New York Paralegal Blog

  The JPMorgan Chase case, which involved a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), serves as a powerful example of how the U.S. government handles corporate misconduct without a full-blown trial. Think of a DPA like a legal "time-out" for a company. Instead of going to court and facing a criminal conviction, the company agrees to a strict set of conditions. If they successfully meet all the requirements, the government dismisses the criminal charges. The Offense: Deceiving the Market JPMorgan's DPA stemmed from two major schemes to defraud the market. The core of the problem was a trading practice known as spoofing. Spoofing is a type of market manipulation where traders place a large number of orders to buy or sell a financial product with no intention of letting them go through. They create a false appearance of high demand or supply to trick other traders into making moves that benefit them. Once the market reacts, they quickly cancel their fake orders and p...

When we talk about the founding and growth of the United States, it's essential to understand a foundational truth: much of the nation's early wealth and infrastructure was built on the backs of enslaved people. Their forced labor wasn't just a side note; it was the engine of a brutal but incredibly lucrative economic system. From the very beginning, enslaved individuals were the primary workforce for the booming cash crop industries. Think of the vast cotton plantations that fueled textile mills in both the North and Europe, or the sprawling tobacco and sugar operations. These profitable ventures, which made the Southern states among the wealthiest regions globally, were entirely dependent on the relentless, unpaid labor of enslaved men, women, and children. But their contributions weren't limited to agriculture. Enslaved people were also the muscle and skill behind much of America's early infrastructure. They quarried stone, milled timber, and laid bricks to con...

ROCHESTER– Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that Tops Market Pharmacy, with corporate headquarters in Williamsville, Erie County, has paid the state nearly $250,000 in restitution to resolve a Medicaid fraud case involving the misdeeds of a former pharmacist in one of their Rochester stores. Elizabeth Johnson, 49, of Rochester, was suspended from practice and excluded from the Medicaid program, but continued to dispense prescription medications while working at Tops Market Pharmacy.

SACRAMENTO - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today launched an investigation aimed at protecting the rights of the "forgotten victims" of the housing market collapse -- the tens of thousands of tenants facing eviction from buildings that have been foreclosed by banks. "Tenants who live in properties in foreclosure are the forgotten victims of the collapse of the housing market," Brown said. "We'll fight every step of the way to ensure they aren't rousted from their homes in violation of the law."

Male Employees, Particularly Black Men, Were Consistently Abused and Degraded by Owners of Fish Market, Federal Agency Charges NEW YORK – M. Slavin & Sons, a retail and wholesale fish market, violated federal law by creating a hostile work environment for male employees, including physical and verbal sexual harassment and offensive and degrading comments based on race and national origin, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed on 12/07/2009. According to the EEOC’s suit, some of the owners and managers of M. Slavin & Sons subjected male employees, particularly black employees, including both black Americans and at least one immigrant from Africa, to ongoing harassment. The misconduct included groping their buttocks, putting fish hooks into their buttocks and unnecessarily rubbing their bodies into the employees when passing them by. The owners and managers also made numerous crude, obscene sexual and/or racist comments. One owner u...

Governor David A. Paterson today announced that New York State will, beginning in January, regulate part of the credit default swap market which has to date been unregulated and has been a major contributor to the emerging financial crisis on Wall Street. Governor Paterson also called on the federal government to regulate the rest of the massive $62 trillion market. This action is similar to one recently taken by the federal government that tightly restricts “short selling,” or profiting from falling stock prices. The state action applies to credit default swaps which are a means of profiting from falling values of bonds. Under the direction of Governor Paterson, the New York Insurance Department today issued new guidelines that, for the first time, establish that some credit swaps are insurance and therefore subject to state regulation. More...