Month: July 2023

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) said on Tuesday that they are ordering Bank of America to pay over $100 million to customers for illegally charging ‘junk fees,’ as well as withholding credit card rewards and opening fake accounts. The CFPB specifically accused the bank of harming “hundreds of thousands of consumers over a period of several years” and “systematically double-dipping on fees imposed on customers with insufficient funds in their account.” Bank of America serves 68 million people and small business clients.

The CFPB also said that the bank was also ordered to pay an additional $90 million in penalties to the CFPB and $60 million in penalties to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Rohit Chopra, director of the CFPB, said in a statement: “Bank of America wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent.”  Chopra added: “These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust. The CFPB will be putting an end to these practices across the banking system.”

The bank would charge customers a $35 overdraft fee after the bank declined a transaction because there were insufficient funds in the account. However, the CFPB accused the bank of “allowing fees to be repeatedly charged for the same transaction,” saying that Bank of America “generated substantial additional revenue by illegally charging multiple $35 fees.”

The CFPB also accused the bank of illegally withholding “promised credit card account bonuses, such as cash rewards or bonus points to tens of thousands of consumers” and accused the bank of denying “sign-up bonuses to consumers due to the failure of Bank of America’s business processes and systems.” Bank of America employees are also accused of illegally applying “for and enrolled consumers in credit card accounts without consumers’ knowledge or authorization,” using consumers credit reports without their permission to complete applications. The CFPB said that ‘as a result, consumers were charged unjustified fees, suffered negative effects to their credit profiles, and had to spend time correcting errors.”

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Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, who was convicted in two killings, was released on parole on Tuesday after serving more than five decades in prison.

Houten was originally sentenced to death for the Aug. 10, 1969, murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca. According to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: “The original conviction and death sentence were reversed on appeal and she was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.”

An appeals court ruled in May that Van Houten, 73, was eligible for parole, reversing a decision by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to reject parole. The release of Houten comes after California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Friday that he would not challenge Houten’s release in the state Supreme Court. Newsom had previously blocked parole efforts for Houten.

In 1969, Manson and fellow cult member Charles “Tex” Watson went inside the La Bianca’s home and tied them up. According to court records, Manson went outside and told Van Houten and another person to go inside and follow Watson’s directions; he told them to kill Rosemary LaBianca, and Watson killed Leno LaBianca. The previous day, Watson and other cult members (excluding Van Houten) killed actress Sharon Tate and others in her home.

Van Houten is the second of six Manson cult followers convicted of murder. She was initially sentenced to death to be paroled; however, most of the death sentences were commuted to life in prison under a 1972 court decision that outlawed capital punishment; the death penalty was later reinstated in California.

Manson died at a hospital in 2017 while serving a life sentence. Members of what was dubbed the “Manson Family” included Watson, who is serving life in prison; Susan Atkins, who died in prison in 2009, and Patricia Krenwinkel, who is serving a life sentence.

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