Law Enforcement | WPN World People News

A former state magistrate in Portsmouth, Virginia pleaded guilty today to accepting bribes from a bail bondsman in exchange for giving him favorable treatment in setting bonds for criminal defendants who had been arrested, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia and Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced today.

The president of a Costa Rican company that sold reinsurance bonds to life settlement companies was found guilty by a federal jury in Richmond, Virginia today for carrying out a half-billion-dollar fraud scheme that affected more than 2,000 victims throughout the United States and abroad.

The speaker of a legislative assembly in Russia's far eastern region has been placed under house arrest on charges of embezzling 38 million rubles (around $1.3 million) from an oil firm, investigators said Sunday.

A Seattle area pastor who defrauded two dozen victims, some of them his own parishioners, out of more than $1.8 million was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $1,843,932 in restitution for wire fraud and money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. Anthony C. Morris, 48, the pastor of New Covenant Christian Center, pleaded guilty in January 2012, admitting that his fraud was a Ponzi scheme where early investors were paid off from the money taken from later investors. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said the defendant “did not resist temptation and left a trail of victims.”

A Seattle area pastor who defrauded two dozen victims, some of them his own parishioners, out of more than $1.8 million was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 40 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $1,843,932 in restitution for wire fraud and money laundering, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. Anthony C. Morris, 48, the pastor of New Covenant Christian Center, pleaded guilty in January 2012, admitting that his fraud was a Ponzi scheme where early investors were paid off from the money taken from later investors. At sentencing U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones said the defendant “did not resist temptation and left a trail of victims.”

Investigators are looking into allegations that US retail giant Wal-Mart's unit in Mexico paid bribes to officials to speed the opening of stores during its expansion push in the country in the past decade, the Mexican government said.

Fallen Chinese leader Bo Xilai ran an eavesdropping operation on an extensive wire-tapping system to spy on top officials including President Hu Jintao, which contributed to his downfall, according to a report in the New York Times Thursday.

United Nations officials today welcomed the welcomed the guilty verdict handed down against former Liberian President Charles Taylor by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).

The mayor of Hamilton Township, New Jersey surrendered this morning to FBI agents to face allegations he took $12,400 in bribes in exchange for his official influence over a health insurance brokerage contract with the township’s school district, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Singapore's Minister for Law Mr. K Shanmugan said his country aims to expand potential growth in demand for intellectual property (IP) service and become an IP hub in the region.