Details
Written by: RJ
CNBC is reporting on an American Express settlement with the DOJ
American Express will pay a total of about $230 million to resolve federal wire fraud investigations, and to settle civil allegations of deceptive marketing, the company said Thursday.
Separately, the banking giant will pay $108.7 million to resolve civil claims by the Department of Justice’s Civil Division that it deceptively marketed credit cards to small businesses, among other allegations.
The separate civil settlement announced Thursday centered on allegations that AmEx “deceptively marketed credit cards” through “an affiliated entity that initiated sales calls to small businesses.”
The practices, which took place from 2014 through 2017, included “misrepresenting the card rewards or fees” and “whether credit checks would be done without a customer’s consent,” the DOJ said.
The practices also allegedly included “submitting falsified financial information for prospective customers, such as overstating a business’s income.”
Amex also allegedly tried to “deceive its federally insured financial institution” to let small-business customers acquire credit cards without the legally required employer identification numbers — known as EINs.
”The United States alleged that American Express employees used ‘dummy’ EINs such as ’123456788′ in opening small business credit cards in 2015 and the first half of 2016,” the DOJ said.
Amex’s settlement agreement with the DOJ’s Civil Division does not include an admission of liability or wrongdoing by the company, which denied the allegations about the EINs and deceptive credit card sales practices.
Credit: r/creditcards
Thoughts
The EIN part is interesting as today’s Amex applications you can complete without an EIN. Maybe it was different back then and the EIN field wouldn’t accept an SSN.
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