New York Paralegal Blog

(NYAG) Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced results of a landmark investigation with the New York State Department of Banking into discriminatory practices in the mortgage brokerage industry. In the first law enforcement action of its kind in New York State, two mortgage brokerage companies – HCI Mortgage and Consumer One Mortgage – will collectively pay $665,000 in restitution to approximately 455 Black and Latino borrowers who were illegally charged higher fees than similarly-situated White borrowers. The companies collectively operate more than 20 branches throughout New York State. The Attorney General also filed a lawsuit in federal district court against another mortgage brokerage company – U.S. Capital Funding, LLC – that engaged in similar discriminatory practices. “The blatant discrimination in this case is as illegal as it is inexcusable,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “These customers were charged significantly higher fees for no reason other than being ...

(NYOAG) SYRACUSE, N.Y. (December 23, 2008) – Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that his office has secured full health insurance coverage for a Central New York breast cancer patient’s life-saving diagnostic test and treatments after they had been repeatedly denied. Christine Langlois of Onondaga County learned that she had suffered a recurrence of breast cancer in late 2006. Her claim for a doctor ordered Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan was denied by her health insurer, Excellus, as was an appeal to the state Insurance Department. Additionally, her subsequent radiation treatments were likewise denied. She then told her story during the Health Care breakout session at the Attorney General’s Community Forum at the State Fairgrounds in November. Once Attorney General Cuomo heard about her situation, he directed his Health Care Bureau to contact the company and was able to reverse the decision. More...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (July 8, 2008) – Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that M & M Medical Transport, Inc., and its owner, Murtada S. Ebrahim, pleaded guilty to stealing $971,267 from Medicaid, and have agreed to pay full restitution to the state. From January 1, 2003 to December 6, 2007, Ebrahim and his company, which offered taxi and ambulette services to Medicaid recipients from Monroe and Wayne counties, defrauded Medicaid by filing claims to Medicaid for reimbursement for services provided by unqualified drivers. Ebrahim, 45, of Sedgefield Court in Irondequoit, also filed a false report with the Department of Motor Vehicles, which covered up an accident involving one of M & M’s ambulette drivers who abandoned an elderly, wheelchair-bound patient at the scene. See, NY State Attorney General

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (June 25, 2008) - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that his office has obtained a court order barring an Oswego County garage builder who defrauded homeowners in Central New York from operating in the home improvement business. The order, issued by Judge James Murphy in Onondaga County Supreme Court as a result of a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Cuomo’s Office, bars David F. Bourlier of County Rte. 10 in Pennellville, owner of Arrowhead Garage Builders, from operating in the home improvement business in New York state unless he posts a $75,000 performance bond with the state. The order also requires Bourlier to pay eleven consumers restitution totaling $82,562.52, plus costs and penalties to the state.

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 19, 2008) – Governor David A. Paterson and Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo jointly announced today that the Governor, the counties of Oneida and Madison, and State of New York have filed a lawsuit to overturn an administrative decision by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs authorizing the transfer of more than 13,000 acres of land in Oneida and Madison Counties from being taken into trust for the Oneida Indian Nation. The State will argue that Secretary Kempthorne’s decision is unconstitutional, because New York State has continuously exercised jurisdiction over its lands since the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, including the lands which are the subject of the land into trust decision, and has never consented to the removal of such land from State jurisdiction. The U.S. Constitution does not grant to the United States the authority to remove land from a State’s jurisdiction for the purpose of providing such l...

NEW YORK, NY (June 10, 2008) – Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced landmark agreements with Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Sprint to shut down major sources of online child pornography. For the first time, three of the world’s largest Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”) have agreed to block access to child porn from two significant sources. The companies will eliminate access to child porn Newsgroups, a major supplier of these illegal images, and will also purge their servers of child porn websites. “The pervasiveness of child pornography on the Internet is horrific and it needs to be stopped,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “We are attacking this problem by working with Internet Service Providers to ensure they do not play host to this immoral business. I commend the companies that have stepped up today to embrace a new standard of responsibility, which should serve as a model for the entire industry.”