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A revelation regarding the source of key information driving recent foreclosure-abuse related settlements was recently announced. It was revealed that whistleblowers were, and continue to be, instrumental in exposing and assisting in the prosecution of the fraud and abuses perpetrated by multinational banks against homeowners. This press release from the newsroom of the nation’s leading whistleblower law firm in Washington, D.C., Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto announced the news: Today, the...

  A recent article from Reuters illuminated an interesting dilemma that the IRS is currently facing in reference to what may be the largest example of tax fraud in US history. The alleged fraud involves the improper handling of the transfer of mortgages into and out of a legal entity known as a Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC), investments which totaled $3 billion in 2010 alone. The IRS allows for special tax treatment of REMICs, exempting the securities created by the REMIC f...

A new and devious spin on an old con was recently uncovered by Israeli security firm Trusteer, makers of the Rapport financial anti-malware package. The con involves using a Trojan horse (such as SpyEye, Zeus, or Carberp) to take control of the victim’s computer in order to discover financial information and login credentials. This basic maneuver has been used for years by hackers to steal money from victims’ accounts, but this new tactic substantially delays the discovery of the fraud, ...

The mandatory Florida Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation (RMFM) Program was eliminated through Administrative Order No. AOSC11-44 this past Monday the nineteenth, signed into effect by the Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles T. Canady. The program was established on December 28, 2009 by Administrative Order No. AOSC09-54, signed into effect by then Chief Justice Peggy A. Quince. The more recent Order summarized the issue with this statement: The program was established as a means...

Campbell Law assisted environmental attorney Marcy LaHart in her successful defense of a grassroots environmental organization in the Palm Beach County case of Paul Thibadeau v. Jeffrey Cameron, et al. (case number 502005 CA 007681). A Palm Beach Post blog article entitled A blow against SLAPP suits by Sally Swartz provided this case overview: Developers and lawyers who file lawsuits against residents who oppose their projects aren’t often brought to justice themselves. But a Palm Beach Co...

  In an Orlando Sentinel article by Susan Jacobson entitled Elderly who trusted high- living couple now face nightmares, former clients spoke out about Ross and Linda Littlefield, who were “charged with 10 counts of fraudulently using the Lentzes' credit cards, one count of fraudulently using their personal-identification information and one count of engaging in a scheme to defraud for at least $20,000 but less than $50,000.” Following are excerpts from the article: When her husband's Al...

On June 24, 2011, the law office of Campbell Law P.A. filed a lawsuit for civil damages in the Circuit Court of Osceola County, Florida against disbarred-attorney Linda Vasquez Littlefield based on allegations that she and her former husband, Ross Littlefield, operated a criminal enterprise that defrauded elderly clients out of their life savings. Campbell Law brought this suit on behalf of individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as their representatives, who claim the ...

Shahin Kashanchi was arrested a couple of days ago on charges of scheming with his brother-in-law Hassan Nemazee to defraud Citibank and HSBC of $290 million. Nemazee was arrested on August 25, 2009 and indicted for using fraudulent documents to secure loans from the victim banks, and executing a ponzi scheme against them by paying partial proceeds of the loans from one bank to the debts owed to the other and likewise.   Many of the fraudulent documents used in Nemazee's scheme were allegedl...

In the headlines is the news that Cisco may be acquiring Skype. Mind you, this is a rumor from one of TechCrunch's "more reliable sources," so it is hard to say how much truth is actually in it. According to the post, this pre-IPO acquisition of Skype would be for somewhere in the ballpark of $5 billion.   Though not a new rumor, Google had supposedly also jockeyed for this position. Skype would be a natural fit for Google's gradual expansion into the voice market, alongside its Gchat, GTalk...

  "Preemptive counterattack" is taking on a whole new meaning. Though the US military has long maintained a policy of securing its networks and reserving a right to attack those who attack its networks, the issues of going on the offensive is now being discussed. This is not a new issue, but it has come to light recently due to increasing attacks on US networks and changes in the legal and political spheres. Critics are already pointing to the fact that these types of attacks often cause uni...