Tag Archives: Department of Justice

The Department of Justice on Feb. 15 announced a $35 million settlement with Lender Processing Services (LPS) subsidiary DocX, stemming from the so-called “robosigning” scandal of 2010. DocX was in the business of helping mortgage servicers file the legal documents required for foreclosures.   Second Settlement, Same Song The settlement follows the government’s allegations that DocX ran a scheme for six years to forge and file more than one million mortgage documents with property recorders around the country. It follows …

A federal judge accepted a guilty plea agreement with BP, settling the company’s criminal charges related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion that killed 11 people and spewed roughly five million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The deal was approved despite requests for harsher penalties from injured rig workers and families of those who were killed. BP pleaded guilty to 14 counts, including 11 felony counts of seaman’s manslaughter and one count of obstructing …

Marijuana stores in Colorado and Washington won’t be open for at least a year, but new laws legalizing the drug took full effect in both states this month. Washington’s Initiative 502 kicked in on Dec. 5, sparking a midnight gathering of marijuana enthusiasts near Seattle’s Space Needle to celebrate the occasion. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper formalized Amendment 64 into his state’s constitution just days later. Though President Obama said there wouldn’t be a federal campaign against individual marijuana users in Colorado …

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t intend to crack down on marijuana users in Colorado and Washington, where recreational use is now legal. But marijuana reform advocates are only cautiously optimistic about his statement, because they’ve heard this kind of talk from the president before. “We’ve got bigger fish to fry,” Obama told ABC News’ Barbara Walters on Friday. “It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have …

Oil giant BP pled guilty last week to manslaughter and a slew of other criminal charges connected to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and released nearly five million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In total, BP will pay more than $4.5 billion in fines and penalties in the settlement, including the single largest criminal fine in U.S. history. “I hope that this sends a clear message to those who would …