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Investors in Gabriel Capital LP, a so-called feeder fund that funneled money to imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff, were awarded $12.74 million by a panel of three arbitrators, court records show.
The award to two New Jersey investment funds was disclosed in a filing Thursday with the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Get the full story »
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Thursday she is suing a California company for charging consumers for identity protection services that they never requested.
The lawsuit, filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court, claims that ID Lifeguards Inc. of Glendale, Calif., charged $157,562 on the phone bills of 5,071 Illinois consumers between September 2009 and March 2010. Get the full story »
The execution room in a Texas prison. (AP)
An anesthesia drug sold by Hospira Inc. that is used by several states to execute prisoners on death row may not be available until early next year due to supply issues.
The drug, sodium thiopental, is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug administration for use in lethal injections, so it is not sold by Hospira for such uses. But like other prescriptions, physicians are known to provide drugs to patients in off-label form, and the product is known to be used as part of a cocktail of prescriptions used to put inmates to death.
USA Today reported last week that the shortage of several anesthesia drugs may delay executions in at least two states. Federal agencies and some hospitals have also reported that elective surgeries are also being delayed because of the shortage of such products. Get the full story »
From The Daily Herald | Francis Alan Schmitz, a 59-year-old man from Long Grove, has pleaded guilty to defrauding financial institutions in an alleged Ponzi scheme.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Monday it has settled fraud and unauthorized trading charges against a Naperville floor trader at the Chicago Board of Trade whose activities generated a $4 million loss.
The CFTC order permanently bans John Lee Neuman from trading. He had registered with the CFTC as a floor broker from May 1993 until February 2008, and became a local in the CBOT corn options pit in September 1997. Get the full story »
Prosecutors were searching Thursday for the former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia after the highest court sentenced him to two years in prison for publishing pictures of scantily clothed women.
Erwin Arnada was acquitted by the South Jakarta District Court in April 2007, with judges arguing the photos could not be categorized as pornography under the country’s criminal code. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which issued a guilty verdict in 2009 but only informed the prosecutors on Wednesday. It was not clear why. Get the full story »
A north suburban man was sentenced to 6½ years in federal prison Wednesday for cheating victims out of more than $3.3 million they gave him for purported business opportunities with an investment banking firm that he owned and operated, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
According to data from research firm CoreLogic, prepared for the Wall Street Journal, losses from mortgage fraud rose 17 percent last year after declining 57 percent in 2008. And the scams are getting more sophisticated to counter tighter rules put in place after the market collapse.
Bank of America Corp. and former Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis denied civil fraud charges brought by New York’s attorney general over the bank’s takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. amid the 2008 financial crisis.
In court papers filed Wednesday, Lewis said the state’s prosecutor Andrew Cuomo had no basis in his lawsuit to allege a conspiracy to mislead the public and shareholders about Merrill’s deteriorating finances and Bank of America’s desire for government assistance. Get the full story »
Six Illinois gas station owners have been indicted on charges of pocketing sales taxes customers paid when they fueled up.
The fraud investigation has recovered nearly $13 million in unpaid sales taxes, according to the Illinois attorney general’s office and state department of revenue. The indictments were the first in an ongoing probe of businesses that fail to pay taxes, Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan said Thursday. More charges against other tax frauds are expected in coming months, she said. Get the full story »
After the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated one of the fraud laws used to convict former media baron Conrad Black, federal prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the trial error was harmless.
Lawyers for Black say the burden is impossible to meet and that a federal appeals court should toss out his conviction. Black was recently freed from prison after the Supreme Court in June ordered a review of his case because of flawed jury instructions.
The FTC on Monday announced a court-ordered temporary injunction against Central Coast Nutraceuticals Inc., the maker of Acai Advanced, and four affiliated companies which market a variety of acai berry supplements and “colon cleansers.” The court order halts the allegedly illegal conduct of the company, freezes its assets, and appoints a temporary receiver over the company’s several related companies, the FTC said.
A permanent injunction is to be heard Friday in federal district court in Chicago. The FTC also accused Central Coast and two individuals associated with the company of engaging in deceptive advertising and unfair billing practices.
The FTC claims the marketers deceptively claimed the acai berry supplements will lead to rapid and substantial weight loss and the colon cleansers help prevent colon cancer. Some advertisements falsely claim product endorsements by celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey or Rachael Ray. Get the full story »
Barclays Bank Plc has agreed to pay nearly $300 million to settle criminal charges that it violated U.S. sanctions in dealings with Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Myanmar, according to U.S. court documents filed Monday.
The London-based bank was charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading with the Enemy Act in its dealings that involved $500 million from 1995 until September 2006, according to the documents. Get the full story »
Jeffrey Gonsiewski fancied himself sort of a modern-day Robin Hood at a time when consumers were becoming increasingly delinquent on their bank loans.
The former vice president at First Security Trust & Savings Bank — an Elmwood Park-based lender that’s part of the Wirtz family conglomerate — pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of federal bank fraud.
Jeffrey Gonsiewski, who was charged last month, admitted that he changed the terms of at least 100 loans for more than 50 customers to make it appear that their payments were current when in fact they were overdue. Get the full story »
A former money manager convicted of trying to fake his own death in a Florida plane crash has agreed to plead guilty to securities fraud charges in Indiana. A proposed plea agreement says Marcus Schrenker would face 10 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to five of 11 counts.
