In March, PLF client Townstone Financial—a small Illinois-based lending company—joined the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in filing a joint motion to vacate a previous settlement Townstone had paid over bogus discrimination charges the CFPB had levied under previous leadership.
After seven years of dealing with the CFPB’s pursuit (a three-year investigation and four-year lawsuit), Townstone and its owner, Barry Sturner, reached a settlement in 2024 and paid a $105,000 fine. But the case was so clearly a miscarriage of justice that in March of this year, CFPB leaders released a statement calling its own case “abusive” and “unjust.” Shockingly, last week, a federal judge rejected the joint motion to vacate Townstone’s fine, calling the government’s reversal on the case “breathtaking” but “unpersuasive."
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