Speaker 1: Well, now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief,
Speaker 1: exploring legal issues in the news and today, Bloomberg LA
Speaker 1: host Jun Grosso and Michael Best discuss a lawsuit against
Speaker 1: mortgage giant Ackwin for improper handling of mortgages bought from
Speaker 1: banks in the fall out of two thousand and eight
Speaker 1: financial crisis. They speak with Robert Hawkeett, a professor at
Speaker 1: Cornell University Law School. Bob, you know, this isn't the
Speaker 1: first time the CFPB has gone after Akwin, and went
Speaker 1: after them in two thousand thirteen over what sounds like
Speaker 1: very similar kinds of allegations of mismanagement of accounts. How
Speaker 1: is it that this didn't get cleared up when that
Speaker 1: when the CFPB went after them the first time? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that that is uh sixty four thousand dollar question, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, one would have thought that Akwin would have
Speaker 1: been put on notice ban uh and that they would
Speaker 1: have gotten their act together. Um. I think there are
Speaker 1: a couple of possible explanations. They're sort of good faith.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are sort of charitable explanation possible. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: there are some possible explanations that are sort of charitable
Speaker 1: and others that are less. So let's start with the charitable.
Speaker 1: The charitable explanation might be that they said that, yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll get our act together, we'll sort of get back
Speaker 1: on the straight arrow, will we'll fix these problems, and
Speaker 1: that they really tried um, but that they underestimated the
Speaker 1: magnitude of the problem and so didn't succeed in sort
Speaker 1: of fully handling it. Another possibility is that they were
Speaker 1: in fact acting to correct the problems that the CFPB
Speaker 1: notified them about, but that in the meanwhile, they kept
Speaker 1: taking on additional servicing rights so that the full portfolio
Speaker 1: and that they were dealing with continued to grow. So
Speaker 1: the CFPB, the State of Florida, and twenty one other
Speaker 1: state agencies are suing them or issuing cease and decease
Speaker 1: desist orders against the company. Yeah, it has said it
Speaker 1: will vigorously defend itself. What is its defense? I really,
Speaker 1: I frankly can't imagine what it could be. I really can't.
Speaker 1: I'm very I mean, I'm surprised by this particular attitude.
Speaker 1: I would have thought that they would have been exhibiting
Speaker 1: some kind of contrition um, some sort of plea to
Speaker 1: the effect that well, you know, please, you know, work
Speaker 1: with us here where we really are trying. We're doing
Speaker 1: our best. But but the problem is that the thing
Speaker 1: has you know, that the portfolio has grown so rapidly
Speaker 1: that even as we are making improvements, were still having
Speaker 1: trouble keeping up. That would have struck me as the
Speaker 1: right sort of tone to take. Instead by striking a
Speaker 1: defiant tone and saying, oh, this is just a CFPB
Speaker 1: sort of getting out of control, I think it's an
Speaker 1: amazingly stupid strategy to tell you the truth, because when
Speaker 1: you've got half of the states of the Union making
Speaker 1: the same claim, trying to scapegoat the CFPB just isn't
Speaker 1: gonna It's not gonna fly, right, Nobody's going to buy that.
Speaker 1: I can't see what kind of defense they could possibly
Speaker 1: offer that would be consistent, at least with a defiant
Speaker 1: tone that they're striking. And that's Robert Hawkeet, a professor
Speaker 1: at Cornell University Law School, speaking with Bloomberg Law host
Speaker 1: and Crosso. You can listen to Bloomberg Law Wait days
Speaker 1: at one pm Wall Street Time here on Bloomberg Radio Now.
Speaker 1: Among the top legal stories from Bloomberg Law, drivers fort
Speaker 1: Left have accused Uber of illegally tracking their whereabouts using
Speaker 1: spywear was according to a complaint filed in San Francisco
Speaker 1: Federal court that says Uber wanted to identified drivers who
Speaker 1: worked for both companies so they could be targeted with
Speaker 1: incentives to primarily work for Uber. Folks for Uber had
Speaker 1: no comment. United Airlines is another passenger problem to deal with.
Speaker 1: A woman claimed she was forced out of her business
Speaker 1: class seat during a flight from Newark to London and
Speaker 1: escorted to the back of the plane without an explanation.
Speaker 1: She wants a hundred fifty thousand dollars in punitive damages.
Speaker 1: United says it's reviewing the complaint. French drugmakers Center Fee
Speaker 1: is accusing Melon of trying to squash a rival to
Speaker 1: its EpiPen allergy treatment and aren't officially inflate the price
Speaker 1: of the drug. Sono Fias filed suit in federal court
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. Melon is not commenting. And that's this
Speaker 1: morning's Bloomberg Lawbrary. If you can find more illegal news
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg Law dot com and Bloomberg BNA dot com.
Speaker 1: Attorneys will find exceptional legal research and business development tools
Speaker 1: there as well. Visit Bloomberg law dot com and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: BNA dot com for more information.