Articles Posted in Articles of Interest

Federal court prosecutors have issued new information regarding the securities fraud allegations made against an ex-Tiki Island resident and nine of his accomplices. Harris Dempsey “Butch” Ballow faces charges related to a seven-year multimillion-dollar stock sale scam.

Ballow, 67, was indicted in 2003 for alleged money laundering and fraud. He pleaded guilty to the money laundering charge, agreed to cooperate with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and was released on $100,000 bond. However, he didn’t show up for his sentencing hearing and left the country. An arrest warrant was issued in 2004.

As a fugitive, Barrow is accused of using numerous aliases, including the names Tom Brown, John Gel, Marty Twinley, and Melvyn John Gelsthorpe. He allegedly used these names to control the following publicly traded companies: Medra, E-SOL International, Aztec Technology Partners (known as Ultimate Lifestyles), and Deep Earth Resources. He was living in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico on 2008 but disappeared the following year after allegedly persuading an investor to transfer $5 million to one of his companies. Mexican federal police finally arrested him at his home in Puerto Vallarta last July.

Love and marriage apparently go together like drinking and driving.

The State Patrol says it arrested a husband and wife for drunken driving on Sunday.

The 21-year-old husband, who is stationed at Fort Lewis, was seen driving erratically on northbound Interstate 5 early Sunday morning. He and his wife had been celebrating his return from overseas, the State Patrol says.

New York (CNN) — Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was acquitted Wednesday of all but one count of conspiracy-related charges in a landmark civilian trial involving the first Guantanamo detainee to be tried in civilian court.

Ghailani was convicted by a federal jury on a charge of conspiracy to destroy buildings and U.S. property in connection with his role in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

The trial had been widely considered a testing ground for the Obama administration, which has said that it could try some terrorism suspects outside military tribunals and in civilian courts.

Mario “Sammy” Levis, a member of the family that founded Puerto Rican bank-holding company Doral Financial Corp., was sentenced to five years in prison for securities fraud when he worked as Doral’s treasurer.

Levis was convicted in April of one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, for lying to investors about the value of mortgage-related assets held by the company.

“I do not believe that the five-year sentence will be disabling,” U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan said during today’s sentencing. “I do not wish it to be.”

A money manager from Brooklyn, New York, was found guilty of running a $45 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded hundreds of investors.

Philip Barry, 53, a resident of the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, began accepting money in 1978 from investors, guaranteeing fictional annual profits, according to prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn. Instead, he used new investors’ money to pay earlier ones, prosecutors said.

“The defendant lied to clients to get their money, lied to clients about what he would do with their money and lied to clients about getting their money back,” Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. Nowak told jurors in his closing argument today.

Seattle defensive end Raheem Brock was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence just hours before the Seahawks traveled to Arizona to face the Cardinals.

Washington State Patrol Trooper Julie Startup confirms Brock, a former Temple standout and Dobbins graduate, was arrested early Saturday morning in Seattle. KCPQ-TV in Seattle first reported Brock’s arrest.

Brock played in Seattle’s 36-18 win over Arizona. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said yesterday he didn’t know about Brock’s arrest until after Sunday’s game. Carroll says he spoke with Brock yesterday morning and the team will deal with it once all the information has been obtained.

After defending sales of a self-published book on pedophilia, online retail giant Amazon last night reversed course and pulled the book from its Kindle store.

The electronic book, “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct,” by Philip R. Greaves II, went on sale on Oct. 28 and cost $4.79 to download.

“This is my attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles that find themselves involved in them, by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow,” the author wrote in the product description. “I hope to achieve this by appealing to the better nature of pedosexuals, with hope that their doing so will result in less hatred and perhaps liter [sic] sentences should they ever be caught,” Greaves said in the product description.

JACKSON, Miss. — A man who was declared dead 16 years ago is now under arrest and facing kidnapping charges.

53-year-old Thomas Steven Sanders was transported to Alexandria, La., after being arrested in Mississippi over the weekend.

Officials believe Sanders kidnapped 12-year-old Lexis Roberts, whose body was found in Louisiana last month.

A former Yankee hero caught a break Thursday when a judge tossed out one of two manslaughter charges and told jurors they could even convict him of simple drunken-driving.

It was an emotional day for Jim Leyritz, 47, who is charged with killing 30-year-old Fredia Ann Veitch in a 2007 crash. He wept into his hands during closing arguments as prosecutor Stefanie Newman said he had time to stop before he slammed into Veitch’s car but was too drunk to react.

She pointed to evidence suggesting Leyritz had consumed 11 or 12 shots of tequila and vodka before he got behind the wheel.

Troubled Yankees hero Jim Leyritz played defense on Monday, claiming he was sober during a 2007 crash that killed a 30-year-old woman.

Leyritz lawyer David Bogenschutz said video and phone records will show Fredia Ann Veitch was speeding and ran a red light.

Leyritz, 46, best known for a dramatic 1996 World Series home run, faces up to 15 years if convicted of DUI manslaughter.