The three teens arrested for starting the fire that destroyed Stratford’s American Shakespeare Theatre have been identified and will be tried as adults.

Juvenile Court Judge Frank Iannotti transferred the cases of 17-year old Logan Caraballo of Shelton, and 18-year-olds Michael Keller and Christopher Sakowicz of Stratford, to Bridgeport Superior Court. The three are charged with arson, burglary, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass in the Jan. 13 fire that destroyed the theater, which had been closed since 1989.

Keller allegedly texted his girlfriend that night: “Goodnight we are going to burn down Shakespeare.” In late March, Caraballo’s mother reportedly contacted police with information about how two of his friends were involved with the fire.

The three are also suspects in at least two other arson fires.

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With four days to go to Tax Day, customers of Eversley Tax in New Windsor, whose federal returns have not been completed, are out of luck.

Eversley E. Barrett, 64, who operates the tax preparation business at his Orange County home was ordered on April 11 to stop filing client tax returns.

But that could be the least of the headaches for some of Barrett’s customers, because he also was charged with 83 counts of tax preparation fraud and one count of tax evasion.

Barrett surrendered to authorities on Thursday morning and was arraigned by U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison in federal court in White Plains.

He files more than 700 tax returns a year, but about two dozen clients allegedly got special treatment.

He fabricated or inflated deductions by nearly $2.4 million, according to the indictment, for the 2012 to 2015 tax years. He allegedly falsified his own returns by more than $429,000, over four years, including failure to report $305,000 in client fees.

The indictment describes a variety of techniques that lowered clients’ taxes.

For instance, he allegedly designated the wrong filing statuses – married, single, married separate or head of household – to qualify for lower tax rates or for tax credits.

Schedule A forms, the government claims, falsified deductions for gifts to charity, job-related expenses and state and local taxes.

Schedule C forms misreported business receipts, expenses and profits or losses for sole proprietorships.

Schedule E forms inflated rental real estate losses.

The indictment identifies the clients by initials. MC’s tax return for 2012, for example, allegedly fabricated or inflated deductions by $29,599 for rental losses, $8,005 for real estate taxes, $5,834 for unreimbursed employee expenses, and $4,754 for gifts to charity.

In all, MC’s write-offs were inflated by $158,536, according to the indictment, over the four tax years.

If found guilty, Barrett could be fined up to $250,000 for each charge and sentenced to three years in prison for each false tax return and five years for evading his own taxes.

Barrett pleaded not guilty and he was released from custody on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman praised the work of the Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation division in a news release.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Margery Beth Feinzig is prosecuting the case. Michael K. Burke of Hodges Walsh & Burke of White Plains is representing Barrett.

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A Rockland County attorney was sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York to four months in prison for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme.

Laurence Savedoff of New City had been convicted of misprision of a felony – a misprision occurs when a person is aware that a felony took place and fails to notify the authorities while taking steps to aid in its concealment. In Savedoff’s case, he represented The Funding Source, a mortgage bank, as the settlement attorney between 2008 and 2009, and his office was used for the closings for eight real estate transactions in the Bronx that involved efforts by five other individuals to fraudulently obtain mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration on behalf of unqualified borrowers.

Prosecutors argued that Savedoff signed legal documents in all of the transactions knowing they were false. Also, he failed to notify authorities of the fraud while concealing the scam by either signing or having his paralegal sign documents that would be sent to banks, including M&T Bank. The total amount of the mortgages involved in this fraud was $4.8 million.

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A Mount Vernon Police Department employee has pleaded guilty to using a credit card account created under another person’s name to pay for plastic surgery.

Fraida Hickson was charged with one count of credit card fraud on April 24 in federal court in White Plains.

Hickson used a Mount Vernon auxiliary police badge, according to the criminal complaint, to identify herself at the plastic surgeon’s office in 2017. She is listed on Mount Vernon’s website as director of civil defense, but now she works at the police department’s parking bureau.

The fraud was discovered in 2017 when a woman noticed her credit score had dropped. Her credit report showed an unpaid balance of $20,465 on a CareCredit card for charges to a New York City plastic surgeon.

The woman, who is not identified in the complaint, disputed the charges. She had never applied for a CareCredit card, did not know the surgeon and did not know the person who had used the card.

The CareCredit account was opened online in March 2017, using the woman’s date of birth and Social Security number.

Three days later, a man called Synchrony Bank, the issuer, identified himself as the woman’s husband and asked to add Hickson and another woman, who also is not identified in the complaint, as authorized users. He provided their dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

Synchrony approved the request and said the women were authorized for immediate access to the account.

Then Hickson and her accomplice called separately to verify their access.

Ten days later, Hickson and the accomplice had several procedures done by the surgeon. They charged the costs to the CareCredit account.

Hickson admitted to a Synchrony investigator, according to the complaint, that she had applied for a CareCredit card online. She did not know the woman in whose name the account was set up and she had no idea how she was added as an authorized user.

She reportedly told the investigator “she works ‘24/7’ and is really busy with her job and has ‘no idea’ how this happened,” the complaint states.

