Class action administrators, banks accused of kickback scheme in new lawsuits
The lawsuits filed in federal courts in New York, opens new tab and Florida, opens new tab accused class action service providers Epiq Solutions, Angeion Group and JND Legal Administration of taking illegal payments from Huntington National Bank and Western Alliance Bank in order to maintain dominance in the settlement administration market.
The class members who filed the lawsuits said the administrators for years have diverted settlement deposits to the two banks, and in exchange received a cut of profits from them.
The lawsuits said the alleged scheme reduced competition in the class action administration industry and illegally fixed prices in violation of U.S. antitrust law.
JND in a statement said, "the allegations in these complaints regarding JND are baseless and JND will defend itself vigorously in court."
Huntington declined to comment. Epiq, Angeion and Western did not not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Prominent litigator David Boies of law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, who represents the plaintiffs, did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Court-appointed class action administrators oversee all facets of settlement administration, including notifying class members. They work with banks, which are also appointed, to hold funds and distribute them to class members once a settlement is approved.
Huntington and Western, the lawsuits said, oversee more than 80% of the settlement funds in class and mass actions in the United States. Epiq, Angeion and JND oversee more than 65% of the market for class action administration services, according to the complaint.
The lawsuits said the rise of interest rates in 2021 spurred the alleged scheme. Settlement administrators threatened to refrain from using the banks if they did not agree to share profits, the lawsuits alleged.
The interest rates Huntington and Western provided on settlement deposits should have been higher in a competitive market, the lawsuits said.
The lawsuits claimed the settlement administrators have reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in undisclosed kickbacks and compensation from the bank defendants.
The cases are Mary Jane Whalen v. Epiq Systems Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 1:25-cv-04499, and Roger Tejon v. Epiq Systems et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 1:25-cv-22453.
For plaintiffs: David Boies, Mark Mao, James Lee and Alison Anderson of Boies Schiller Flexner
For defendants: No appearances yet
Read more:
Lawsuit accuses American Arbitration Association of monopolizing consumer market
US court reporter group sued over fees, certification rules
Law firm Milberg skirts sanctions over fake claims in credit card fees case
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
NY attorney general sues Zelle's parent company after Trump administration drops similar case
New York 's attorney general on Wednesday sued the parent company of the Zelle payment platform, months after the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau abandoned a similar case as the Trump administration was gutting the agency. Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, sued Early Warning Services in New York state court, alleging that the company, which is owned by a group of U.S. banks, had failed to protect users from fraud by not including critical safety features in Zelle's design. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year dropped a similar case after President Donald Trump fired the agency's leader and his administration halted nearly all the bureau's work, closed its headquarters and moved to fire many of its workers. In a statement, James' office noted that its suit was filed after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau abandoned its lawsuit following a 'change in the federal administration.' 'No one should be left to fend for themselves after falling victim to a scam,' James said in a statement. 'I look forward to getting justice for the New Yorkers who suffered because of Zelle's security failures.' James has been a leading antagonist of Trump, a Republican, and has sued him dozens of times. Last week, The Associated Press and other news outlets reported that the Justice Department has subpoenaed James as part of an investigation into whether she violated Trump's civil rights, according to people familiar with the matter. James' case against Early Warning Services alleged that Zelle, which allows users to send and receive near-instant money transfers, failed to include adequate verification processes. Her office said scammers were able to access peoples' accounts or trick users into sending money to bogus accounts that posed as official businesses. In one instance cited by the attorney general's office, a Zelle user got a call from someone posing as an employee of the utility company Con Edison who told the user that his electricity was going to be shut off unless he sent them money through Zelle. The user then transferred about $1,500 to a Zelle account named 'Coned Billing" and then realized he had been scammed but was told by his bank that he could not get his money back, James' office said. In a statement issued through a spokesperson, Zelle called James' lawsuit 'a political stunt to generate press, not progress.' 'The Attorney General should focus on the hard facts, stopping criminal activity and adherence to the law, not overreach and meritless claims,' the statement said.
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
Stephen Miller's wife has revealed his favorite condiment. The bland choice has led to a spicy reaction online
Immigration hardliner Stephen Miller 's wife has revealed his favorite condiment, and while it may be bland, the online reaction has been spicy. Miller's wife, Katie — a former communications strategist for politicians who recently had a brief stint working for tech billionaire Elon Musk at the Department of Government Efficiency — has started a podcast for conservative women. Vice President JD Vance was her first guest in an episode released Tuesday. During the episode, Katie asked Vance some personal questions, including what he likes to dip his French fries into. 'If you could only eat one condiment for the rest of your life, what would it be?' she asked the vice president. Vance went with barbecue sauce. Katie then probed, 'Not mayonnaise?' Vance replied, 'No. No, mayonnaise in low doses is good, but it's kind of like — I had a buddy who used to eat french fries with mayonnaise. I thought that was disgusting.' Katie then revealed, 'It's the only thing my husband eats.' 'With french fries or, like, period?' Vance asked. 'Period,' Katie responded. The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has criticized the Trump administration for its mass migrant deportation efforts, shared a clip on X of Katie and Vance discussing the love Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, has for mayo. 'Anyone want to guess why Voldemort (Stephen Miller) does this?' Newsom's office said, referring to the villain in the Harry Potter series. '#MayoMiller: 'If they use spice, we send in ICE'' PatriotTakes, an X account that monitors 'right-wing extremism,' commented. One X user wrote: 'Mayo is the perfect food for him; no color, no flavor, and it keeps best in a cold, airtight container.' 'Because it's white. He's such a blatant racist he probably doesn't even eat brown mustard,' another posted.
