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With Otting Set To Quit He Withheld FOIA Records From Press OCC Admits

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - CJR - PFT

SDNY COURT / BRONX, May 19 –  With US Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting said set to quit this week after ghoulishly closing the public comment period amid the COVID-19 pandemic on his widely criticized rule to weaken the Community Reinvestment Act, now his OCC on May 19 told Inner City Press it erred it withholding Otting documents.

  Here is their May 19 e-mail: "Dear Mr. Lee:  I am writing with regarding your recent FOIA appeal of the OCC's response to FOIA request # 2020-00132-F.  The portion of your appeal related to the OCC's January 2020 meeting with the Consumer Bankers Association is being remanded to our Disclosure Services office for further processing.  In reviewing your appeal, it was determined that there are additional responsive documents that were not processed in response to your request.  Disclosure Services will conduct additional searching for responsive documents, process the documents for disclosure, and will provide appeal rights with its response.   The remainder of your appeal will be processed in the normal course.   Regards,  Kristin Merritt  Special Counsel."

  So Otting withheld documents, thumbed his nose at communities hard hit by COVID-19, and now scurries away like a rat. A rat regulator.  His rule must be rescinded. Watch this site.


 he took one-on-one input from JPMorgan Chase's Jaime Dimon, and the CEOs of Capital One, Santander, Citizens Bank and others.

  These others have their names obscured in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's May 6 response to Inner City Press' February 12 Freedom of Information Act request for

"copies of records sufficient to show all of Comptroller Otting's scheduled meetings, appointments, and scheduled events from the date he became Comptroller to the date of your response including but not limited to Outlook calendar entries and daily briefing books for Comptroller Ottings on those dates."

   None of the briefing books have been provided, and many of the names of people Otting met with are obscured.

 Listed are, however, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Senator Tom Tillis (about "swaps") on June 10, 2019, and Rick Perry, twice.  View on Scribd; download on Patreon here.

  Along with Chase's Jaime Dimon, Otting conversed about CRA with former Chase CRA officer Mark Willis, and had a meeting about a "Project Madison," unexplained in the FOIA response.

   There are many empty days, a trip to Japan and the Philippines that is mostly empty but for MUFG, and page after page of "private appointment," "Do Not Schedule" and "Desk Time." There is a reference to "Citi Bank" that is obscured. Inner City Press has now appealed under FOIA:

"This is a FOIA appeal for all withheld portions of Comptroller Otting's schedule and all other withheld records responsive to Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch's underlying FOIA request.  On May 6 Inner City Press belatedly received some responsive documents, but even on the Comptroller's schedule entries are redacted or in some cases unreadable - including the names of banks and CEOs met with. For example on January 24, 2020 there is a flurry of calls to bank CEOs, but only Wells Fargo and MUFG are legible. The calls between 10 am and 11:30 am only list "CRA CAL" -- then cut off. The names of these banks must be disclosed.  And more: On December 10, 2019, the noon briefing has the Comptroller's counterparty met with entirely redacted. This is not acceptable, and is being appealed as well as the withholding of "material attached" on that day, and throughout.  On January 2, 2020, there is "Discuss [b(8)] and against on January 3, b(8). This must be released - at this remove, and because it if the very purpose of FOIA. Who was Comtroller Otting meeting with? About what? For these reasons we are appealing all redactions and withholdings, on an expedited basis."

   While even Otting's partner in weakening CRA, the FDIC, has extended the comment period for foreign banks, Otting insists that excluding the public and community required to stay at home and closing his comment period is fine. The OCC's partial FOIA response to Inner City Press shows who Otting is working for. Watch this site.

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