Need a fraud lawyer? An example from the SEC’s accusation against Goldman Sachs

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Admin

In almost all jurisdictions around the world there is the concept of fraud. In the US at the moment, the has been a landmark movement to charge employees of the Goldman Sachs organisation with fraud over representations that they made in relation to the sale of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) which are the complex financial instruments that are largely cited as the where the genesis of the global financial crisis began. The individual who has been charged is Fabrice Tourre who is aged 31 years onle and is a registered representative of the bank. He was based in New York city, working on the project that is being questioned by the SEC in relation to this charge at the time. He has, however, moved on to London as Executive Director of Goldman Sachs International. He is charged with breaches under Section 17(a)(1), (2) and (3) of the Exchange Act [15 U.S.C. § 77q(a)(1), (2) & (3)] and Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act [15 U.S.C § 78j(b)]. The first set of charges relate to a largely procedural element of the law in relation to brokers but the second part relates to manipulative and deceptive devices which are used to obscure the true position of an investment and therefore induce the public to invest in products which are in reality much less likely to succeed as investments than a broker or dealer claims. It in particularly relates to the concept of a short sale which is a technique that was employed by Goldman Sachs staff to make enormous profits for the bank, usually at the expense of their clients.

In a sense, this is akin to fraud and is and the penalty that the regulator is seeking is to have an injunction preventing the individual from trading in relation to these matters in the future. The deceptive element of this act though is very similar in nature to the concept of fraud which is used in most jurisdictions. For instance, in New South Wales in Australia, fraud is largely framed as the crime of obtaining a benefit by deception. It is this element of deception which appears to be common to all allegations of fraud.

What is a marriage annulment?

Posted on April 17, 2010April 20, 2023 by Admin

Marriage annulment is a technical legal term describing a situation where although both parties believe that they were married they actually were not. It may have been that they were not married because of some reason such as the fact that they were underage at the time of the marriage or the one of the parties was married to someone else at the time or that the marriage was not conducted in a legal way. In common terminology marriage annulment is often confused with divorce. Divorce is illegal cessation of a marriage. The original marriage was in fact valid in the case of a divorce, however, in the case of a marriage annulment the presumption is that the marriage was never originally legal. Continue reading to learn about the legal process of annulment.

To discuss the difference between divorce and annulment, you need to seek help from a divorce attorney salt lake city to enlighten your mind and know the documents you need to secure during the ongoing process.

Probably the most common way in which the need for a marriage annulment comes about is when a person migrates from one country to another and one of the countries refuses to recognise the marriage that a couple had in a previous country. Although in Australia the terms of the Family Law Act 1975 are actually quite accommodating to relationships which formed overseas because the legislation means that a court has to recognise a marriage if it was legal in the country in which it originally formed. However, some foreign countries have certain requirements about recognising relationships which formed in other countries which are not as relaxed as Australia’s law is.

There can be any number of issues which can raise a marriage annulment question. If someone gets married and then leaves a spouse when a very young and never bothers to get a divorce and then wants to remarry later on without being able to contact their former spouse, this may be grounds a marriage annulment although this would certainly need to be verified based on the personal circumstances of the person. if you have a question about marriage annulment, where more than happy to help and lawyers are online almost all of the time to answer your questions.

What is the difference between a conveyancer and a conveyancing solicitor?

Posted on April 17, 2010February 21, 2024 by Admin

A conveyancer is someone who is licensed to do conveyancing, which is a very specific area of work related to property transactions. In New South Wales, for example, conveyancers can sign on behalf of their clients in a way that a solicitor can in many types of property transactions. A solicitor, on the other hand, is often more specialized in various legal matters, including conveyancing. There is substantial competition between conveyancers and solicitors in the field of property transactions. Some people debate whether it is better to use a conveyancer or a solicitor for their property transactions.

Solicitors, just like these manchester solicitors, have certain advantages, primarily because they are university-trained professionals who have completed a law degree. They also have appropriate professional indemnity insurance, as required under the legal profession act. This insurance ensures that if something goes wrong, their client is able to sue someone other than the solicitor themselves for the damage caused.

