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Lawsuit says California mortgage money mishandled
Legal Career News |
2014/03/17 14:36
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Three community assistance organizations sued Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials on Friday, alleging the state improperly diverted nearly $370 million that was intended to help homeowners struggling with foreclosures.
The lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court says the money was siphoned off to the state's general fund as California wrestled with a massive budget deficit and has never been repaid. The money was part of the $25 billion settlement between major banks and nearly every state in 2012, with California receiving the largest share.
H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the Department of Finance, said in a statement that the administration is confident that its budget actions are legally sound.
The suit was filed by attorney Neil Barofsky, who previously was inspector general for the federal bank bailout. The suit alleges the money is needed to help affected homeowners "weather the economic storm that continues to sweep so many families out of their homes."
"As a result of these diversions, large numbers of homeowners who are eligible for loan modifications or other relief have been left stranded, and countless fiscally imperiled California homeowners remain unaware of the full scope of their rights," the lawsuit states.
Barofsky filed the suit on behalf of three California-based community organizations that the suit says have helped thousands of homeowners: National Asian American Coalition, COR Community Development Corporation and National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. |
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Mavroudis & Guarino - Essex County Real Estate Lawyers
Legal Career News |
2013/11/03 12:13
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Essex County Real Estate Lawyers makes up the team for The Mavroudis & Guarino, LLC. Our talented teams offers the highest quality counseling in the the area of Westchester County. While many law offices offer complex real estate services, the M&G difference is that we are not just attorneys, but established real estate professionals.
Our Real Estate Practice Group Chair, John M. Mavroudis, has developed over $1 billion dollars worth of commercial and residential real estate as founder, owner and Chief Executive Officer of Rio Vista, a prominent real estate development, construction and realty services company. Our lawyers have many years of skill and knowledge in a wide range of matters including regional and local office, retail, industrial and residential developments, home building, real estate brokerage, and other types of residential, industrial and commercial ventures.
Many representative cases have been the subject of reported decisions. M&G law firm offers personalized real estate representation from the most basic transaction such as buying or selling a home to the most complex; restructuring a multimillion dollar development. We can be the real estate attorneys for you, don't hesitate to contact our talented team today! |
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Italy court upholds Berlusconi tax fraud verdict
Legal Career News |
2013/05/14 00:10
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Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence were upheld on the first appeal Wednesday in a case that could see him barred from public office for five years.
In Italy, defendants are legally considered innocent until all appeals are exhausted, and Berlusconi's lawyers are expected to appeal the case to the nation's highest Court of Cassation once the reasoning for the decision is published.
Still, the ruling, which comes just days before prosecutors wrap up closing arguments in his sensational sex-for-hire trial, raises the question of whether Berlusconi's days as a political force are numbered.
His center-right forces are allied with the Democratic Party in a grand coalition, and although Berlusconi holds no governmental posts he remains influential. It was his decision to head the center-right coalition, after initially saying he would move aside for younger leaders, that gave a boost to his forces in February's election campaign, finishing a close second to the center-left. |
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Man pleads not guilty to smuggling fake Marlboros
Legal Career News |
2012/07/03 09:03
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A Chinese national pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that he smuggled more than $1 million worth of fake Marlboro cigarettes into the United States.
Lin Xiao Wei, 32, who is charged with selling, dispensing and fraudulently importing a counterfeit tobacco product, entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Providence and was ordered held.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lincoln Almond noted that Wei had entered the United States on a visitor's visa and has no ties to the country, so he deemed him a flight risk. Wei did not request bail, but Almond said his public defender could request it later.
Federal prosecutors say a confidential source arranged for Wei, who uses the name "Marvin," to ship a 20-foot container of counterfeit Marlboros from China to Miami. The shipment was labeled as leather products headed for Rhode Island.
Prosecutors also say Wei discussed a deal to sell to the source tens of thousands of fake Viagra tablets for more than $1.3 million and said he would be able to make a counterfeit version of a new Nike sneaker before it was released in stores in the United States.
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Court rules NY town's prayer violated Constitution
Legal Career News |
2012/05/15 22:18
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An upstate New York town violated the constitutional ban against favoring one religion over another by opening nearly every meeting over an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity, a federal court of appeals ruled Thursday.
In what it said was its first case testing the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled the town of Greece, a suburb of Rochester, should have made a greater effort to invite people from other faiths to open monthly meetings. The town's lawyer says it will appeal.
From 1999 through 2007, and again from January 2009 through June 2010, every meeting was opened with a Christian-oriented invocation. In 2008, after residents Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens complained, four of 12 meetings were opened by non-Christians, including a Jewish layman, a Wiccan priestess and the chairman of the local Baha'i congregation.
Galloway and Stephens sued and, in 2010, a lower court ruled there was no evidence the town had intentionally excluded other faiths.
A town employee each month selected clerics or lay people by using a local published guide of churches. The guide did not include non-Christian denominations, however. The court found that religious institutions in the town of just under 100,000 people are primarily Christian, and even Galloway and Stephens testified they knew of no non-Christian places of worship there. |
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