Another victim, although of his own making, of the mortgage crisis and scandals, was sentenced to prison for his actions. Jeffrey L. Levine was a co-founder of Omni Bank, based in Atlanta, that had developed a lucrative practice of lending to small real estate investors with bad credit. Levine apparently neglected to properly document the […]

A year after the disastrous oil rig explosion that dumped millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf Coast, fishermen, crabbers, shrimpers and other claimants are struggling to receive fair compensation for their losses as promised by the Obama Administration. Much of the criticism for the slow progression of the claim process is directed at […]

In one of the largest bank fraud cases in US history, Lee Farkas, the former Chairman of Taylor, Bean and Whitake (TBW), a once prominent mortgage firm, was convicted on 14 counts of bank, securities and wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud. Total losses from the fraud were estimated at $1.9 billion. As a […]

Ralph O. Esmerian, a prominent New York jeweler, pled guilty to bankruptcy fraud and wire fraud, among other charges, for pledging over $20 million of jewels in a double-pledging scheme and by hiding assets from the bankruptcy court. Esmerian was the owner of Fred Leighton Holding Inc., an antique jewelry dealer. While facing bankruptcy, he […]