Deportation policies and due diligence blind spots are exposing hidden risks in the U.S. consumer ABS market. The market is facing a new kind of crisis — not of defaulting borrowers, but of disappearing ones. As mass deportations and tightening immigration enforcement under the Trump administration continue, lenders are grappling with the fallout: when borrowers are suddenly deported or lose...
When a lender falls, it’s tempting to believe it is an isolated failure. When a second lender fails, it’s time to look for broader patterns of stress in corners of the market. For subprime auto and broader consumer lending, PrimaLend’s chapter 11 bankruptcy, after months of missed interest payments and mounting creditor pressure, should be a catalyst for parties to re-evaluate how they conduct...
In a troubling development for the broader subprime auto and asset-backed securities markets, several auto loans tied to Tricolor Auto were found to contain duplicate vehicle identification numbers (VINs), suggesting that the same vehicles were pledged as collateral in more than one transaction. An obvious issue hidden in a blind spot that indicates failure of attention, rather than...
Subprime auto’s long, smooth ride through the pandemic, recession, and changes in administrations has come to a screeching halt with the chapter 7 bankruptcy of Tricolor on September 10, 2025. Whether the practices at Tricolor are an anomaly or an example of more widespread problems or irregularities at other lenders, the truth is out there – and it’s likely to be found. Weak markets, like the...
Transactions conducted in fiat currency seldom give rise to questions regarding the currency's origins; however, transactions involving digital assets warrant greater scrutiny. There may be legal ramifications for those who unwittingly possess digital assets like Bitcoin that have been connected to a crime, i.e., "dirty" crypto. Although a crypto holder or investor may not know their crypto is so...
Digital assets have been subject to some of the largest thefts in history. In fact, the largest crypto theft — in connection with the February 2025 $1.5 billion Bybit hack — dwarfs the Guinness Book of World Records' entry for the largest bank robbery of $282 million. See "Crypto's biggest hacks and heists after $1.5 billion theft from Bybit," Reuters, Feb. 24, 2025. Sometimes, however, all is...
Joseph Cioffi, Davis+Gilbert’s Chief Operating Partner and Bankruptcy, Creditors’ Rights + Finance Practice Group Chair who has worked on large crypto bankruptcies and forfeiture proceedings, was quoted in Cryptopolitan commenting on the effect of the verbal agreement made by the founders of Dough Financial to compensate users following a hack of the platform. As noted, post-hack promises are not...
