Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Officials describe massive, sophisticated scam as one of the largest of its kind ever seen
Federal agents Tuesday arrested more than a dozen people involved in a credit card fraud scheme described as one of the largest of its kind ever uncovered by the Department of Justice, US Attorney for New Jersey Paul Fishman announced at a press conference in Newark. “The losses in this case are, in a word, massive,” Fishman said of the far-reaching conspiracy, which cost credit card issuers at least $200 million in losses. That estimate, however, is “conservative,” Fishman said, adding that it may in fact be much higher. The elaborate scheme required “patience and skill” to carry out, Fishman also said Tuesday. Eighteen people, who live mostly in New York and New Jersey, allegedly operated a ring that created 1,800 dummy addresses …
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Prosecutors say some money used for skin treatments, motorcycle payments.
A Hackensack day trader was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison on charges he dodged taxes and carried out two scams that netted about $2 million, using thousands in ill-gotten funds for expenses including hair salon visits and skin treatments, prosecutors said. Victor E. Cilli, 46, also must pay $710,000 in restitution and more than $410,000 in penalties, interest and taxes. Cilli had already pleaded guilty to charges including securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and tax evasion. Beginning in 2007, Cilli and his firm, Hackensack-based Progressive Investment Funds LLC, ran a commodity pool Ponzi scheme that scammed at least four investors out of about $506,000, according to a case summary published by the …
Thursday, June 7, 2012
U.S. attorney's office said North Jersey resident failed to pay taxes on $1.6 million of income.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark on Thursday charged singer and actress Lauryn Hill with failing to file tax returns for three years on some $1.6 million in income. Hill, a South Orange resident, is charged with three counts of failing to file tax returns, in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She is scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate for a hearing on the charges on June 29. U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement that Hill owns four corporations besides her income as an entertainer. They include Creations Music, Inc., Boogie Tours, Inc., L.H. Productions 2001, Inc. and Studio 22, Inc. Hill, who graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, is best known for her work with fellow singer Wyclef Jean in the group The Fugees, and …
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Hundreds of sexually explicit images involving children were found on the middle school teacher's computer, the FBI alleges.
The 26-year-old Yeshiva teacher and rabbinical student accused of having hundreds of images showing child pornography has been released on bail, according to federal court records. Evan Zauder, of New York City, was suspended from his position as a middle school teacher at Yeshivat Noam in Paramus after FBI agents found the explicit videos and pictures on his bedroom computer last week, school officials and federal authorities have said. Zauder was released on $2 million bail and must remain within areas of New York and New Jersey, court records show. He was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with children and his computer use will be monitored. Acting on a tip, FBI agents went to his New York apartment and found the graphic videos on…
Friday, May 4, 2012
Teacher at local Yeshiva had hundreds of explicit images showing minors, FBI alleges.
A sixth-grade teacher at Yeshivat Noam in Paramus was in custody Thursday after FBI agents found hundreds of videos and images depicting child pornography on his home computer, according to authorities and court documents. Based on a tip, agents Monday went to the Manhattan apartment of 26-year-old Evan Zauder and found the explicit images, according to federal authorities. Agents discovered graphic videos on Zauder's bedroom computer showing young boys engaged in sex acts, a federal complaint said. One video found on Zauder's computer showed a boy potentially as young as 7-years-old, according to the complaint. “As a teacher, Evan Zauder was supposed to help children not, as alleged, contribute to their exploitation," Manhattan U.S. …
Friday, April 20, 2012
Former state Assembly candidate could have faced prison time for advocacy efforts
A federal judge has dismissed the case against a Teaneck man charged with jury tampering for distributing pamphlets outside a New York City court advocating jury nullification. Retired chemistry professor Julian P. Heicklen was indicted in 2010 after he held a “Jury Info” sign and gave out the brochures arguing for nullification, which asks jurors to ignore laws they disagree with and acquit those accused of breaking the laws, the New York Times reported on its City Room blog. In a 27-page opinion filed Thursday, Judge Kimba M. Wood wrote, “...the Court holds that a person violates the statute only when he knowingly attempts to influence the action or decision of a juror upon an issue or matter pending before that juror or pertaining to …
Monday, April 16, 2012
Federal investigation could have implications in towns across New Jersey
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Monday, April 16, 2012
By Joe Tyrrell, NJSpotlight.com The guilty pleas have trickled out in dribs and drabs: three in August, two in February, and another in March. Slowly, a federal investigation has mapped a confluence of desperation and profit, inattention and daring in one of New Jersey's most extensive if low-key real estate markets, the sale of municipal liens for unpaid taxes. In recent months, six regular purchasers of the liens have pleaded guilty to rigging the bidding system in a scheme that began operating at least as far back as 1998. So far, two lawsuits filed by property owners have alleged that participants and associated companies have defrauded them. Investigators have acknowledged little beyond the bare-bones admissions in the pleas, but a …
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Jury unable to reach unanimous verdict in case of Teaneck man.
Federal fraud charges against a Teaneck accountant and his business partner have been dismissed, according to court papers filed in early March. The accountant, Andrew Muhlstock was charged with wire fraud for allegedly taking money from clients for payroll taxes and instead using it for operating expenses at his former payroll services company, Total Time Solutions. Then-business partner Mark Holzwanger was also accused in the 2010 indictment. U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano found federal prosecutors did not provide sufficient evidence to allow a jury to determine that Muhlstock and Holzwanger engaged in the fraud charge, according to the judge’s March 8 opinion. A jury was deadlocked on Muhlstock, court papers say. Holzwanger was …
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Employees didn't have valid social security numbers, IRS says.
The owner of a Teaneck landscaping business pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to failing to pay and withhold payroll taxes through off the books payments to his employees, the Internal Revenue Service said. Park Ridge resident Michael Florio admitted paying “numerous” employees who did not have valid social security numbers for work in 2007 and 2008 at Florio and Sons Environmental Services, Inc, formerly Florio Landscape Contractors, the IRS said. Florio paid these workers in cash, checks payable to cash, or checks made payable directly to the employees. Florio made cash payments to employees totaling around $1.1 million in 2007 and 2008, the IRS said. For the tax quarters ending March 31, 2007 and in December 2008, he failed to pay…
Monday, March 19, 2012
US Attorney says Mahwah accomplice has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing
A Sussex County woman was convicted on fraud and money laundering charges for her role in a mortgage scheme based in Bergen County towns including Mahwah and Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey US Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced in a release. Crystal Paling, 52, of Hamburg, was found guilty in a federal court in Trenton of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, Fishman said. One of her accomplices, Daniel Verdia, 54, of Mahwah, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and is awaiting sentencing. According to Fishman’s release, Verdia and other “co-conspirators” throughout the area filed false and fraudulent loan applications in real estate transactions. The …
DMAB6395
2:52 pm on Friday, June 8, 2012
Hey you don't pay your taxes then you go to jail. No excuses. She's not any better than the rest of us. I'm sick of all these rich people who don't pay their taxes thinking that they will never get caught or that they will go to jail. Look at some of the other celbs be4 her that lost everything they had to not paying their taxes. more ›