2nd Circuit Court

Both sides proclaim victory in jury’s $140K award to ex law firm associate, but say they may appeal

Both sides proclaimed victory following a a federal jury’s award Thursday of $140,000 to a former associate of Faruqi & Faruqi, but say they may appeal aspects of the verdict won by Alexandra Marchuk in her sexual harassment case against the law firm and one of its partners. Attorney Scott…

Feb 6, 2015 11:30 AM CST

Ex-associate who sued law firm seeking $2M wins $90K plus undetermined punitives

An ex-associate at a New York law firm who alleged she was sexually harassed by her former employer, in a lawsuit that provided graphic details, has won a jury verdict, but it may not be the award that Alexandra Marchuk had hoped for. Her federal employment discrimination suit had sought…

Feb 5, 2015 4:15 PM CST

Claimed ‘digital kingpin’ of hidden Silk Road drug-sale website is convicted, could get life

A California man portrayed by federal prosecutors as the mastermind behind a hidden website that generated $213 million in illicit sales over a period of a little more than two years was convicted Wednesday by a New York jury on all counts. Ross Ulbricht, 30, had argued at trial that…

Feb 5, 2015 10:15 AM CST

2nd Circuit nixes libel suit over ‘scarlet letter’ news stories that survived expunged arrest record

Although Lorraine Martin succeeded in making her 2010 marijuana-possession arrest a legal fiction, that doesn’t mean news organizations must expunge their stories about the since-dropped case, an appeals court has ruled. A Connecticut statute “creates legal fictions, but it does not and cannot undo historical facts or convert once-true facts…

Jan 28, 2015 3:20 PM CST

Top NY lawmaker prosecuted over $3M asbestos-case referral fees exits speaker post and law firm role

After the announcement of criminal charges that he took millions of dollars in kickbacks under the guise of legal fees in exchange for misusing his government influence, a longtime New York Democratic legislative leader is stepping down from his role as speaker and taking an unpaid leave of absence from…

Jan 28, 2015 1:55 PM CST

Many courts close early Monday, plan to stay shuttered Tuesday as predicted monster snowstorm looms

As snow began falling Monday in what is forecast as a potential record-breaking blizzard in the Northeast, court officials joined those in charge of schools and other government offices in declaring an anticipatory shutdown. Amidst airport and school closings and warnings against unnecessary travel, a number of Boston and New…

Jan 26, 2015 4:50 PM CST

Ulbricht was the fall guy in Silk Road’s illicit $1.2B business, defense tells jury

Ross William Ulbricht founded the anonymous Silk Road website. But that doesn’t mean the 30-year-old was responsible for a claimed $1.2 billion in illicit sales facilitated by the online black-market bazaar during a period of a little more than two years, his lawyer told jurors Tuesday during opening arguments in…

Jan 14, 2015 3:50 PM CST

Man banned from school board meetings wins $147K settlement

A Vermont man banned from school board meetings for two years after he criticized the school district has agreed to a $147,500 settlement. The settlement followed a September ruling by a federal judge that the Addison-Rutland Supervisory Union violated Marcel Cyr’s constitutional right to free speech and due process by…

Jan 6, 2015 9:35 AM CST

Acclaimed film on ‘Dinosaur 13’ legal battle airs on CNN

An acclaimed documentary about a legal battle related to the ownership of a 67 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Sue aired on CNN on Thursday. Eventually purchased by the Field Museum, the famous set of fossilized T. rex bones was named in honor of Sue Hendrickson, a paleontologist who…

Dec 11, 2014 3:55 PM CST

2nd Circuit reverses 2 insider-trading convictions, narrowing scope of future prosecutions

In a blow to the U.S. Department of Justice, a federal appeals court on Wednesday reversed the insider-trading convictions of two former hedge fund portfolio managers. Finding that the government failed to prove defendants Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman had prerequisite knowledge of wrongdoing, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit…

Dec 10, 2014 2:30 PM CST

Madoff operations chief gets 10 years in $20B swindle; judge says he was not ‘evil at heart’

Federal sentencing guidelines had called for 67-year-old Daniel Bonventre to spend the rest of his life in prison, and the prosecution and the probation department had sought a sentence of 20 years or more. But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain gave him only 10 years. “You were…

Dec 8, 2014 2:55 PM CST

Girl, 2, on life support as court decides dispute between mom and dad about donating her organs

A judge has ordered a Brooklyn hospital to keep a 2-year-old girl on life support as he decides a dispute between her mother and father about whether her organs should be donated. The girl, Thaiya Spruill-Smith, was declared brain-dead Friday, the New York Times (reg. req.) reports. Her stepfather, David…

Nov 17, 2014 5:45 PM CST

Lawyer sued by former firm in claimed $2.3M fake billing scheme now faces mail fraud case

A New York attorney who is also a veteran Democratic Nassau County lawmaker has been federally charged with eight counts of mail fraud. David Denenberg pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court in Central Islip and was released on a $500,000 recognizance bond. He was sued by his former law…

Nov 17, 2014 10:55 AM CST

Lawyer, 14 others charged in $20M ‘prince and pauper’ mortgage and welfare scheme

A real estate closing attorney and appraiser have been federally indicted, along with more than a dozen other individuals, in what the U.S. Attorney for Manhattan describes as a long-running $20 million “prince and pauper” mortgage and welfare fraud scheme. Attorney Martin Kofman, 53, is accused only of misusing his…

Nov 13, 2014 4:15 PM CST

Prison looms for onetime law student: 2nd Circuit denies stay in ‘most lucrative’ insider-tip case

Saying that Mathew Martoma had failed to show any “substantial question of law or fact” in his appeal of a high-profile insider-trading conviction, a federal appeals court has lifted a stay of his nine-year prison sentence over a tip that prosecutors said earned $275 million for his employer. While the…

Nov 13, 2014 11:50 AM CST