The Supreme Court on Friday struck down a federal ban on bump stocks approved by former President Donald Trump, the high court’s latest stroke limiting the power of federal agencies to act on their own.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for a 6-3 court. The court’s liberal wing, led by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissented.

Trump had pushed for the ban in response to a 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas. Bump stocks allow a shooter to convert a semi-automatic rifle into a weapon that can fire at a rate of hundreds of rounds a minute.

“A bump stock does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machinegun any more than a shooter with a lightning-fast trigger finger does,” Thomas wrote in his opinion. “Even with a bump stock, a semiautomatic rifle will fire only one shot for every ‘function of the trigger.’”

The ban was challenged by a Texas gun store owner, Michael Cargill, who purchased two of the devices in 2018, turned them over to the government after the prohibition was implemented and then promptly sued to get them back. The federal rule made possession of a bump stock a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Though the case didn’t rely on the Second Amendment, it did put the debate about guns back on the court’s docket in one of the most closely watched controversies this year. In that sense, the decision was the latest from the high court to side with gun rights groups.

Sotomayor reads dissent from the bench

Sotomayor wrote in a scathing dissent joined by the court’s other two liberal justices that the majority’s ruling “will have deadly consequences.”

The decision, she wrote, “hamstrings the Government’s efforts to keep machineguns from gunmen like the Las Vegas shooter.”

In a move that underscored Sotomayor’s discontent with the court’s ruling, the justice took the rare step of reading her dissent from the bench on Friday.

“When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. “A bump-stock-equipped semiautomatic rifle fires ‘automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.’ Because I, like Congress, call that a machinegun, I respectfully dissent.”

From Capone to the Supreme Court

The bump stock challenge was tied indirectly to a gun control law Congress enacted in the 1930s that was intended to target gangsters like Al Capone and John Dillinger. Responding to grisly crimes in which machine guns were used to rob banks or ambush police, lawmakers required owners to register those weapons.

The law was amended several times and, by 1986, it prohibited Americans from transferring or possessing a machine gun altogether in most circumstances. Importantly, the amended law defined “machine gun” as a weapon that fires more than one round with “a single function of the trigger.” What, precisely, that phrase meant was the focus of the appeal.

Both the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as gun control groups, said the way bump stocks work mean they qualify as machine guns. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reclassified the devices as machine guns in 2018 and, based on the earlier law, barred people from buying or owning them.

Trump described bump stocks at the time as converting “legal weapons into illegal machines.”

ATF estimated that as many as 520,000 bump stocks were sold between 2010 and 2018. The device replaces a semiautomatic rifle’s regular stock, the part of a gun that rests against the shoulder. It lets shooters use the recoil of the weapon to mimic automatic firing if they hold their trigger finger in place.

Opponents say the ATF overstepped its authority with the reclassification. They noted that the agency under both Democratic and Republican administrations had long said the devices were not covered by the law.

A US District Court in Texas and a panel of three judges on the conservative 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Justice Department. But the full 5th Circuit reconsidered the case and issued a fractured opinion last year siding with Cargill.

The court appeared split during oral arguments in late February. Several of the court’s conservatives were concerned, in particular, with the idea that Americans who purchased bump stocks when they were not classified as machine guns could suddenly be prosecuted for a crime they were not aware of.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh worried that the criminalization of the device would “ensnare” Americans.

“Even if you’re not aware of the legal prohibition, you can be convicted,” Kavanaugh told the attorney representing the Biden administration. “That’s going to ensnare a lot of people who are not aware of the legal prohibition.”

Another central theme of the arguments was the question of whether Congress – rather than the ATF – should have approved the ban. It’s an issue that’s emerged as a central theme at the Supreme Court in recent years, with groups challenging financial and environmental regulations in separate cases.

The court, meanwhile, has repeatedly sided with some of the same gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association, that opposed the bump stock ban. Most recently, the court’s conservative majority invalidated a New York state law that required state residents to have a special need to carry a weapon outside of their homes.

Thomas includes graphics of how bump stocks work

In an opinion that reflected the technical nature of the case and the oral arguments in February, Thomas’ opinion digs deeply into the mechanics of semi-automatic rifles – including with a series of graphics demonstrating what happens when triggers are depressed.

