New York Criminal Law Blog

Four people have been indicted on mail and wire fraud charges related to an alleged conspiracy involving debt consolidation in the aftermath of the financial meltdown, which began in 2008. Prosecutors claim that the owner of a New York company and three employees defrauded consumers nationwide with false promises to consolidate debt. Authorities say that the consumers were not given the relief promised, and some consumers were left worse off due to the alleged fraud.

The case announced last week reportedly is the first to be referred to prosecutors from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We have previously reported white collar investigations involving a number of different federal and state agencies. The CFPB was created in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Act, and the agency says that it intends to crackdown on consumer fraud issues. The bureau director says that his agency plans to refer more cases for prosecution in the area of the debt consolidation and debt relief industry.

Two former hedge fund managers were found guilty of insider trading charges late last year. The two are among 73 people who have been convicted since federal officials launched a crackdown on insider trading issues back in August 2009. One of the men was a portfolio manager at Diamondback Capital Management—the other was a co-founder of Level Global Investors. The former portfolio manager was sentenced this week in Manhattan on conspiracy and securities fraud. He was the 48th person to receive sentencing since the crackdown began nearly four years ago.

In sentencing the 48-year-old former fund manager, the judge acknowledged that the defendant was a “decent” man, according to Reuters. The judge also acknowledged that putting the man behind bars would have an adverse impact on the man’s 12-year-old daughter.

The judge sentenced the man Thursday to 4-and-a-half year in prison. The ex-fund manager was fined $1 million and will forfeit more than $730,000 in the sentenced order.

Federal officials claim that a New York cop amassed a list of at least 52 Social Security numbers of kids born in 2007. Investigators claim that the 33-year-old man moonlighted as a tax preparer at the police department without authorization. Authorities claim that the man filed false tax returns for people, using the names and Social Security numbers of children as dependants without the children having any relation to the people named on the tax documents.

The man is now accused of federal tax fraud related to roughly a dozen or so tax returns that included false dependants. Officials claim that the man did not report income that he received from preparing the tax documents, amounting to more than $112,000 of unreported income over three years.

A Far Rockaway, New York man is accused of real estate fraud in an alleged $50 million Ponzi scheme. The Federal Bureau of Investigation claims that the man lured at least five people to invest in real estate in various New York City boroughs, as well as properties located in Atlantic City.

Investigators claim that the Queens man told one of the investors that owners of real estate properties would not close on real estate contracts unless the Far Rockaway man found buyers to purchase the properties from him at a higher price. The FBI claims that the Queens resident told investors that the real estate investments would be risk free, apparently because the deal would never close in the absence of a higher offer.