Upcoming banking week: September 13, 2021

(Reuters) – Here are some events of interest to the banking and financial law community this week. All times are local, unless otherwise specified.

Sunday September 12

12:30 p.m. – The Mortgage Bankers Association Regulatory Compliance Conference kicks off in Washington, DC. , Federal TCPA, FDCPA and FCRA, State Litigation and more. Plenary sessions that begin on Monday offer updates on the MBA’s advocacy efforts in Washington, key trends in fair loan law enforcement and other agency actions, as well as a luncheon. – talk by Damon Smith, general counsel for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. For the full agenda, visit https://bit.ly/3hiC35q

Monday, September 13

8:30 a.m. – A U.S. banking regulator will begin a civil lawsuit in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Monday against three former Wells Fargo executives over the bank’s unauthorized accounts scandal. Claudia Russ Anderson, former chief risk officer at the bank’s community banking group, David Julian, its former chief auditor, and Paul McLinko, its former chief audit executive are fighting the 2020 attempt by the Office of the Comptroller of the currency to impose fines of several million dollars on each of them for their alleged roles in the scandal.

The case is In the Matter of Tolstedt et al., US Department of the Treasury, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, No. 20-001. For the OCC: Jason Friedman. For Anderson: Doug Kelley of Kelley, Wolter & Scott. For McLinko: Timothy Crudo from Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass. For Julian: Tim Perla from WilmerHale.

9:30 a.m. – The National Association of Federally Insured Credit Unions opens its three-day congressional caucus in 2021 with a question-and-answer session between NAFCU President Dan Berger and political commentator James Carville, covering the state of the industry, the congressional standoff and a “50-50 Senate navigation.” Morning sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will feature more than a dozen speakers from the Biden administration and Congress, including FHFA Acting Director Sandra Thompson; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH); United States Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), senior member of the House Financial Services Committee. Participants will meet with lawmakers on the Hill Monday and Tuesday afternoon. For more details go to https://www.nafcu.org/caucus

Wednesday September 15th

10 a.m. – The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments regarding a possible class action lawsuit filed by investors in connection with the initial 2018 HelbizCoin coin offering, which sued last year for breach of contract, conversion, and violation of New York State laws prohibiting deceptive and practical acts after the company sought to buy back its shares for a microscopic fraction of the ICO price and destroy the Ethereum blockchain contract that the cryptocurrency was attached to. US District Judge Louis Stanton in Manhattan dismissed the complaint in January for failure to report, ruling that HelbizCoin was clearly a security that was not traded on any US stock exchange and for which the ICO expressly prohibited investment at all. ” US citizen, resident or green card holder. Investors claim that Stanton abused his discretion by not allowing them to modify the complaint and by dismissing the claims in state law, which they believed were properly submitted to court under the Class Action Fairness Act.

The case is Ryan Barron et al. v. Helbiz Inc. et al., 2nd US Court of Appeals No. 21-278. For Barron et al. : Michael Kanovitz of Loevy & Loevy. For Helbiz et al. : Robert Heim from Tarter, Krinsky & Drogin.

12:00 p.m. (ET) – Bryan Klein of Waymaker LLP presents the American Bar Association’s 2021 Blockchain & Digital Currency National (Virtual) Institute, a half-day program with panel discussions on four emerging issues. Davis Polk’s Jai Massari moderates Panel I, “What the Future Holds for NFTs”. Panel II, “The Coming Dominance of Stablecoins”, is chaired by Meghan Spillane of Goodwin Procter, followed by Stephen Wink of Latham, who will host “Key Enforcement Actions”. Marco Santori of Kraken concludes the session with “The DeFi Revolution”, a look at the implications of the growing popularity of decentralized financial platforms. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3z4PUCI

2:00 p.m. – Stefan He Qin, the 24-year-old Australian crypto hedge fund founder who pleaded guilty in February to one count of securities fraud, faces conviction by U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in court Manhattan Federal. Prosecutors alleged that Qin used the $ 90 million Virgil Sigma fund “as his own piggy bank” and managed it in a “brazen” and “Ponzi-style” manner until December 2020, when he attempted cover investor demand by stealing $ 1.7 million from a second fund, VQR Multistrategy. The single charge is for a maximum of 20 years; however, in recognition of Qin’s voluntary return to the United States, his guilty plea, and his meaningful cooperation with the receiver appointed to locate and recover the assets of Virgil Sigma and VQR, the government recommended on September 1 a sentence 96 months (8 years) and a forfeiture order of $ 54.8 million.

The case is USA v. Qin, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York No. 21-cr-00075. For the United States: American lawyer Audrey Strauss and AUSA Daniel Tracer. For Qin: Sean Hecker and Louis Fisher of Kaplan Hecker & Fink.

Thursday September 16

8:30 a.m. (CT) – The University of Texas at Austin Law School goes virtual for its 55th Annual William W. Gibson, Jr. Mortgage Lending and Servicing Institute, a two-day conference offering 14 hours of CLE on home loans, commercial finance, title issues and ethics. In addition to updates on Texas business, law and regulation, the institute addresses several areas of national interest, including congressional and administrative priorities affecting mortgage advisors; updates on application priorities to CFPB, FHFA, House Financial Services Committee, and Senate Banking Committee; an overview of recent developments in the transition from London Interbank Offered Rates (LIBOR) to floating rate loans; emerging risks in fraud detection; bankruptcy issues affecting commercial leases, and more. CLE credit is pre-approved for Texas, California, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania, and may be available for other states. For more details, including the full agenda, go to https://utcle.org/conferences/ML21

(Additional report by Jody Godoy)

Do you know of an event that could be included in Week Ahead in Banking? Contact Jody Godoy at Jody.Godoy@thomsonreuters.com.