“Firing multiple shots using a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock requires more than a single function of the trigger,” Thomas wrote, underscoring the idea that the devices are not the same thing as an automatic weapon where a shooter simply holds down a trigger.

“Too much forward pressure and the rifle will not slide back far enough to release and reset the trigger, preventing the rifle from firing another shot. Too little pressure and the trigger will not bump the shooter’s trigger finger with sufficient force to fire another shot,” Thomas wrote. “Without this ongoing manual input, a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock will not fire multiple shots. Thus, firing multiple shots requires engaging the trigger one time – and then some.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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Toyota is recalling nearly 100,000 Tundra pickups and about 3,500 Lexus LX 600 luxury SUVs to fix a problem that could cause their engines to lose power while driving.

In some of these vehicles, debris from the manufacturing process may have been left inside the engine where it can lead to knocking, rough running and, in some cases, the engine stalling altogether while driving.

Toyota has not yet determined a fix. Owners of the potentially affected vehicles will be sent a letter by the end of July telling them that Toyota is working to figure out a solution.

Once a repair has been determined, owners will be instructed to take the vehicle to a Toyota dealer for free repairs.

New York  — Apple faces plenty of challenges this year including regulatory scrutiny in Washington, sluggish sales in China and a competitive landscape in AI. Now, its leaders also have to contend with labor unrest.

Apple store workers in Towson, Maryland, made history in June 2022 when they voted to form the first union at one of the tech giant’s sleek US stores. Since 2023, the worker group outside of Baltimore has been in contract negotiations with Apple management. Now, workers are weighing a strike.

Saying management has yet to meet their core demands, the Maryland workers are holding a strike authorization vote on Saturday, one of the strongest labor actions taken against the Big Tech company yet. And it’s far from the only labor challenge Apple is battling in the US.

Employees in New Jersey are holding a union election this weekend. In addition, the National Labor Relations Board this week upheld a decision alleging Apple’s union-busting tactics in New York City. The company also has unfair labor practice complaints against it in front of labor judges right now (Apple denies these allegations).

The labor wave that has hit Apple retail stores echoes the mass organizing that began at other influential companies in the United States, such as Starbucks and Amazon. As Apple grew to become the world’s first $3 trillion company, a tight labor market coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic exposed labor conditions and inequalities front-facing workers in places such as stores and warehouses faced.

“It speaks to a growing frustration among workers and also a contagion in labor activity, which is when one group of workers stands up and inspires others,” Kate Bronfenbrenner, the Director of Labor Education Research at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, said.

So far, workers at two Apple store locations – Towson, Maryland and Oklahoma City – have voted to unionize. But the union vote in New Jersey this weekend, along with other efforts across the country, could just be the beginning.

Apple is a high profile company – and many, many Americans have at least one Apple product.

“This whole segment of the economy that didn’t have a lot of activity, suddenly has activity. The Apple workers (possibly) going on strike is going to be a spark for other workers,” Bronfenbrenner said.

“At Apple we work hard to provide an excellent experience for our retail team members and empower them to deliver exceptional service for our customers. We deeply value our team members and we’re proud to provide them with industry leading compensation and exceptional benefits. As always, we will engage with the union representing our team in Towson respectfully and in good faith,” an Apple spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CNN.

A possible strike

The Maryland workers are considering a strike because after over a year of negotiations, management had yet to come up with solutions to core issues such as “work-life balance, unpredictable scheduling practices that disrupt personal lives, and wages that do not reflect the cost of living in the area,” a release by the union said.

A strike sanction vote doesn’t mean the store is going on strike. It’s one step of a longer process that ends with a final strike authorization vote.

The workers at the Maryland Apple store are members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Coalition of Organized Retail Employees (IAM COTE).

“This strike sanction vote sends a strong message that the workers want Apple to recognize the need for an equitable and respectful work environment for all its employees,” IAM District 4 Directing Business Representative Jay Wadleigh said in a statement.

The Maryland store has an ongoing complaint filed against Apple, which alleges the company provided improved health and education benefits to non-union employees and not the unionized employees.