In January 2018 she told FBI agents that she had applied for a CareCredit card but was rejected, the complaint states. Then she got a phone call from a man who claimed to work for CareCredit and who said her application had been accepted.

She met the unidentified man at a gas station in the Bronx and paid him $1,500 for access to the account.

“Hickson acknowledged that this was an unusual way of doing business,” the complaint states.

She also reportedly told the agents that she did not pay attention to the name on the account when she signed for the charges and she does not know the woman.

Hickson is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 19 by U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas.

Hickson did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. She is represented by attorney Kerry A. Lawrence of Calhoun and Lawrence of White Plains.

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Rolando Russell, an independent Bridgeport tax preparer, pleaded guilty in Hartford federal court to preparing false tax returns for his clients.

In pleading guilty, Russell agreed that losses sustained by the IRS as a result of his fraud totaled approximately $1.5 million.

According to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Russell prepared approximately 1,820 federal tax returns for the 2013 through 2016 tax years. Those returns claimed a total of approximately $11.26 million in refunds, of which the IRS issued approximately $10 million.

However, an investigation determined many of these tax returns included false Schedule C forms, also known as the Profit or Loss from Business form, and these losses totaled approximately $22.2 million, resulting in a corresponding reduction of taxes owed of up to $6.2 million.

Russell pleaded guilty to two counts of aiding and assisting the filing of a false tax return and faces a maximum term of imprisonment of three years on each count; he is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 7. 

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Ridgefield resident and insulation contractor Michael S. Flynn has pleaded guilty in Bridgeport Superior Court for his role in a number of bid-rigging schemes in violation of antitrust laws, and of engaging in criminal fraud on insulation contracts.

Flynn’s plea marks the second conviction in the ongoing investigation, which last month snagged Gary S. Devoe, a senior branch manager at Oxford-based BC Flynn Contracting Corp., of which Michael Flynn is principal.

According to court documents, from October 2011 through March 2018, Flynn conspired with other insulation contractors to rig bids and engage in fraud on contracts for installing insulation around pipes and ducts on construction projects at universities, hospitals and other public and private entities in Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts.

The conspirators discussed prices and agreed on bids that inflated prices to their customers by at least 10%. In order to conceal their actions, the conspirators perpetrated the bid-rigging and fraud schemes using burner phones and an encrypted disappearing messaging app.

U.S. Attorney John H. Durham for the District of Connecticut noted that the FBI and the Department of Defense’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service are also handling the investigation.

“Ensuring the integrity of the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) procurement process is a top priority for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS),” stated Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Special Agent in Charge of the DCIS Northeast Field Office. “Bid-rigging and fraud schemes, such as the ones in this case, can cause serious economic damage to the DoD’s resources, which ultimately harms the American taxpayer and the U.S. military.”

The antitrust charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1 million for individuals. The fraud conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Those fines may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.

In addition to his guilty plea, Flynn has agreed to pay restitution to the victims and to resolve civil forfeiture cases connected to the criminal charges. Flynn agreed to settle the pending forfeiture action on his home for $327,500 and to forfeit all of his seized bank accounts.

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“I wish we didn’t need this center,” Dr. Alan Kadish, president of New York Medical College (NYMC) and the Touro College and University System, told an April 25 news conference at the Valhalla campus. He was referring to the the school’s Center of Excellence in Precision Responses to Bioterrorism and Disasters (CEPRBD), which operates at the school’s Center for Disaster Medicine.

“I wish responses to bioterrorism and disasters were a thing of the past, but unfortunately what we’ve seen in several places in just the last few weeks — from cyclones to terrorist attacks and threats of bioterrorism — suggest that the center is more important than ever, and the training we provide here is crucially important.”

The news conference was called to announce that New York state has increased its annual support for the center from the $750,000 announced for last year to $925,000. NYMC will match that amount.

The CEPRBD is the first of its kind in the state to provide training for first responders, law enforcement, hospitals, health care systems, schools and businesses in how to effectively respond to natural disasters, acts of terrorism and public health emergencies.

Dr. Robert W. Amler, dean of NYMC’s School of Health Sciences and Practice and vice president of government affairs for the institution, said the new level of funding represents a significant milestone in the history of NYMC and its Center for Disaster Medicine.

NYMC has committed to funding renovation of the facility housing the CEPRBD to create additional space for classroom learning along with hands-on training for disaster and terrorism events.

“The center provides hands-on training and expert guidance in the response to both natural and man-made disasters, including mass casualty incidents, terror events, accidental explosions, chemical spills and biological releases – catastrophic events that we in government, public safety and health care must be prepared for,” said Westchester County Executive George Latimer.

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If you are over 40 years old, age discrimination at work may start with teasing comments from co-workers like, “Must be nice to be so close to retirement,” but it’s no joke when you lose a job on the basis of your age, not your ability. However, proving that you were a victim of age discrimination in the workplace has become increasingly difficult.

