Law Blog
Stay informed of the latest announcements relating to financial fraud law.
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 6:54pm
A federal grand jury has indicted Rolando Alonzo Cousins of Bowie, Maryland, for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering, in connection with a “massive” mortgage fraud scheme that promised to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes and repair their damaged credit, but left them homeless and with no equity.
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 1:01pm
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”) says there is a "look-alike" Web site for a fictitious organization that is mimicking the SIPC Web site in an apparent attempt to target Madoff victims.
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 9:44am
The Special Counsel for Development for the Village of Calumet Park, Illinois, has been charged in connection with an alleged fraudulent over-billing scheme that authorities say has cost the community over $1 million.
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 8:53am
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Robert Moore, former executive managing director for the Bank of Montreal’s (BMO) Commodity Derivatives Group, has entered into a consent order with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission relating to allegations of mis-marking and mis-valuing BMO’s natural gas options book by the trader he supervised.
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 6:57am
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There’s an interesting article in the current issue of The National Law Journal, by Karen Sloan, to which law firms should pay particular attention. The gist is that hackers are seeking to penetrate law firm computer networks to obtain, among other things, client secrets and details of pending transactions.
Tue, 03/09/2010 - 6:47am
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A California man, Anthony Digati, has been arrested on charges of attempting to extort approximately $200,000 from a New York-based life insurance company by threatening to make false public statements and transmit computer spam in an effort to damage the reputation of the company and cost it millions of dollars in revenue.
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 10:26am
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The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has started publishing a list of the individuals and businesses who owe the most taxes to the state; it will update the lists monthly. One of the Top 250 on the individual list – owing $984,280.86 - is Bernard Madoff. By the way, he is number 68.
Mon, 03/08/2010 - 7:17am
The story of the former mayor of Birmingham, AL, Larry Langford, just got stranger. Sure, Langford had been charged with bribery. Sure, a federal jury decided Langford actually had taken bribes in exchange for getting bond business to an investment banker. And sure, on this past Friday, a judge sent Langford to prison for 15 years and fined him $360,000. But it also turns out that Langford has a friend who owns a bingo casino, at which
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 11:18am
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William D. Cohan has an interesting column online for the Times today entitled, “A Wall Street Witch Hunt,” which discusses the February 12, 1987 arrest on insider trading charges, and subsequent guilty plea to a count of mail fraud, of a senior Goldman Sachs executive, Robert Freeman. The column tells an interesting story – but don’t miss the scathing comments from readers.
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 10:19am
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Republican Senator Tom Coburn has suggested that the federal government could cut health care costs by cutting fraud. True, and sensible. To do so, he also suggested that the federal government send undercover agents posing as patients to hospitals and doctors. Our take: this is sick.
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 8:17am
On quite a large number of occasions in recent months, we have referred to N.Y. State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo as the next governor of N.Y., while charting his extensive financial fraud prosecutions. It looks like our prediction is going to be proven incorrect. No, Cuomo is not bowing out of the race.
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 8:02am
Theodore V. Wells Jr. (pictured), a partner in the Paul Weiss law firm and a well-known and highly regarded white collar criminal defense lawyer, is now advising N.Y. Governor David Paterson.
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 7:50am
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The American Lawyer magazine has an article this month, by Ben Hallman, on the new enforcement director of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Robert Khuzami. Entitled, "Second Acts," it begins with a discussion of the insider trading case indictments involving the Galleon Group and Raj Rajaratnam, including this quotation from Khuzami from his prepared remarks last November announcing the indictments:
Fri, 03/05/2010 - 6:58am
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a self-proclaimed psychic with fraudulently raising $6 million by telling investors he could predict stock market highs and lows. The SEC's charges were filed against Sean David Morton, who bills himself as "America's Prophet," as well as three corporate entities that Morton co-owns with his wife Melissa Morton under the umbrella of the Delphi Associates Investment Group. .jpg)
Two subsidiaries of American International Group Inc. have agreed to pay a minimum of $6.1 million to resolve allegations that they engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against African American borrowers, representatives of President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force ("FFETF") announced today. 
