Search

The article discusses email scams targeting law firms and lawyers in 2012 by exploiting lawyers' willingness to accept clients through the Internet. Topics include scammers' use of fake checks, wiring funds to overseas accounts, federal prosecution of a scam that will be tried in criminal court in Pennsylvania in the fall of 2012, and comments by U.S. Postal Inspector Louis Di Rienzo.

The article reports that Peter Madoff, the brother of convicted Ponzi scheme perpetrator Bernard L. Madoff, pleaded guilty to a variety of criminal charges. Charges included lying to regulators, failing to perform his duties as chief compliance officer of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, and document forgery.

This article presents information about the pending trial of Jérôme Kerviel, the Société Générale SA employee who caused the biggest trading loss ever. Kerviel is charged with forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use, but the responsibility of his employer for his wrongdoing will also be at issue in the trial.

A judge on March 24, 2004 rejected a request for accelerated indictments against 29 people, the Bank of America and two auditing firms, dealing a blow to prosecutors who were seeking a fast trial in the collapse of Parmalat, one of the world's biggest corporate fraud cases. Prosecutors had sought indictments for market manipulation against Bank of America, Deloitte & Touche and Italaudit. Indictments for fraud, market manipulation and false accounting were sought for founder of Parmalat, Calisto Tanzi, and other company executives and auditors.

The article discusses a court case involving New York lawyer Soma Sengupta who was found guilty of forgery, false instrument, and conspiracy after she lied about her work experience and age to be admitted to the British bar.

The article reports on the lawsuits facing Upper East Side gallery Knoedler & Co. on alleged fake artwork products. It states that the gallery was accused on making profits from selling mysterious collection of artwork and is now under federal forgery investigation. It indicates that lawsuit against the gallery was filed by Domenico and Eleanore De Sole, who paid $8.3 million for a painting attributed to Mark Rothko.

One of the largest companies that provided home foreclosure services to lenders across the nation, DocX, has been indicted on forgery charges by a Missouri grand jury -- one of the few criminal actions to follow reports of widespread improprieties against homeowners. A grand jury in Boone County, Mo., handed up an indictment Friday accusing DocX of 136 counts of forgery in the preparation of documents used to evict financially strained borrowers from their homes. Lorraine O. Brown, the company's founder and former president, was indicted on the same charges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Years before federal authorities opened their forgery inquiry into a cache of Modernist paintings handled by high-end art dealers, the Knoedler Gallery agreed to refund $2 million to a client who had questioned the authenticity of one of the works, according to court testimony this week. Two former Knoedler employees testified about the refund for a work attributed to Jackson Pollock during hearings in Manhattan as part of a federal lawsuit brought by a London collector, Pierre Lagrange, who bought another disputed Pollock paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Of the many misdeeds that federal prosecutors have attributed to City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook, one has received more attention than any other: the purchase of a snack (a bagel and a drink) and a request for reimbursement of $177. It involved, according to prosecutors, a forgery and a scheme to submit false expenses to a political club with which he was affiliated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

8:36 p.m. Updated The Allen family has long been an object of fascination on Wall Street. A lawsuit filed on Tuesday adds to the intrigue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regulators sued a former professor and a business partner on Tuesday over claims that they had used forged bank records to make it appear they reaped annual returns of more than 20 percent in foreign-exchange trading. Robert Watson, who taught at Texas A.& M.'s Mays Business School until last month, and a lawyer in Houston, Daniel Petroski, have raised more than $19 million from investors since 2006 by promoting their ability to earn profits by using foreign-currency trading software they called Alpha One, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on the commencement of a trial over competing wills for the estate of the late businesswoman Nina Wang in Hong Kong, China May 2009. The authenticity of a document that leaves Wang's fortune to feng-shui adviser and businessman Tony Chan Chunchuen was questioned by a lawyer. One of her wills leaves her estate to her Chinachem Charitable Foundation. The alleged signature on the will leaving her estate to Chan was fake, according to Denis Chang, representative of the charity.

The article reports on the arrest and indictment of real-estate investor Adam Hochfelder by Manhattan, New York City district attorney Robert Morgenthau. The investor was charged with grand larceny, forgery and falsifying business records, among others. Hochfelder, who was the former chairman and chief executive of Max Capital Management Corp., defaulted on loans and became the subject of lawsuits by former business associates and family members.

The article reports that U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Agresti has rejected the request of Countrywide Financial Corp. to settle a dispute with its borrower Sharon Diane Hill after it threatened her to foreclose her home using false documents. Hill refused to settle arguing that the threat has affected her credit image. Agresti said he wants to investigate more on the alleged letters sent by the company to her lawyer whom denied their existence for forgeries. He added that he will only approve the settlement until the investigation is over.

The article reports on the settlement of a forgery case involving Ameriprise Financial Inc. According to the allegation by securities regulators in New Hampshire, the company's financial advisers in its Portsmouth office has forged customer signatures to hide the fact that they failed to meet commitments to deliver completed financial plans. Ameriprise is to pay $3.8 million in fines, investigation costs and refunds to investors as part of the settlement.

The article reports that Chinese real estate developer Zhou Zhengyi has been sentenced to 16 years imprisonment in charges of financial scandals. He has been charged with five cases including misappropriation of funds, bribery, and forging tax receipt. He was associated with former communist leader Chen Liangyu.

The article reports that David B. Chalmers, a Hudson, Texas based oil trader has been accused of federal fraud charges. It is stated that Chalmers has admitted he and the two companies ran by him Bayoil USA and Bayoil Supply and Trading made huge profits while trading oil under the $65 billion United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq during former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Chalmer will now face a sentence of 20 years in jail.

The article reports that the Arizona Students' Association, an advocacy group for all public-university students in the state, settled a lawsuit against its former executive director. According to the article, the former official, Maceo Brown, will repay the student group $60,000 in October 2006 and the rest over the next eight years. Brown also faced a criminal indictment, and pleaded guilty to felony charges of theft and forgery. He could serve up to 15 months in prison. The group sued Brown in April after discovering that he had digitally altered its bank statements to conceal personal expenses. Although initial estimates were higher, a forensic accountant found that those expenses totaled nearly $150,000 over three years.

The article deals with the sentencing of Ghad Party leader Ayman Nour of Egypt on December 24, 2005 due to forgery charges.

Reports on the lawsuit filed by Attorney General Bill Lockyer against Kari Dohn, a policy director to former Governor Gray Davis, for falsification of documents related to a software contract between California and the Oracle Corp.

Comments on the security agents' arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chief executive officer of Russia-based oil firm Yukos, for alleged tax evasion, fraud, forgery and embezzlement. Case background; Implications for businessmen in Russia; Background on the charitable activities of Yukos and Khodorkovsky; Clash between the group supporting market liberalization and those seeking to impose government control on the economy.

Reports that telecommunications company Lucent Technologies is investigating a former high-ranking executive, who had a conviction for embezzlement and forgery from his days as a school administrator. Investigation of James R. Baughman, Lucent's director of recruiting until his September 2000 death at age 46; His lying about having a doctorate from Stanford University; His embezzlement of student body funds while a high school principal in California; How Lucent discovered Baughman's criminal record.