Age discrimination is illegal at any stage of employment, including during hiring, promotions, raises and layoffs. The law also prohibits workplace harassment because of age by co-workers, supervisors or clients.

These protections fall under The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) that promotes employment of older persons (over age 40) based on their ability rather than age and prohibits arbitrary age discrimination in employment. The ADEA applies to employers that have at least 20 employees. Also prohibited are mandatory retirement ages with a few exemptions, such as airline pilots and public safety workers.

But the 2009 Supreme Court case, Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., raised the bar for proving age discrimination. Instead of merely showing that age was a contributing factor in an employer’s decision to fire, demote or refuse to hire them in the first place, plaintiffs now have to show evidence that age was the only factor in the decision. This has put a higher burden on older workers alleging age discrimination than on those alleging discrimination based on race, sex, national origin or religion.

In Connecticut, lawmakers are taking steps to reduce age discrimination in hiring by proposing Bill No. 6113 to prohibit asking on an employment application about an applicant’s date of birth or date of graduation.

AARP research in 2018 found that more than 60 percent of workers age 45 and older have seen or experienced age discrimination, and 76 percent say they consider age discrimination to be a major obstacle to finding a new job. Also, 1 in 4 older workers have been subjected to negative comments about their age from supervisors or co-workers.

Two pending local cases involve women who say they were let go because of their age despite having received positive work reviews. IBM Sales Director Terry Keebaugh, 57, lost her job and a huge commission. She claims there is a persistent policy of laying off older workers at the company. Professor of business law Sharlene McEvoy, 67, said she was replaced without notice as the director of the pre-law advising program at Fairfield University by a person 30 years younger.

So what can you do if your legal employment rights have been violated?

* File a charge with the Connecticut Commission of Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO). A claim must be filed within 180 days of the discriminatory act.

• Save communications like memos, letters, emails and phone messages that contain biased language. Also make note of comments by co-workers that demonstrate age bias against you. For example, “I know it’s harder for people of your generation to understand new technology.”
• Get a copy of your employment contract (if there is one) and highlight what was not followed to serve as proof of discrimination.
• Compare how you were treated differently from younger co-workers for promotions, layoffs, etc.
• Find any prior age discrimination lawsuits against your employer. While they may not prove your case, they may help in a settlement situation.
• Gather documents related to your salary and fringe benefits, including W-2 and 1099 forms, statements showing 401(k) plan contributions and profit-sharing plans and insurance (life, health and disability).
• If you think you have been wrongly terminated, have a lawyer review everything your former employer asked you to sign before leaving your job. You have 21 days from the time you’re fired to consider any severance package an employer has offered and just seven days to change your mind if you agreed to it.

In order to have a strong case, you will need evidence that your employer was motivated by discrimination when making an employment decision. You also need to prove that you suffered damages as a result of the discrimination. In addition to lost wages, employees who have been discriminated against can also recover for the loss of benefits like insurance and profit sharing.

Don’t let the complex process of proving age discrimination deter you from seeking justice. Ageism in the workplace can lead to unfair and illegal treatment that can be economically devastating. If you wish to pursue a claim, find a lawyer who will guide you through every step of the process.

Attorney Jonathan Perkins is the founder of Jonathan Perkins Injury Lawyers with offices in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, Bridgeport and New London. Formore information visit www.800perkins.com or call 1-800-PERKINS.

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Two Westchester residents are among seven individuals who have been accused in federal court, White Plains, of running a variation of the Jamaican lottery scam based on the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes.

The suspects allegedly conspired to swindle more than 30 people, mostly elderly, out of more than $1 million.

A federal grand jury on April 30 indicted Linkoy Bennett, New Rochelle, for wire fraud and money laundering. Tiffany Randolph, White Plains was arrested on a criminal complaint in March but has not been indicted.

The alleged scheme operated from July 2017 to September 2018. Conspirators called elderly people and said they had won the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. But to collect their winnings, they had to prepay taxes and fees.

They were also instructed to send cash, money orders or cashier’s checks, or to wire funds, to fictitious names at addresses in the Bronx, New Rochelle and White Plains.

Ultimately, the funds were transferred to a conspirator in Jamaica, either by wire transfers or by couriers, the government says. The unnamed conspirator fled to Jamaica from the U.S. in October.

One of the victims is an 87-year-old woman who lives in Junction City, Kansas. Initially, she sent a $718 money order to a Walmart in White Plains that was allegedly picked up by a Bronx woman.

She made three more cash payments, totaling $255,000, and shipped the money to addresses in the Bronx and New Rochelle. The New Rochelle package went to a business address on Huguenot Street where Linkoy Bennett worked and where he allegedly took delivery.

Bennett is accused of receiving at least $215,000 in eight packages or wire transfers. Two other defendants claimed they collected and delivered money to Bennett, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent.

Another victim is a 77-year-old woman from Jefferson City, Missouri. She sent $31,000 in cash to a house on Gibson Avenue, White Plains, where Randolph lived and where she allegedly accepted delivery.

