Chicago area mortgage broker Townstone Financial could be in line to get back $105,000 they were forced to pay to the federal government to settle claims from financial regulators, after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said an internal investigation has since revealed Townstone was improperly targeted by the agency “on the basis of their viewpoints.”
On March 26, attorneys for Townstone and the CFPB filed a joint motion in federal court to vacate the settlement agreement.
In the motion, the CFPB said the move comes in response to a directive issued by President Donald Trump for the agency to review past actions to
“Once new CFPB leadership undertook the review of the history of this case, it became clear from the totality of internal evidence that this case has suffered from deficiencies on the merits and Townstone was targeted because of its protected speech,” the parties said in the joint motion.
Following the new filing in court, attorneys from the constitutional law advocacy group, the Pacific Legal Foundation, the government’s request to vacate and refund.
“For seven years, Townstone argued that the case against it was baseless and violated the First Amendment,” said Steve Simpson, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “Townstone settled to escape the crushing burden of many more years in litigation. Now we know that CFPB knew — or should have known — it had no case and targeted Townstone for its speech. Justice demands that this settlement be vacated.”
