New York Paralegal

CRAIG DRIMAL was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 66 months in prison for his participation in an insider trading scheme in which he obtained and traded on material, nonpublic information (“Inside Information”), including information misappropriated from the law firm of Ropes & Gray. DRIMAL pled guilty to five counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy on April 26, 2011. U.S. District Judge RICHARD J. SULLIVAN imposed today’s sentence.

Geremias Hernandez was walking home from a friend’s house when he was approached by a man armed with a handgun who demanded money. When Hernandez resisted, the man struck him in the head with a handgun. Hernandez then attempted to run to a nearby house and was shot in the right side of his buttocks, with the bullet exiting through his groin. Hernandez, 30, of 60 Leonard Place, Copiague, was transported to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow where he was listed in stable condition.

BUFFALO, N.Y. – A New York woman was sentenced to five years in prison for distributing a controlled substance following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

DETROIT - Nine suspects in Detroit and four suspects in San Diego have been arrested for their alleged role in a large scale car theft scheme – a scheme that transshipped stolen luxury sedans, SUVs and other vehicles to Iraq. These arrests are the result of an extensive two-year investigation, known as "Operation Hot Wheels," which was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Good morning. Millions of Americans rely on mobile wireless telecommunications services in their everyday lives. Whether you are a parent using a cell phone to check up on your teenager or a working professional using a laptop or smart phone to conduct business or surf the web, mobile wireless communications plays a vital – and increasing – role in our daily lives.

BALTIMORE -- A Washington, D.C.-based security services company, DTM Corporation, violated federal law by subjecting employees to pregnancy discrimination and retaliation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it announced today. DTM is a government contractor doing business for the U.S. Department of Defense at Fort Washington, Md., and has an office in Silver Spring, Md.

WASHINGTON—Miami-area resident Farah Maria Perez, a registered nurse, pleaded guilty today for her participation in a $25 million Medicare fraud scheme involving false billings for home health services, announced the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the arrests of four New York City motor vehicle inspectors who issued more than 7,000 fraudulent inspection certificates to untested vehicles. Each defendant was charged with numerous felony counts for violations of New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law, Penal Law and Environmental Law, which could carry millions of dollars in fines and years in prison.

Staffing agencies seem to forget that equal employment laws apply to them too. I have noticed a trend in New York, especially in the healthcare profession, how hospitals and nursing homes are using temporary employment agencies as a way to discriminate against those who they view as undesirable because of race, religion, gender and sexual orientation. It is good to know that the EEOC is working hard to unmask those who try to circumvent civil rights laws by using third party employment agencies.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Oakland-based Crime Scene Cleaners, a trauma scene cleaning company specializing in homicide, suicide and accidental death scene cleanup operations, violated federal law by refusing to hire a qualified female applicant because of her gender, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

Jennifer O'Brien, the first grade teacher in New Jersey who posted on her Facebook wall "i’m not a teacher - i’m a warden for future criminals," says that her comments were simply made in the heat of the moment. Source: Gothamist

Restaurant to Pay $86,000 to Former Male Employees Who Were Subjected to Abuse by Male Co-Worker CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Huntersville Seafood, Inc., doing business as Captain’s Galley restaurant, will pay $86,000 and furnish other relief to settle a sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced late yesterday.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - A former White County, Ga., sheriff's deputy was arrested for producing child pornography Thursday morning, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

CHICAGO - The former managing director of a hedge fund that was forced into receivership by U.S. government regulators pleaded guilty today to fraudulently soliciting and obtaining approximately $294 million from some 900 investors worldwide. The defendant, Philip J. Baker, who controlled Lake Shore Asset Management Ltd., and the Lake Shore Group of Companies, which purportedly traded clients’ funds in several commodity futures pools, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, resolving criminal charges on which he was scheduled to stand trial next month.

WASHINGTON - An Iowa ready-mix concrete company pleaded guilty today to participating in a price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy for the sales of ready-mix concrete, the Department of Justice announced.