Randolph allegedly accepted more than $700,000 in numerous shipments. “She fabricated recipient names for the packages,” the FBI agent’s affidavit states, “because receiving so many packages in her own name would look ‘funny.’”

The money was deposited in a U.S. checking account and withdrawn in Jamaica, according to the criminal complaint, or delivered directly to Jamaica, “on Bennett’s behalf.”

Randolph was released on a $25,000 bond, after her arrest in March. She surrendered her travel documents and was ordered to stay within the New York City area.

Bennett was deemed a flight risk and has been detained since his arrest. The prosecution has objected to his proposal for bail.

Bennett, according to a May 3 letter by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Keenan to federal judge Kenneth M. Karas, is a Jamaican citizen with limited family and financial ties to the community. He has family in Jamaica, including a daughter, and has traveled there at least six times since 2015 “in furtherance of the conspiracies with which he is charged.”

“The defendant has every incentive to flee to Jamaica,” Keenan’s letter states, “and very limited incentive to remain in the United States where, if convicted, he faces a lengthy prison term and likely deportation.”

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The owner of a Harrison trash hauling business has been accused of overbilling commercial customers.

Ralph Mancini, operator of County Waste Management Inc., was arraigned May 17 in federal court in White Plains on a charge of mail fraud.

From 2008 to 2016, according to the criminal information signed by U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman, Mancini mailed “fraudulent invoices for waste disposal services … for services that had not, in fact, been performed.”

The brief charging document states nothing about the number of customers, the magnitude of the losses or other details of the alleged scheme to defraud.

Mancini pleaded not guilty.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul E. Davison released him on a $250,000 personal recognizance bond. He ordered Mancini to surrender his passport within a week and restrict travel to the New York City area.

Mancini declined to discuss the case when called at home.

County Waste Management was formed in 2000. It serves residential and commercial customers, according to its website, in Westchester and Putnam counties in New York and in Fairfield County in Connecticut.

The company uses Mancini’s house in Harrison for its business address and parks its trucks at a used car lot in Bedford Hills.

County Waste Management was also sued recently by the New York State Insurance Fund. The agency claims in a Feb. 1 complaint in Westchester Supreme Court that the company has not paid nearly $90,000 for nine months of workers’ compensation coverage that was cancelled in October. The company had not responded to the complaint, as of May 20.

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Greenwich resident Gordon Caplan, the former co-chairman of Manhattan law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, has pleaded guilty in the college admissions cheating scandal, admitting that he paid $75,000 to get a test supervisor to correct the answers on his daughter’s ACT college entrance exam.

The formal plea follows Caplan’s announcement in April that he would accept a deal in which he and prosecutors agreed to a recommended term of 8 to 14 months in prison, a fairly common sentence for someone with no criminal history accused of such crimes.

Prosecutors have recommended that Caplan receive on the low end of the 8 to 14 months.

Caplan was recorded making phone calls about the cheating, according to the criminal complaint. “It’s just, to be honest, I’m not worried about the moral issue here,” he was quoted as saying during one such call. I’m worried about the, if (my daughter is) caught doing that, you know, she’s finished.”

Caplan, who exited Willkie in March, has maintained that his daughter knew nothing of his activities on her behalf.

His guilty plea is one of the first in the case, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.” Federal authorities have charged 50 people after working with convicted mastermind William “Rick” Singer, who cooperated with the investigation and helped authorities wiretap some of the suspects’ phone calls.

Singer made $25 million over nearly a decade by helping families get their children into colleges through such actions as changing the applicants’ SAT and ACT grades and creating fraudulent athletic profiles.

The defendants include former “Desperate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman, who pleaded guilty last week, and “Full House” actress Lori Loughlin.

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Discussions are underway regarding a possible settlement of the lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James in the opioid crisis, the attorney general said today in White Plains.

James appeared at the annual Westchester Government Relations Legislative Breakfast that was presented by the UJA-Federation of New York in Westchester and the Westchester Jewish Council. The event was held at Temple Israel Center.

About three dozen states have filed lawsuits alleging that pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers have profited from the opioid crisis, which in 2017 resulted in about 49,000 deaths in the U.S., according to government statistics. James’ office reported that the number of opioid deaths in New York during 2017 was 3,200.

“We are beginning to engage in discussions with the individuals who are responsible for this crisis,” James said in an interview with the Business Journal. She said that attorneys general from across the nation were planning to meet the first week in June to discuss the possibility of settlement.

“In the event that we do settle this litigation, the purpose of settling is to establish a fund to address prevention, diversion, treatment and programs that currently exist all throughout the state, providing them with resources.”

OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma recently reached a $270 million settlement with the state of Oklahoma, thus avoiding trial of a lawsuit that state had filed.

The New York lawsuit was recently amended to name: Purdue Pharma and its affiliates; members of the Sackler Family, Purdue’s owner, and the trusts they control; Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates, including parent company Johnson & Johnson; Mallinckrodt LLC and its affiliates; Endo Health Solutions and its affiliates; Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and its affiliates; and Allergan Finance, LLC and its affiliates. The distributors named in New York’s lawsuit are: McKesson Corporation; Cardinal Health Inc.; Amerisource Bergen Drug Corporation; and Rochester Drug Cooperative Inc.

