New York Paralegal Blog

LOS ANGELES - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today joined the California Department of Real Estate and the State Bar of California to warn homeowners about an alarming rise in short sale fraud across California in a field "rife with scam artists". A short sale is an arrangement in which a homeowner sells his or her home for less than the outstanding mortgage, with the consent of the lender. "While short sales can provide homeowners with a last-ditch alternative to foreclosure, this market is rife with scam artists," Brown said. "Homeowners and buyers, agents, and lenders should beware of short sale negotiators who operate without licenses, use straw buyers or charge illegal fees."

At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a U.S. District Court has issued a temporary restraining order halting the sale of keylogger spyware. According to the FTC’s complaint, the Florida-based CyberSpy Software, LLC marketed and sold RemoteSpy keylogger spyware to clients who would then secretly monitor unsuspecting consumers’ computers. The FTC seeks to permanently bar the unfair and deceptive practices and require the defendants to give up their ill-gotten gains. According to papers filed with the court, the defendants provided RemoteSpy clients with detailed instructions explaining how to disguise the spyware as an innocuous file, such as a photo, attached to an email. When consumer victims clicked on the disguised file, the keylogger spyware silently installed in the background without the victims’ knowledge. This spyware recorded every keystroke typed on the victim’s computer (including passwords); captured images of the computer screen; and recorded Web sites visited. To...

WASHINGTON - Armor Holdings Products LLC has agreed to pay the United States $30 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by knowingly manufacturing and selling defective Zylon bullet-proof vests, the Justice Department announced today. The United States alleged that Armor Holdings manufactured and sold Zylon bullet-proof vests despite possessing information showing that the Zylon materials degraded quickly over time and were not suitable for ballistic use. The Armor Holdings vests were purchased by the federal government, and by various state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies that were partially reimbursed by the United States under the Justice Department’s Bulletproof Vest Partnership program. Armor Holdings’ Zylon vests contained either woven Zylon or a Zylon laminate insert called Z Shield. The Zylon fiber used in both types of vests was manufactured by Toyobo Co. Ltd. In July 2007, the United States sued Toyobo for its manufacture and sale of Z...

WASHINGTON - A Las Vegas federal jury convicted Michael Haynes of one count of conspiracy to commit tax evasion through a scheme involving the fraudulent sale of One Voice Technologies Inc. stock, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Justice Department announced today. The jury, following a one-week trial before Chief U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt, deliberated for about two hours before finding Haynes guilty of conspiring to commit tax evasion totaling $684,242. Co-defendant David Jett pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in March 2008 and testified against Haynes during the trial. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, Haynes and Jett orchestrated the fraudulent sale of $7 million in One Voice stock. Haynes and Jett used at least ten stock certificates to generate the $7 million in gross proceeds; all of these stock certificates were in different nominee names. As part of the scheme, new stock certificates in the name of One Voice were issued to at l...

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the New York Mets announced that the sale of Shea Stadium seats will begin Monday, August 25 at 9:00 AM exclusively online at mets.com/shea. Fans and collectors worldwide will be able to purchase orange, blue, green, and red seats for $869 per pair. The limited inventory of seats will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Each seat pair will be authenticated by major league baseball’s authentication program and affixed with a tamper-proof hologram displaying a unique identification number.Mets season ticket holders will have the opportunity to purchase their particular seats before the August 25 general public sale. The sale of other Shea memorabilia on mets.com/shea will expand to include seat backs and 45-inch sections of bench seating from Shea’s left field picnic area. Details regarding the sale of additional memorabilia will be announced later this season. “Citi Field will serve as a fantastic new home for the Mets for decades to co...