FORREST CITY, Ark. -- Forrest City Grocery Company, a distributor of tobacco and grocery items to retail and convenience stores in six states, has agreed to pay $125,000 and furnish other relief to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC alleged that Forrest City Grocery, doing business as Dixie Tobacco & Candy Company in Shaw, Miss., now closed, denied sales positions to an employee because she is a woman.

SAN FRANCISCO — Local car dealership Fremont Toyota violated federal law when its management harassed Afghani-American employees due to their national origin, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

LAREDO, Texas – Briggs Equipment, Inc., a Dallas-based company and one of North America’s largest industrial and construction equipment distributors, will pay a former employee $112,000 and furnish other relief to settle a race discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

WASHINGTON—A Gainesville, Florida woman was charged in a seven-count indictment filed yesterday in the Northern District of Florida for her alleged role in the obstruction of a multi-national investigation into the disappearance of her husband, James Hogan, then an employee in the U.S. Consulate in Curacao, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Pamela Cothran Marsh for the Northern District of Florida; Ambassador Eric J. Boswell of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security; and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office.

Just finished the best grilled cheese ever! It was yummy good, with melted gruyere,fontana,and goat cheese with homemade roasted tomatoes on sourdough bread.

University at Buffalo Law School, The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy Monday, September 12 & Tuesday 13, 2011 Forty years ago, the deadliest prisoner rebellion in U.S. history occurred. Next month, a major conference will bring together prisoner advocates, legislators, policymakers, corrections professionals, activists, and people who were on the front lines of the conflict, on both sides.

SYRACUSE - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced the sentencing of Onondaga County resident James T. Pickard for stealing over $541,000 from the Medicaid system. Pickard was sentenced in Onondaga County Supreme Court before Judge Joseph E. Fahey to five years probation and 250 hours of community service.

WASHINGTON – Aurelio Cano-Flores, aka “Yankee” and “Yeyo,” a high-ranking member of the Mexican Gulf Cartel, has been extradited to the United States from Mexico to face drug conspiracy charges, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

NEW YORK - A Chinese gang leader was extradited from Canada to face charges of murdering two individuals in a Queens nightclub in 2004. This extradition is the result of an extensive investigation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with the assistance of the following law enforcement partners: HSI's attaché in Toronto; the Toronto Police Service; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; the New York City Police Department (NYPD); the U.S. Marshals Service; and the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division, Office of International Affairs.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that ANTHONY CUTI, the former chief executive officer (“CEO”), chairman of the board, and president of Duane Reade, Inc. (“Duane Reade”) was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to three years in prison for perpetrating a scheme to falsely inflate the income and reduce the expenses that Duane Reade reported. CUTI was convicted in June 2010 after a two-month jury trial. U.S. District Judge DEBORAH A. BATTS imposed today’s sentence.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Global technology giant 3M (NYSE: MMM) has agreed to pay $3 million to a class of former employees and implement preventive measures to resolve a nationwide age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

INDIANAPOLIS – The owner of SAC Griffith, Inc., doing business as Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant of Griffith, Ind., sexually harassed a hostess and then terminated her due to her pregnancy, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

INDIANAPOLIS – Gaucho’s Brazilian Steakhouse, Inc., in Valparaiso, Ind., violated federal law by allowing a female employee to be sexually harassed, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed today. The EEOC also alleged that the employee was forced to resign from employment due to the severity of the harassment.

Friday night means the weekend is almost here.  I hope that all of you hard working New Yorkers will be soaking in the sun like me over the weekend! Have a good one.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that attorney JASON GOLDFARB was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to three years in prison for his participation in an insider trading scheme in which he gave material, nonpublic information (“Inside Information“) that had been misappropriated from the law firm of Ropes & Gray to ZVI GOFFER for the purpose of securities trading.

OAKLAND, Calif. - New United Motors & Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI), California’s last auto plant, has agreed to contribute to a $6 million settlement fund as part of a class settlement resolving complaints that the company violated federal law when it denied severance benefits to employees on medical leave, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced today.

