Category: U.S. News » Legal
Three NYU Scientists Charged With Accepting Bribes From China
21 May 07:50 | U.S. News
Three N.Y.U researchers who worked on improving MRI technology at have been charged with having undisclosed affiliations with a Chinese company performing the same type of research. read more »
DEA Makes Three More Synthetic Cannabinoids Temporarily Illegal
16 May 15:44 | U.S. News
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has made the synthetic cannabinoids UR-144, XLR11, and AKB48 Schedule I, illegal drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) for the next two years.read more »
SEC Charges China-Based Executives in Scheme to Overstate Revenues
15 May 15:33 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged husband-and-wife executives at a China-based company with engaging in a scheme to overstate the company’s revenues and divert proceeds from a securities offering for their personal use.read more »
SEC Charges Traders In Massive Kickback Scheme Involving Venezuelan Official
7 May 2013 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged four people with ties to a New York City brokerage firm in a scheme involving millions of dollars in illicit bribes paid to a high-ranking Venezuelan finance official to secure the bond trading business of a state-owned Venezuelan bank.read more »
Human Rights Experts Urge U.S. To Close Guantanamo Naval Base
1 May 2013 | U.S. News
With some 100 prisoners at the Guantanamo Naval Base on a hunger strike, a group of independent human rights experts have reiterated their calls on the United States to shut down the detention centre. read more »
Capital One Charged With Understating Auto Loan Losses
24 Apr 2013 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Capital One Financial Corporation and two senior executives for understating millions of dollars in auto loan losses incurred during the months leading into the financial crisis. read more »
Fifth Physician Arrested for Allegedly Illegally Prescribing Hydrocodone
23 Apr 2013 | U.S. News
A Chicago physician associated with Sacred Heart Hospital on the city’s west side is facing federal charges for allegedly illegally prescribing the narcotic controlled substance hydrocodone to a hospital patient without having a valid license and registration to prescribe controlled substances. read more »
New York Lawyer Pleads Guilty To Participating In Massive Immigration Fraud Scheme
12 Apr 2013 | U.S. News
Attorney John Lin has pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiring to commit immigration fraud, as part of a massive immigration fraud scheme involving thousands of fraudulent asylum applications.read more »
Newtown Family Members "Encouraged" By Manchin-Toomey Compromise On Gun Background Checks
11 Apr 2013 | U.S. News
Thirty three family members whose loved ones were murdered in the December 2012 say they are deeply encouraged by the leadership demonstrated by Senators Manchin and Toomey in putting forward a bipartisan compromise on gun background checks. read more »
Former Basketball Coach Thaddeus Brown Sentenced for Conspiring to Commit Sports Bribery
5 Apr 2013 | U.S. News
Former University of San Diego Assistant Basketball Coach Thaddeus Brown has been sentenced to serve 12 months in custody for his role in a conspiracy to commit sports bribery. read more »
Foreign Traders Agree To Pay $3.3 Million To Settle Insider Trading Charges
3 Apr 2013 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission says a Chinese businessman and his wife whose trading accounts were frozen last year as part of a major insider trading case have agreed to settle charges of insider trading.read more »
Three Charged In Scheme To Defraud BP Oil Spill Claims Fund
1 Apr 2013 | U.S. News
Federal prosecutors have charged three people as part of a conspiracy to fraudulently take money from funds established to pay claims from individuals and businesses harmed by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.read more »
Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty For Mass Murder Suspect James Holmes
1 Apr 2013 | U.S. News
Prosecutors in the trial of Colorado movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes say they will seek the death penalty.read more »
Australian Research Analyst Extradited On Insider Trading Charges
31 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
Australian Trent Martin has been extradited from Hong Kong to the United States to face insider trading charges. read more »
UPS Agrees To Forfeit $40 Million In Payments From Illicit Online Pharmacies
29 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
The Drug Enforcement Administration says United Parcel Service has agreed to forfeit $40 million in payments it has received from illicit online pharmacies and to implement a compliance program designed to ensure that illegal online pharmacies will not be able to use UPS’s services to distribute drugs.read more »
FBI Warns of New Fraudulent Credit Card Scheme
28 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
The FBI is warning Alaskans they may be targeted for a new variation of a fraudulent credit card scheme where victims receive a text message on their cell phones stating their cards have been deactivated.read more »
California-Based Hedge Fund Analyst And Two Others Charged With Insider Trading
26 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a California-based hedge fund analyst with insider trading in advance of a merger of two technology companies based on nonpublic information he received from his friend who was an executive at one of the companies.read more »
SEC Charges Rengan Rajaratnam with Insider Trading
