Fraud Blogwire

updated at 09:14

• Judge Plans to Trim $300M Verdict for Ex-Smoker, Says Tobacco Lawyers’ Strategy Backfired

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  Calling a record $300 million jury verdict against tobacco giant Philip Morris excessive, a Florida judge has indicated he'll reduce the amount. Broward County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld gave no indication, however, when he'd make the adjustment, the Daily Business Review reports. The verdict, reached in November, was the largest [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2010, 7:57am EST
  

• Danielle Chiesi speaks, claims there’s no chance she’ll do time and says “it’s an honor and privilege” to stand with Rajaratnam; Hedge funds in a Euro shorting spree; Would Greece asking for help send the ‘wrong signal’?; Barclays CEO disse

  —Wall $treet Folly

  Confident Chiesi breaks silence Galleon Tipper Goel Pleads Guilty, Says Rajaratnam Got Secrets Traders in record bet against the euro Greece Says Call for Aid Would Send ‘Worst Signal’ Barclays CEO Says U.S. Plans ‘Bad’ for Global Rules Judge Questions Bank of America’s New Deal With S.E.C. BofA’s Price may need to be sidelined UBS Increases Bonus [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2010, 7:54am EST
  by wsf@wallstreetfolly.com (Wall Street Folly)

• $150M S.E.C. Pact With BofA Still Low, Judge Says. Will Case Go to Trial?

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  A federal judge left open the possibility that he could, for a second time, reject a settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America over the bank’s controversial takeover of Merrill Lynch. Such a rejection by U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, this time of a proposed [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2010, 6:53am EST
  

• Feds May More Closely Scrutinize Attorney-Client Accounts to Close Money Laundering Loopholes

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  A federal report detailing how African politicians and their families used lawyers and others to evade U.S. money laundering laws has federal authorities poised to more closely scrutinize attorney-client bank accounts. The 325-page report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations revealed that Chicago-based Sidley Austin transferred about $21 [...]
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  Posted: February 09, 2010, 6:17am EST
  

• Criminal Probe Launched in Deadly Explosion at Conn. Power Plant

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  A criminal investigation has been opened into a gas explosion that killed five and injured a dozen workers at a power plant in Connecticut on Sunday, reports the Associated Press. "If everything went right, we wouldn't all be here right now," said Middletown Mayor Sebastian Guiliano, apparently at a press' [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 9:37pm EST
  

• Judicial Conf. Group OKs Model Rules Barring Juror Talk, Texts & Tweets

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  Updating traditional rules banning jurors from talking about a case outside of deliberations before it is resolved, a committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States has added provisions addressing e-mail, cell phones, social media sites, text messages and Internet research. In addition to reporting on this development, the [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 8:10pm EST
  

• A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION IN ANOTHER PONZI SCHEME CASE

  —SEC ACTIONS

  Ponzi schemes were once thought to be difficult to detect. In the wake of the market crisis and huge frauds such as Madoff, however, these cases seem to have become a staple of SEC enforcement. Last year, the Commission brought over one hundred of these cases. Frequently, there were parallel [...]

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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 8:07pm EST
  by T. Gorman

• Claims Filed Against Morgan Keegan Division of Regions Financial Causes Shortage of Arbitrators

  —Stock Broker Fraud Blog

  The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has had to bring in hundreds of additional arbitrators to deal with the approximately 400 securities fraud claims that investors have filed against Regions Financial Corp., the investment banking unit of Morgan Keegan & Co. Investors are seeking to recover $35 [...]