Bronfenbrenner said a big motivation behind organizing is the gap between corporate profits in America’s biggest companies – such as Apple, Amazon and Google – and worker wages and benefits, especially for workers in retail stores or warehouses.

“There’s just a lot of anger. And the corporations like Apple have made huge profits while the workers feel like their wages have stagnated,” Bronfenbrenner said.

Union drives in full swing

Apple, like other big companies, is cracking down on union activities. The NLRB found that Apple went too far in trying to crack down on a union drive in New York City.

The NLRB ruled this month that Apple unlawfully interrogated employees and confiscated and prohibited union flyers while allowing non-union materials at the World Trade Center location in 2022.

The NLRB held up the US Labor Board judge’s decision from last year – which was the first time a labor judge ruled against Apple. The affirmation from the NLRB is a win for labor organizers.

But across the river in New Jersey, there is a union election for employees in Short Hills, a New York City suburb.

There are other unfair labor practice complaints against Apple before labor judges at the moment.

Similar to New York City, workers in Atlanta issued a complaint in 2022 alleging Apple illegally interrogated employees about union support and tried to convince them not to join one.

The labor action is not just taking place at Apple’s front-facing retail stores. In its Cupertino, California, headquarters, a decision is pending for a complaint that alleged Apple illegally fired, disciplined, threatened and interrogated an employee for “engaging in protected concerted activity.”

Big Tech, traditionally seen as a prestigious and secure field, has been hit with mass layoffs. These workers “tend to be higher paid positions and more technological positions. And those are workers that traditionally were not seen as organizing,” Bronfenbrenner said.

In a statement regarding the open complaints, Apple said “We strongly deny these claims and look forward to providing the full set of facts to the NLRB.”

CNN’s Catherine Thorbecke contributed to this report.

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Eating ultraprocessed foods is associated with an early risk of death, according to a 30-year study — but different foods have different impacts.

Ultraprocessed foods are those that contain ingredients “never or rarely used in kitchens, or classes of additives whose function is to make the final product palatable or more appealing,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Those ingredients — found in things such as sodas, chips, packaged soups, nuggets and ice cream — can include preservatives against mold or bacteria, artificial coloring, emulsifiers to stop separation, and added or altered sugar, salt and fats to make food more appealing.

Processed meats and sugary foods and drinks aren’t correlated with the same risks as ultraprocessed whole grains, for example, said lead study author Dr. Mingyang Song, associate professor of clinical epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health.

The study analyzed data from more than 100,000 health professionals in the United States with no history of cancer, cardiovascular disease or diabetes. From 1986 to 2018, the participants provided information on their health and lifestyle habits every two years.

Every four years, they completed a detailed food questionnaire.

The group eating the least ultraprocessed food ate about three servings a day on average, while the highest averaged seven servings a day, according to the study published Wednesday in The BMJ journal.

Those who ate the most had a 4% higher risk of deaths by any cause, including a 9% increased risk of neurodegenerative deaths, the data showed.

Song described the correlation as “moderate,” noting that the connection was not equally strong among all kinds of ultraprocessed foods.

“The positive association is mainly driven by a few subgroups including processed meat and sugar sweetened or artificially sweetened beverages,” he said.

Findings in this study were consistent with hundreds of others in the field, but what makes this one unique is its parsing out of different subgroups within the ultraprocessed food category, said Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

Do we need to get rid of all ultraprocessed foods?

“Cereals, whole grain breads, for example, they are also considered ultraprocessed food, but they contain various beneficial nutrients like fiber, vitamins and minerals,” he said. “On the other hand, I do think people should try to avoid or limit the consumption of certain ultraprocessed foods, such as processed meat, sugar-sweetened beverages and also potentially artificially sweetened beverages.”

There are also more questions that need to be answered when it comes to ultraprocessed foods.

First, the recent study is strong because of the length of time covered, but it is an observational study. That means that while researchers can observe a correlation, they can’t say that the foods were the cause of the deaths, said Dr. Peter Wilde, emeritus fellow at Quadram Institute Bioscience in the United Kingdom.