22 Mar 2013 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Rajarengan “Rengan” Rajaratnam for his role in the massive insider trading scheme spearheaded by his older brother Raj Rajaratnam and hedge fund advisory firm Galleon Management.read more »
Hells Angels Members Convicted of Racketeering Conspiracy
21 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
Fifteen members and associates of the Hells Angels have been convicted of crimes related to a racketeering conspiracy for their dealings with drugs, guns, armed robbery, and money laundering. read more »
Loan Broker Pleads Guilty To $100 Million Load Fraud Conspiracy
20 Mar 2013 | Business
Joon Park, a/k/a “Joon Pak,” and “Joon Paik,” age 43, of Falls Church, Virginia, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain business loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, with resulting losses of over $100 million. read more »
New York Man Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison for Hacking AT&T's Servers
19 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
The head of a self-described "security research" hacking group was sentenced today to 41 months in prison for breaching AT&T’s servers, stealing e-mail addresses and other personal information belonging to approximately 120,000 Apple iPad users, and disclosing that information to an Internet magazine.read more »
Former Fund Manager Gets 10 Years For $24 Million Investment Fraud Scheme
19 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
A former investment fund manager and radio personality who admitted bilking investors out of millions of dollars by falsely promising to purchase corporate bonds backed by the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was sentenced this afternoon to 120 months in federal prison.read more »
Hedge Fund Firm Sigma Capital Charged With Insider Trading
15 Mar 2013 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission says New York-based hedge fund advisory firm Sigma Capital Management has agreed to pay nearly $14 million to settle charges that the firm engaged in insider trading based on nonpublic information obtained through one of its analysts about the quarterly earnings of Dell and Nvidia Corporation.read more »
CR Intrinsic To Pay More Than $600 Million in Largest-Ever Insider Trading Settlement
15 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
The Securities and Exchange Commission says Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund advisory firm CR Intrinsic Investors has agreed to pay more than $600 million to settle SEC charges that it participated in an insider trading scheme involving a clinical trial for an Alzheimer’s drug being jointly developed by two pharmaceutical companies. read more »
U.S. Cannabis Law Changes Would Violate International Law, Says INCB
15 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
Implementing the decisions of popular votes held in the United States in Colorado and Washington to allow for the recreational use of cannabis would be a violation of international laws, according to the United Nations body tasked with monitoring the production and consumption of narcotics worldwide. read more »
Florida Man Pleads Guilty To Conspiring To Kill Federal Judge
14 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
A Florida man has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to murder the U.S. District Judge who presided over the boiler room fraud conviction of his co-conspirator, a close business associate. read more »
Third Defendant In Ticket-Fixing Scheme Pleads Guilty
13 Mar 2013 | U.S. News
Fortunato Perri, 76, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has pleaded guilty to taking part in a fraud scheme involving nine other judges at Philadelphia Traffic Court. read more »
SEC Charges New York-Based Private Equity Fund Advisers
11 Mar 2013 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged two investment advisers at Oppenheimer & Co. with misleading investors about the valuation policies and performance of a private equity fund they manage. read more »
Former U.S. Bank Manager Charged With Taking Bribes
28 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
Wilbur Tate III, 48, of Dacula, Georgia, has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with conspiracy to commit bank bribery while he was an assistant vice president at U.S. Bank in Ohio. read more »
Man Pleads Guilty To Running Day-Trading Ponzi That Raised $49 Million
26 Feb 2013 | Business
The CEO and co-owner of a Diamond Bar investment company has pleaded guilty to two federal felony counts arising from his scheme to defraud investors who put $49 million into his bogus day-trading venture.read more »
FTC Halts Alleged Fraud Operation That Took $25 Million From Bank And Credit Card Accounts
20 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
A federal court has temporarily halted an operation that allegedly used an intricate web of concealment to debit hundreds of thousands of consumers’ bank accounts and bill their credit cards more than $25 million without their consent. read more »
Businessman Who Allegedly Slapped Baby On Plane Fired
19 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
Idaho aerospace executive Joe Rickey Hundley has been fired after allegedly slapping a 2-year-old child during a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta earlier this month.read more »
Transocean Pleads Guilty, To Pay $400 Million For Deepwater Horizon Disaster
15 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
Transocean Deepwater Inc. has pleaded guilty to a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for its illegal conduct leading to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and was sentenced to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties. read more »