However, there are different types of conveyancing fees and a conveyancer may be advantageous because they generally charge less fees than a solicitor. There may also be less prone to pick on small points which could extend the conveyance beyond its natural life. Go for sargeants conveyancing if you’re looking for a great value conveyancer in Melbourne. Sometimes lawyers have been accused of doing this to inflate the amount of time that they need to spend a matter and therefore be able to charge more fees. in general conveyances work of the fixed fee basis although this is not true in every case. It is now also common for solicitors to work of fixed fee basis because of the competition from the conveyancing market.

If you have a query about conveyancing, I would be more than happy to hear from you. We perform commencing work on a regular basis, and you can contact wire conveyancing solicitors in order to sell your house or to purchase one in order to have a complete conveyancing. We also do conveyances in relation to commercial property, industrial property and any other type of property that is going through a transaction from buyer to seller. We also do the maintenance of these properties to ensure that these properties are all in great condition. Furthermore, if you’re a property owner in Florida and your house’s or current space’s fire alarm system and/or water-based fire protection system such as a sprinkler system is not operational, you are required by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and Florida Statute to implement a fire watch should that system become impaired. You may seek expert help from professional Fire Watch Services in Key Biscayne Village.

Sydney Lawyer and Judge comments on Divorce, Immigration and Australian Diversity

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Admin

Justice Spiegelman, a highly recognised lawyer in Sydney and now the Chief Justice of New South Wales recently commented that it the new cultural customs related to the treatment of migrant women and in particular attitudes to violence against women in abusive relationships will need to be a major priority for the legal system going forward. Justice Spiegelman beleives that the legal system is at present ill equiped to deal effectively with what he believes will be a growing problem in the future of violence against women perpetrated because of differences between western ideals and the realities of cultures which orginate in the Middle East and the South East Asia.

Justice Spiegelman addressed a gathering at the University of New South Wales where he voiced his concerns about the way that the legal system is prepared to deal with this issue. It is recognised that there has been a tension between customary aboriginal law and the british common law system ever since the rule of law was adopted into Australian law. This is what probably the most important high court case of the 1980s was about – terra nullius and claim that the British rule of law was founded on a fiction. Now it appears that the state’s leading judge is concerned that there might be a cultural challenge to the system of Justice from the large migrant populations in the major cities in Australia. In particular, he was concerned about legal dilemmas including honour crimes and forced marriages which emerge and the way that this could highlight the inconsistency between upholding universal values which abhor these principles, but being tolerant of the cultures of others who chose to practices them. There is the not the legislation in Australia to help prevent these types of crimes as there is in other countries. In his speech, Justice Spiegelman said the following:

”Human rights norms are, to a substantial degree, based on assumptions about individual autonomy, the full implications of which are not universally accepted … There is a fundamental conflict between a human rights approach to these matters, on the one hand, and the tolerance of cultural traditions, based on an assumption of an equality between cultures, on the other hand … There is no way of avoiding the dilemma arising from this conflict of values.”

It is certainly true that the these conflicts exist in the project of international human rights law and that this has potential to be expressed at the everyday level in Australia given the vast diversity of our culture. It will be interesting to see how the predictions of this highly respected lawyer and judge relate to the future of our legal system in particular in relation to the operation of the law in relation to divorce and immirgation.

Leading criminal lawyer in Sydney retires

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Admin

Nicholas Cowdroy, the Director of Public Prosecutions in New South Wales, announced today that he is to step down from his present position and retire at the age of 65. The Director of Public Prosecutions has been in the job for over a decade and retires with a distinguished career behind him having established respect from all quarters of the legal community. Although it cannot be said that at times his decisions were not controversial, many commented on the news of his resignation by recognising that it is basically impossible to keep everyone happy in the role that he performs. Mr Cowdroy rose to the ranks of being a senior council before taking on the position of Director of Public Prosecutions. As a young man he was always recognised as having a sharp mind and served his profession with the greatest distinction which eventually led to his appointment as the director of public prosecutions.

It is rumoured that the current attorney general desires to take over the position, however it can only be speculation at the moment as to who will take on the role of Director of Public Prosecutions. Presumably someone with extensive prosecutorial experience will be necessary. However balancing the rights of victims and defendants in criminal trials is never easy. Although it is not necessarily the role of the prosecutor to ensure that this balance occurs there is a large amount of discretion in the process of prosecution which leads to the conclusion that the prosecutor has a very large role in deciding the fate of the matter which they prosecute. Needless to say, many of the city’s criminal elements will most likely breathe a sigh of relief at the sight of the resignation of the state’s top prosecutor and the director of public prosecutions will leave the office with an enormous amount of experience that he brought to bear on his daily tasks.

