Tag: United States

Operating Without Workers’ Compensation Insurance New York

I. The Problem: Operating Without Workers’ Compensation Insurance

  • Legal Requirement: New York law generally requires all employers with one or more employees to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This specifically includes staffing agencies, as they are considered the employer of the temporary workers they place.
  • Risks of Non-Compliance:
    • Financial Penalties: Substantial fines can be imposed, often $2,000 for every 10-day period without coverage, or up to two times the cost of compensation for the payroll during the period of failure. These can quickly accumulate.
    • Criminal Charges:
      • For businesses with five or fewer employees, failure to secure coverage is a misdemeanor, punishable by fines and potentially jail time.
      • For businesses with more than five employees, it can be a Class E felony, with higher fines and potential incarceration.
      • Repeat offenders can face even more severe penalties, including Class D felonies.
    • Civil Liability: If an employee is injured, the uninsured employer is personally responsible for all medical bills, lost wages, and potential disability benefits, which can be devastating. Injured workers can also sue the employer directly.
    • Stop-Work Orders: The state can issue stop-work orders, shutting down the business until proof of insurance is provided.
    • Personal Liability: Corporate officers can be held personally liable for claims and penalties.
    • Misclassification Fraud: A common tactic used by some staffing agencies to avoid workers’ comp is to misclassify employees as “independent contractors.” New York actively cracks down on this, as it deprives workers of benefits and gives dishonest companies an unfair advantage.

II. Prosecution and Enforcement in New York

New York employs a multi-pronged approach to combat staffing agencies operating without workers’ compensation insurance:

  1. New York State Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) Investigations:
    • The WCB is the primary agency responsible for enforcing workers’ compensation laws.
    • They conduct investigations, often initiated by inquiries when an employer’s coverage information is missing.
    • If non-compliance is found, they issue penalty notices.
    • Cases investigated by the WCB are often referred to the New York State Office of the Attorney General for prosecution.
  2. Office of the New York State Attorney General (OAG) Prosecutions:
    • The OAG plays a crucial role in prosecuting employers, including staffing agencies, for workers’ compensation fraud and non-compliance.
    • They bring civil and criminal charges, often seeking significant fines and restitution for unpaid wages or benefits.
    • The OAG may work in coordination with district attorneys’ offices across the state.
  3. Task Forces and Coordinated Efforts:
    • New York has established task forces, such as the Wage Theft Task Force (a collaboration between the Department of Labor, the Attorney General, and District Attorneys), which also addresses issues related to workers’ compensation by cracking down on misclassification and wage theft.
    • There have been increased efforts to conduct random audits of companies’ business records and surprise audits to deter non-compliance.
  4. Increased Penalties and Enforcement:
    • New York has significantly increased the penalties for non-compliance over time to act as a stronger deterrent.
    • The state has invested in new technologies and systems to identify businesses that have failed to register or pay into the workers’ compensation system.
  5. Public Awareness and Reporting:
    • The state promotes awareness among workers about their rights, including the right to workers’ compensation.
    • Hotlines and online reporting tools are available for workers to report wage theft or suspected non-compliance.

III. Resolution and Solutions

When non-compliance is identified and prosecuted, the solutions generally involve:

  1. Securing Coverage: The primary goal is to compel the staffing agency to obtain the required workers’ compensation insurance coverage. In some cases, stop-work orders are lifted only after proof of insurance is provided.
  2. Payment of Fines and Penalties: Agencies are assessed substantial civil fines for the period they operated without coverage.
  3. Restitution: If employees were injured while the agency was uninsured, the agency will be held responsible for covering medical expenses and lost wages, either directly or by reimbursing the Uninsured Employers’ Fund if it paid out benefits.
  4. Criminal Convictions: For more severe or repeated violations, criminal convictions can lead to higher fines, probation, and even jail time for responsible individuals.
  5. Debarment: Businesses found in violation may be debarred from bidding on or being awarded public works contracts.
  6. Policy Reforms: The state continually reviews and reforms policies to make it harder for businesses to evade workers’ compensation obligations and to enhance enforcement capabilities.

