New York Paralegal Blog

By ADAM KLASFELD BROOKLYN (CN) - A plastic surgeon claims in court that a star of the VH1 TV show "Mob Wives" defamed him by staging a fake incident in a recovery room for cameras taping her recovery from a full body lift.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Thomas E. Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and John Trasviña, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), announced today that GFI Mortgage Bankers Inc., a large independent home mortgage firm that concentrates on the New York, New Jersey, and Florida markets, will pay $3.555 million to resolve a lending discrimination lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

BALTIMORE—U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Wade Coats, age 47, of Baltimore, and Jose Cavazos, age 44, of Midlothian, Texas, today each to 45 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Coats was also sentenced for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

WASHINGTON—William J. Ferry, a former stock broker and investment adviser, and Dennis J. Clinton, a former real estate investment manager, were found guilty by a federal jury in Santa Ana, California today for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud a wealthy investor of $1 billion in a high-yield investment fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. The investor was, in reality, part of an undercover FBI team that posed as wealthy investors and investment managers in an effort to stop fraudsters before they actually harmed victims.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A Hong Kong-based jewelry exporter pleaded guilty Friday to customs fraud charges and faces nearly $2 million in fines and restitution in a scheme discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Regulatory Audit Unit and investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

CHICAGO - A Tampa-based environmental clean-up company has agreed to pay $2.75 million and enter into a three-year nationwide consent decree to resolve a race discrimination case brought the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

ST. LOUIS – Help at Home, Inc., a company that provides home health care to elderly and disabled individuals in their homes, violated federal law by allowing the company’s regional director to sexually harass employees, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a discrimination lawsuit filed today. The company also unlawfully fired the victims and their supervisor for complaining, the EEOC said.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of JOHN IOANNOU, 57, an attorney,for embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from his clients since at least 2007 and attempting to coerce others to drop complaints they had filed against him with the Departmental Disciplinary Committee of the Appellate Division, First Department (“DDC”). The defendant has been indicted in New York State Supreme Court on charges of Grand Larceny in the Second and Third Degrees, Forgery in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in Second Degree, Falsifying Business Records, and related charges.[1]

By JOE HARRIS KANSAS CITY, Kan. (CN) - A public school district failed for years to protect a student from bullying and sexual assaults from students who thought he was gay, the student claims in Federal Court.

Frederick Warren and Denise Parks, two loan officers, were sentenced in Manhattan federal court for their roles in a $9 million mortgage fraud scheme in which 12 people were originally charged and 11 have pled guilty.