James told the Business Journal that the negotiations are taking place on a multistate level.

“Nineteen individuals die every day in New York state and it is critically important that attorneys general all across this nation, as we band together, seek some sort of recourse for those families that are struggling and those individuals that are suffering each and every day,” she said.

The complaint alleges that New York has been especially hard hit by the opioid crisis because of the fraud, willful misconduct and gross negligence of the distributors who buy bulk quantities of the controlled substances and then sell them to pharmacies and other licensed dispensers.
The lawsuit alleges that the manufacturers and distributors falsely represented that they had complied with state requirements regarding distribution of the drugs when they applied for state licenses.

James said that the opioid crisis has been affecting all 62 counties in New York.

“It knows no race, no ethnicity. It knows no economic category. It’s affecting all of us as New Yorkers, and so those individuals who are responsible for this need to be held accountable,” she told the Business Journal.

“We found that pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors engaged in years of deceptive marketing about the risks of opioids and failed to exercise their basic duty to report suspicious behavior, leading to the crisis we are living with today.”

James said, “There was no monitoring and no accountability with respect to the diversion of opioids into the general market and so it’s really critically important that we provide some recourse to individuals who are struggling and we prevent it from spreading even further in or out of state.”

James said that just because her office has pulled no punches when it comes to filing lawsuits against big pharma, examining practices of various Trump entities or taking other high-profile actions, her office holds the business sector in high regard.

“We recognize that small businesses are the anchor of our economy. All that we say and all that we ask – the Office of Attorney General is the people’s attorney – we ask all businesses not to engage in any illegal or predatory or deceptive business practices that harm New Yorkers or consumers.”

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State Assemblyman David Buchwald, a Democrat who represents the 93rd District, told the Business Journal that the Assembly’s passage of his TRUST Act “stands for a broader principle that top public officials should be totally transparent about what potential conflicts of interest they have and our president hasn’t done that.”

The legislation, adopted in the Assembly on May 22 by a vote of 84-53, authorizes the commissioner of the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance to release state tax returns of federal, state and local public officials and returns of entities that they control or in which they are significant shareholders, if requested by the three tax committees of the U.S. Congress.

The state Senate’s version of the bill, sponsored by Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat, passed on May 8 by a vote of 39-22. Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed support for the legislation and was expected to sign it into law.

The legislation enables the state to provide Congress with President Donald Trump’s tax returns or those of other officials if requested by the chairpersons of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation.

New York state already shares tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service and the tax departments of other states. The New York state tax returns include federal tax information, so obtaining filings from the state would be a way for Congress to obtain tax information Trump has consistently refused to release, at first claiming that he could not do so because he was under audit. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refused to turn Trump’s returns over to Congress despite a law stating that he must do so.

“I’ve carried legislation for two years on this topic to make sure that top public officials’ tax returns are available either to the public, or now making them available to the peoples’ representatives in Congress. Ultimately, this topic wouldn’t have come up had the president not abandoned years of precedent of making returns available to the public and had his Secretary of the Treasury not denied Congress’ rights to access tax returns,” Buchwald said.

Buchwald, whose district covers Bedford, Harrison, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, New Castle, North Castle, North Salem, Pound Ridge and White Plains, explained that the legislation is limited in scope.

“We’ve made sure that the final legislation only applies to elected officials, top appointees in government and the entities that they control or that they are significant shareholders of, so the average New Yorker, the average business in New York, is not going to be exposed to it. These congressional committees are supposed to already have access to every American’s tax return through the Internal Revenue Code. So the fact that that’s not happening with the current president is part of why we’re making sure New York’s state tax returns are available to the Congress,” he said.

At a news conference while the legislation was pending, Buchwald expressed “strong confidence” that Trump is “hiding something” and “I think it doesn’t take too much human intuition to understand there’s something the president desperately does not want to reveal.”

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Two former employees of AMA Laboratories Inc. have pleaded guilty to rigging results at the Rockland County consumer products testing business.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman charged David Winne, the former lab technical director, and Mayya Tatsene, a supervisor, with conspiracy and wire fraud.

They ran human clinical trials with fewer panelists than specified by the lab’s clients, according to the criminal complaint, and then made false and misleading statements about test results in reports to the clients.

The New City lab, founded in 1982 by Gabriel J. Letizia, the sole shareholder, tests products such as sunscreens and cosmetics for safety and effectiveness.

Winne, of Cold Spring, was hired in 1987 and left the company in May 2017, about six weeks after FBI agents and the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office raided AMA offices and labs and seized records. A second search and seizure was done the following month.

Winne, according to the criminal complaint, participated in the scheme throughout his tenure at the lab and Tatsene allegedly participated from 2005 to 2017. Both conspired, according to the government, with “others known and unknown.”