In essence, New York’s approach to staffing agencies operating without workers’ compensation insurance involves aggressive enforcement through fines, criminal prosecution, civil penalties, and a focus on preventing misclassification, all aimed at protecting workers and ensuring a fair playing field for compliant businesses. Sources

Fix Income Inequality with $10 million Loans for Everyone the 99 solution

“I wonder how many audience members know that Bair’s plan is more or less exactly the revenue model for all of America’s biggest banks. You go to the Fed, get a buttload of free money, lend it out at interest (perversely enough, including loans right back to the U.S. government), then pocket the profit.” Matt Taibbi

From Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi on Sheila Bair’s Sarcastic Piece

I hope everyone saw ex-Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chief Sheila Bair’s editorial in the Washington Post, entitled, “Fix Income Inequality with $10 million Loans for Everyone!” The piece might have set a world record for public bitter sarcasm by a former top regulatory official.

In it, Bair points out that since we’ve been giving zero-interest loans to all of the big banks, why don’t we do the same thing for actual people, to solve the income inequality program? If the Fed handed out $10 million to every person, and then got each of those people to invest, say, in foreign debt, we could all be back on our feet in no time:

Under my plan, each American household could borrow $10 million from the Fed at zero interest. The more conservative among us can take that money and buy 10-year Treasury bonds. At the current 2 percent annual interest rate, we can pocket a nice $200,000 a year to live on. The more adventuresome can buy 10-year Greek debt at 21 percent, for an annual income of $2.1 million. Or if Greece is a little too risky for you, go with Portugal, at about 12 percent, or $1.2 million dollars a year. (No sense in getting greedy.)

Every time I watch a Republican debate, and hear these supposedly anti-welfare crowds booing the idea of stiffer regulation of Wall Street, I wonder how many audience members know that Bair’s plan is more or less exactly the revenue model for all of America’s biggest banks. You go to the Fed, get a buttload of free money, lend it out at interest (perversely enough, including loans right back to the U.S. government), then pocket the profit.http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2011/7/22/pushing_crisis_gop_cries_wolf_on

Logo of the United States Federal Deposit Insu...
Logo of the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which incorporates the seal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Considering that we now know that the Fed gave out something like $16 trillion in secret emergency loans to big banks on top of the bailouts we actually knew about, you might ask yourself: How are these guys in financial trouble? How can they not be making mountains of money, risk-free? But they are in financial trouble:

• We’re about to see yet another big blow to all of the usual suspects – Goldman, Citi, Bank of America, and especially Morgan Stanley, all of whom face potential downgrades by Moody’s in the near future.

We’ve known this was coming for some time, but the news this week is that the giant money-managing firm BlackRock is talking about moving its business elsewhere. Laurence Fink, BlackRock’s CEO, told the New York Times: “If Moody’s does indeed downgrade these institutions, we may have a need to move some business around to higher-rated institutions.”

It’s one thing when Zero Hedge, William Black, myself, or some rogue Fed officers in Dallas decide to point fingers at the big banks. But when big money players stop trading with those firms, that’s when the death spirals begin.

Morgan Stanley in particular should be sweating. They’re apparently going to be downgraded three notches, where they’ll be joining Citi and Bank of America at a level just above junk. But no worries: Bank CFO Ruth Porat announced that a three-level downgrade was “manageable” and that only losers rely totally on agencies like Moody’s to judge creditworthiness. “A lot of clients are doing their own credit work,” she said.

• Meanwhile, Bank of America reported its first-quarter results yesterday. Despite that massive ongoing support from the Fed, it earned just $653 million in the first quarter, but astonishingly the results were hailed by most of the financial media as good news. Its home-turf paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, crowed that BOA “Posts Higher Profits As Trading Results Rebound.” Bloomberg, meanwhile, summed up results this way: “Bank of America Beats Analyst Estimates As Trading Jumps.”

But the New York Times noted that BOA’s first-quarter profit of $653 million was down from $2 billion a year ago, and paled compared to results of more successful banks like Chase and Wells Fargo.

Zero Hedge, meanwhile, posted an amusing commentary on BOA’s results, pointing out that the bank quietly reclassified nearly two billion dollars’ worth of real estate loans. This is from BOA’s report:

During 1Q12, the bank regulatory agencies jointly issued interagency supervisory guidance on nonaccrual policies for junior-lien consumer real estate loans. In accordance with this new guidance, beginning in 1Q12, we classify junior-lien home equity loans as nonperforming when the first-lien loan becomes 90 days past due even if the junior-lien loan is performing. As a result of this change, we reclassified $1.85B of performing home equity loans to nonperforming.