Lawyers Comment on Chinese Law and Commerce

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Admin

The conviction of Stern Hu and his sentence has seen a new watershed in the development of the law in China in relation to commerce and the secrets of the Chinese State. Hu was involved in negotiations over the price of iron ore with the Chinese Steel Industry including Shougang Steel, or Capital Steel, which is the biggest steel manufacturer in Beijing. This company and some of the other large chinese steel manufactures were seeking a better deal from companies such as BHP Billiton and Vale as well as Rio. Hu had been told by the representatives of the company that they were not prepared to accept the Japanese benchmark price from Nippon Steel. Later on, the chinese steel company managed to secure the deal for a great price from Rio.

A few years later down the track, we find that, Hu is sentenced to 10 years in jail for bribery and for stealing trade secrets. The others involved in the matter were given sentences varying from 7 to 14 years. THe judgments include very detailed and clear accounts of the malfeasance invovled. However, in Hu’s case, there is not as much specifically said about it. Because in China many of the largest companies are state owned enterprises, the commercial secrets of these companies are often considered state secrets as well which is why the charges became much more serious. However, it appears that these individuals are certainly not the first and very unlikely to be the last to be involved in graft and corruption in the chinese steel industry as it is a ubiquitous trait of the way the industry works in China. “It’s not clear where the line is between legitimate information-gathering and criminal commercial-secret stealing,” said two international experts on Chinese law, Jerome Cohn and Yu-Jie Chen of New York University.

Hu’s lawyer stated that the current evidence is not sufficeinet to show that Hu actaully stole information which caused damage to the state to the tune of 1 billion yuan as is alleged. In China, the judgments of courts are only published at the discretion of the court and it is not compulsory as it is in the Western Systems. From the reasoning of the courts which have been published, it appears that the authorities in China are likely to be far more aggressive in their regulation of the steel industry. One of the activities complained of is the collection of information about chinese steel production by Rio Tinto’s offices in Singapore. Also, part of the factor which indicated that the whole process is subject to broader political interference was the fact that the incarceration of the Rio Four occured by Rio refused to sign up to a $US19.5 billion deal with Chinalco which was reported very negatively by all of the state owned media and the state owned company itself in China. This case highlights some of the challenges of doing business in China because of the legal and political environment there.

What are the legal ramifications of online scams?

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Admin

What are some of the common online scams?

The classical online scam is called the Nigerian scam. This is a scam where the scammer contacts you promising an enormous bounty they say they won the lottery or that they stand to receive an enormous inheritance or a divorce settlement or all that there is some sort of bank error in their favour. However the catch is that they need to be paid a small amount of money compared to the enormous bounty in order to release the funds they may say this amount is needed to pay for costs such as bank filing fees, lawyers or attorney fees, court filing fees or other comparatively small incidental costs which will allow them to access the much larger amount and then pay you a share of this amount. If you send the money they will simply pocket the money and continue asking for more money. You will never see this money again as it is a classical behaviour that these people are based in countries like Nigeria where there are no controls or legal ramifications which can practically be enforced against people for doing this type of thing.

What protection is there under Australian law?

There are a number of organisations that assist with these types of problems. In New South Wales the office of fair trading maintains a website called scam watch which lists active scams and advises consumers on how to identify scams and keeps active list of known scams which are currently being perpetrated. Also you can help others by reporting on scams so that they can see the scams that are in existence on the scam watch website. In formal legal terms in the scam is committing a number of crimes such as fraud, obtaining benefit by deception, creating false instruments, misrepresentation, misleading and deceptive conduct and if they were subject to Australian jurisdiction would most likely face heavy jail terms with the full force of the law used to prosecute them.

If you think you might be the victim of a scam or a scam is in progress against you and you would like some advice please do not hesitate to contact us using the contact form to the right or you can chat with us online alternatively you can place your question in question box below.

Wills and Estates – what does it mean when someone dies intestate?

Posted on March 28, 2010February 13, 2024 by Admin

Most people when they die have already made out a will. This will, established and legalized with the assistance of a will planning attorney, will state what their intentions are for their respective property. However a small proportion of people also died without leaving any will. If their estate is reasonably large or even only moderately large, this can cause problems in relation to the property that different people may have a claim over as a result of the intestacy. There is specific legislation which deals with issues intestacy. Consult with lawyers from law firms like Orlowsky & Wilson, Ltd. if you have questions or inquiries about estate planning.