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
With tariffs, a DC takeover, and Putin summit, Trump is now fully unleashed. And the world's tolerance for pain put to the test
Donald Trump is finally getting almost everything that he wants. But the question is, how will everyone else respond to that? On Wednesday, he arrived at the Kennedy Center and announced that he would host the annual honors award ceremony, a first for a president. For a president who loves the theatrical, it's definitely a coup, especially given that he removed the board members that Joe Biden nominated before the new board made him chairman. Trump has long had a flair for the theatrical–at his rallies, he regularly plays 'Memory' from Cats and 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' from Les Miserables –and it further reflects how he wants to remake parts of government that were previously nonpartisan and unchanged by who occupies the White House into his own image. But while Trump taking over the performing arts center is campy and even a bit weird, it shows how Trump feels no scruples and that he can finally realize the vision he wants for the country. The only question at this point is what the rest of the world's pain tolerance will be. Earlier this week, Trump made the unprecedented announcement that he would seize control of the Washington, D.C. police department and deploy the National Guard onto the streets of the nation's capital. Trump has long griped about crime and in many ways, it's a chance for him to live out the vision he wanted during the 2020 George Floyd protests, where he could deploy active duty troops onto the streets of American cities. He tried similar measures when he deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, though, as The Independent's Inside Washington newsletter flagged on Monday, that move led to his approval rating dropping. And much of the deployment of the National Guard has proven to be policing theater, given that guardsmen and women have been patrolling the tony Georgetown neighborhood. Washington, D.C. is an overwhelmingly Democratic city that has also seen a large slice of its workforce laid off thanks to the chaotic cuts unleashed by Trump's former consigliere Elon Musk and his apprentice at the Department of Government Effieincy, Edward Coristine, also known as 'Big Balls,' whom right-wing influencer Benny Johnson insisted receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Trump having troops roaming the city will likely not land well with the public nationally or in the district. But that's not the only area where Trump has finally removed the handcuffs. Last week, after a prolonged pause, Trump resumed his 'Liberation Day' tariffs. Trump had initially paused them the week after he announced them in April, saying he noticed the bond market had gotten 'a little queasy.' Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, had gone on Fox Business to speak with Maria Bartiromo, one of Trump's favorite pundits, the day before the pause. But this time, Trump is brooking no opposition from the lords of finance. Earlier this month, he responded to a poor jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics by sacking the chief statistician and nominating E.J. Antoni, an alumnus of the conservative Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind Project 2025. On Tuesday, the bureau put out a report showing that inflation for the core Consumer Price Index, which includes items for everything except food and energy, rose by 0.3 percent and inflation overall rose by 0.2 percent in July. And core CPI also rose by 3.1 percent in the past year. But Trump has not backed down. In response, he blasted Goldman Sachs's CEO, David Solomon, after a report by the investment titan showing that consumers are eating 22 percent of the tariffs. Clearly, Trump is not afraid of the fallout and believes that if he just gets the right people, he will get the result. Then there's the matter of Russia and Vladimir Putin. On Friday, he will host the Russian authoritarian in Alaska as he hopes to bring an end to Moscow's war in Ukraine. In recent months, Trump has seemed to come around on Russia, expressing his frustration with Putin, realizing that the rest of the Western world already knows: Putin has no interest in ending the war unless he can claim territory he believes rightfully belongs to Russia. This will be a stark contrast to the 2018 summit in Helsinki, when he seemed to brush off American intelligence and sided with Putin's denial that Russia intervened in the 2016 election. That earned him severe criticism, not the least of which came from the late John McCain. Now, McCain is dead and most of the old school Republican hawks have left the Senate. The ones who remain will not put up a fight. Instead, Trump gets to host Russia's president on American soil and, as if to make an even bigger point, he's hosting it in the home state of Lisa Murkowski, a Russia hawk and perpetual Trump critic. Trump knows that no matter what, he can push Murkowski and she will not push back. During Trump's press conference announcing the D.C. takeover, he said that police can 'do whatever the hell they want.' Trump clearly believes he can do the same. The question now is what will the consequences be of an unfettered Trump?
