New York Paralegal Blog

CHRISTOPHER DALY and MICHAEL ABREU, two former executives at the Sheldrake Organization (“Sheldrake”), a real estate development and management company, were sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 15 months and one year and one day in prison, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to fraudulently obtain $2.2 million from a foreign-owned bank (the “Lender”).

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Mary Galligan, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Ronald J. Knapp, the Chief of the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department, and Adrian H. Anderson, the Dutchess County Sheriff, announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging 11 defendants with conspiracy to distribute heroin in and around Poughkeepsie, New York.

HONOLULU - A Panda Express restaurant, part of the giant Chinese fast-food chain, subjected a class of female employees, including teenagers, to sexual harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleged in a lawsuit filed in Hawaii yesterday.

JACKSON, Miss. - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) announced today that it has filed a lawsuit for race discrimination and retaliation against Dollar General Corporation, asserting that it violated federal law when it denied a black lead sales associate in a Long Beach, Miss., store a promotion to a vacant assistant store manager position because of her race. The EEOC said the store also retaliated against her for complaining, and filing a charge of discrimination with the EEOC.

SAN ANTONIO - A federal jury awarded $200,000 in punitive damages yesterday to three former employees of AA Foundries in a racial harassment lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Thomas O’Donnell, the Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (“HHS-OIG”), announced today the arrest of JOHN R. REYNOLDS, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital for Special Surgery (the “Hospital”), in connection with a decade-long kickback scheme involving $1.4 million in payments that he allegedly extorted or solicited from Hospital vendors, a Hospital employee, and a United Kingdom-based healthcare organization. REYNOLDS is also charged with making false statements to law enforcement. He was arrested this morning at his home in Massachusetts and is expected to appear later today in federal court in Boston.

A criminal complaint was unsealed in Brooklyn federal court today charging Ming Suan Zhang with attempting to illegally export thousands of pounds of aerospace-grade carbon fiber from the United States to China.1 According to the complaint, Zhang was arrested in the United States after trying to negotiate a deal to acquire the specialized carbon fiber, a high-tech material used frequently in the military, defense and aerospace industries, and is therefore closely regulated by the United States Department of Commerce to combat nuclear proliferation and terrorism. Zhang is scheduled to make his initial appearance today at 2:00 p.m. at the United States Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York, before United States Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon.

HOUSTON - Sandia Drilling Company, Ltd, L.L.P. and Sandia Drilling of Texas, L.L.C., Bossier City, La., oil drilling companies, violated federal anti-discrimination laws when their supervisors and other employees subjected two African-American and a Hispanic worker to a racially hostile work environment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today. The companies also fired one discrimination victim in retaliation for complaining, the agency said.

By LUCILE SCOTT BROOKLYN (CN) - The New York Daily News defamed an innocent man by publishing his photo atop an article about a dentist who pleaded guilty to bilking Medicaid for $500,000, the pictured man claims in court.

Washington, D.C., Sept. 25, 2012 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a New York-based brokerage firm and three executives for allowing traders outside the U.S. to access the markets and conduct manipulative trading through accounts the firm controlled.