Three former enforcement attorneys of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have joined the advocacy group Protect Borrowers as senior fellows to launch a new litigation project focused on the "weaponization of corporate power that is plunging working people into financial crisis."

Protect Borrowers announced Wednesday that Eric Halperin, Cara Petersen, and Tara Mikkilineni have joined the organization to work on a new initiative that will "use legal and policy levers to challenge products and practices that exploit workers, consumers, and small business owners."

The announcement comes as the CFPB has significantly scaled back its enforcement actions and priorities in recent months under the Trump administration.

Under acting Director Russell Vought, a Trump appointee, supervision and enforcement at the CFPB has largely ground to a halt since February. No new contested actions have been brought, and the agency has dismissed or rolled back more than 40 pending or settled cases.

Most recently, the bureau lifted a consent order against TransUnion LLC, which had subjected the company to compliance monitoring and reporting provisions, and required TransUnion and its subsidiaries to pay a $5 million fine to the CFPB and $3 million to consumers.

According to Protect Borrowers' announcement, Halperin and Peterson previously served as enforcement director and deputy enforcement director, respectively, for the CFPB. Mikkilineni was a senior adviser to CFPB enforcement leadership.

The announcement states that between 2021 and 2025, the trio led a team at the agency that secured more than $9.5 billion in penalties and payments to consumers. They plan to use their experience to drive litigation that will "challenge entrenched and emerging corporate abuses," the announcement states.

Halperin told Law360 on Wednesday that the indicators of deep economic pain for consumers are "flashing bright red," while corporate profits are "skyrocketing."

"That is not a coincidence. With no federal enforcement apparatus to ensure corporations are held accountable to the public, it's only too easy for corporations to fleece consumers to line their pocketbooks," he said. "We are thrilled to be incubating a strategic litigation project at Protect Borrowers that so closely aligns with their mission to fight for families that are drowning in debt and struggling to make ends meet."

"The strategic litigation project at Protect Borrowers will take on entrenched and emerging corporate abuses, developing litigation strategies that address the products and practices that cause the most risk and harm to consumers," Halperin added. "And it is going to help build what is needed outside of the federal government to address the gap created by the Trump administration's abandonment of working Americans and small businesses."

Protect Borrowers' Executive Director Mike Pierce further stated: "With federal law enforcers asleep at the wheel, corporations have been given a free pass to ignore the law and trample on Americans' rights. We need an all-hands-on-deck approach to protecting working people from these abuses."

The CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.