Anthony Marshall, age 89, will soon be the oldest person in New York to start serving a prison sentence for a nonviolent felony. His crime? Marshall was convicted of stealing money from his mother’s estate while she suffered dementia. The mother, famed New York philanthropist Brooke Astor, died at the age of 105. Marshall’s age […]
The Dirty Back Room Deals – Securities Fraud Post
Securities fraud has been around since the Philadelphia Stock Exchange became America’s first stock exchange in 1790. The types of fraud may be different but all are driven by greed and avarice. A recent complaint by a stockbroker at J.P. Morgan Securities reveals some light on the dirty side of the brokerage industry. The former […]
The Fallacy Of Criminal Restitution
by Brian Mahany It’s only human to hang on to the hope that criminals will redeem themselves and pay restitution. While it’s okay to hope and pray for the best, waiting on cops and courts to collect restitution from criminals is not a good recovery strategy. In many instances, purchasing a lottery ticket my have […]
Seeking Bank of America PLS (Private Label Securities) Employees
The law firm of Mahany & Ertl seeks to interview people who worked with Bank of America’s Private Label Securities (PLS) program. We are currently investigating a possible massive fraud involving investors who purchased PLS mortgage backed securities. We believe the bank has set aside billions of dollars to deal with loan buyback requests from […]
Success Trades Securities In Trouble? FINRA Says Yes (stockbroker fraud post)
by Brian Mahany Success Trades Securities has a great name. They also have the financial backing of many NFL and NBA players. Regulators say that some of these players invested in the company in exchange for a promised rate of return between 12 and 26%. Banking news source bank rate.com says the average interest rate […]
State Tax Whistleblower Case Nets $5.5 Million
by Brian Mahany Virtually all of our whistleblower stories relate to the federal False Claims Act. President Lincoln proposed the law during the Civil War as a way of helping the government recover millions of dollars lost to fraud. Bad rations, soggy ammunition and lame mules were just some of the ways private vendors ripped […]
Feds Fine Mortgage Insurers – New Opportunity For Whistleblowers
by Brian Mahany and Anthony Dietz The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – CFPB for short – was formed less than 2 years ago but has proven itself to have some muscle. Although Congress failed to give the agency the power to toss bad bankers and fraudster in jail, it has proven itself quite adept at […]
Dow Chemical Suffers Billion Dollar Tax Shelter Loss – Accounting Malpractice
by Brian Mahany When will they learn? Three times this month we have reported on big banks and corporations that have suffered major court defeats after attempting to claim questionable tax deductions. This week’s IRS victory against Dow Chemical is just one more nail in the coffin of abusive tax shelters. Wall Street bad boys […]
BONY To Pay $114 Million To Defrauded Investors – Fraud Recovery Blog
by Brian Mahany Our firm concentrates in fraud recovery. Frequently the frauds we handle involve Ponzi schemes. By the time the fraud comes to light, there are very few assets to recover. Some victims rely on court appointed receivers. Sometimes that works but often the result is a recovery of just pennies on the dollar. […]
Cell Phone Lifeline Program Great Whistleblower Opportunity
[Post updated January 2019] Today’s Wall Street Journal says it all. Millions of Americans illegally claimed eligibility to the Lifeline program. Now that the FCC has cracked down on the the eligibility guidelines and misspending, the question becomes who to blame. Is it solely the fault of greedy program participants who lied on applications or […]