New York Paralegal Blog

WASHINGTON—The chief executive officer (CEO) of Axius Inc., a Nevada corporation; and a finance professional were indicted today on multiple charges for their alleged roles in a scheme to bribe stock brokers and manipulate the share price of Axius stock, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch for the Eastern District of New York.

DAVENPORT, IA—Today, Mary Lee Reinking of Clinton, IA, a former mortgage broker with Crow Valley Mortgage in Bettendorf, Iowa, was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Jarvey to five years' probation, including one-year home confinement, in connection with Reinking's previous guilty plea to one count of wire fraud. Reinking also was ordered to pay $97,343 in restitution. Reinking and Natalie Long, another broker employed at Crow Valley Mortgage, assisted Darryl Hannken and Robert Herdrich in a scheme to defraud mortgage lenders Argent Mortgage and New Century Mortgage in connection with loans to purchase two rental properties in Davenport, Iowa. Reinking and Long, aware that Hanneken and Herdrich would divert some of the loan proceeds to their own pockets without lender knowledge, facilitated the scheme by acting as broker for Herdrich and Hanneken. Reinking and Long also submitted false information concerning the income and financial assets of Herdrich and Hanne...

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has accepted a final settlement with an online data broker that charged consumers $10 based on the false promise that it could “lock their records” so that others could not see or buy them. The FTC charged that its claims were deceptive and violated federal law. The settlement, first announced September 22, 2010, requires that the broker, US Search, refund the fees it charged to nearly 5,000 consumers, and it bars misrepresentations about the effectiveness of any service that claims to remove information about consumers from the broker’s website. The Commission vote to accept the settlement as final was 5-0, with Commissioner Julie Brill issuing a separate concurring statement. In her concurring statement, Commissioner Brill said industry should consider providing consumers with meaningful notice about information brokers’ practices, a reasonable means to access and correct consumers’ information, and a reasonable mechan...