Honda recalls Accords for different air-bag issue

Auto lender must refund $2.28 million to veterans

An Ohio-based auto lender that specializes in loans to service members has been ordered to refund or credit $2.28 million to consumers for engaging in what the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says were illegal debt-collection practices.

The Security National Automotive Acceptance Co. also has been ordered to pay a $1 million penalty and stop using aggressive tactics such as exaggeration, deception and threats to contact commanding officers to get service members to make payments.

The company, based in Mason, near Cincinnati, operates in more than two dozen states.

Honda is recalling more than 300,000 Accord midsize cars in the U.S. because the side air bags can inflate if a door is slammed too hard.

The recall covers the 2008 and 2009 model years of the Accord, which is manufactured in Marysville, Ohio.

Honda said the side-impact sensor can activate the side curtain and side-seat air bags if there’s a non-vehicle impact to the car’s lower body or a door is shut with extreme force. The ignition has to be on for the problem to happen.

Nineteen people have filed injury claims with Honda because of the problem.

The company said dealers will update software to adjust the threshold for air-bag inflation. Customers are to get recall notices in the mail starting in mid-December.

Ohioan returned from Peru to face trial on Ponzi scheme

One day after returning to the U.S. after more than a decade, an Ohio man pleaded not guilty in federal court in Akron on Thursday to charges filed in 2003 for what authorities say was a $65 million Ponzi scheme.

Eric Bartoli, 61, remained in custody after declining to ask for bond during a hearing.

FBI agents returned Bartoli to the United States on Wednesday from Lima, Peru, where he had been held for two years. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Cleveland said it’s unclear how long he had lived there.

Bartoli fled the U.S. after failing to appear at a hearing in 1999 related to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Authorities say Bartoli and three partners created a Doylestown, Ohio-based business called Cyprus Funds that raised $65 million from around 800 investors in the U.S. and Latin America between 1995 and 1999. Investors were paid back about half the money collected, authorities say.

Bartoli was indicted in 2003.