In response to the Trump administration’s attempt to vacate the Townstone Financial settlement and return the $105,000 fine levied to resolve it, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition released the following statement from President and CEO Jesse Van Tol.
It is absurd to walk away from a positive settlement in a cut-and-dried case of openly racist practices from a mortgage lender. And it is disturbing and disgusting to see Director Vought pretend that the case was brought “with zero evidence.
When your CEO goes on his company radio show and slanders Black neighborhoods as “scary” “jungles” that are “packed [with] people from all over the world” who participate in “hoodlum weekends,” your company is being very clear: There are places they won’t lend, and the reason is that those places have lots of non-White people living in them.
We know a company that markets itself through such shockingly open racism is determined to discourage Black customers from even calling.
Townstone got what it wanted: Compared to other lenders serving the area, the company received far fewer applications from Black borrowers.
Pretending this was anything other than gutter racism is ugly.
And using the power of the American people’s government to also hand money back to the man who wielded his financial power in such disgraceful fashion is a stain on us all.
For more background on the Townstone case, see here.
For more coverage of the Trump administration’s handling of the settlement, see here.
Subject: Request to Retract False and Defamatory Statements in NCRC Press Release
Dear Mr. Van Tol,
As counsel for Townstone Financial, Inc. and Barry Sturner, I write concerning your March 27, 2025, press release labeling Townstone’s conduct “flagrantly racist” and alleging discriminatory intent. The CFPB’s March 26, 2025, joint motion to vacate the November 2024 settlement, supported by an internal investigation and Dan Bishop’s declaration, found the case “legally and factually baseless,” with no evidence of discouraged applicants or Equal Credit Opportunity Act violations, and a violation of Townstone’s First Amendment rights. Your depiction of the “Jungle Jewel” comment as a racial slander targeting Black neighborhoods is demonstrably false—it was a casual reference to the Jewel Osco at 1900 Division & Clark in the affluent Gold Coast, a store locals called “Jungle Jewel,” redeveloped in 2017 into The Sinclair, a 35-story luxury tower named for Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel The Jungle. Far from a slur, it was benign Chicago shorthand, yet your statement strips it of context to falsely paint Townstone as racist. These inaccuracies have further damaged my clients’ reputations—already battered by a now-discredited CFPB action that forced Townstone’s closure after 23 years. I request you retract these false statements and issue a correction to your press release by April 10, 2025. Please confirm receipt and your intent by reply.
Sincerely,
Marx Sterbcow