WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by online lender CashCall Inc., leaving in place a $134 million restitution order to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and ending a 12-year legal battle over high-interest loans the agency said violated consumer-protection laws.
The justices’ decision not to grant review lets stand a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that upheld a federal district court’s judgment requiring CashCall to pay more than $134 million to compensate borrowers who were charged illegal interest and fees.
The case stems from a CFPB lawsuit filed in 2013 accusing the California-based lender of using a so-called “rent-a-tribe” arrangement to evade state usury limits. The agency said CashCall partnered with Western Sky Financial, an online lender claiming affiliation with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, to originate loans with annual percentage rates that in some cases exceeded 300%.
The Regulators’ Argument
Regulators argued the arrangement was deceptive because CashCall, not the tribal entity, effectively funded, purchased and serviced the loans while asserting that tribal sovereignty shielded the lending from state interest-rate caps. Federal courts agreed, finding the lender engaged in unfair, deceptive or abusive acts by attempting to collect interest and fees to which it was not legally entitled.
The litigation has moved through multiple rounds of appeals. In January 2025, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court order requiring CashCall to pay roughly $134 million in restitution to affected borrowers, rejecting the company’s arguments that it was entitled to a jury trial and challenging the amount of the award. CashCall later petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case, but the high court declined to take it up this week, effectively ending the dispute and leaving the restitution order intact.