Researchers also need to look more at the components of ultraprocessed foods that might be affecting health — whether they be food additives, emulsifiers or flavors — to advise governments and institutions on how to regulate foods, Song said.

Overall diet matters most

Researchers also found that the most important factor to reducing risk of death is the quality of a person’s overall diet, Song said.

“If people maintain a generally healthy diet, I don’t think they need to be like scared or be freaked out,” he said. “The overall dietary pattern is still the predominant factor determining the health outcomes.”

A healthy diet is varied, with as many colorful fruits and vegetables and whole grains as possible, Wilde said.

“If you are worried about food additives, then choose foods that have low levels of additives,” he said in an email. “Just be mindful of the nutritional content of (the ultraprocessed foods) that you do choose to consume.”

It is also important to recognize that foods need to be eaten in balance. Fruit juice contains beneficial vitamins, minerals and antioxidants when consumed in moderation, but too much will have high levels of sugar that may override their benefits, Wilde said.

“This is not black and white,” he said. “A particular food is not either good or bad, it will contain elements of both, and the balance between the two may depend on how much you eat.”

The-CNN-Wire & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

New York — Disney is curbing password sharing for its Disney+ streaming service as part of a larger effort to boost signups and revenue.

CEO Bob Iger, in a CNBC interview on Thursday, said its popular Disney+ streaming service will start cracking down on password sharing in June in some countries and more broadly in September. Although Disney+ and Disney’s other streaming services’ terms of service explicitly prevent customers from impersonating someone else by using their username or password, it hasn’t been broadly enforcing its policy.

Hulu, one of Disney’s other streaming services, began limiting how often customers can share account login information outside their households starting on March 14.

The crackdown comes as its rival Netflix has attributed a jump in signups from its recent crackdown on password sharing. Shortly after the crackdown went into effect last May, Netflix added 100,000 new accounts on the following two days, according to data from Antenna. Netflix had also achieved a more than 100% increase in sign-ups from the prior 60-day average.

A similar boost at Disney could help move the company’s streaming platform toward profitability. Disney+ continues to lose money, although the company said it expects to turn a profit soon.

“Netflix is the gold standard in streaming,” Iger said in the interview. “They’ve done a phenomenal job and a lot of different directions. I actually have very, very high regard for what they’ve accomplished. If we can only accomplish what they’ve accomplished, that would be great.”

Iger also said Disney+ has also consolidated its streaming business but didn’t elaborate on which departments or roles.

The password crackdown had been expected for months. On an earnings call with investors last year, Iger said a looming crackdown would help Disney grow.

“We certainly have established this as a real priority,” Iger said on Disney’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call. “We actually think that there’s an opportunity here to help us grow our business.”

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Washington — President Joe Biden’s plans to deliver widespread student debt relief were dealt a serious blow last year when the Supreme Court struck down his one-time student loan forgiveness program. But he has still managed to cancel more federal student loan debt than any other president.

As the November election gets closer, Biden’s team is eager to tout what he’s done to address student loan debt – with the administration recently sending congratulatory emails to 153,000 debt-relief recipients – even if his actions fall short of some Democrats’ expectations.

Since taking office, Biden’s administration has approved the cancellation of about $138 billion in federal student loans – wiping out debts for about 3.9 million borrowers – by using a number of existing programs that aim to offer debt relief for certain groups of struggling borrowers.

The amount Biden has canceled is equal to nearly 9% of the $1.6 trillion of federal student loan debt currently held by borrowers.

It’s about one-third of the amount of student loan debt that would have been canceled by his broad forgiveness program. About $430 billion would have been forgiven last year if the Supreme Court had allowed that program to take effect.

How Biden is canceling student debt despite the Supreme Court ruling

The Supreme Court ruled that the executive branch does not have the authority to implement Biden’s broad forgiveness program, which would have canceled up to $20,000 for borrowers who make less than $125,000 a year.

The one-time cancellation program would have benefited millions of people, but it drew some criticism because it would not have helped future borrowers or addressed the larger issue of the rising cost of college.

