New York Paralegal Blog

WASHINGTON – Markus Walder, former head of North America Offshore Banking at an international bank headquartered in Zurich; Susanne D. Rüegg Meier, a former manager with the international bank; Andreas Bachmann, a former banker at a subsidiary of the international bank; and Josef Dörig, the founder of a Swiss trust company, have been charged with conspiring with other Swiss bankers to defraud the United States, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced today. The four are charged in a superseding indictment together with four other defendants (Marco Parenti Adami, Emanuel Agustino, Michele Bergantino and Roger Schaerer) who were charged in an indictment returned on Feb. 23, 2011.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JANICE FEDARCYK, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and CHARLES PINE, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), announced the filing of charges against CHRISTOPHER CAVOUNIS and JAGDESH COOMA for orchestrating a scheme to defraud several banks of at least $10 million by obtaining commercial loans and lines of credit using false and fraudulent documents. As part of the scheme, CAVOUNIS and COOMA allegedly submitted applications for loans in the names of shell companies with no assets, and with straw owners, using fraudulent documents created to trick the banks into believing those entities were real. The defendants also paid bribes totaling over $135,000 to an employee of Citibank to obtain $2.45 million worth of loans. Manhattan U.S. Attorney PREET BHARARA stated: “The defendants enga...

The FBI-NYPD's Joint Bank Robbery Task Force is seeking the public's assistance in locating Marat G. Mikhaylich, aka the Holiday Bandit, after he robbed his sixth New York bank yesterday. Mikhaylich entered a Capital One bank located at 4612 14th Avenue in Brooklyn, New York at 9:43 a.m., giving the teller a demand note and brandishing a black handgun. After the first teller could not produce enough cash, he moved on to his next victim teller and demanded even more money. Mikhaylich was last seen fleeing on foot after the robbery. Mikhaylich is described as a white male, approximately 6'5'' tall, 35 years old, and approximately 200 pounds. During the most recent robbery, he was seen wearing a black hat, dark sunglasses, a maroon coat, and light blue jeans, brown shoes, and carrying a black messenger bag.