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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 5:38pm EST
  by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas

• ABA to Study How Law Firms & Schools Are Ranked

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  The ABA will study how a variety of organizations rank law firms and law schools. The debate in the ABA’s House of Delegates about the measure proved to be the most contentious of any resolution it considered today. Resolution 10A, passed by a narrow voice vote, was prompted by a [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 5:29pm EST
  

• Sisters’ Great Expectations Fizzle in 25-Year Probate War With Law Grad Sib

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  When real estate investor Max Sakow died in 1956, his handwritten will left one-third of his estate to his wife and said the other two-thirds should be divided equally between his three children. But that's not what they were told, his two daughters claim in probate litigation that began after [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 4:58pm EST
  

• Robinson Nominated as ABA President-Elect #ABAMidyear

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  Former American Bar Association treasurer and past president of the Kentucky Bar Association, Wm. T. (Bill) Robinson III, has been selected as president-elect nominee at the ABA Midyear Meeting. It is expected that in August 2010, Robinson will become the president-elect for one year leading to his one-year term as [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 4:29pm EST
  

• ABA Urges Congress to Fix ‘Broken’ Immigration System #ABAmidyear

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  The ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates this afternoon voted to urge Congress to substantially remake the adjudication of immigration cases. The measures included recommendations that, if adopted by Congress, would: • Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act’s definition of “aggravated felony” to require that any such conviction must be of [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 4:00pm EST
  

• Panel OKs Total Attorneys Web Ads With ‘Very Little Margin for Error’

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  An Internet advertising scheme in which lawyers pay $65 per referral for names of potential clients passes ethical muster with "very little margin for error," an attorney discipline panel says in an opinion today. Explaining its ruling (PDF) last month that the Total Attorneys Inc. advertising does not violate lawyer [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 3:45pm EST
  

• Lawyer Makes Find of a Lifetime: Early Draft of Constitution

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  In a find of a lifetime, researcher Lorianne Updike Toler discovered that papers she was examining were an early draft of the U.S. Constitution, in the handwriting of framer James Wilson, of "We The People" fame. Toler, a lawyer and founder of the nonprofit Constitutional Sources Project, had been examining [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 3:00pm EST
  

• How Wall Street is Killing Job Growth

  —Gary Weiss

  Pam Martens, a central figure in the fight against sexual harassment on Wall Street, has a perceptive post today in CounterPunch on how Wall Street is killing job growth.
  
  I was really taken with her description of some of the death-related imagery that the Street uses:
  
  Wall [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 2:17pm EST
  by Gary Weiss

• Faegre & Benson Partner Killed in Midair Collision

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  A Faegre & Benson partner piloting his Cirrus SR20 was among three people killed Saturday in a midair collision some 8,000 feet above Boulder, Colo. Robert Matthews, 58, and his 56-year-old brother, Mark, were killed along with the pilot of the other small plane, a Piper Pawnee. But a pilot [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 1:49pm EST
  

• Whistle-Blowing Nurse to Stand Trial for Reporting Doctor to Disciplinary Authorities

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  In what the New York Times identifies as possibly an unprecedented prosecution, a former Texas nurse faces trial today on charges that she misused official information when she reported a doctor to state medical authorities. The nurse, Anne Mitchell, reportedly considered she may lose her job as a result of [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 1:01pm EST
  

• Milton (MA) man charged in ID theft/mortgage fraud allegations

  —Daily Mortgage Fraud News

  Augustus C. Okoye, age 47, of 278 Brush Hill Road, Milton, who is charged in an Information with three counts of wire fraud and one count of identity fraud.He is alleged to have used his brother’s name, social security number, and date of birth to obtain mortgage loans for the [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 12:46pm EST
  by The Editor - Ian Shuter - ACFE, DMS

• Ohio AG files suit against two California loan modification companies

  —Daily Mortgage Fraud News

  The Ohio Attorney General has filed suits against United Law Group, Inc a California law firm founded by attorney Sean Alan Rutledge, and Guardian Services Group, also based in California, for promising foreclosure rescue services to Ohioans, accepting upfront fees and never delivering.In addition he announced that he had obtained [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 12:15pm EST
  by The Editor - Ian Shuter - ACFE, DMS

• Major Cell Phone Privacy Case on 3rd Circuit Docket This Week

  —ABA Journal Top Stories

  A closely watched privacy rights case is before the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which this week will hear arguments about the proper legal standard to apply when prosecutors seek cell phone location data. The global positioning data, recorded regularly whenever a cell phone is turned on, track [...]
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  Posted: February 08, 2010, 12:01pm EST