New York Paralegal Blog

I can still picture it: Chemical Bank, the institution that would eventually merge with Chase in what was touted as a "merger of equals." Back then, I was at the 72nd and First Avenue branch in Manhattan. One particular day, feeling good about my sales abilities, I was talking with my manager. I asked her, "Who's a major client we've always wanted, but haven't gotten?" She quickly replied: Sotheby's. The renowned auction house, right in our neighborhood. "We've been trying to get our foot in the door for years," she admitted, "but we've never been successful." Years. That word stuck with me. "Oh yeah?" I thought. "Let me give it a try." I picked up the phone. I called Sotheby's, and simply asked to be transferred to the person who handled their business banking. To my surprise, I was immediately put through to the Chief Financial Officer, Mary A. Walling. "Ms. Walling," I began...

RIVERSIDE - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced that two men who stole millions of dollars through phony stock sales and an illegal pyramid scheme were convicted today on charges of grand theft and securities fraud. James A. Sweeney, II, 64, of Afton, Tennessee, and Patrick M. Ryan, 35, of Canyon Lake, California, were found guilty on 65 counts of grand theft and securities fraud. The two men, who face a maximum of more than 20 years in state prison, will be sentenced June 14 in Riverside County Superior Court. Sweeney and Ryan, co-founders of Riverside-based Big Co-op, Inc., stole approximately $8.2 million from more than 1,000 Californians through an illegal pyramid scheme and phony stock sales. Big Co-op, also operating as Ez2Win.biz, purported to be an online shopping hub where consumers could go to purchase thousands of goods and services at discounted prices from big-name retailers including, Sears, Target and Macy's. Pyramid Scheme Consumers were informed t...

Three Firms Will Pay More Than $400,000 in Total Penalties Three online retailers have agreed to pay more than $400,000 in total penalties to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they failed to post EnergyGuide information on their websites to inform consumers about the energy use of major home appliances they sell. The agency also notified two other online sellers that it will seek a total of $640,000 in fines from them. According to the FTC, the online appliance retailers knowingly violated the FTC’s Appliance Labeling Rule, which requires them to provide EnergyGuide information for certain products such as refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, air conditioners, water heaters, and washing machines. The information estimates the annual cost to operate the appliance.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. announced today the indictments of 11 individuals operating in and around the Grant Houses, located in the Harlem area of Manhattan.[1] The individuals principally sold cocaine and crack cocaine, with less frequent heroin sales. Many of the felony drug sales occurred in the vicinity of P.S. 125, an elementary school located at 425 West 123rd Street, and I.S. 286, an intermediate school located at 509 West 129th Street. The 10-month investigation, code-named “Grant Denied,” was a joint endeavor between the Manhattan District Attorney’s Homicide Investigation Unit and the New York City Police Department. The investigation was the result of community complaints regarding criminal activity in the area which included the distribution of street-level narcotics, as well as a number of drug-related shootings and robberies.

Under the terms of a settlement announced by the Federal Trade Commission today, a list broker, formerly based in Arizona, and the two companies he ran have agreed to a proposed court order barring them from violating the agency’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The proposed order settles a Commission complaint charging that the defendants assisted and facilitated telemarketers of fraudulent “advance-fee” credit cards by providing them with unencrypted consumer information. The FTC complaint alleged the defendants sold “full data leads” to these telemarketers that included consumers’ bank account and routing information, credit card numbers, credit card security codes, and credit card expiration dates, without first obtaining authorization from consumers to do so, all the while knowing that the data would be used in schemes designed to mislead and defraud consumers. The proposed order also contains a suspended $120,000 judgment against the defendants. The full judgment will be imposed ...

SAN FRANCISCO—August 20, 2008 -- CT Summation, the premier provider of litigation support and e-discovery solutions (EDD), today announced that it will distribute its award-winning litigation and case management software through CDW Corporation in the U.S. CDW, a leading provider of technology products and services to businesses, governments, healthcare and educational institutions, will market and sell CT Summation iBlaze, WebBlaze and Discovery Cracker. This partnership will expand CDW's document workflow offering to legal professionals in small and mid-sized firms and corporations, and will increase the accessibility of CT Summation's litigation support and EDD product suite throughout the US. CT Summation is the first litigation support technology that CDW has included in its product portfolio. In addition to marketing and distributing the CT Summation product suite—which covers legal case management from EDD processing to review and analysis through to case production—CDW ...