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Tag: attorney general letitia james

  • Prayers Up! Fatal Tour Bus Crash In Upstate NY Reportedly Leaves Multiple Dead, Dozens Injured (VIDEO)

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    A trip that was meant to be filled with memories and scenic views turned into an unthinkable tragedy on Friday afternoon. A tour bus carrying more than 50 passengers overturned on Interstate 90 near Pembroke, New York, while returning from a visit to Niagara Falls. What began as a routine ride back to New York City ended with shattered glass, scattered belongings, and the loss of at least four lives, reportedly including a child.

    RELATED: Prayers Up! Married Ohio Teachers Tragically Killed In Crash While Dropping Son Off At College (VIDEO)

    What Allegedly Happened To The Tour Bus?

    According to reports, New York State Police confirmed the bus veered into the median, overcorrected, and rolled into a ditch for reasons still under investigation. Many passengers, most of whom were tourists of Indian, Chinese, and Filipino descent, were ejected or trapped in the wreckage. And, photos from the scene show the vehicle on its side. Additionally, videos show emergency helicopters landing nearby as medics rushed to assist the injured. Authorities noted that most passengers weren’t wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash—raising serious concerns about safety protocol.

    More Details On The Tragic Crash

    Mercy Flight, the region’s air ambulance service, deployed multiple helicopters, and hospitals across Western New York—including Erie County Medical Center and Oishei Children’s Hospital—received patients in critical condition. The driver of the bus survived, and efforts to identify victims and notify families are ongoing. Interpreters were brought to the scene to support non-English-speaking passengers, and officials say the rescue operation remains “very active” well into the evening.

    Public Officials Speak Out

    As the community reels from the news, the New York State Thruway near Pembroke remains closed in both directions. And, several public officials have expressed heartbreak and gratitude toward first responders in statements posted to social media.

    “I’ve been briefed on the tragic tour bus accident…My team is coordinating closely with [NYS Police] and local officials who are working to rescue and provide assistance to everyone involved,” Kathy Hochul shared in a statement via X.

    While Attorney General Letitia James said via X:

    “This bus crash is heartbreaking, and I’m praying for everyone impacted. Grateful to our first responders on the scene working to rescue and help people.”

    RELATED: Prayers Up! Brooklyn Lounge Mass Shooting Reportedly Leaves Three People Dead & Multiple Injured (VIDEO)

    What Do You Think Roomies?

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    Desjah

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  • Donald Trump’s Nine Lives

    Donald Trump’s Nine Lives

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    Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

    Donald Trump loves the musical Cats, and like the titular creatures, the former president seems to have nine lives. Today, in the face of yet another near-death financial experience, Trump got his latest reprieve. An appeals-court panel in New York State reduced the bond he must post in a civil fraud case from more than $464 million to just $175 million.

    Given that the past few months have seen Trump repeatedly use legal procedures to his advantage, drawing out the cases against him in the hope of eventually escaping them, this decision may look like yet another infuriating case of Trump extracting injustice from the justice system. But in fact it is not such an instance, and the reduction is actually quite appropriate.

    Recall the timeline. In mid-February, Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump must pay more than $350 million, plus interest, after he, his sons, and the Trump Organization engaged, according to the judge’s findings, in a years-long pattern of fraud, inflating and deflating the reported value of his assets in order to profit long-term. Trump promptly appealed the ruling, but as a defendant, he must post the value of his judgment while appealing.

    David A. Graham: Trump’s money problems are very real and very bad

    The problem for Trump is that $350 million (which interest soon brought to nearly half a billion dollars) is a huge amount, even for him. He claims to have a net worth in the billions, but that number includes a great deal of assets that aren’t really available. Part of it is nebulous brand value, but a lot is in real estate—value that can’t be quickly accessed. Trump claimed in a deposition in the case that he had more than $400 million in cash and growing. That’s questionable and, even if true, wouldn’t leave him enough to cover the bond.

    Instead, he sought to obtain a bond from a company that specializes in such products. Bonding companies promise courts to cover the cost of a judgment. In return, they usually demand collateral from a client such as Trump—or maybe particularly from Trump, given his long history of not paying his debts. One of them this month posted a bond in the much smaller judgment against Trump for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll. But Trump was unable to obtain a bond large enough to cover the fraud judgment, even after approaching 30 companies. His lawyers said it was a “practical impossibility” in a filing. (Trump, ever helpful to his own defense, claimed on social media that he actually has more than $500 million in cash.)

    The bond was due today, and Trump got his good news from the court just in time. It is a stay, or pause, not a permanent reduction. For now, the original judgment amount will still be due if Trump doesn’t win on appeal. Today’s outcome is neither a shock nor a travesty.

