While Mick Mulvaney, the Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), is considering whether to take down the agency’s online database of consumer complaints against financial services companies, a former Ohio Attorney General is promising to keep that information on the Internet.
Marc Dann, a Democrat who served as Ohio’s Attorney General from January 2007 to May 2008, stated that he transferred all of the contents of the CFPB’s consumer database to his law firm’s Web site (
www.dannlaw.com/complaint-database/). Dann stated that his version of the CFPB database includes a “Hall of Shame” list of companies that received the highest volume of consumer complaints.
Furthermore, Dann vowed that if the database is taken offline by the CFPB, he would file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to obtain access to new complaints and post them online.
“If Mulvaney won’t turn the reports over voluntarily we’re prepared to take him to court, monthly if need be,” Dann said. “No matter how hard he may try, we’re not going to allow them to hide this information from the American people.”
Dann, a Democrat, saw his brief tenure as Ohio’s Attorney General marked with several scandals, including sexual harassment charges against members of his staff and his own admission of an extramarital affair with a subordinate in his office. The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial board viewed the scandals by commenting, “Dann has turned the Attorney General's office into a laughingstock.”
Dann never returned to elected office after his resignation.
