New York Paralegal Blog

URBANA, Ill. - BASF Corporation will pay $500,000 to settle a retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against Cognis Corporation, the EEOC announced today. BASF acquired Cognis in 2010.

JACKSON, Miss. - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) announced today that it has filed a lawsuit for race discrimination and retaliation against Dollar General Corporation, asserting that it violated federal law when it denied a black lead sales associate in a Long Beach, Miss., store a promotion to a vacant assistant store manager position because of her race. The EEOC said the store also retaliated against her for complaining, and filing a charge of discrimination with the EEOC.

RAJIV GOEL, a former executive at Intel Corporation (“Intel”), was sentenced today to two years of probation for his participation in an insider trading scheme in which GOEL provided material, nonpublic information (“Inside Information”) about Intel to Raj Rajaratnam, the head of Galleon Group (“Galleon”). Rajaratnam then traded based, in part, on the Inside Information. GOEL pled guilty in February 2010 to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of securities fraud pursuant to a cooperation agreement with the government. He was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones.

WASHINGTON — A Detroit federal grand jury returned an indictment today against three former executives from Panasonic Corporation, a Whirlpool Corporation subsidiary and a Tecumseh Products Company subsidiary for their role in an international conspiracy to fix the prices of refrigerant compressors, which are used in refrigerators and freezers in homes and businesses, the Department of Justice announced.

BALTIMORE -- A Washington, D.C.-based security services company, DTM Corporation, violated federal law by subjecting employees to pregnancy discrimination and retaliation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today. DTM is a government contractor doing business for the U.S. Department of Defense at Fort Washington, Md., and has an office in Silver Spring, Md.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that SAMIR BARAI, a/k/a “Sam Barai,” a portfolio manager at two different New York based hedge funds, and SON NGOC NGUYEN, a/k/a “Sonny,” an employee in the finance department of NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”), pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to charges arising out of their involvement in separate insider trading schemes. BARAI, who had previously been arrested on February 8, 2011, and charged in a criminal complaint, also pled guilty to additional charges, including obstruction of justice, in connection with the insider trading scheme. According to the informations to which BARAI and NGUYEN pled guilty, statements made during the plea proceedings, and other court documents: Between 2006 and 2010, BARAI worked as a portfolio manager at two hedge funds located in New York, New York. During that time period he and his co-conspirators, including DONALD LONGUEUIL, NOAH FREEMAN, JASON ...

WASHINGTON—Two Miami-area corporations, American Therapeutic Corporation (ATC) and Medlink Professional Management Group Inc., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Miami for a fraud scheme that resulted in the submission of more than $200 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced. According to court documents, ATC is a Florida corporation headquartered in Miami that operated purported partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) in seven different locations throughout South Florida and Orlando, Fla. A PHP is a form of intensive treatment for severe mental illness. Medlink is a Florida corporation headquartered in Miami that purported to act as a “management company” for health care businesses. In reality, ATC and a related company, the American Sleep Institute (ASI), were Medlink’s only clients. ATC and Medlink are each charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud in a superseding indictment unsealed...

BOSTON—A Leominster man was sentenced today in federal court for conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with a multi-million-dollar scheme run from a former plastics company in Lunenburg, the Gitto/Global Corporation. GARY C. GITTO, 49, of Lunenburg, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 59 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was further ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $23 million. GITTO previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering on October 4, 2010. At the earlier plea hearing, the prosecutor told the court that had the case proceeded to trial, the government’s evidence would have proven that during the period 1998 through September 2004, the principals of Gitto/Global Corporation, a plastics manufacturer in Lunenburg, were engaged in a complex scheme to defraud the company’s secured lenders by systematically overstating the company’s sales and inventory, thereby inducing the...

NEWARK, N.J. - A New Jersey-based defense contracting company and its president pleaded guilty Monday to contracting fraud following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Eric Helf, 38, president of Staff Manufacturing Corporation (Staff Gasket), admitted April 18 to military contract procurement fraud for selling replacement parts for use in military operations, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Staff Gasket also pleaded guilty to violating the Arms Export Control Act. Staff Gasket, located in Alpine, N.J., pleaded guilty to two charges of wire fraud and an export control violation. Helf, of New York, N.Y., pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme. Both Helf and the company entered guilty pleas before U.S. District Judge William J. Martini in Newark federal court. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, from August ...

WASHINGTON – CVS Pharmacy Inc., the retail pharmacy division of CVS Caremark Corporation that operates more than 7,000 retail pharmacies in 41 states and the District of Columbia, has agreed to pay the United States and 10 states $17.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations, the Justice Department announced on 4/15/2011. The settlement resolves allegations that CVS submitted inflated prescription claims to the government by billing the Medicaid programs in Alabama, California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Nevada and Rhode Island for more than what CVS was owed for prescription drugs dispensed to Medicaid beneficiaries who were also eligible for benefits under a primary third party insurance plan (excluding Medicare as the primary payor). The United States alleged that rather than billing the government for what the insured would have been obligated to pay had the claims been submitted solely to the third party insurer (typically the...

