New York Paralegal Blog

A Staten Island man was arrested earlier this morning on charges arising out of his alleged operation of a $12 million Ponzi scheme from 2007 to 2010. Joseph Mazella, the founder and president of the Great Atlantic Group, Inc., a Staten Island-based real estate and financial consulting company, was charged with securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in a federal indictment that was unsealed earlier today in federal court in Brooklyn. The case has been assigned to Chief United States District Court Judge Carol B. Amon. The defendant is scheduled to be arraigned later today before United States Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom at the United States Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. The charges were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office. As alleged in the indictment, Mazella solicited investmen...

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...