scheme Archives - Home Safety Tech Pros

Bessemer Man Sentenced to More Than Four Years in Prison for His Role in an Elder Fraud Scheme

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 06 May 2025 18:16:55 +0000

Terrance Alonzo Pruitt of Bessemer has been sentenced to 50 months in prison for his role in an elder fraud scheme.

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Judge rips Trump admin’s ‘illegal scheme’ of mass firings

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 15 Mar 2025 02:29:05 +0000

Donald Trump at Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, May 30, 2024, in New York (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool).

A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday evening ordered the Trump administration to rehire tens of thousands of recently terminated federal workers and issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting additional unlawful mass firings, becoming the second judge to issue such an order in the same day.

The sweeping 56-page ruling from Maryland-based U.S. District Judge James Bredar covers firings across 18 different agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, and Homeland Security. Bredar reasoned that the administration’s actions appeared to be an attempt to skirt statutory constraints regarding “reductions in force” (RIFs) by falsely claiming that each of the thousands of workers were fired for “performance or other individualized reason.”

“In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice,” the judge wrote. “It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for ‘performance’ or other individualized reasons. On the record before the Court, this isn’t true. There were no individualized assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively. Accordingly, in the language of relevant laws, these big government layoffs were actually ‘Reductions in Force,’ or ‘RIFs.’ And, because these were ‘RIFs,’ they had to be preceded by notice to the states that would be impacted.”

The ruling came as the result of a lawsuit filed by 19 Democratic state attorneys general and Washington, D.C., which alleged that the Trump administration failed to follow procedures mandated by the Administrative Procedures Act for “reductions in force,” which require giving employees at least 60 days notice of mass terminations. Without such notice, the plaintiff States were not prepared for the impact resulting from the deluge of about 24,000 people being suddenly added their unemployed populations, Bredar said.

The ruling is yet another impediment to the Trump administration’s effort to gut the federal workforce at breakneck speed.

The Department of Justice had previously argued that the states did not have standing to sue over the allegedly unlawful terminations, asserting that they were unaffected third parties whose claims were based on theoretical “downstream harm.” The DOJ further claimed that the administration had the discretion to fire the employees and that the firings did not constitute a RIF because they only terminated probationary employees, which are typically workers who’ve been hired or promoted to a new position within the last year.

Probationary workers can be terminated pursuant to a lawful RIF, for performance-related reasons, or conditions related to their previous employment. But the government did not go about the firings in any of the permitted ways, Bredar said.

“Here, the terminated probationary employees were plainly not terminated for cause,” the judge wrote. “The sheer number of employees that were terminated in a matter of days belies any argument that these terminations were due to the employees’ individual unsatisfactory performance or conduct. As Plaintiffs allege, the Government has terminated at least 24,000 probationary employees. It is simply not conceivable that the Government could have conducted individualized assessments of the relevant employees in the relevant timeframe.”

He added, “The Government’s contention to the contrary borders on the frivolous.”

Bredar noted that his stay on the firings and order to reinstate workers would be a large burden for the government. However, he emphasized that such a burden was a problem of the Trump administration’s own making.

“When, as is likely the case here, the Government has engaged in an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce, it is inevitable that the remediation of that scheme will itself be a significant task,” he wrote.

Earlier in the day, California-based District Judge William Alsup similarly tore into the Trump administration for its “unlawful” firing of tens of thousands of probationary employees over the past month and a half, calling it a “sad day” when the government would terminate “good” workers supposedly on the basis of performance — knowing “good and well that’s a lie.” He subsequently ordered the agencies to “immediately” rehire those who had been booted.

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Once-liberal lawyer said to be ‘brains’ behind 2020 election-interference scheme suspended from practice

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 11:52:42 +0000

Ethics

Once-liberal lawyer said to be ‘brains’ behind 2020 election-interference scheme suspended from practice

By Debra Cassens Weiss

November 6, 2024, 8:26 am CST

Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro sits with his attorney Manny Arora during a hearing in which Chesebro accepted a plea deal at the Fulton County Courthouse on Oct. 20, 2023, in Atlanta. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer via the Associated Press)

A New York appeals court has ordered the interim suspension of lawyer Kenneth Chesebro following his guilty plea in Georgia’s 2020 election-interference case.

