In Other Media-eg NYLJ Fortune 2023, CJR, NY Mag, AJE, Georgia, CSM Click here to contact us     .

by Matthew R. Lee

SOUTH BRONX, Aug 4 – Capital One applied and was approved to buy Discover, in an anticompetitive deal that should have been rejected by regulators.

Now in August 2026, in response to an open records request from Inner City Press / Fair Financee Watch, New Mexico's Attorney General has produced another installment of bank consumer complaints, continuing a rolling response to Inner City Press's public records request, and the latest file returns to a familiar theme: banks that admit, in their own words to the complainant, exactly how the fraud happened, and still leave the customer to chase down the cleanup. 

Kashalon Sigers-Wiggins complained that her husband, Brenden Wiggins, began receiving emails about a Capital One account opened in his name that he never authorized, with the fraudster asking him to deposit money into it. When she called Capital One's Fraud Department, the representative who reviewed the account, Valentina, confirmed the account had been opened using the wrong birthday and the wrong address, and admitted that Capital One had not run a credit check before creating it. "I informed her that had they done a credit check it would have prevented the fraud," Sigers-Wiggins wrote in her complaint.  Valentina promised the account would be closed at no penalty and that a victim letter would follow by mail. Three weeks later, no letter had arrived, and the emails from Capital One about the fraudulent account were still coming.

A second call reached a different representative, Carmen, who said the account had been closed and requested the letter be resent. New Mexico's file does not show what happened after that. The state's own record of what the agency did in response: "None." 

The pattern by now is a through-line in Inner City Press's review of New Mexico's bank complaint files: a bank's own representative confirms, on the record, exactly what went wrong — here, an account opened with mismatched identifying information and no credit check at all — and the fix still depends entirely on the customer following up, repeatedly, to get what was promised.

Back in September 2025, Capital One belatedly disclosed under the WARN Act that it is cutting 382 jobs at Discover Financial Services’ Chicagoland HQ, the bank has filed under the Illinois Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, The first are expected to occur Nov. 17, with 366 employees being let go, and the last in early March 2026.

After they applied late March 20, 2024 Inner City Press submitted a second Freedom of Information Act request to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency - now in August 2026 intent on attacking CRA even as it fiddles with FOIA, on which Inner City Press today commented.

On July 26, 2024 after a FOIA appeal - and after closing the public comment period - the OCC belatedly gave Inner City Press documents showing Capital One briefed the OCC on a "big" deal in November 2023; it was code named "Project Sirius."

Then overly chummy texts from Andy Navarrete, who testified at the public meeting, and Pient Tran to the OCC's Marci Heppner and others.

For example, Andy to Marci, sorry for the late ping, if Richard wanted to call, could you do a 1:1 Zoom at 7:30 [pm]. But of course. That and more now on Inner City Press' DocumentCloud here

  Inner City Press continues to dig through the records - and to prepare another FOIA appeal.

Back on June 25 the OCC belatedly responded to Inner City Press' FOIA request - by withholding in full 185 pages. OCC FOIA production on DocumentCloud here. Inner City Press appealed.

  On July 24, the very day on which the OCC and Fed said they were closing the written comment period, the OCC upheld in full its FOIA denials, determination letter on Inner City Press' Document Cloud here. We'll have more on all this.

***

Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Mail: Box 130222 NY NY 10013

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2026 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com