Recently in Fraud & White Collar Crime Category

The hip-hop star Method Man had to hire a New York criminal defense lawyer after being charged with tax evasion. Apparently the record producer was charged for failing to pay state and personal income taxes from 2004 to 2007. The New York Post reports that the rapper owed about $106,000 to the State Commissioner of Tax and Finance.

Luckily New York criminal defense attorney Peter Frankel was able to help the hip-artist out a lot, as the man was only sentenced to a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to tax evasion. With a conditional discharge, a person's record is wiped clean of the charge as long as that person stays out of trouble.

New York criminal defense attorney Joseph Mure says that his client is not guilty of welfare fraud because the defendant Rosa Gargano does not know any English. Because of the suspect's English illiteracy, the family may be able to get off the hook with taking $33,509 in Medicaid benefits.

Perhaps New York criminal defense attorneys feel that this case is very complex because one of the main suspects died 16 years ago in a mob hit. New York Daily News reports that that Carmine Gargano Jr. was shot by a hit man in 1994 and that the body was never found. In the this particular fraud case, it is Carmine Gargano Jr.'s wife, Rosa Gargano, and his mother Carmine Gargano that have been charged with fraud.

Steve Mandala couldn't keep a straight face as he was whisked off to prison.

I wonder if his New York criminal defense lawyers were as amused as he was.

Steve Mandala, 29, apparently found his criminal charges extremely amusing. As he pleaded guilty to felony grand larceny and identity theft, he smirked before the judge.

If crimes could be measured in terms of "what's hot and what's not", then mortgage fraud would be the hot new crime for New York criminal defense attorneys.

Indeed, it should be. New York ranks number two in the nation among states where mortgage fraud hit hardest, according to a recent study.

But as a crime, what is it and where does it fall? It isn't quite a victimless crime, the way so many financial crimes usually are (well, relatively speaking). It's a crime that has victims and that leaves its victims in a state of hopelessness.

It's a form of larceny, loosely speaking.

New York criminal defense attorneys for Steve Mandala were unable to convince Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman into granting leniency to their white-collar criminal defendant earlier this week. Steve Mandala was on trial for second-degree larceny. He is facing allegations of stealing from Merrill Lynch during his two month employment stint at the investment bank.

Rather, Justice Berkman reprimanded the New York criminal defense lawyer on Wednesday, saying that the deal presented by the New York criminal defense attorneys was too light. As a result, the Justice refused approval of the deal.

Discount clothing retailer David Cohen better have a top-notch NY criminal defense attorney!  Mr. Cohen, the owner of the Mystique Boutique chain of Manhattan clothing stores (among other stores), was arrested earlier this month in New York City. 

And for those of you who know about the cheap steals and discount quality clothing of Mystique Boutique--no, Mr. Cohen was not arrested by the fashion police (although perhaps such an arrest would have been called for). Mr. Cohen was arrested for allegedly being a bad boss.

Well, if only it were so easy to arrest a bad boss. Mr. Cohen was apparently more than just a bad boss, though.  He allegedly underpaid his employees; in a scheme that the New York Attorney General is calling unemployment insurance fraud. 

Mr. Cohen allegedly paid less than New York minimum wage and no overtime to over 150 employees throughout his numerous boutique locations in the New York metro area. Mr.  Cohen's plethora of stores include shops on Broadway, Canal Street and a 5th Avenue store. He owns Mystique Boutique, Madness Boutique, Exstaza and Amsterdam.

Bernard Kerik, once the pride of New York City as its police commissioner, was sentenced on Thursday for a variety of felony charges that he pleaded guilty to.

The New York Daily News reports that Mr. Kerik was sentenced to 4 years in prison for his eight felonies. In November of 2009, he pleaded guilty to "lying to the White House, lying about $255,000 in work done with a mob-linked contractor and filing false tax returns." His alleged fraud towards the White House was in hopes that he would get the job as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Federal Judge Stephen Robinson handed down a sentence that was much longer than the recommended term of 26 to 33 months. As an explanation for the harsher sentence, Judge Robinson said, "The fact that Mr. Kerik would use that event [9/11] for personal gain and aggrandizement is a dark place in the soul for me." He added that Mr. Kerik's decision to break the law warranted additional jail time because he was the former police commissioner of New York City.

The New York Times reports that Raj Rajaratnam has more evidence stacked against him now that a tenth person has pleaded guilty in the Galleon Group insider trading case. Rajiv Goel, was the third person that pleaded guilty and had direct ties to Mr. Rajaratnam; the founder of Galleon. 

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Galleon case began when David Slaine pleaded guilty to insider trading, and as part of his plea deal, Mr. Slaine agreed to work with New York prosecutors by wearing a wire. The information that they would receive from Mr. Slaine's informant work and from wire taps would allegedly assist them in collecting evidence against Galleon Group traders who they thought were engaging in illegal insider trading.

Once the evidence was in, the New York Times reports that 22 people had been criminally charged or faced civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the Galleon case.

Shepard Fairey, the artist who is responsible for the Obama "Hope" poster (or partially responsible) has a pending criminal investigation against him. The Associated Press (AP) accused the artist of using one of their photographs when he created the famous poster.

ArtInfo reports that while the criminal case has not started yet, the AP had received a grand jury subpoena. FindLaw explains that a grand jury is used before a trial happens "to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring a person to trial." If the grand jury were to find that there was sufficient information that a suspect should be held accountable for a crime, then the criminal trial would start. 

A New Yorker was sentenced to probation for failing to return $5 million dollars that was mistakenly put into his bank account.

Benjamin Lovell, 50, was a National Grid salesman who accidentally received the money when his identity was confused with another Benjamin Lovell in a bank error. NBC New York reports that Lovell tried to return the money to Commerce Bank in Wilmington, Del. However, he was not successful.

The New York Daily News quotes Lovell as saying, "I tried four times to give it back... I met with bank executives 10 times."