

2) The New York Times - How Much People in the Trump Administration Are Worth

3) Kakistocracy: A word we need to revive

4) The New York Times - Trump Could Save More Than $1 Billion Under His New Tax Plan

5) The Atlantic - Why the GOP Tax Cut Will Make Wealth Inequality So Much Worse

6) The Washington Post - Traveling in style: Trump’s White House wrestles with Cabinet costs

7) CNN - Price out as HHS secretary after private plane scandal

8) Vox - The FBI is investigating Whitefish Energy’s contract to rebuild Puerto Rico’s grid

9) CNBC - Trump's Cabinet has been rocked by a number of ethics scandals — here's a complete guide

10) Washington Post - The Trump presidency: On track to becoming the most corrupt in U.S. history?

11) Foreign Policy - How the Trump administration broke the State Department

12) Forbes - Investigations Into For-Profit College Abuses Dismantled Under Betsy DeVos

13) National Geographic - A Running List of How Trump Is Changing the Environment

14) NPR - Mick Mulvaney Effectively Fires CFPB Advisory Council

15) Washington Post - Trump appointees continue to erode government from within

16) The Economist - How Donald Trump is monetising his presidency

17) Politico - Secret Service: No visitor logs for Mar-a-Lago

18) USA Today - Trump's company earned $40M from Washington hotel in 2017, disclosure shows