By Matthew R. Lee
NEW YORK, November 25 – Amid the scandal of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency covering up Sterling Bank'sunreliable Community Reinvestment Act data (see below) by withholding most of 400 pages released to Inner City Press under the Freedom of Information after the nomination of Joseph Otting, formerly of OneWest Bank to be Comptroller, back in July Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch and the California Reinvestment Coalition submitted this FOIA request. But now, beyond the OCC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has become the battlefield. In order to run in Ohio, Richard Cordray stepped down at the head of the CFPB, naming as his successor Leandra English. Hours later, Trump issued a statement that "he is designating Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)." On November 25 the White House held a background press call, on which opposition to the naming of Mulvaney was characterized coming from "blog-posts." Still, the Senior Administration Officials were asked if they plan to have Leandra English removed from the premises. No, was the answer: she should show up at the Deputy. But have they spoken with Ms English? No, was the answer. So show down on Monday? Watch this site. After non-response by the OCC even has it promisesmerger approvals to banks with Needs to Improve CRA ratings and allows Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi to skirt North Korea sanctions review by fast approving applications for which effective public notice was never provided (ICP scoop on notice here), now ICP and CRC have filed suit, stating "No formal response was ever received from the OCC in response to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request. To date, the OCC has not disclosed any records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request nor has sent any correspondence to Plaintiffs informing
them of the OCC’s need for an extension of time to process the FOIA Request. As of November 10, 2017, Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request was listed as 'In Process' on the OCC’s FOIA request portal... Defendant has far exceeded the 20-working day statutory time limit for the processing of FOIA requests, as required by 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A).
12. Plaintiffs have a statutory right to the records sought in its requests... WHEREFORE, Plaintiff prays for relief as follows: A. Order Defendant to conduct a reasonable search for all records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request, and to immediately disclose all records or portions of records responsive to the FOIA Request in their entirety that are non- exempt; B. Issue a declaratory judgment that Plaintiffs are entitled to disclosure of the records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request; C. Enjoin Defendant from continuing to withhold responsive, non-exempt records or portions of records from Plaintiffs; D. Provide for expeditious proceedings of this action... Dated: November 17, 2017 By: s/ James H. Kaster." Watch this site. As to Otting, beyond his gaming of the CRA system, another problem has arisen: Otting misrepresented his resume on education. He listed a degree on his resume from the "School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College." It's a fraud. "Joseph Otting is not a Dartmouth graduate," Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said. "Dartmouth does not have a school of credit and financial management." In turns out the school is a four-week program spread over two years, which rented space from Dartmouth. It's not only Sterling's CRA data is an unreliable. While at OneWest, as reported by Inner City Press in 2015, Otting was best know for trying to get his own employees, fundees and investors to submit comments to the OCC to support OneWest's purchase by CIT. Click here. Otting wrote: From: Otting, Joseph M [at] owb.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 5:00 PM
Cc: Haas, Alesia Jeanne; Tran, Cindy; Kim, Glenn
Subject: Support For OneWest Bank
Dear Friends,
We were excited to announce on July 21, 2014, that IMB HoldCo LLC, the parent company of OneWest Bank entered into a merger agreement with CIT Group Inc. As part of the applications for regulatory approval of the transaction, our regulators are interested in the perspectives of the public. We are writing you to seek your support of the Bank and pending merger. This merger, if approved, would create the largest bank headquartered in Southern California with a full suite of banking products and services, which will allow us to better serve our customers. We would retain and grow jobs and are committed to continuing and expanding our efforts to serve the economic and development needs of our community. I would like to ask you to take a moment to click on the link below and submit a letter of support adding any of your own words or thoughts.
Please submit your letter by clicking here, or by visiting our website at www.OneWestBank.com/merger-support (if the link isn't clickable or part of the link is cut off, please copy and paste the entire URL into your browser's address bar and press Enter)
Thank you for your support. Best wishes for a successful 2015 and please call on me if I can ever be of assistance.
Joseph M. Otting
President and CEO
OneWest Bank N.A.
888 East Walnut Street
Pasadena, CA 91101
them of the OCC’s need for an extension of time to process the FOIA Request. As of November 10, 2017, Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request was listed as 'In Process' on the OCC’s FOIA request portal... Defendant has far exceeded the 20-working day statutory time limit for the processing of FOIA requests, as required by 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A).
12. Plaintiffs have a statutory right to the records sought in its requests... WHEREFORE, Plaintiff prays for relief as follows: A. Order Defendant to conduct a reasonable search for all records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request, and to immediately disclose all records or portions of records responsive to the FOIA Request in their entirety that are non- exempt; B. Issue a declaratory judgment that Plaintiffs are entitled to disclosure of the records responsive to Plaintiffs’ FOIA Request; C. Enjoin Defendant from continuing to withhold responsive, non-exempt records or portions of records from Plaintiffs; D. Provide for expeditious proceedings of this action... Dated: November 17, 2017 By: s/ James H. Kaster." Watch this site. As to Otting, beyond his gaming of the CRA system, another problem has arisen: Otting misrepresented his resume on education. He listed a degree on his resume from the "School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College." It's a fraud. "Joseph Otting is not a Dartmouth graduate," Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said. "Dartmouth does not have a school of credit and financial management." In turns out the school is a four-week program spread over two years, which rented space from Dartmouth. It's not only Sterling's CRA data is an unreliable. While at OneWest, as reported by Inner City Press in 2015, Otting was best know for trying to get his own employees, fundees and investors to submit comments to the OCC to support OneWest's purchase by CIT. Click here. Otting wrote: From: Otting, Joseph M [at] owb.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2015 5:00 PM
Cc: Haas, Alesia Jeanne; Tran, Cindy; Kim, Glenn
Subject: Support For OneWest Bank
Dear Friends,
We were excited to announce on July 21, 2014, that IMB HoldCo LLC, the parent company of OneWest Bank entered into a merger agreement with CIT Group Inc. As part of the applications for regulatory approval of the transaction, our regulators are interested in the perspectives of the public. We are writing you to seek your support of the Bank and pending merger. This merger, if approved, would create the largest bank headquartered in Southern California with a full suite of banking products and services, which will allow us to better serve our customers. We would retain and grow jobs and are committed to continuing and expanding our efforts to serve the economic and development needs of our community. I would like to ask you to take a moment to click on the link below and submit a letter of support adding any of your own words or thoughts.
Please submit your letter by clicking here, or by visiting our website at www.OneWestBank.com/merger-support (if the link isn't clickable or part of the link is cut off, please copy and paste the entire URL into your browser's address bar and press Enter)
Thank you for your support. Best wishes for a successful 2015 and please call on me if I can ever be of assistance.
Joseph M. Otting
President and CEO
OneWest Bank N.A.
888 East Walnut Street
Pasadena, CA 91101
Inner City Press and the California Reinvestment Coalition, both members of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) will have more on this.
