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While we're sure it's merely a coincidence, hot on the heels of the letter that Rep. Pete Sessions sent to the Treasury Department's Inspector General that complained about the repeated failure of the Comptroller of the Currency to issue a final decision in the case of Patrick Adams, the Comptroller raised his middle finger to the requirements of 12 USC 1818(h) issued yet another extension of the deadline to issue a final decision, this time extending the date of decision from August 13 to September 30. As one observer pointed out, at least this time the Comptroller gave himself a deadline to issue a final decision. Whether he "sticks to it" remains to be seen.
Mr. Adams' plight has generated some interesting email. Customarily, private practitioners are most harsh in their indictment of the sort of cavalier nose-thumbing at the requirements of federal law by those whose job it is to enforce it that we've seen demonstrated in this case. However, former enforcement attorneys, such former OCC attorney Robert Serino, whose concerns about Mr. Adams were highlighted in the post linked above, have also expressed their displeasure with the way the regulator has ignored the requirements of fundamental fairness (and, as noted above, the deadlines set by federal statute). One former regional counsel for a federal bank regulatory agency wrote to complain about the "shameless arrogance" displayed by the federal government in this case and to assert that in his decades both in government service and on the other side of the table from the government, he had "never seen any type of enforcement action instituted against an individual that remotely resembles the OCC action against Mr. Adams."
Frankly, neither has anyone else with whom I've spoken about Patrick Adams, including former OCC counsel. It's not only questionable conduct, it's almost inexplicable. I say "almost," because after decades of my own experiences with federal regulatory attorneys and enforcement personnel, and after some of the spittle spewed my way in the last few years in reaction to blog posts by a couple of Erik Dorfs currently at home in the bowels of the Mother Ship, nothing much really surprises me anymore.
