New York’s state top lawyer is launching a lawsuit for fraud, deception and misrepresentation after it emerged Europe’s largest car brand is to recall half a million cars in the US and potentially millions more across the globe.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said: “No company should be allowed to evade our environmental laws or promise consumers a fake bill of goods.”
VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn has launched a grovelling apology but gave no sign of stepping down, despite outcry over the scandal that has obliterated trust in the brand and is set to result in tens of billions of pounds worth of fines.
I have a friend who worked as both an AUSA and a defense attorney. He often said the biggest mistake defense lawyers make in trial is not carefully checking the work in government summary charts. A lot of advocacy is hidden in them — factual doubts are often resolved in favor of the government.
What happens when that same misleading spreadsheet is introduced before the grand jury? According to the Second Circuit, a prosecutor won’t have qualified immunity and can be sued.
A Bentley-driving Cicero preacher who once made headlines for warning a federal judge about the “wrath of God” was convicted Wednesday of submitting false documents to secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in state subsidies for day care centers.
After deliberating for about 11 hours over two days, a federal jury convicted Herman Jackson on all 13 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and lying to the FBI. His wife, Jannette Faria, was also convicted of all five fraud counts against her.
After the verdict, U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ordered Jackson taken into immediate custody, citing his previous behavior while out on bond awaiting trial and noting he faces a potentially lengthy sentence.
That’s the question on everyone’s mind as the Volkswagen crisis unfolds. That question makes a big assumption: that the company’s leaders were thinking about anything beyond their greed. About decency, about our environment, about their progeny.
The city of Detroit’s former treasurer has been sentenced to 11 years in prison in a case related to years of pay-to-play corruption under then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Jeff Beasley, who was Kilpatrick’s college fraternity brother, apologized Monday but said he didn’t extort anyone while serving as a trustee at Detroit’s pension funds. He was convicted in December, along with two other officials in a scheme to take cash in exchange for approving certain pension fund investments.
A 2011 lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission against two former Fannie Mae executives over charges that the Fannie execs misled investors about the quality of subprime mortgages, is over, and it ended with a whimper.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the SEC reached a settlement agreement with Enrico Dallavecchia, Fannie Mae’s former chief risk office, and Thomas Lund, Fannie Mae’s former chief of the single-family operation, for a mere $35,000.
A Phoenix solar company accused of fraud is now required to pay $40,000 in restitution to Arizona customers, authorities said Monday.
Epcon Solar LLC, a Phoenix-based company, is required by a consent judgment filed by Attorney General Mark Brnovich to pay $40,000 in restitution to customers who filed a consumer complaint with the Attorney General’s Office.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) — A new Gallup survey shows that three in four Americans viewed corruption as rife in the U.S. government last year.
Although the percentage was four points lower than that in 2013, when 79 percent of Americans held such perception, it still represented the second highest number in the past seven years, said the survey.
While the numbers fluctuated since 2007, the percentage of Americans who see corruption as pervasive had never dropped under 70 percent with the exceptions in 2007 and 2009, when about two in three Americans held such perception, the survey showed.
Leslie Allen Merritt Jr., 21, was arrested at a Wal-Mart in Glendale, a suburb west of Phoenix at about 7 p.m., said Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesman for Gov. Doug Ducey.
Department of Public Safety Director Frank Milstead, announcing the arrest at a news conference two hours later, said Merritt had not been formally charged yet.
