Articles by Gina Keating

California Sues Madoff ‘Middleman’ Chais for Fraud

California Attorney General Jerry Brown Tuesday sued Stanley Chais, a Beverly Hills money manager accused in lawsuits by investors and U.S. regulators of channeling hundreds of millions of dollars from Hollywood’s elite into Bernard Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Brown’s …

Court Sets Standards for Whistleblower Lawsuits Under Sarbanes-Oxley

Whistleblowers must show only that they called attention to what they believed was fraud in order to sue their employers for wrongful termination under the Sarbanes Oxley Act, an appeals court ruled Thursday. The court also made it clear that …

MySpace, Web Servers Not Liable for Assaults, California Court Rules

Internet servers like MySpace cannot be held liable when minors are sexually assaulted by people they first meet on a website, a California appeals court ruled in an opinion filed late Tuesday. The ruling by the Second District Court of …

Mortgage Rescission Could Be Class Action Nightmare for U.S. Banks

A lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin couple against their mortgage lender could have major implications for banks should a U.S. appeals court agree that borrowers can cancel their loans en masse when their lenders violate a federal lending disclosure law. …

U.S. Class Action King Weiss Sentenced to 30 Months in Jail

Melvyn Weiss, who built the New York law firm that turned class action litigation into a multibillion-dollar business, was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison after admitting to paying secret kickbacks to clients. Weiss’s plea bargain and sentencing …

U.S. Judge to Sentence Class Action King Weiss

U.S. class-action legend Melvyn Weiss can expect a rough ride Monday when he is sentenced by a judge who handed down the maximum penalty to Weiss’s former partner for his role in a kickbacks scheme involving their former law firm. …

Rush of Mortgage Lawsuits Expected, But Winning May be Tough

U.S. law offices plan a hiring spree as they ready a new volley of lawsuits for consumers who lost houses and investments in the mortgage industry meltdown. But new legal rules make it tougher to win than in the days …