Chesebro was “the brains” behind a fake-elector scheme intended to help then-President Donald Trump win the 2020 election, according to Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe, who had once mentored Chesebro.

The once-liberal Chesebro had helped Tribe represent former Democratic Vice President Al Gore in litigation that led to the 2000 presidential victory for former President George W. Bush.

The fake-elector scheme involved creating fake slates of electors in six contested states that could be accepted by then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump the winner.

Chesebro pleaded guilty in Georgia in October 2023 to a single felony charge of conspiracy to file false documents. The felony constitutes a serious crime in New York, according to an Oct. 31 opinion by the Appellate Division’s Third Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court.

The appeals court said Chesebro’s guilty plea constituted a conviction, even though he could be “completely exonerated of guilt” if he successfully completes a five-year probationary period.

Publications with coverage of the suspension include NBC News, Reuters, Law360, Law.com and the New York Times.

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Personal injury firm sues TD Bank after loss in fraud scheme

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 01:20:49 +0000

Law Firms

Personal injury firm sues TD Bank after loss in fraud scheme

By Debra Cassens Weiss

August 29, 2024, 12:19 pm CDT

A personal injury law firm has filed a lawsuit blaming TD Bank for its loss of about $146,000 in a check fraud scam. (Image from Shutterstock)

A personal injury law firm has filed a lawsuit blaming TD Bank for its loss of about $146,000 in a check fraud scam.

The July 23 suit, removed to New Jersey federal court Monday, alleges that TD Bank should have warned New Jersey firm Nagel Rice about the cashier’s check that it deposited from a bank called BBVA because of a history of fraudulent checks claiming to be drawn from that institution.

Law.com has the story.

According to the suit, Nagel Rice received a cashier’s check for $148,950 from a purported client supposedly drawn from BBVA and deposited it in the firm’s account with TD Bank on Nov. 23, 2020. About two days later, Nagel Rice wired $146,250 to the bank account of the purported client.

On Dec. 1, 2020, Nagel Rice received a letter in regular mail from TD Bank dated Nov. 25, 2020. The letter advised Nagel Rice that the cashier’s check had bounced. Nagel Rice lost the entire amount wired to the client.

The suit alleges that the bank was negligent because of its failure to warn, and it violated a contractual banking relationship in which it agreed to safeguard Nagel Rice accounts.

Law.com described Nagel Rice as a high-profile personal injury firm that has many top verdicts and settlements in a list published by the New Jersey Law Journal.

Many other firms have lost money in similar scams, including several in New Jersey. The FBI warned about such scams in 2010, telling lawyers to beware of cients who make contact only by email, especially if they reside in foreign countries.

In one version of the scam, a purported client wants help collecting a debt, but the matter is quickly settled and the firm receives a phony check for the settlement money. The firm keeps a fee and wires the rest to the supposed client, only to find out later that the check has bounced.

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Former Texas lawyer accused of bilking clients for at least $20M is sentenced for ‘Ponzi-type scheme’

homesafetytechpros — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 08:09:46 +0000

Criminal Justice

Former Texas lawyer accused of bilking clients for at least $20M is sentenced for ‘Ponzi-type scheme’

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 23, 2024, 9:42 am CST

A former lawyer in San Antonio has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for depositing client money into his accounts and then using it to pay other client debts and support his “extravagant lifestyle,” according to federal prosecutors and court records. (Image from Shutterstock)

Former lawyer Christopher John Pettit, 56, of San Antonio was sentenced Wednesday for the “Ponzi-type scheme,” according to a Feb. 21 press release by the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas.

Pettit’s victims lost an estimated $20 million to $65 million, prosecutors say.

Pettit pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering in October 2023.

Defrauded clients thought that their money would be used for services such as living trusts, irrevocable trusts, estate planning services, investments and real estate transactions.

Pettit gave up his law license in 2022 and filed for bankruptcy the same year, according to prior coverage.

Pettit is represented by Matthew T. Allen. He did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment.

Law360 had coverage of sentencing.

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