As part of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers from bogus health claims, the Federal Trade Commission has reached a settlement requiring Oreck Corporation to stop making allegedly false and unproven claims that two of its appliances can reduce the risk of flu and other illnesses, and eliminate virtually all common germs and allergens. The company also has agreed to pay $750,000 to the FTC. The FTC’s allegations involve the Oreck Halo vacuum and the Oreck ProShield Plus air cleaner. The Halo is an upright vacuum cleaner with a light chamber that generates ultraviolet light onto the floor while vacuuming. The ProShield Plus is a portable air cleaner that filters air particles using an electrostatic charge. The Halo retailed for $599.95, while the ProSheiled Plus cost as much as $399.95.

NASHVILLE – A federal judge has affirmed a million-dollar judgment against Whirlpool Corporation in a sex and race harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) the agency announced on 4/1/2011. Judge John T. Nixon denied Whirlpool Corporation’s motion to alter and/or amend the judgment of the court, entered on December 21, 2009, that Whirlpool pay $1,073,261 in damages to the discrimination victim.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of CARY BUNIN, 69, for a securities fraud scheme that resulted in the theft of more than $3.5 million from at least 16 victims. BUNIN is the Chief Executive Officer of INTERNATIONAL BARCODE CORPORATION, which also operates under the name of BTI. BUNIN and his corporation are charged in the indictment with Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, and violations of the Martin Act, New York State's securities fraud statute. BUNIN, along with his wholly-owned financial consulting company, ANDOVER CONSULTING SERVICES, LTD, were also indicted on charges of Offering a False Instrument for Filing in the First Degree and violating the New York State Tax code.[1] “CARY BUNIN and his corporation are charged with stealing millions of dollars from trusting investors, fueling the type of widespread mistrust that adversely affects our financial markets,” said District Attorney Vance...

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and William J. Maddalena, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, announce the filing of a criminal Information charging Barry Minkow, 44, of San Diego, CA, with conspiracy to manipulate the stock price of Lennar Corporation (Lennar), a former Fortune 500 company doing business in Miami-Dade, by making false and misleading statements about Lennar's business operations and management. Minkow is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court next week. According to the charging document, Minkow operated Fraud Discovery Institute, a for profit fraud investigation firm based in California. In this way, Minkow developed ties with federal law enforcement agencies as a purported fraud-finder. Today, Minkow was charged with making false and misleading statements alleging wide-spread improprieties in Lennar Corporation's financial reporting and b...

Female Employee Sexually Assaulted by Restaurant Manager, Federal Agency Charges SAIPAN, CNMI – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today filed a federal sexual harassment lawsuit against a company which operates several hotels in Saipan, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. In its lawsuit against Asia Pacific Hotels, Inc., doing business as Saipan Grand Hotel, and Tan Holdings Corporation / Company, the EEOC charged that the restaurant manager of the Saipan Grand Hotel sexually assaulted a female employee while she was asleep in her room. According to the EEOC’s suit, the sexual assault occurred when the hotel's restaurant manager lay down in the bed where the woman was sleeping and partially undressed her for the purpose of engaging in acts of physical touching of a sexual nature. The victim awoke screaming, local police authorities were called and the manager was taken into custody, the EEOC said. In its lawsuit, the EEOC asserts that the ...

Conroe, Texas-based Maverick Tube Corporation will pay $175,000 to settle a retaliation discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC’s lawsuit, filed in June 2007, (C.A. 4:07-cv-02033 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division), charged that in May 2005, Maverick Tube retaliated against Andra Williams by firing him after he reported to its president and chief operating officer the safety manager’s racially offensive comments. The company investigated Williams’s complaint and, as a result, discharged the manager. But, less than a month after he reported the comments, Williams was fired after he was falsely accused of saying he would call the company’s president to report his supervisor if he was not permitted to have a requested vacation day. Before conducting any investigation into the allegation made against Williams, the regional human resources manager stated in an e-mai...

PHOENIX – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that Federal District Court Judge Mary H. Murguia has entered a consent decree for nearly $2 million and significant remedial relief to resolve a class religious discrimination lawsuit against the University of Phoenix, Inc., and its parent corporation, Apollo Group, Inc. Apollo Group and the University of Phoenix are one of the largest employers in the Phoenix metropolitan area. In its lawsuit, filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (EEOC v. University of Phoenix, Inc., and Apollo Group, Inc., CV 06-2303-PHX-ROS), the EEOC charged that the University of Phoenix engaged in a widespread practice of discriminating against non-Mormon employees who worked as enrollment counselors in the University’s Online Division. Enrollment counselors at the University of Phoenix are responsible for recruiting students and are largely evaluated based on the number of students they recruit. At present, the Universi...

Commission approval of modified final consent order – Following a public comment period in the matter of TALX Corporation, the Commission has approved the issuance of a modified final consent order and letters replying to those who submitted public comments. The order modifications include the addition of the name “Corporate Cost Control, Inc.” to Paragraph I.P.I. of the order, the correction of typographical errors, and the addition of language to make Paragraph II.B. of the order applicable to “Relevant Current Persons” whose employment with TALX is terminated involuntarily in the same manner that it is applicable to those whose employment is terminated voluntarily. The Commission vote approving issuance of the final order was 4-0. (FTC File No. 0610209; the staff contact is Sean D. Hughto, Bureau of Competition, 202-326-2199; see press release dated April 28, 2008.) Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from...