What Biden has been doing – before and after the Supreme Court ruling – is using existing student loan forgiveness programs to deliver relief to certain groups of borrowers, like public-sector workers (through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program) and borrowers who were defrauded by their college (through the borrower defense to repayment program). His administration also made discharges for borrowers who are totally and permanently disabled.

None of these programs expire, meaning they will help qualifying borrowers now and in the future. In some cases, Biden’s administration has expanded the reach of these programs, making more borrowers eligible.

And in other cases, it has made an effort to correct past administrative errors made to borrowers’ student loan accounts by conducting a one-time recount of borrowers’ past payments. This effort helps make sure people receive the loan forgiveness they may already qualify for by having made at least 20 years of payments in an income-driven plan, which calculates monthly payment amounts based on a borrower’s income and family size, rather than the amount owed. The recount is expected to be completed by July.

Many of the Biden administration’s actions have helped chip away at a backlog of student loan forgiveness applications left over from the Trump administration, which tried to limit some debt-relief programs and slowed processing of applications.

Last year, the administration created a new income-driven repayment plan. Known as SAVE, the new plan offers the most generous terms for low-income borrowers. Those who originally borrowed $12,000 or less will see their remaining debt canceled after making payments for at least 10 years.

Will Biden get political credit?

In a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in January, 46% of US adults said Biden has the “best approach” to lowering student debt burdens, compared with 22% who said Donald Trump does.

But Biden’s actions have fallen short of what other Democratic leaders – like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren – repeatedly called for when he came to office. They wanted the president to cancel $50,000 of student loan debt per borrower – an amount Biden argued was too high.

Still, the Biden administration is working on implementing another path toward a broad student loan forgiveness program, this time relying on a different legal authority in hopes that this attempt holds up in court. This proposal is currently making its way through a lengthy rulemaking process and has yet to be finalized.

The-CNN-Wire & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Bloomin’ Brands revealed in an earnings call last week that it closed 41 “underperforming locations” across the brands it owns, including Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s.

Also see: San Francisco mayor: Iconic Macy’s store at Union Square among 150 set to close

The closures hit Outback Steakhouses the hardest, the company said in the call.

Bloomin’ said it closed the locations because of a “variety of factors,” including sales, shrinking customer traffic and financial investments that were too costly to improve the locations. Plus, a “majority of these restaurants were older assets with leases from the ’90s and early 2000s,” according to Bloomin’ CEO David Deno.

The company didn’t release a list of closed restaurants.

Of the 41 closures across the brands, 33 restaurants were closed Feb. 23, a Bloomin’ spokesperson told Nation’s Restaurants News.

“Closing restaurants is never easy,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “This was a business decision that has no reflection on the staff or their service. Many team members will have the opportunity to transfer to open positions at another restaurant. Employees who do not will receive severance.”

However, Outback said it plans to open as many as 18 new restaurants in the US this year, reflecting a redesigned restaurant layout that it unveiled in 2022. It has about 700 locations in the US.

Sales in the fourth quarter at Outback struggled, sliding 0.3%, as well as at Bonefish, which fell 3%. Carrabba’s was actually a bright spot, with same-store sales up 2.5%. The stock price for Bloomin’ rose more than 6% in the past five days, topping $28 at one point.

In total, Bloomin’ plans to open as many as 45 restaurants across all of its brands in the coming year.

VinFast, a Vietnamese electric vehicles maker new to the US market and based in Los Angeles, revealed plans Tuesday to go after America’s popular pickup market.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Vinfast unveiled the VF Wild, a mid-sized electric pickup. Although the VF Wild is officially a concept vehicle, VinFast executives indicated they intend to put a truck like it into production.

“This is not just a new product in our offering — it showcases our aspiration to venture into the fast-paced and thriving electric pickup truck market,” Tran Mai Hoa, VinFast’s deputy chief executive for sales and marketing said in an announcement.

The VF Wild is a little shorter, bumper to bumper, than a Toyota Tacoma or Ford Ranger mid-sized pickup. Similar to other modern mid-size pickups, it has four doors, two rows of seats and a cargo bed that’s about five feet long.

