New York Paralegal

WASHINGTON—GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc. entered into an agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve the company’s role in anticompetitive activity in the municipal bond investments market and agreed to pay a total of $70 million in restitution, penalties and disgorgement to federal and state agencies, the Department of Justice announced today.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., announced the sentencing of JEREMY FULTON, 29, a former minister at Mariners’ Temple Baptist Church in Lower Manhattan, to 22 years in prison, followed by 20 years of post-release supervision. On April 3, 2011, FULTON pled guilty to Rape in the First Degree relating to the rape and sexual abuse of five girls who attended his church, where FULTON also served as the associate director of the church’s after-school and summer camp programs.

NEW YORK –M. Slavin & Sons, Ltd., doing business as M. Slavin & Sons Fish, a retail and wholesale fish market, will pay $900,000 and furnish other relief to settle an employment discrimination suit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced 12/15/11. The EEOC had charged that the company created a hostile work environment forover 30 black and African male loaders and drivers, including physical and verbal sexual harassment, offensive comments based on race and national origin, and retaliation against those who took part in the case. The EEOC’s suit, CV 09-5330, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, charged that M. Slavin’s owners and managers harassed the employees from 1984 onward by physically groping them, making explicit sexual comments and using offensive racial terms such as “n----r” and “African b-----d.” Many of the men worked for M. Slavin for 10 to 20 ye...

In the mid-1990s, tens of thousands of Haitians and Cubans attempted to seek refuge in the United States during what was deemed Operation Sea Signal. Years before that, tens of thousands of Cubans exited their country for the United States during the Mariel Boatlift. Both of these events serve as examples of mass migration and historical reminders of how such events can affect a nation's security.

WASHINGTON—Eight former executives and agents of Siemens AG and its subsidiaries have been charged for allegedly engaging in a decade-long scheme to bribe senior Argentine government officials to secure, implement and enforce a $1 billion contract with the Argentine government to produce national identity cards, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara for the Southern District of New York and Ronald T. Hosko, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., announced the sentencing of JOHN MARTINEZ, 40, to 18 years-to-life in prison for using an ice pick or knife to rob three women as they entered their homes in and around Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village on the East Side of Manhattan, and for attempting to do the same to a fourth woman. On November 10, 2011, MARTINEZ pled guilty to Burglary in the Second Degree and Attempted Robbery in the First Degree.

An Ann Arbor, Mich., nursing home violated federal law when it fired a Jehovah’s Witness based on her religion and need for a religious accommodation, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit it filed on 12/9/11. According to the EEOC’s suit (Case No. 2:11-cv-15407), filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Whitehall Healthcare terminated the discrimination victim, a Jehovah’s Witness from Ann Arbor, from her job as a certified nursing assistant due to her need to have Wednesdays and Sundays off to attend religious services. Such alleged conduct violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects employees against discrimination based on religion and requires employers to provide employees with reasonable accommodations to allow them to practice their sincerely held religious beliefs. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its conciliation pr...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Texas business owner pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to one count of mail fraud and one count of trafficking in counterfeit circuit breakers, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

CHICAGO—Former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich was sentenced today to 14 years in federal prison following his conviction at trials in 2010 and 2011 on 18 felony counts of corruption during his tenure as governor, including his effort in 2008 to illegally trade the appointment of a United States Senator in exchange for $1.5 million in campaign contributions or other personal benefits. Blagojevich was also sentenced for shaking down the chief executive of a children’s hospital for $25,000 in campaign contributions in exchange for implementing an increase to pediatric reimbursement rates; holding up the signing of a bill to benefit the Illinois horse racing industry in an attempt to illegally obtain $100,000 in campaign contributions; and lying to the FBI in 2005.

NEW YORK—Stanley Ng, formerly the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting manager at Marvell Technology Group Ltd., pleaded guilty today in connection with his involvement in an insider trading scheme, announced Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Ng pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff to conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud by providing material, non-public information about Marvell to Winifred Jiau and Son Ngoc Nguyen, for the purpose of executing profitable securities transactions.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the guilty plea of CHRISTOPHER VULLIEZ, 37, for running a scheme that resulted in thefts totaling in excess of $2 million from approximately a dozen victims. VULLIEZ pleaded guilty to seven counts of Grand Larceny in the Second Degree, six counts of Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, one count of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, and ten counts of felony violations of the Martin Act (the New York State securities fraud law). VULLIEZ will also forfeit approximately $2.2 million, which will be distributed to victims.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the sentencing of HENRY GASTON, 50, a previously convicted registered sex offender, to 20 years in state prison for breaking into a woman’s apartment on July 12, 2010, raping her, and stealing her property. On November 22, 2011, a jury in State Supreme Court convicted the defendant of Rape in the First Degree, Burglary in the Second Degree, Sex Abuse in the First Degree, Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Fourth Degree, and Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree.

Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, today announced the unsealing of a complaint charging Ryan N. Hermon, chief of staff for New York State Assemblyman William F. Boyland, Jr., with bribery and conspiracy to solicit more than $250,000 in exchange for performing official acts for the bribe payers.1 Hermon was arrested today and is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy, at the U.S. Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York.

Turkey Company Violated Federal Disability Law, Agency Charged GARNER, N.C. – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed today that Butterball, LLC, a Garner, N.C.-based turkey processing company, violated federal law by subjecting an employee to a hostile work environment based on the fact that she has Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and firing her because of that disability.