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a stipulated order of dismissal to resolve its lawsuit concerning conditions of confinement at the Erie County Holding Center (ECHC), a pre-trial detention center in Buffalo, N.Y., and the Erie County Correctional Facility (ECCF), a correctional facility in Alden, N.Y.

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - On Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) returned a collection of 67 into the United States from the Dominican Republic. The objects were discovered as part of several investigations by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and CBP - one in Jacksonville and Orlando, Fla. and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the other in Memphis, Tenn.

DALLAS — Wal-Mart Stores of Texas, LLC will pay $27,500 and furnish other relief to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that MARK LEITZSEY was sentenced today to 151 months in prison for his role in the sex trafficking of a teenage girl (the “Victim”) for profit. He was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge BARBARA S. JONES. On May 9, 2011, LEITZSEY pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge DEBRA FREEMAN to one count of sex trafficking of minors.

ROANOKE, Va. – A moving and storage company headquartered in Roanoke will pay $30,000 and furnish substantial relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed the by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The company, Lawrence Transportation Systems, Inc., also has facilities in Waynesboro, Va., and Greensboro, N.C.

Director of Spiritual Care Terminated Black Female Employee While Giving Progressive Discipline to White Males, Federal Agency Says MILWAUKEE - Aurora Health Care, a not for profit health care provider operating facilities in eastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, violated the law when it failed to meaningfully investigate an employee’s claims of harassment and race discrimination, retaliated against the employee for using the company’s internal complaint system, and ultimately fired the employee after she filed a charge of discrimination, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today.

Racism Is Alive And Well In New York NEW YORK – New York University, the largest private university in the United States and one of New York City’s ten biggest employers, will pay $210,000 and furnish other relief to settle a race and national origin harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today. The EEOC had alleged that NYU violated federal law by subjecting an African-born employee to a hostile work environment that included degrading verbal harassment.

WASHINGTON – In a settlement valued at more than $1.7 million, Clean Harbors of Braintree Inc. has agreed to pay a significant penalty and perform additional projects, to settle a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), regarding numerous violations of hazardous waste management and emergency planning laws at the company’s Braintree, Mass., facility.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Bojangles’ Restaurants, Inc. violated federal law by subjecting female employees to a sexually hostile work environment at one of its corporate-owned restaurants, and by firing one woman who complained about the sexual harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today. The restaurant involved in the lawsuit is located in Greensboro, N.C.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the indictment of ANDREW ALBERT, 49, for defrauding at least three investors of approximately $590,000 in a luxury shopping website called ON1AVE.com that he was purporting to launch. The defendant was indicted on charges of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, and Criminal Tax Fraud in the Third Degree.1

Man entered Sports Authority, located at 2110 Route 347, just after 9 p.m. engaged an employee in conversation, quietly announced a robbery and showed the employee a gun in his waistband. The man instructed the employee to have the store manager assist them enter the office and put all the money contained in the store’s safe in a bag. The man then forced the employee and the manager to walk him out of the store through a rear door.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Finding that employees have no obligation to go to school after they are fired, a federal court in Rochester has denied Dresser-Rand Company’s attempt to limit damages in a long-standing lawsuit between the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the company.

Special Agent in Charge Dennis L. Baker of the FBI St. Louis Division has announced that two bicycle training wheels have been found. The wheels could possibly be from the bicycle that disappeared along with Breeann Rodriguez. Breeann’s father has seen the training wheels and believes they belong to his daughter because of how he manipulated the training wheels and bike to lower it for her height.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A producer of pork sausage products located in Union City, Tenn., will pay $60,000 and furnish other relief to settle a wage discrimination and racial harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

FRESNO – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced the simultaneous filing and settlement of its gender discrimination lawsuit against MV Transportation, a provider of passenger transportation services.

Sean Seignious who was convicted by a jury on July 11, 2011 of two counts rape in the first degree, one count of sexual abuse in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child, has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

Today, law enforcement and search teams are searching an area outside of Senath, Missouri where potential evidence was found. The area, located on County Road 568 in Dunklin County, is approximately two miles southeast of Breeann Rodriguez’s home. There will be no further specifics on the potential evidence.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced that STANLEY NG, formerly the SEC reporting manager at Marvell Technology Group, Ltd. (“Marvell”), was arrested this morning on charges relating to his involvement in an insider trading scheme.

