In a 2007 decision, Magner ruled that Wells Fargo improperly charged Jones more than $24,000 in fees, owing to a fundamental problem in the automated methodology the bank used to account for his loan payments.

After Jones fell into default, Magner ruled, the bank improperly applied his mortgage payments to interest and fees that had accrued instead of to principal, as required by his servicing contract. This triggered a waterfall of additional fees and interest that consumer lawyers call “rolling default.”  Later, after Jones applied for bankruptcy, the bank continued to misapply payments, according to Magner’s opinion.

“Only through litigation was this practice discovered,” Magner said in her ruling. “Wells Fargo admitted to the same practices for all other loans in bankruptcy or default. As a result, it is unlikely that most debtors will be able to discern problems with their accounts without extensive discovery.”

The Huffigton Post reported that in an emailed statement, Tom Goyda, a Wells Fargo spokesman said: “The ruling handed down by the court in an individual bankruptcy case covers allegations going back more than six years and ignores significant changes in servicing practices that have occurred since that time. We believe that there are numerous factual and legal problems with the opinion and are reviewing our options regarding an appropriate legal response.”

Magner’s ruling said the bank took advantage of borrowers who rely on it to accurately apply payments and calculate the amounts they owed.  The judge castigated the bank for its refusal to voluntarily corrects its errors noting that “[it] prefers to rely on the ignorance of borrowers or their inability to fund a challenge to its demands, rather than voluntarily relinquish gains obtained through improper accounting methods.”

“These are loans of working-class people who bought homes they could afford and whose loans were not administered correctly from an accounting perspective,” Magner noted in her ruling. “I think that these types of problems occur in almost every [defaulted] loan in the country.”

“[W]hen exposed, [Wells Fargo] revealed its true corporate character by denying any obligation to correct its past transgressions and mounting a legal assault ensure it never had to,” Magner wrote. 

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SCI and Star of David are alleged to have engaged in a pervasive, multi-year practice of losing human remains, burying individuals in the wrong grave space, crushing burial containers, secretly digging up human remains and moving them without notification to the families, and improperly disposing of burial containers and other burial effects in a lake located at the edge of the cemetery.  According to the complaint, the defendants took considerable steps to conceal their fraudulent and illegal conduct by literally burying the evidence underground and threatening firing employees if they told the families affected.

This is not the first time SCI has faced allegations of mass grave desecrations in South Florida. In 2001-2002, SCI was caught engaging in similar conduct in connection with their operation of two other Jewish cemeteries in South Florida known as Menorah Gardens.  SCI was later charged criminally in connection with their conduct at Menorah and was forced to pay over $100 million in fines, damages, and penalties to resolve the criminal and civil litigation that resulted, including numerous cases brought by Mr. Ricci.

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The trades at RBC allegedly were orchestrated by a small group of senior officials.  Regulators said officials coordinated the trading strategy “on a day-to-day basis” and passed along the information to two RBC subsidiaries that bought and sold offsetting positions.

RBC was accused of routing the transactions through OneChicago, an electronic futures-trading exchange in Chicago.  RBC also designed specific instruments related to the transactions that were traded on OneChicago.  Trades between different RBC subsidiaries were the only transactions of certain of those products from 2006 to 2010, according to the CFTC.

The lawsuit is the largest wash-sale case the CFTC has ever filed, as measured by the notional dollar amount of futures contracts.  

David Meister, the CFTC’s director of enforcement, said the suit ”should make clear that the CFTC will not hesitate to bring charges against even the most sophisticated market participants who unlawfully exploit the futures markets for their own gain.”

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“This case demonstrates our endurance in the fight against corporations that attempt to defraud the government,” said Vincent H. Cohen Jr., Principal Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. “Two decades after a bid-rigging conspiracy corrupted a massive construction project in Egypt, we have obtained a $47 million settlement on behalf of the American taxpayer. Our resolve in this matter should serve as a warning to other contractors who are thinking about abusing the contracting process.”

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Between the effective date of the program, August 12, 2011 and September 30, 2011, the SEC received 32 tips from foreign sources including 10 in China and 9 in the United Kingdom.  In the United States,  the most tips came from California (34), followed by New York (24), and Florida (19).  The most common allegations were corporate disclosures and financial statements (15.3%), offering fraud (15.6%), and market manipulation (16.2%).  (For a copy of the report please click here.)

On January 5, 2010 the 111^th Congress of the United States enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”).  Whistleblowers who voluntarily provide original information to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that results in monetary sanctions exceeding $1,000,000 are entitled to awards ranging between 10% and 30% of the amount collected of the monetary sanctions imposed in the action or related actions by the SEC.  Awards are paid from the SEC Investor Protection Fund, which had a balance of $452,788,043.74 as of September 30, 2011.

When a final judgment or order results in monetary sanctions exceeding $1 million, the SEC will issue a Notice of Covered Action.  As of February 1, 2012, the SEC has already posted 230 Notices of Covered Action on its web site.

The new law, which was signed by President Barack Obama in July, creates cash incentives for corporate employees who expose securities fraud and measures to protect them from retaliation. In his piece, “Giving Whistleblowers Bite,” Andrei describes the legislation as “a great step for investors, corporate whistleblowers and global economies” He adds, “Imagine the damage that might have been avoided or reduced had insiders at Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, or AIG warned regulators early that the companies were hiding snowballing risks from mortgage-backed securities and swaps derivatives.” He urges the SEC to adopt regulations that “will truly protect and encourage individuals to expose corporate misbehaviour in furtherance of the ultimate goal – protection of the capital markets.”