AMA sued Winne, Tatsene and three other employees in Westchester Supreme Court in 2017, accusing them of essentially the same scheme. Winne managed the lab and supervised Tatsene, a Rockland resident. She supervised the repeat insult patch test, according to the complaint, in which paid volunteers were exposed to clients’ consumer products.

AMA accused them of defrauding the company by using fewer test subjects than required and then pocketing compensation that was meant for the fictitious panelists.

Winne said Tatsene did submit documents showing more panelists than the number actually used, in his answer to the complaint. But he said Letizia, the owner, “was fully aware of this practice since this was how he conducted the business of AMA for many years.”

He claimed that Letizia “arrogated for himself” the money that was falsely allocated to nonexistent panelists, and that AMA’s clients, not the company, were the victims.

Tatsene blamed Winne and three co-workers for the irregularities, in her response to AMA’s lawsuit.

The lawsuit is pending.

Winne was arraigned in the criminal case May 23 and released on a $200,000 appearance bond. He is represented by Jeffrey A. Udell, Manhattan.

Tatsene was arraigned May 29 and released on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond. She is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 5 by U.S. District Judge Vincent L. Briccetti. She is represented by David I. Goldstein of Chestnut Ridge.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Coffman is prosecuting the case.

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Convicted White Plains lawyer Peter V. Spagnuolo was suspended June 5 from practicing law for two years for stealing state sales tax payments from two restaurants.

A state appellate court had suspended him in January 2018 for the same crimes and then given him a chance to show why he should not receive a final order of suspension, censure or disbarment.

Spagnuolo “failed to meet his burden of establishing why this court should not issue a final order of public discipline,” five justices of the Second Appellate Division in Brooklyn ruled.

Spagnuolo owned the Desert Moon Café and a Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs eatery at The Westchester mall in White Plains. He maintained a law office in Mount Kisco.

For six years, from 2009 to 2015, according to court documents, he collected sales taxes from customers but pocketed the money and failed to file tax returns.

The Westchester County district attorney charged Spagnuolo and his companies in 2017 with felony charges of grand larceny and tax fraud. He was permitted to enter a guilty plea to a misdemeanor after he paid restitution of $403,719 for the sales taxes and personal taxes.

Westchester Supreme Court sentenced him to probation for one year and his companies to three years.

Last summer, the Ninth Judicial District Attorney Grievance Committee held a hearing on the circumstances of the crimes.

Spagnuolo admitted that his conduct was illegal and morally wrong, according to the appellate ruling summarizing his testimony, “and if he was confronted with the same circumstances he would act differently and close the businesses and figure out a way to pay what he owes.”

He stated that his actions crippled him financially and he felt remorse for disgracing his family and the legal profession. He still owed $1.2 million in interest and penalties for the tax infractions and “he intends to start paying these obligations when he is able to do so.”

He also owes $115,062 for unpaid federal income taxes in 2016, according to a tax lien filed in October.

His attorney, Hal R. Lieberman, argued for a censure, or for a suspension of no more than six months, retroactive to the original interim suspension.

Spagnuolo had cooperated with investigators and apologized for his misconduct, Lieberman contended. He had harmed no clients – though Spagnuolo admitted that he did harm the public – and that his restitution evidenced good character.

Justices Alan Scheinkman, Ruth Balkin, Mark Dillon, William Mastro and Reinaldo Rivera agreed with the grievance committee recommendation for discipline.

He had knowingly stolen tax revenues for a protracted period, the justices ruled. Although he made restitution, he still owes $1.2 million in interest and penalties. And his disciplinary record “is not unblemished, as he has received two admonitions and a letter of caution.”

The justices suspended him for two years but granted credit for the elapsed time from the January 2018 interim suspension. He may start the process of asking for reinstatement next month.

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Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has teamed with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on an investigation into the data breach at Westchester County-based American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) that could impact the personal information data of nearly 12 million patients of Quest Diagnostics and 7.7 million Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) patients.

The data breach occurred between Aug. 1, 2018 and March 30, 2019, but was not publicly disclosed until June 3 by Quest Diagnostics, although the company said it first heard of the breach from AMCA of Elmsford on May 14.

The attorneys general sent letters to American Medical Collection Agency, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp seeking the total number of patients impacted by the breach, as well as the specific number of Connecticut and Illinois residents that were affected by the breach. They are also requesting data on the categories of personal information that might have been compromised, as well as information as to how the companies plan to intend to inform those affected and prevent future data breaches.

“Sensitive personal information of millions of patients may have been compromised, and I am deeply concerned about the adequacy of the plans in place to notify and protect all affected individuals,” Tong said in a statement. “It is important to determine the cause of this serious data breach and what steps these companies are taking to ensure this does not happen again.”

Separately, the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting an independent inquiry into the matter. The attorneys general of Michigan, Minnesota and North Carolina are also pursuing their own probes.

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The U.S. Trustee’s Office is asking federal bankruptcy court to revoke the discharge from a Chapter 7 liquidation case by Eastchester photocopier salesman Joseph Holzberg.