President of Bogus Foreclosure Rescue Company Pleads Guilty
14 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
An Ocean County man has admitted his role in a mortgage loan fraud scheme that succeeded in obtaining $4.4 million in mortgage loans while masquerading as a foreclosure rescue operation based in Holmdel, New Jersey.read more »
US Supreme Court More Diverse Overall Today Than Ever In History: Study
11 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
Although the current Supreme Court has been criticized for its lack of diversity on the bench, the Court is actually more diverse overall today than ever in history, according to a new study that borrows statistical methods from ecology to reveal a more precise picture of diversity.read more »
Sixteen People Sent To Prison For Religiously Motivated Assaults On Amish
8 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
Sixteen people have been sentenced to prison for hate crimes arising out of a series of religiously motivated assaults on practitioners of the Amish religion.read more »
Half Of Employees Steal Corporate Data and Don't Believe It's Wrong, Symantec Finds
7 Feb 2013 | U.S. News
Half of employees who left or lost their jobs in the past 12 months kept confidential corporate data, according to a global survey from Symantec, and 40 percent plan to use it in their new jobs.read more »
U.S. Government To Sue Standard and Poor's Over Subprime Mortgage Ratings
5 Feb 2013 | Business
Standard & Poor’s Rating Services says the United States Department of Justice has informed the Company that it intends to file a civil lawsuit against S&P focusing on its ratings of sub prime mortgages in 2007.read more »
International Olympic Committee Tells Lance Armstrong To Return Medal
17 Jan 2013 | U.S. News
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has asked disgraced doping cyclist Lance Armstrong to return the bronze medal he won at the 2000 games in Sydney. read more »
Bank of America To Pay Fannie Mae $3.6 Billion To Settle Mortgage Claims
7 Jan 2013 | Business
Bank of America says it will pay Fannie Mae $3.6 billion to settle mortgage repurchase claims on loans sold to the Federal National Mortgage Association through to December 31, 2008.read more »
Major U.S. Financial Institutions Pay $8.5 Billion To Settle Foreclosure Charges
7 Jan 2013 | Business
Ten of the biggest banks and mortgage companies in the United States have agreed to an $8.5 billion settlement with the government over charges they foreclosed on millions of mortgage holders who should have been allowed to stay in their homes.read more »
Alleged al Qaeda Operative Extradited to United States From United Kingdom
4 Jan 2013 | U.S. News
English resident Abid Naseer, 26, has been extradited from the United Kingdom to New York to face charges for his alleged role in an international al Qaeda plot to attack targets in the United States and Europe. read more »
Peter Madoff Gets 10 Years Prison For Role In Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities Fraud
21 Dec 2012 | U.S. News
Peter Madoff, the former chief compliance officer of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC (BLMIS), has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his involvement in the fraud committed by his brother's company.read more »
Biotech Giant Fined $762 Million In Largest Settlement Of Type In U.S. History
19 Dec 2012 | Business
Biotech giant Amgen Inc. has pleaded guilty to introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce and has agreed to pay $762 million to resolve criminal and civil liability in the largest criminal and civil False Claims Act settlement involving a biotechnology company in U.S. history.read more »
SEC Charges Financial Media Company and Executives With Fraud
18 Dec 2012 | Business
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a digital financial media company and three executives for their roles in an accounting fraud that artificially inflated company revenues and misstated operating income to investors.read more »
Former Wells Fargo Investment Banker Charged with $11 Million Insider Trading Conspiracy
14 Dec 2012 | Business
A federal indictment has charged nine people in Charlotte and elsewhere with insider trading and money laundering, as a result of the Charlotte-based FBI investigation, Operation Insider Out, which began in early 2012.read more »
Pfizer Agrees to Pay $55 Million for Illegally Promoting Drug
12 Dec 2012 | U.S. News
Pfizer Inc. will pay $55 million plus interest to resolve allegations that Wyeth LLC illegally introduced and caused the introduction into interstate commerce of a misbranded drug, Protonix, between February 2000 and June 2001.read more »
Treasury Department Reaches Record Settlement with HSBC
11 Dec 2012 | Business
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced settlements amounting to $875 million with HSBC Holdings plc for allowing Mexican drug dealers to launder money, in the largest collective bank settlement in United States history.read more »
SEC Charges Former Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year
7 Dec 2012 | U.S. News
The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a prominent Miami-based entrepreneur with defrauding investors by grossly exaggerating the financial success of his company that purportedly produced housing materials to withstand fires and hurricanes. read more »
Former Navy Sailor Allegedly Tried To Sell Classified Info To 'Russians'
7 Dec 2012 | U.S. News
Virginia Beach man Robert Patrick Hoffman, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for attempting to provide classified information to people he believed represented the Russian Federation.read more »