The back wall of the passenger compartment of the VF Wild, though, can fold down leaving it open to the cargo bed in the back. When the back wall of the passenger compartment opens up, the back seats also fold down, allowing items as long as eight feet to be carried in the combined cab and cargo bed. This is similar to a feature General Motors currently offers on its Chevrolet Silverado EV electric pickup.

The VF Wild’s small size means it won’t be competing directly against full-sized electric pickups like the Silverado EV, Ford F-150 Lightning and the Tesla Cybertruck. It’s also smaller than the Rivian R1T.

The squarish two-door VF 3 is extremely small, even smaller than other subcompact vehicles currently on sale in the US. It’s considerably shorter, front to back, than a Kia Rio or Nissan Versa. VinFast promises “ample” interior space, however.

It’s extremely small size limits the number of battery cells it can carry, though so the VF 3 can only go about 125 miles on a charge, according to the automaker. That’s less than a lot of EVs currently on the market.

VinFast did not disclose pricing for the VF 3.

VinFast has faced some issues in the US market. Its first vehicle offered for sale here, the VF 8 luxury, received some scathing early reviews from prominent auto critics. In response, VinFast later said it had made improvements to the vehicle based on some of the journalists’ comments.

Founded in 2017 as part of Vietnam’s Vingroup, a conglomerate that’s involved in everything from theme parks to real estate, hospitals and data management, VinFast quickly focused solely on electric vehicles.

The company is currently building a factory in North Carolina to supply electric vehicles for the American market.

After dropping under 7% in early December for the first time since mid-August, rates fell again this week.

Also see: California homebuying crashed to record low sales in 2023. What’s next?

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate fell to an average of 6.61% in the week ending Dec. 28, down from 6.67% the previous week, according to data from Freddie Mac released Thursday. A year ago, the average 30-year fixed-rate was 6.42%.

It was the ninth-straight week of declines, dragged lower by the anticipation of Federal Reserve rate cuts beginning next year.

The average mortgage rate is based on mortgage applications that Freddie Mac receives from thousands of lenders across the country. The survey includes only borrowers who put 20% down and have excellent credit. A current buyer’s rate may be different.

“The rapid descent of mortgage rates over the last two months stabilized a bit this week, but rates continue to trend down,” Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist said in a statement on Thursday.

However, Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu cautioned not to read too much into the latest mortgage rates, saying in a statement that it is “a general ‘noisy’ period during this time of year due to holiday-driven fluctuations.”

Looking ahead to 2024

Economists are expecting further declines in mortgage rates heading into 2024.

Fed officials recently forecast a median of three rate cuts next year. If they happen, they’d likely put downward pressure on mortgage rates.

While the central bank does not set the interest rates that borrowers pay on mortgages directly, its actions influence them.

Mortgage rates track the yield on 10-year US Treasuries, which move up or down based on anticipation about the Fed’s actions, the Fed’s policy changes and investors’ reactions to them.

For the time being, the drop in mortgage rates “hasn’t translated into a substantial sales recovery yet,” Xu said. That’s because a lack of housing inventory has helped prop up home prices.

That said, Khater predicts “a nascent rebound in the housing market” in the coming year if inflation continues to decelerate.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that from at least 2015 through 2021, Citi “targeted” retail services credit card applicants whom employees associated with Armenian national origin.

“Citi treated Armenian Americans as criminals who were likely to commit fraud,” the CFPB alleged.

Citi applied more stringent criteria to suspected Armenian Americans’ applications, including “denying them outright,” placing blocks on the accounts and requiring additional information, according to the regulator.

The bank then “hid” the discrimination by giving consumers “false reasons” for credit denials, the CFPB said.

“Regrettably, in trying to thwart a well-documented Armenian fraud ring operating in certain parts of California, a few employees took impermissible actions,” Citi spokesperson Karen Kearns said in a statement to CNN. “While we prioritize protecting our bank and our customers from fraud, it is unacceptable to base credit decisions on national origin.”

The Citi spokesperson added that after an internal investigation, the bank took “appropriate actions” against those involved and imposed steps to prevent this from happening again.

”We sincerely apologize to any applicant who was evaluated unfairly by the small number of employees who circumvented our fraud detection protocols,” the Citi spokesperson said.