In other words, Bank of America described nearly two billion dollars of crap on their books as performing loans, until the government this year forced them to admit it was crap.

ZH and others also noted that BOA wildly underestimated its exposure to litigation, but that’s nothing new. Anyway, despite the inconsistencies in its report, and despite the fact that it’s about to be downgraded – again – Bank of America’s shares are up again, pushing $9 today.

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PREDATORY LENDING IN CALIFORNIA

U.S. Subprime lending expanded dramatically 20...
Image via Wikipedia


The California Reinvestment Committee (CRC) is currently conducting a study weighing the effect predatory lending has had on Californians. The preliminary findings suggest predatory lending is a very common practice in California:

  • 73% of all borrowers saw key loan terms (e.g. interest rate, fixed versus adjustable mortgage, prepayment penalty) change for the worse at the closing of the loan as compared to what was represented to them;
  • 61% of all borrowers had loans containing prepayment penalty provisions which lock borrowers into bad loans by assessing a fee of several thousand dollars if borrowers pay off their subprime loans early;
  • 64% of borrowers reported refinancing their home loans from two to six times, suggesting widespread “loan flipping” and “equity stripping” by lenders;
  • 39% of borrowers reported that the idea to take out a loan secured by their home came from the marketing of subprime lenders. Aggressive marketing through telephone calls, mailers and broker solicitations, was experienced by most study participants.

Although the study is still in its infancy, the preliminary numbers leave no room for doubt that predatory lending has become a tremendous problem in California and is robbing Californians of millions of dollars. The discrepancies in prime loan interest rates and those offered by the subprime lenders has steadily increased.

Subprime lenders state that they serve a very important function, mainly providing credit to borrowers with imperfect credit histories. However, it is this exact premise, the supposed benevolence of subprime lending, on which predatory lenders rely to justify their practices, thereby blending financially feasible subprime lending into predatory lending. Financial Code § 4970 is California’s remedy to this problem.

Challenge Your Lender… Now!

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Do you want to hold your lender responsible for their illegal actions?

Challenge Your Lender… Now!

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My name is Timothy McCandless, and I’m here to tell you what most banks and mortgage loan servicers don’t want you to know: More than 65 million homes in the US may not be subject to foreclosure after all, and your home is very likely one of the “safe” homes. The reason these homes are not technically subject to foreclosure is because the lenders, mortgage companies, mortgage servicers, and title companies broke the law throughout the process of managing your loan, both at the inception of your loan and throughout the life of the loan. Because of their fraudulent actions, they are unable to produce a title for, or show ownership of, your property. This causes what we call a “defect of title”, and legally prohibits your lender or servicer from foreclosing, regardless of whether or not your loan is current.

This situation is all over the news, and now, starting today, you can learn how to protect yourself from unlawful foreclosure.

WE CAN TRAIN YOU HOW TO CHALLENGE YOUR LENDER

Most Mortgage Assignments are Illegal

In a major ruling in the Massachusetts Supreme Court today, US Bank National Association and Wells Fargo lost the “Ibanez case”, meaning that they don’t have standing to foreclose due to improper mortgage assignment. The ruling is likely to send shock waves through the entire judicial system, and seriously raise the stakes on foreclosure fraud. Bank stocks plummeted after this ruling. These assignments are what people need to challenge in their own mortgages.

I am prepared to show you the most amazing information on how you can actually Challenge Your Lender. Once you opt in for our free ebook (just enter your email address above and to the right), you’ll get immediate access to our first, very informative webinar, as well as to our free ebook. You’ll learn more about the Challenge Your Lender program, and more importantly, how the US mortgage system is rigged to take advantage of you and how to can fight back. My program will show you exactly how to get a copy of your loan documents that your lender or loan servicer currently has in their possession, and then how to begin examining these documents to learn more about how your lender, as well as other parties involved, has used your name and credit to make millions of dollars. Analyzing your loan documents is a crucial first step in beginning the Challenge Your Lender process.