Holzberg had testified that his petition was “true and correct,” but he had omitted a key creditor, Executex Inc. a Hawthorne company that had paid him $435,518 in commissions on $1 million in photocopy leases.

The omission was significant because customers had not actually ordered the machines and Holzberg, according to court records, had forged contracts, stashed the machines in a warehouse and hoped that customers didn’t notice they were making payments on equipment they didn’t possess.

“In failing to disclose significant liabilities and assets in his Chapter 7 case,” attorney Greg M. Zipes stated on behalf of U.S. Trustee William Harrington in a June 3 complaint filed in bankruptcy court in White Plains, “the defendant received his discharge through fraud.”

Holzberg worked for Executex as an independent contractor from 2012 to 2017. His scheme worked until USIS, a technology company in Pearl River, noticed $250,000 in charges for 20 photocopiers it never ordered.

In all, Executex discovered 60 bogus leases. It had to pay $1 million to buy back copiers from the companies that financed the phony transactions.

Holzberg had declared assets of $738,293 and liabilities of $923,310 in the 2017 Chapter 7 case. Tarrytown lawyer Mark S. Tulis was assigned as the trustee in the case, and he reviewed the documents and questioned Holzberg.

Tulis concluded, according to court records, “that there is no property available for distribution from the estate, over and above that exempted by law.”

The court granted Holzberg a discharge from his debts. Less than two months later, in August 2018, Holzberg filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition to protect his home from foreclosure. He declared $732,080 in assets and $836,400 in liabilities.

Again, Executex was not listed as a creditor. This time, Executex sued Holzberg in bankruptcy court for fraud, embezzlement and larceny.

Holzberg did not respond to the charges, and in December Judge Robert D. Drain issued a default judgment in favor of Executex for nearly $1.7 million.

The Chapter 13 petition was dismissed for failure by Holzberg to make payments to creditors.

Now the trustee’s office wants to undo the Chapter 7 discharge.

Holzberg had not accounted for the $435,518 in commissions he had received, the trustee argues, thus possibly depriving creditors of assets.

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A wire fraud conviction cost Michael J. Vatter his position as Newburgh fire chief, ended his ability to practice law and thwarted his attempt to reunite with his wife in Florida.

A state appeals court has disbarred Vatter over a federal wire fraud conviction for taking $95,000 in pension benefits.

“By virtue of his felony conviction,” five Second Appellate Division justices concurred on June 12, Vatter “is automatically disbarred.”

Last month, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel blocked his request for early release from probation to move to Florida.

Vatter, 60, grew up in a tumultuous home in Brooklyn, then Central Valley in Orange County, with two alcoholic parents, according to a sentencing memorandum in the wire fraud case. But when he joined the Woodbury Fire Department as a junior member, at age 16, he found a sense of normalcy in the camaraderie of the firehouse and in the role of helping others.

He became a Newburgh firefighter in 1980, and over a 20-year career worked his way up the ranks to deputy fire chief. He retired from the fire service in 2000 and began collecting a pension.

Vatter got a law degree from Pace University and was admitted to the bar in 2004. In 2009, after practicing law in Manhattan, Newburgh hired him as fire chief.

He continued collecting the pension through 2014, despite a state law that requires benefits to be suspended when retirees earn more than $30,000 a year.

Vatter knew of the limitation, had not applied for a waiver, had not reported the extra earnings and had collected an extra $95,106.

Vatter pleaded guilty in 2016 to wire fraud and he was sentenced to time served, three years of supervised release and 200 hours of community service. He was ordered to pay back the pension fund and he was fined $50,000.

“After his arrest, living in New York became financially disastrous for him and his wife as he remained unemployed,” his attorney, William J. Harrington stated last month in a letter to judge Seibel.

The couple decided to sell their home and move to south Florida, where they figured the cost of living and lower taxes “might allow them to live within their means.”

Mrs. Vatter moved in March, and Vatter, still on probation until September, has been staying with friends in New York.

Harrington asked Seibel to cut Vatter’s probation short by three months, so he could move in with his wife in Florida, assist her with health issues and stabilize their finances.

He has paid back the pension fund and part of the $50,000 fine, and he has found work writing public safety manuals for about $66,000 a year.

But Harrington acknowledged that when Vatter helped move his wife to Florida in March, he had overstayed the approved visit by 10 days, and his probation officer had imposed a penalty of 60 days of home confinement in New York.

Ending his probation on June 16, Harrington argued last month, would serve the primary purpose of supervised release: facilitating the integration of offenders back into the community rather than punishing them.

Seibel rejected Vatter’s request.

The circumstances are in large part of Vatter’s own making, she ruled on May 15. He has not earned leniency by good behavior. He has not paid the fine and has resisted doing so. His failure to comply with a court order suggests that without the threat of a probation violation, he will continue to ignore the court.

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Vatter’s poor decisions will redound to his wife’s detriment,” Seibel stated, “but that surely cannot be a surprise to him.”