    Offering temporary relief on the bond makes some sense. Imagine that the panel had not reduced the bond amount. Attorney General Letitia James could have started seizing his accounts or his properties, or else he would have been forced to start selling them. But this is a terrible moment to be selling commercial real estate, because the office market has not recovered from COVID. Beyond that, any buyers would know Trump was in a pinch and be happy to profiteer off him.

    Read: The cases against Trump—a guide

    But then imagine that a few weeks from now, Trump won his appeal, convincing the court that Engoron’s finding was incorrect, or that the calculated amount of the penalty was unfair. Trump would have no way to recover the assets he’d been forced to unload at fire-sale prices. It doesn’t take any affection for Trump to see why a court would want to avoid such an outcome, and why—even if Trump would still be filthy rich—this would be unjust punishment.

    The problem for Trump remains winning on appeal. He railed against Engoron in a statement and claimed that the judge was wrong on law, but legal experts told me that they thought Trump would struggle to win his appeal. Engoron’s decision was written in clear detail, as was his calculation of Trump’s penalty, which is based on how much ill-gotten gain Trump extracted from his fraud. “The judge here did a very good job,” Jim Wheaton, a law professor at William & Mary, told me. “Whether you agree or not, the judge very carefully made factual conclusions based on testimony in front of the judge. The judge made credibility decisions based on testimony of witnesses before him.”

    David A. Graham: Trump’s ‘fraudulent ways’ cost him $355 million

    Trump’s instinct for stalling the legal cases against him is pernicious. U.S. courts must find a way to balance the need for procedural protection with the principle that justice delayed is justice denied, and so far they have shown themselves ill-equipped; consider that the U.S. Supreme Court won’t even hear arguments about Trump’s immunity from criminal prosecution until a month from today. But forcing Trump to put a FOR SALE BY OWNER sign out in front of Trump Tower today wouldn’t serve justice, and might actually undermine it. As for Trump, he may just be delaying that outcome—but that’s another problem for him to try to wriggle, cat-like, out of on another day.

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    David A. Graham

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  • LI insurance firm pays $400K for data breach | Long Island Business News

    LI insurance firm pays $400K for data breach | Long Island Business News

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    Healthplex, a Uniondale-based dental insurance provider, has agreed to pay $400,000 for a 2021 data breach, according to a statement from the New York Attorney General’s office. 

    The AG’s office said Healthplex had inadequate data security practices that made it susceptible to the data breach that compromised the personal information of 89,955 people, which included 63,922 New York residents. 

    After a Healthplex employee fell victim to a phishing email in Nov. 2021, a hacker gained access to the employee’s account which contained over 12 years of emails, according to the AG’s office. Some of the emails contained sensitive customer enrollment information, including names, member identification numbers, insurance group names and numbers, addresses, dates of birth, credit card numbers, banking information, Social Security numbers, and member portal usernames and passwords, according to the statement. 

    “Visiting a dentist’s office can be a stressful experience without having the added concern that personal and medical data could be stolen by bad actors,” Attorney General Letita James said in the statement. “Insurers, like all companies charged with holding on to sensitive information, have an obligation to ensure that data is safeguarded and doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. New Yorkers can rest assured that when my office is made aware of data breaches, we will drill down and get to the root of the problem.” 

    As a result of the agreement with the AG’s office, Healthplex, which is headquartered at 333 Earle Ovington Blvd., has agreed to pay a $400,000 penalty and adopt a series of procedures designed to strengthen their cybersecurity practices going forward. The company agreed to maintain a comprehensive information security program designed to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of private information; encrypt all personal information; implement a reasonable email retention schedule for all employees’ email accounts; maintain reasonable password policies and procedures that require the use of complex passwords; require the use of multifactor authentication for all accounts; and maintain a reasonable penetrating testing program designed to identify, assess, and remediate security vulnerabilities, according to the AG’s office. 

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    David Winzelberg

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  • Roomster to pay $1.6M in fines for ‘defrauding renters’: Letitia James | Long Island Business News

    Roomster to pay $1.6M in fines for ‘defrauding renters’: Letitia James | Long Island Business News

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    An online apartment-finding platform is to pay $1.6 million in restitution, after a lawsuit alleged that the company conducted deceptive practices that defrauded millions of renters.

    New York Attorney General Letitia James and the Federal Trade Commission said on Monday that Manhattan-based Roomster and its owners, John Shriber and Roman Zaks, posted unverified apartment listings and fake reviews in this scheme.

