New York Paralegal Blog

RICHMOND, VA—Justin Glynn French, 40, of Richmond, Va., was sentenced today to 196 months, followed by three years of supervised release, for stealing millions from federal and state tax credit programs intended to rehabilitate historic buildings. Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Ken Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia; Michael F.A. Morehart, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Richmond Field Office; Rebecca Sparkman, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation's Washington, D.C., Field Office; and Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Superintendent of Virginia State Police, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr. "Justin French lined his pockets with millions in stolen tax dollars and defrauded more than 100 investors," said U.S. Attorney MacBride. "Mr. French exploited the rich history of the commonwealth to cheat taxpayers and in...

BALTIMORE – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it has resolved its pattern or practice sex discrimination lawsuit against LA Weight Loss Centers, Inc., (renamed Pure Weight Loss, Inc., in early 2007), for $20 million and other significant relief. According to the EEOC’s suit (WDQ-02-CV-648), filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Pure Weight Loss had a nationwide policy of not hiring qualified males into the positions of counselor/sales, medical assistants, assistant managers, center managers, area supervisors, trainers, and other field positions. Former Area Trainer Kathy Koch was disciplined and fired in retaliation for complaining about the company’s policy of not hiring men and for interviewing male candidates, the EEOC also alleged. More...

WASHINGTON – Raoul Weil, a senior executive of a large Swiss bank with offices worldwide, including the United States, has been charged with conspiring with other executives, managers, private bankers and clients of the banking firm to defraud the United States, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. According to the criminal indictment, between 2002 and 2007, Weil oversaw the Swiss bank’s cross-border private banking business that provided services to some 20,000 U.S. clients who reportedly concealed approximately $20 billion in assets from the IRS. Weil, who allegedly referred to this business as "toxic waste," mandated that Swiss bankers grow the cross-border business, despite knowing that this would cause bankers to violate U.S. law. More...

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and The Legal Aid Society Attorney-in-Chief Steven Banks today announced an agreement dismissing the McCain, Lamboy, Slade, and Cosentino collection of lawsuits, which together have governed the homeless services system for families with children in New York City for 25 years. The agreement, signed by the parties today, ends litigation and court oversight of the City's family shelter services system. Nearly three years ago, a court-appointed Special Master Panel evaluated the homeless services system and unanimously recommended the end to litigation. The Mayor and Attorney-in-Chief Banks were joined in the Blue Room at City Hall by Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs, Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo, Department of Homeless Services (DHS) Commissioner Robert V. Hess, and State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) Commissioner David A. Hansell. "Today marks the beginning of a new era - an era in which the...

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 ...

NEW YORK, NY (August 15, 2008) - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced another agreement to provide liquidity to consumers who purchased auction rate securities. Under the latest agreement, Wachovia Securities, LLC and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC (collectively, “Wachovia”) will return over $8.5 billion to investors across New York State and the nation. The agreement settles allegations that Wachovia made misrepresentations in its marketing and sales of auction rate securities. Wachovia marketed and sold auction rate securities as safe, cash-equivalent products, when in fact they faced increasing liquidity risk. Within the past eight days, Cuomo has signed agreements restoring nearly $35 billion of liquidity to thousands of investors nationwide. Under Cuomo’s settlement, Wachovia has agreed to buy back, no later than November 28, 2008, all illiquid auction rate securities from all Wachovia retail customers, charities, and small businesses. Wachovia will also pay damages to ...