3rd Circuit Court

Retired Salomon Bros chief’s suit says secretary assigned in Citigroup consulting pact stole $3M

The 99-year-old son of a founder of Salomon Brothers has sued Citigroup, contending that the bank breached a retirement contract by assigning him and failing to supervise adequately a personal secretary who allegedly stole $3 million of his personal funds. William Salomon, who began working for the famed investment bank…

May 13, 2013 3:45 PM CDT

Kobe Bryant battles mom for ownership of sports memorabilia from his youth in 2 federal courts

Not one but two federal courts have been asked to weigh in on the issue of whether Kobe Bryant’s mom had a right to clear out his boyhood bedroom and sell at auction the sports memorabilia she found there. Initially, the Philadelphia-area auction house to which Pamela Bryant consigned the…

May 10, 2013 5:50 PM CDT

Did Kobe Bryant’s mom get OK to auction items left in his boyhood bedroom? Federal judge grants TRO

Just in time for Mother’s Day, basketball great Kobe Bryant is involved in a federal lawsuit against his own mother, who he says cleared out his former boyhood bedroom without his permission to obtain sports memorabilia for an unauthorized auction. After a dispute developed, a New Jersey auction house filed…

May 9, 2013 6:43 PM CDT

Immigration ‘lawyer’ conned clients and courts for years, 35-count indictment alleges

Although Michael Schorr is not a lawyer, he practiced in immigration courts in New York and New Jersey for four years by simply borrowing other attorneys’ bar registration numbers or using a fake number, authorities allege. Arrested Friday and held without bail, he is accused of stealing tens of thousands…

May 7, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

Claimed Anonymous member takes plea in law firm computer hacking case

A 21-year-old who claimed to be a member of the Anonymous hacking collective took a plea Monday in a case over an alleged unauthorized intrusion into a Pittsburgh law firm’s computer. Matthew James West pleaded guilty to unlawful trafficking in computer passwords and reckless damage to a protected computer, both…

Apr 29, 2013 8:12 PM CDT

Son of dead shooter in Del. courthouse slayings gets six months for probation violation

The son of a man who killed two women at a Delaware courthouse earlier this year as they arrived for a child-support hearing was sentenced Tuesday to two months in federal prison for violating his probation in a child-kidnapping and fraud case. David Matusiewicz was also present at the Delaware…

Apr 23, 2013 11:06 PM CDT

Ex-prosecutor guilty of law firm racketeering shouldn’t have tried his own case, juror says

A former state and federal prosecutor convicted this week of operating his law firm as a racketeering enterprise and participating in drug-dealing, prostitution and even a conspiracy to murder witnesses, might have done better to let a defense lawyer handle his trial, a juror says. As he himself questioned witnesses…

Mar 20, 2013 7:40 PM CDT

Jury convicts ex-prosecutor accused of operating law firm as racketeering enterprise

Once a prominent New Jersey criminal defense attorney, Paul Bergrin was convicted Monday by a federal jury in Newark of all 23 counts he faced in a case in which he was accused of operating his law firm as a racketeering enterprise and conspiring to murder witnesses, among other crimes.…

Mar 18, 2013 7:24 PM CDT

Accused ringleader in scam that bilked $70M from law firms has taken plea

A foreign citizen accused of acting as a ringleader in a scheme in which prosecutors say U.S. and Canadian law firms were scammed out of some $70 million has pleaded guilty in federal court in Harrisburg, Pa. Emmanuel Ekhator, 42, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit mail…

Mar 15, 2013 4:24 PM CDT

Jury convicts IRS worker of masterminding bogus tax refund scheme

A federal jury in Philadelphia on Wednesday convicted a former Internal Revenue Service employee of masterminding a scheme to collect fraudulent tax refunds while working at the IRS, often using straw filers. Aware that the IRS didn’t check telephone tax credit requests from filers owed less than $1,500, or ask…

Mar 15, 2013 3:36 PM CDT

Lawyer takes state plea, will pay $1M to widow’s estate; federal $8.5M Ponzi probe continues

A New Jersey lawyer has pleaded guilty in state court to money laundering and promised to fully repay within five years the estate of the elderly widow he bilked of $1.1 million Michael Kwasnik has also agreed to repay, before his scheduled May 10 sentencing, the client couple from whom…

Mar 14, 2013 6:41 PM CDT

3rd judge takes plea in federal ticket-fix case

A third Pennsylvania judge has taken a plea in a federal ticket-fixing case in which nine jurists who work in Philadelphia traffic court and suburban courts were charged. Federal prosecutors said senior Traffic Court Judge Fortunato N. Perri Sr., 76, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and…

Mar 13, 2013 6:25 PM CDT

Attorney on trial in claimed law firm racketeering case can’t get some witnesses to testify

Seven weeks into the federal trial of a New Jersey criminal defense attorney accused of operating his law firm as a racketeering enterprise that trafficked in drugs and prostitution and conspired to murder adverse witnesses, the prosecution has rested. Paul Bergrin, 57, who is acting as his own lead counsel,…

Mar 7, 2013 6:15 PM CST

Son of Del. courthouse shooter faces new probation violation charges related to ammo

New probation violation charges have been filed against the son of a man who committed suicide immediately after shooting to death two women at a Wilmington, Del., courthouse last month. David Matusiewicz, 45, is accused in a violation petition filed Tuesday of living in a home in Texas in which…

Mar 7, 2013 5:09 PM CST

Prosecutor, federal judge spar over 6-year mortgage fraud sentence

A prosecutor seeking 24 years for a mortgage fraud defendant complained Tuesday that the 6½-year term handed down by a federal judge to Vasilia Berger represented the biggest variance he’d ever heard of since sentencing guidelines took effect in 1987. But the judge said the prosecutor was the one who…

Mar 5, 2013 11:06 PM CST