New York Paralegal Blog

The November 4, 2025, indictment of Bradley Heppner, former CEO and Chairman of GWG Holdings, Inc., shines a stark light on the serious consequences awaiting executives who allegedly abuse their positions for personal gain. This case, which ultimately led to GWG's bankruptcy and over a billion dollars in losses for thousands of retail investors, involves a web of alleged financial fraud and deception. Here is a breakdown of the core legal principles and the potential penalties for the alleged crimes. The Alleged Crimes: A Breach of Trust and Market Integrity Heppner's indictment encompasses a range of serious charges, all centered on the alleged fraudulent extraction of funds from a public company. These include: Securities Fraud: This is at the heart of the matter. When a company sells securities (like GWG's L Bonds) to the public, it must provide accurate and truthful information. Securities fraud charges typically arise when someone makes false or misleading ...

In a significant victory against health care fraud, Gary Cox, the 79-year-old CEO of Power Mobility Doctor Rx, LLC (DMERx), was convicted by a federal jury on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.  Cox was found guilty for his central role in a sophisticated conspiracy that generated false doctors' orders, leading to fraudulent bills to Medicare and other federal health care programs exceeding  $1 billion . According to the Department of Justice, Cox and his co-conspirators operated an internet-based platform, DMERx, which served as the hub for this extensive fraud. The scheme targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries through misleading mailers, television advertisements, and calls from offshore call centers. These tactics were used to obtain beneficiaries' personal information and their agreement to accept medically unnecessary items like orthotic braces and pain creams. Here's how the scheme worked: DMERx connected pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, a...

WASHINGTON – Roland Kaufmann, CEO of Axius Inc., pleaded guilty today in Brooklyn for conspiring to bribe stock brokers, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta E. Lynch.

Two days after JP Morgan Chase & Co revealed it lost billions of dollars on bad trades, CEO Jamie Dimon said the embattled bank was "sloppy" and had committed errors in judgment.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ANTHONY CUTI, the former chief executive officer (“CEO”), chairman of the board, and president of Duane Reade, Inc. (“Duane Reade”) was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to three years in prison for perpetrating a scheme to falsely inflate the income and reduce the expenses that Duane Reade reported. CUTI was convicted in June 2010 after a two-month jury trial. U.S. District Judge DEBORAH A. BATTS imposed today’s sentence.

WASHINGTON—The former chief executive officer (CEO) of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW) was sentenced today to 40 months in prison for his role in a more than $2.9 billion fraud scheme that contributed to the failure of TBW. At one time, TBW was one of the largest privately held mortgage lending companies in the United States. Paul Allen was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia. The sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia; Acting Special Inspector General Christy Romero for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP); Assistant Director in Charge James W. McJunkin of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Michael P. Stephens, Deputy Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD-OIG); Jon T. Rymer, Inspector General of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC-OIG); Steve A. Li...

MANHATTAN - PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JOSEPH M. DEMAREST, JR., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI"), announced the arrest this morning of HASSAN NEMAZEE, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nemazee Capital Corporation, in connection with a scheme to defraud Citibank, N.A. ("Citibank"). According to the Complaint filed in Manhattan federal court: NEMAZEE engaged in a fraudulent scheme to induce Citibank to lend up to $74 million to NEMAZEE based on false representations that NEMAZEE owned millions of dollars in collateral. NEMAZEE submitted, and caused to be submitted, to Citibank numerous documents that purported to establish the existence of accounts in NEMAZEE's name at various financial institutions containing many hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, those were fraudulent and forged documents. Specifically, the various ac...

WASHINGTON – A federal jury today convicted Lance K. Poulsen, former president, owner and chief executive officer of National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE) of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering, Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Gregory G. Lockhart for the Southern District of Ohio announced. The charges stemmed from a scheme to deceive investors about the financial health of NCFE that cost investors more than $2 billion. The company, which was based in Dublin, Ohio, was one of the largest healthcare finance companies in the United States until it filed for bankruptcy in November 2002. The Columbus, Ohio, jury convicted Poulsen, 65, after a four-week trial on all 12 charged counts contained in a July 2007 superseding indictment, including one count of conspiracy, six counts of securities fraud, one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and three counts of concealment money laundering. At tri...