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The feds are trying to stop White Plains CPA Joseph Cervone from filing tax returns for clients, just in time for his release from prison in a $23.5 million tax scheme.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman sued Cervone and Peopleworks Inc. on June 10 in federal court to permanently ban them from the tax-return preparation business.

“In the absence of an injunction, the United States will be put at risk of providing tax refunds to taxpayers not entitled to such refunds,” assistant prosecutor Alexander J. Hogan stated in the complaint.

Cervone, 65, was licensed as a certified public accountant in 1978. He founded Peopleworks in 1993 and operated alone from a storefront in downtown White Plains, filing about 600 individual and business returns yearly.

The Internal Revenue Service had discovered $342,000 in deductions on his personal taxes for 2007 to 2009, for retirement plan contributions he could not substantiate. That prompted a more detailed audit of Peopleworks.

Cervone had created 66 partnerships through which clients claimed $23.5 million in tax credits for renewable electricity and coal production. The government distributed $17 million in credits.

But the partnerships were fake and no actual energy investments had been made. Cervone had also taken $500,000 in fees that he did not declare on his tax returns.

The energy and coal credit scheme ended in 2012, but Cervone, according to the civil complaint, kept claiming other unsubstantiated expenses for clients. In a sampling of tax returns from 2015 to 2017, the IRS found that nearly half were deficient, by an average of $17,457.

Cervone pleaded guilty in 2017 to obstructing the IRS and to subscribing to false tax returns. He was sentenced to 22 months in prison, and the government seized $16.5 million from companies he controlled.

Cervone is scheduled for release on July 19 from a Bureau Prisons residential re-entry center in the Bronx.

The government is asking the court to permanently bar Cervone and Peopleworks from preparing tax returns for others or from owning, managing, working for or profiting from any entity preparing tax returns.

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The estate of an Ulster County man who killed himself earlier this year is asking a court to compel the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers to identify and preserve records of a priest who allegedly sexually assaulted the decedent for eight years when he was a boy.

Catherine Gallagher, the sister of Ralph “Chip” Gallagher, petitioned Westchester Supreme Court on June 7 to appoint a neutral party to preserve records, identify potential witnesses and notify others who may have come into contact with the priest when they were children.

“The Maryknolls take these claims very seriously,” attorney John P. Hannigan, of Bleakley Platt responded, “and we’re looking into assembling the facts.”

The Maryknolls, a Roman Catholic religious order based in Ossining, is primarily a missionary organization that combats poverty, provides health care, runs orphanages and schools, and advances social justice issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Ralph Gallagher was born in Mount Kisco and grew up in Chappaqua. When he died in January, he was living in Phoenicia, where he was a self-employed carpenter.

The petition concerns Edward Flanagan, who joined the Maryknolls as a religious brother and was later ordained as a priest. In the 1960s, he was assigned to the Church of St.  John and St. Mary in Chappaqua.

Flanagan had also been a guest in the Gallagher’s Chappaqua home over the years and family members attended his ordination into the priesthood.

Gallagher was first assaulted in 1962, according to the petition, when he was4 years old. The alleged assaults continued through 1970, when he was 11, and included an incident in the Bahamas.

Flanagan had received significant psychological counseling, the petition states, yet the religious order moved him from position to position and allowed him to continue working with families and children.

Flanagan died in 2016. By then, Hannigan said, he had not been a priest for many years.

The petition does not explain how it is known that Flanagan assaulted Gallagher. BishopAccountability.org, does not list Flanagan on its database of U.S. Catholic clergy accused of sexually abusing children.

The Gallagher estate intends to sue the Maryknolls, and others, for sexual abuse, assault, battery, fraud, false imprisonment and negligence.

In New York, sexual assault lawsuits must be brought within three years of the victim’s 18^th birthday. Gallagher was 60 when he died.

But in February, just weeks after his death, New York enacted the Child Victims Act. The new law created a one-time, one-year opening, beginning Aug. 14, for victims who have missed the deadline to file cases.

The Gallagher estate wants to begin the discovery process before filing a lawsuit, to identify witnesses, supervisors and documents that will advance the investigation and help frame the complaint.

The estate wants access to archives maintained by the Maryknolls and by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It wants names and contact information of minors to whom Flanagan had access, names of supervisors and co-workers, journals, notes, internal investigative memoranda, law enforcement or regulatory agency reports, and public or private complaints against Flanagan.

The religious order is committed to providing a safe environment for everyone who comes into contact with its priests, brothers and employees, according to the Rev. Raymond Finch, superior general, in an undated letter posted on the order’s website.

The letter states that it does background checks on members, responds promptly to allegations of abuse, treats victims with dignity and compassion, removes from ministry those who are credibly accused, provides therapeutic and pastoral care to victims, and strives for transparency in settling matters.

Bishops around the world have responded to sexual abuse allegations in inexcusable ways, Finch states, and “caused even more pain and suffering for victims.”

“We call upon our church and the members of our own Maryknoll Society to do everything possible to end this affliction.”

The estate is represented by attorney Barbara Hart of Lowey Dannenberg in White Plains.

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