    The firm had failed to verify apartments submitted to its website, officials said. It had also posted non-existent apartment listings as well as fake positive reviews that it bought and posted online.

    The company and its owners were ordered to stop buying and posting fake reviews.

    James and the FTC worked with attorneys general from California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, and Maryland, in filing an August 2022 lawsuit against the company.

    “Amid a housing crisis, Roomster deceived and misled hundreds of students, young adults, and low-income renters for its own benefit,” James said in a news release.

    “Today’s consent order blocks Roomster from posting any more fake reviews on unverified listings and prevents the company from harming renters trying to find a home in New York,” she added. “Looking for an apartment can be stressful, and the last thing renters need is to be scammed by fake reviews and apartments that might not even exist.”

    Officials said that undercover investigators had no trouble posting a listing with fake rental speculation, using a U.S. Postal Office commercial facility address on the platform. The listing remained on the platform for several months. Roomster never contacted the investigators to verify the address, the apartment specs, the legitimacy of the email, or other personal information of the lister.

    Roomster’s owners posted tens of thousands of fake four- and five-star reviews, officials said. The owners also bought more than 20,000 fake reviews from another company to increase traffic to their platform. That company used more than 2,500 fake iTunes accounts, as well as fake Gmail accounts, to push out fake reviews on Roomster’s apps.

    .Some examples of the fake top reviews that Roomster bought and published include:

    “Roomster is great! …. Especially for low-income people who need rented accom[m]odation or those students who need to rent a room because [i]t provides the service with a reasonable price range period.”

    There were so many positive fake reviews, overshadowing one-star reviews from real users, such as:

    “Full of scammers … I highly highly suggest that you do not use this site! Because you will get scammed. This app is loaded with people trying to scam you! Out of every 10 post 8 [sic] are scammers DO NOT USE THIS APP!!”

    Monday’s consent order includes a monetary judgment of $36.2 million and civil penalties totaling $10.9 million payable to the states. These amounts will be suspended after Roomster and its owners pay $1.6 million to the six states based upon the defendants’ inability to pay the full amount. If Roomster and its owners are found to have misrepresented their financial status or to have violated the terms of the order, the full amounts would immediately become due, officials said.

    The order also requires Roomster to ensure that its listings are verified and authentic and to monitor its affiliate marketers. This includes routinely reviewing their marketing materials without notice, investigating consumer complaints about affiliates, providing refunds to consumers who were impacted by affiliate conduct that violated the order, and halting payments and terminating affiliates who pose as consumers or misrepresent their status in other ways.

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    Adina Genn

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  • NYAG secures $275K from Avis Budget | Long Island Business News

    NYAG secures $275K from Avis Budget | Long Island Business News

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    Avis Budget Rental Group must pay New York State $275,000 in penalties for unlawfully denying car rentals to consumers without credit cards, officials said Tuesday.

    In addition, the company must update its policies and employee training to ensure its team members comply with state law.

    “Having a credit card is not a prerequisite to rent a car to get to work or go on a family trip to explore our great state,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

    After receiving a complaint from a consumer who was denied a rental because of a lack of a credit card, the New York State Attorney General’s Office opened an investigation. That 2022 investigation found that 74 Avis Car Rental and Budget Rent a Car locations across New York told customers that a credit card was required to rent a vehicle.

    “Avis Budget put up unfair roadblocks for consumers who do not have a credit card and prevented them from renting cars,” James said.

    “This practice unfairly harms low-income consumers and communities of color who are less likely to own a credit card, and no one should be discriminated against because of their credit or banking status.=,” she added. “I encourage consumers to submit complaints and concerns to my office if they feel they have been treated unfairly or illegally.”

    Avis Budget owns Avis Car Rental and Budget Rent a Car, with more than 100 locations across New York. Investigators visited Avis Budget locations in Buffalo and Amherst and were denied a car rental because they did not provide a credit card.

    In addition, investigators called several Avis Budget locations across the state, and 74 Avis Budget locations refused to accept debit cards or provide other accommodations for those without credit cards, in violation of New York law. Several locations also had signs displayed at their stores saying that they did not accept debit cards, officials said.

    The AG’s office said that most rental car companies allow individuals without a credit card to rent a vehicle by placing a cash deposit or a hold on a debit card. According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, roughly 30 percent of Americans do not have a credit card and low-income communities are less likely to have a credit card.

    New York’s car rental law is intended to provide equal access to a car rental to everyone, and officials say that denying consumers services because they do not have a credit card disproportionately harms vulnerable communities, officials said.

    In addition to the penalty and updates in policy and employee training, the company must also provide the AG’s office with compliance training.

     

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    Adina Genn

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