The former treasurer of investment banking service Doral Financial Corp. and federal prosecutors are waiting to see whether the U.S. Supreme Court will review his securities fraud conviction because of an alleged violation of the Speedy Trial Act.
25 Apr 2013Robert McSherry
A Manhattan federal court jury convicted Mario S. Levis four years ago on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud for misleading shareholders and regulators about Doral’s exposure to derivative mortgage-backed securities. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
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Federal prosecutors in Kentucky have lost their motion for summary judgment in a forfeiture dispute with the wife of a convicted investment fraudster.
03 Apr 2013Robert McSherry
U.S. District Judge Karen K. Caldwell of the Lexington, Ky., federal court rejected the government’s argument that summary judgment was appropriate because Megan Coffman failed to produce evidence supporting her sole ownership of various bank accounts and real estate holdings.
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A unanimous 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has vacated the seven-day prison sentence of a corporate officer convicted of securities fraud and remanded the case to an Ohio federal judge for resentencing.
26 Feb 2013Robert McSherry
The panel noted in a written opinion that the sentencing judge, Sandra S. Beckwith of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, based the light sentence on her estimation that defendant Michael Peppel was “a remarkably good man.”
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The former operator of a Louisiana investment business whose bail was revoked after he was charged in a scheme to distribute an illegal drug has lost his motion to reinstate bond.
31 Jan 2013Robert McSherry
U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick J. Hanna of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana rejected arguments by defendant Richard J. Buswell that his continued pretrial incarceration violated his rights under the Constitution’s Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
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The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case of an Illinois businessman convicted of bank fraud in a loan and bad-check scheme, who says his 70-month prison sentence violates the U.S. Constitution’s ex post facto clause.
04 Dec 2012Robert McSherry
Marvin Peugh argues in his certiorari petition that the high court should settle conflicting appellate court rulings on which of two U.S. sentencing guidelines a judge should apply: those in force when the crime occurred or an upgraded version in force at the time of a defendant’s sentencing.
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The estate of the Dana Airlines pilot who crashed a plane last summer in Nigeria, claiming his life and killing all 152 passengers and crew aboard, is being sued in Florida federal court by the victims’ families.
06 Nov 2012Robert McSherry
Two wrongful-death lawsuits filed in Florida’s Broward County Circuit Court on behalf of the families were removed by the pilot’s estate representative, Stacey Veolette Sellers, to Fort Lauderdale federal court. Sellers’ relationship to pilot Peter Simon Waxtan was not reported in court documents.
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The profits obtained and not the full value of a federal government contract should be used to calculate criminal sentences for contractors convicted of fraud, a New York federal judge has ruled.
24 Oct 2012Robert McSherry
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein of the Southern District of New York came in a case involving the alleged abuse of a federal program aimed at directing government contracts exclusively to small companies owned by military veterans or service-disabled veterans. Such programs involved so called “set-aside contracts.”
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A New York judge has ruled that federal law completely preempts state law claims of corporate liability for the allegedly negligent hiring and training of a pilot involved in a commuter plane crash that killed 50 people near Buffalo in 2009.
05 Oct 2012Robert McSherry
Erie County Supreme Court Justice Frederick J. Marshall found that the plaintiffs’ claims of negligent hiring, training and retention of pilot Martin Renslow, who was killed in the crash, are subject to a federal, rather than state, standard of care. (more…)