Save your home from foreclosure

The information that you will be receiving in my free material and webinar will further your knowledge on what most lenders are doing to homeowners, and how you can save yourself from foreclosure. You will have the opportunity to acquire a free copy of my Challenge Your Lender workbook and learn how to begin building the paper trail that you will need to defend yourself and to prove the wrongdoings of your lender and loan servicer. Once you go through the workbook and listen in on the free webinar, you will be on top of your Challenge and ready to begin the program.

The Challenge Your Lender program will help put you in a position of power and control over your loan, and will allow you to decide what you would like to do with your property. This leverage will be advantageous when you begin negotiating your foreclosure. Most importantly, your lender or loan servicer should not be able to foreclose on you once you notify them that you have identified fraudulent activity. My program is your first step in saving your property from foreclosure.

Don’t wait – opt in today. Every day counts in the battle against your lender.

Best regards,
Tim

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Charged minorities thousands of dollars more Hispanic’s borrower charges 55% more

GreenPoint Brokers Targeted by New York
HCI Mortgage, Consumer One Mortgage settle with attorney general
January 5, 2009

Two New York mortgage brokers have settled charges that they charged minorities thousands of dollars more in fees, while a third broker faces a lawsuit by the state and more brokers face investigations. The actions were prompted by an investigation into defunct wholesaler GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Inc.
HCI Mortgage and Consumer One Mortgage have entered an agreement with New York’s attorney general, a press release today said. Between the two companies, there are more than 20 branches throughout the state.
The two brokers will pay $665,000 in restitution to around 455 black and Hispanic borrowers, according to the announcement. The also agreed to establish a standard fee schedule, monitor pricing to minorities and report lending details to the state.
Both brokers are accused of charging minorities higher fees than similarly-situated White borrowers.
The attorney general conducted an investigation with the New York State Department of Banking into discriminatory practices by mortgage brokers. The investigation was triggered by the state’s investigation into GreenPoint Mortgage Funding Inc. after it found that Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data indicated discrimination had occurred on GreenPoint mortgages. GreenPoint, which was shut down by parent Capital One in August 2007, settled the charges in July for $1 million.
Statistical analyses conducted on loans originated by HCI found that black borrowers were charged around 46 percent more than similarly situated whites, which worked out to around $2,260. Hispanic borrowers saw fees that were an average of 55 percent higher, which worked out to $2,280.
“These customers were charged significantly higher fees for no reason other than being a minority — something that is explicitly against the law in New York State,” Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in the statement.
In addition, the attorney general has filed a lawsuit in federal district court against U.S. Capital Funding LLC. A state investigation also found discriminatory practices at U.S. Capital, but the company refused to provide restitution to more than 100 minority borrowers — prompting the lawsuit by the attorney general.
U.S. Capital reportedly brokered 300 loans between January 2006 and July 2007, including around 100 mortgages for black and Hispanic borrowers. Minorities were allegedly charged 58 percent more than whites, costing them an average of $3,500 each.
“HCI Mortgage, Consumer One, and U.S. Capital Funding all did substantial business with GreenPoint,” the statement said. “The office is continuing its investigation into potential discriminatory pricing by other mortgage brokers.

Lender liability predatory lending foreclosure

Loans
Loans (Photo credit: zingbot)

Today mortgage loans, particularly more expensive loans marketed to those with poor credit histories, are likely to be purchased by investment trusts, bundled into large geographically diverse pools with many other loans, and sold as securities to investors. … Assignee liability rules render the holder of an assigned mortgage loan liable for legal violations made in the origination of the loan. … If a mortgage loan is covered by the relatively narrow scope of HOEPA, then the lender must deliver a special advance warning at least three days prior to consummation. … HOEPA goes further than any other federal statute in creating assignee liability for predatory mortgage lending. … Similarly, it may not be clear how state predatory lending statute assignee liability provisions should be interpreted if the underlying mortgage includes a waiver of defense clause, and the state has not banned those clauses in consumer contracts. … the primary mechanism for distributing liability to a secondary wrongdoer for predatory origination is by assignee liability rules, including the common law of assignment, section 141 of the TILA, the HOEPA’s due diligence standard, and various state predatory lending provisions. … The FTC’s holder-notice rule steers a responsible middle road on this question by capping investor liability at the amount paid by a consumer under the loan in question. …