--- title: "Before 2024: fair-lending, ESOP, flood and loan-office cases" language: en canonical: https://dossiertwist.com/dossiers/evolve-bank-trust/enforcement-history/ as_of: 2026-10-16 keywords: ["Evolve Bank & Trust","Evolve Bancorp","Synapse Financial Technologies","Synapse Brokerage","Banking-as-a-Service","Open Banking","cease-and-desist order","Federal Reserve","Arkansas State Bank Department","FBO accounts","Yotta Technologies","Lineage Bank","AMG National Trust","Scot Lenoir","Robert Hartheimer","data breach","MDL 3127","Ankura reconciliation","CFPB","Coastal Community Bank"] --- # Before 2024: fair-lending, ESOP, flood and loan-office cases **Question.** What enforcement actions and cases were brought against Evolve Bank & Trust before 2024? **Answer.** The Justice Department sued the bank twice over mortgage lending: a 2016 consent order resolved disability and public-assistance discrimination claims with an $86,000 fund, and a 2022 order resolved discretionary-pricing claims with a $1.3 million fund and a $50,000 penalty; the bank denied wrongdoing in both. A federal court found that the bank, as fiduciary of an employee stock ownership plan, breached its duties in a 2010 share purchase. The Federal Reserve fined the bank $13,950 under its flood-insurance rules in 2022 and in 2020 barred two former loan-office employees from banking. ## Fair lending - Analysis: On January 21, 2016 the federal court for the Western District of Tennessee entered a consent order in United States v. Evolve Bank & Trust (No. 2:16-cv-2040), resolving the Justice Department's claims that the bank discriminated on the basis of disability and of receipt of public assistance by requiring some mortgage applicants to provide a doctor's letter showing that Social Security Disability Insurance and other disability income would continue. The bank agreed to an $86,000 fund for 50 borrowers and to new policies, training and monitoring. Evolve denied the allegations and stated that it had treated applicants fairly and without regard to factors such as disability; the order provided for dismissal with prejudice once the court's retained jurisdiction ended. [src-063] - Analysis: The Federal Reserve referred the bank to the Justice Department on February 8, 2019 after reviewing mortgages originated in 2014 to 2016. On September 29, 2022 the department sued (No. 2:22-cv-02667), alleging that from at least 2014 through 2019 the bank charged Black, Hispanic and individual female borrowers statistically significantly higher discretionary pricing than comparable white and male borrowers. A consent order of October 17, 2022 required a $1.3 million fund for affected borrowers, a $50,000 civil penalty, revised pricing policies, a fair-lending officer and committee, training and monitoring. The bank denied liability and any wrongdoing, stating that its annual pricing tests for 2014 to 2019 showed no pattern of statistically significant disparities. A fintech industry newsletter reported that the St. Louis Reserve Bank had referred Evolve to the Justice Department three times in ten years over mortgage discrimination, and that the Labor Department's ESOP case below arose from a trust-business deal handled by Kenneth Lenoir; the retained consent orders document two Justice Department cases. [src-062] [src-064] [src-015] ## The Sentry ESOP case - Analysis: In August 2019 the Labor Department announced that the federal court for the Western District of Virginia had ordered Adam Vinoskey, former chief executive of Sentry Equipment Erectors, and Evolve Bank & Trust, the transactional fiduciary of Sentry's employee stock ownership plan, to restore $6,502,500 to the plan. The court found that in December 2010 they approved the plan's purchase of Vinoskey's 51,000 shares at $406 each although the stock had been appraised at $285 in 2009, and that Evolve failed to investigate red flags in the appraisal, breaching its duties of loyalty and prudence. a fintech industry newsletter later reported that the amount was lowered to about $1.9 million on appeal; the appellate decision is not in the retained record. [src-086] [src-015] ## Federal Reserve actions - Analysis: Effective June 15, 2022 the Federal Reserve Board assessed a $13,950 civil money penalty on the bank for a pattern or practice of violations of its flood-insurance rules (Docket No. 22-016-CMP-SM), payable to the National Flood Insurance Program; the bank consented without admitting or denying the allegations, and Stafford signed as chief executive. Effective May 26, 2020 the Board issued consent orders of prohibition against Aaron K. Hill and Jessica A. Hill, former employees who ran a mortgage loan production office in Louisville, Kentucky, first for Evolve and then for First Savings Bank. The order states that Aaron Hill concealed the couple's ownership of a lead-management vendor that overcharged both banks and that Jessica Hill was paid by both without reporting to work. The Hills consented without admitting or denying the allegations and before any adjudication; they may not take part in the affairs of an insured institution without approval and must cooperate with the Board's investigations of the banks. [src-059] [src-016] [src-065] [src-066] ## Sources - [src-063] Consent order, United States v. Evolve Bank & Trust (No. 2:16-cv-2040), U.S. Department of Justice (filed court document), 2016-01-21 - [src-062] United States v. Evolve Bank and Trust (W.D. Tenn.) case page, U.S. Department of Justice, 2022 - [src-064] Consent order, United States v. Evolve Bank & Trust (No. 2:22-cv-02667), U.S. Department of Justice (filed court document), 2022-10-17 - [src-015] Media source ยท src-015 - [src-086] News release: court orders former Sentry CEO and Evolve Bank & Trust to restore $6.5 million to the ESOP, U.S. Department of Labor, 2019-08-15 - [src-059] Order of assessment of a civil money penalty: Evolve Bank & Trust (Docket No. 22-016-CMP-SM), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2022-06-15 - [src-016] Press release: Federal Reserve Board announces enforcement action against Evolve Bank & Trust, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2022-06-21 - [src-065] Press release: Federal Reserve Board announces prohibition actions against former employees of Evolve Bank & Trust, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2020-05-28 - [src-066] Consent orders of prohibition: Aaron K. Hill and Jessica A. Hill (Docket No. 20-008-E-I), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2020-05-26