WASHINGTON – A Brooklyn, N.Y., man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., for his role in managing a credit card fraud operation that operated throughout the East Coast of the United States, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride of the Eastern District of Virginia.

WASHINGTON – The United States has intervened and filed a complaint in a whistleblower suit pending under the False Claims Act against Education Management Corp. (EDMC) and several affiliated entities, the Justice Department announced today. In its complaint, the government alleges that EDMC falsely certified compliance with provisions of federal law that prohibit a university from paying incentive-based compensation to its admissions recruiters that is tied to the number of students they recruit.

ST. LOUIS – The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today filed suit in federal court against Audrain Medical Center in Mexico, Mo., alleging that the center violated federal law by refusing to transfer a male nurse into the operating room because it preferred to have a female nurse in the room when female patients were being treated.

INDIANAPOLIS – Trinity Health Corporation violated federal law by retaliating against employees who file or refuse to drop discrimination charges with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency charged in a lawsuit it filed today. Trinity Health is a national Catholic health care system which is the parent of St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, a North Central Indiana health care system.

HARTFORD, Conn.-A citizen of Mexico was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in jail followed by two years of supervised release for illegally re-entering the United States following his deportation in a case investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO).

The reality is they will not stop their discriminatory behavior. In fact, they will probably turn it up a notch or two! Be it sexual harassment, racial discrimination or gender discrimination. Complaining about it to the perpetrator will not help and complaining about it to management will only make it worse. According to the EEOC's 2010 charge statistics report, retaliation is the most common charge filed with the federal agency.

WASHINGTON—Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez, former executives of Terra Telecommunications Corp., have been convicted by a federal jury on all counts for their roles in a scheme to pay bribes to Haitian government officials at Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M (Haiti Teleco), a state-owned telecommunications company. The jury reached its verdict yesterday after five hours of deliberations, following a two-and-a-half-week trial.

UPDATE! CLICK HERE Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. announced the indictment of AMERICAN STANDARD TESTING AND CONSULTING LABORATORIES (“ASTC”), its owner, ALAN FORTICH, 44, and five other defendants for falsifying concrete testing and inspection reports, as well as manipulating government programs to obtain jobs for which they were otherwise ineligible.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced a 148-count indictment of six members of a large-scale identity theft and cybercrime ring for stealing more than $1 million from J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, compromising at least 80 victims’ accounts at various bank branches.[1]

BOSTON – A $1-million settlement has been reached for natural resource damages (NRD) at the Blackburn & Union Privileges Superfund Site in Walpole, Mass., the Departments of Justice and Interior (DOI), and the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General announced today.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the guilty plea of ALBERTO BARRIERA, 47, for the 1993 rape of a 16-year-old girl in her apartment building in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. BARRIERA pled guilty to Rape in the First Degree and is expected to be sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison on August 17, 2011. Because his identity was unknown at the time, BARRIERA’s DNA profile was indicted as a “John Doe” case before the 10-year statute of limitations expired. Seventeen years after the rape, the defendant’s DNA was collected after 2009 felony convictions for drug possession and transport in Virginia, and his profile matched this Manhattan sexual assault.

LITTLE ROCK, AR—Kevin Harold Lewis, of Little Rock, Arkansas, pleaded guilty today to one count of bank fraud, announced Christopher R. Thyer, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Valerie Parlave, Special Agent in Charge of the Little Rock Field Office of the FBI.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. (NYSE: PBG) agreed to pay $120,000 and implement preventive measures to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Detroit was unsealed today, charging 26 individuals for their participation in a large-scale health care fraud and drug distribution scheme, United States Attorney Barbara L. McQuade announced today. McQuade was joined in her announcement by Special Agent in Charge Robert L. Corso of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Lamont Pugh, Special Agent in Charge of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Rock-Tenn Company, a packaging manufacturer in Conway, Ark., will pay $160,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.