These guys need to be put out of business. They are no different than common criminals.
Sure, these guys are the only bank doing this kind of fraud. right.“The company knowingly stole from its customers, mostly poor people and the recently deceased, when it designed and implemented the sweeps,” Attorney General Brown said. “When a whistleblower uncovered the scam and brought it to his superiors, they buried the information and continued the illegal practice.”
Between 1992 and 2003, Citibank employed a computerized “credit sweep” process to automatically remove positive or credit balances from credit-card customer accounts.
The settlement includes:
* Permanent injunction - Citibank will be permanently prevented from re-initiating the credit sweeps.
* Refunds to victims - Citibank will refund all improperly swept funds to customers who were victimized by the sweeps. Citibank will also pay California customers 10% interest on the amount taken.
* Penalties - Citibank will pay $3.5 million in damages and civil penalties to the State of California.
* Compliance audit - After Citibank’s refund process is complete, an independent auditor will review Citibank’s work to ensure that it has lived up to its obligations.
Citibank has affirmed that it can identify most of the victims of the credit sweeps and has begun the process of reviewing archived account data and refunding the improperly swept funds going back to 1992.
