Dec 20, 2021 | Blog, Car Problems Car Complaints
BMW Cup Holders Allegedly Defective – Class Action Alleges That When Liquid Spills Into Cup Holder, Wires For Airbag Control Module Get Wet, Causing Damage To Air Bags
On December 16, 2021, a class action lawsuit was filed in United States District Court, Central District of California, against BMW Of North America, LLC on behalf of a class of current and former BMW vehicle owners and lessees with defective cup holders utilized in numerous BMW vehicles sold in the United States, including, but not limited to, 2020 X7 M50i automobiles.
According to the class action complaint, the lawsuit stemmed from Defendant BMW Of North America’s failure, despite its longstanding knowledge of a material defect, to properly disclose that the Class Vehicles’ cup holders are defective and not properly designed to hold cups filled with liquid, which impairs the safety and reliability of the Class Vehicles.
The cup holders in the Class Vehicles, allegedly, are designed defectively, because they are not designed, nor intended, to actually hold cups filled with liquid. When liquid spills into the cup holder, the wires for the SRS Airbag Control Module get wet and damage the air bags.
Consequently, the air bags can inadvertently deploy, and the defect, according to the complaint, exposes the driver and occupants of the Class Vehicles, as well as others who share the road with them, to an increased risk of accident, injury, or death.
Further, Defendant BMW Of North America, allegedly, has been aware of the defect, and many owners and lessees of the Class Vehicles have communicated with Defendant BMW Of North America or its agents to request that it remedy and/or properly address the defect. According to the lawsuit, despite its longstanding knowledge of this defect and such requests, BMW Of North America has routinely refused to properly repair the Class Vehicles.
VEHICLE OWNERS AND LESSEES AFFECTED BY AUTOMOTIVE DEFECTS OR SAFETY RECALLS ARE ENCOURAGED TO CONTACT KEHOE LAW FIRM, P.C., [email protected], FOR A FREE, NO-OBLIGATION EVALUATION OF POTENTIAL LEGAL CLAIMS.
Dec 20, 2021 | Blog
On December 20, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced fraud charges against five Russian nationals for engaging in a multi-year scheme to profit from stolen corporate earnings announcements obtained by hacking into the systems of two U.S.-based filing agent companies before the announcements were made public.
The filing agents assist publicly-traded companies with the preparation and filing of periodic reports with the SEC, including quarterly reports containing earnings information.
The SEC’s complaint, filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, alleges that defendant Ivan Yermakov (“Yermakov”) used deceptive hacking techniques to access the filing agents’ systems and directly or indirectly provided not-yet-public corporate earnings announcements stolen from those systems to his co-defendants Vladislav Kliushin (“Kliushin”), Nikolai Rumiantcev (“Rumiantcev”), Mikhail Irzak (“Irzak”), and Igor Sladkov (“Sladkov”).
According to the complaint, from 2018 through 2020, the traders used 20 different brokerage accounts located in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Cyprus and Portugal to generate profits of at least $82 million using the stolen information to make trades before over 500 corporate earnings announcements. The defendants allegedly shared a portion of their enormous profits by funneling them through a Russian information technology company founded by Kliushin and for which Yermakov and Rumiantcev serve as directors.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced criminal charges against the five defendants named in the SEC’s action and that defendant Vladislav Kliushin was extradited from Switzerland.
The SEC’s complaint charges each of the defendants with violating the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws and related SEC antifraud rules and seeks a final judgment ordering the defendants to pay penalties, return their ill-gotten gains with prejudgment interest, and enjoining them from committing future violations of the antifraud laws.
Source: SEC.gov
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C.
Dec 20, 2021 | Blog, Consumer Protection
Joint Letters Remind Landlords And Mortgage Servicers To Adhere To The CARES Act & Additional Legal Requirements Under The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act
On December 20, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) and U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) issued two joint letters regarding important legal housing protections for military families.
One letter was sent to landlords and other housing providers regarding protections for military tenants. A second letter was sent to mortgage servicers regarding military borrowers who have already exited or will be exiting COVID-19 mortgage forbearance programs in the coming weeks and months.
The letter to landlords and other housing providers reminds property owners of the important housing protections for military tenants, some of whom may have had to relocate or make other changes to their housing arrangements in response to the crisis. While military families enjoy the same legal protections and privileges afforded to all other homeowners and tenants, they also have additional housing protections under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA), which is enforceable by the DOJ and servicemembers themselves.
The letter to mortgage servicers comes in response to complaints from military families and veterans on a range of potential mortgage servicing violations, including inaccurate credit reporting, misleading communications to borrowers, and required lump sum payments for reinstating their mortgage loans. These complaints are being reviewed for compliance by the CFPB with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and other applicable requirements.
The CFPB and DOJ are calling on mortgage servicers and landlords to ensure that military homeowners and tenants are safeguarded during the pandemic and benefit equally from the Nation’s economic recovery.
Source: CFPB/consumerfinance.gov.
Dec 20, 2021 | Blog, Data Breach
Texas ENT Specialists – Hacking/IT Incident Affects More Than 530,000 Individuals
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, Breach Portal, reflects that Texas ENT Specialists, a healthcare provider, reported a data breach of its network server.
The company’s “Notice of Security Incident” stated that “[o]n October 19, 2021, Texas ENT learned that files containing patient information were subject to unauthorized access during a data security incident. With assistance from a third-party cybersecurity firm, [Texas ENT] determined that unauthorized parties gained access to our computer systems and took copies of Texas ENT files between August 9, 2021 and August 15, 2021. [Texas ENT] carefully reviewed those files and determined they contained patient names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, and procedure codes used for billing purposes. A limited number of files also contained patient Social Security numbers. Importantly, there was no unauthorized access to Texas ENT’s electronic medical records system.” [Emphasis added.]
Have You Been Impacted by A Data Breach?
If so, please complete the form on the right or contact Kehoe Law Firm, P.C., [email protected], for a free, no-obligation evaluation of potential legal claims.
Examples of the type of relief sought by data privacy class actions, include, but are not limited to, reimbursement of identity theft losses and of out-of-pocket costs paid by data breach victims for protective measures such as credit monitoring services, credit reports, and credit freezes; compensation for time spent responding to the breach; imposition of credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance, paid for by the defendant company; and improvements to the defendant company’s data security systems.
Data privacy class actions are brought on a contingent-fee basis; thus, plaintiffs and the class members do not pay out-of-pocket attorney’s fees or litigation costs. Subject to court approval, attorney’s fees and litigation costs are derived from the recovery obtained for the class.