In almost all jurisdictions, the property of an intestate estate will be distributed through probate real estate process to close family members such as a spouse, a former spouse, a de facto, siblings, parents, children, stepbrothers, stepsisters, stepchildren, half-brothers, half sisters or half children or potentially any other person who had a close personal relationship with intestate. If the person had no living relations then there property may be distributed to the state in some cases although this is extremely rare. This is because there is almost always someone alive will be a distant relation who is a beneficiary of the intestacy.

Having said all of this the amount of uncertainty that can be created by not having a will is a large burden to place on the members of your family who remain. There is presumably no provision for funeral costs or the costs of administering an estate. Also the uncertainty that can arise in intestacy is such that you can create conflict and chew up the resources of the estate through legal fees. For this reason the creation of a will is essential to responsible estate planning. if you have any questions about this we would like to discuss this with a solicitor please feel free to contact us using the contact form to the right or we often have lawyers online who are available to chat using the chat bubble to the left. Finally you can place any legal question in our legal question box on the site.

Legal aspects of Conveyancing – First home buyers grant

Posted on March 28, 2010October 3, 2023 by Admin

The Rudd government introduced a federal economic stimilus package during the GFC to reduce the impact of the crsis on the domestic home buyers market in Australia. In New South Wales the first home owners grant was reduced on the 1st of January 2010 to $7,000.00 becuase of the Commonwealth Stimulus being removed. It has recently been anounced that the grant will continue beyond when it was orginally schduled to phase out on 1 July 2010 so that is good news for first home buyers and anyone selling a property which is related to this market such as investors or people who have bought their first home but are now starting a young family and are looking to move into a bigger place.

Information about Conveyancing and the First Home Owner Government Grant (FHOG) — Find out about Conveyancing and the First Home Owner Government Grant (FHOG)

In some ways, it doesn’t really matter that much either way if the grant is given or not because the first home buyers grant tends to inflate all of the properties in this section of the market by the amount of the grant. So you will competing on price with everyone else for the properties at the same level. If the grant is removed, the properties will have this price pressure removed which will probably mean that they will drop by the amount of the grant if it is removed. If you are thinking of buying a property, another consideration which is substantial is the exemption of stamp duty. This applies to properties under $500,000.00 and there are dicounts on stamp duty up to $600,000.00 properties but none beyond this. For this reason it is necessary to adjust your assumptions about what you can afford based on the grant.

If you need assistance with any of this information, please do nto hesistate to contact using the contact form of the chat bar or by posting your question below. We would love to hear from you.

Divorce lawyers – financial aspects of family law

Posted on March 27, 2010August 9, 2023 by Admin

Divorce is at endemic levels in Australian Society and the Australian Bureau of Statistics that there are approximately 47,000 divorces granted each year in Australia, not including the break down of defacto relationships. The divorce process itself is actually very cheap and many people work with divorce mediation professionals to get this done. The unfortunate aspect of negotiating a property settlement is that if consent cannot be reached or achieved, sometimes the legal fees can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Consenting can save this amount from the total pool of property in a divorce and mean that it is done much more quickly. Although the rate of divorce is beginning to fall in this year for the first time in years, with data showing that 47,209 divorces were granted in 2008, compared with 47,963 in 2007, there is still a trend that between 30 and 50% of all marriages end in divorce.

You will need a solicitor to arrange a property settlement — Divorce Lawyers can arrange a property settlement

There are also some interesting trends in relation to divorce ages. The average age of a divorce is getting higher, like the average age of marriage. It currently sits at about 41 for women and 44 for men. This means that most people are just at a key stage in the accumulation process of getting income and assets and even starting to think about their retirement. A nest egg is beginning to accumulate, and there may be substantial equity in a home and super accumulated. Under the family law rules, all of these things are included as property of the marriage and are fair game in any settlement. Also, because the rules are very discretionary, there is much uncertainty in the outcomes of divorce proceedings and a court may adjust a settlement in any way that it determines is just and equitable.

If you need advice or assistance on a divorce property settlement, do not hesitate to call an expert such as a divorce lawyer or a family law attorney to guide you.