National Roundup

New York
Appeals court rejects case accusing NYU Law Review of bias
NEW YORK (AP) — A Texas group has no standing to claim that New York University illegally gives preference to women and racial minorities when selecting editors and articles for the NYU Law Review, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said that the group — Faculty, Alumni and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences — had failed to show that its members have suffered an injury.

The 2018 lawsuit claimed that the student-run journal once chose editors and articles through merit alone but in recent years started giving weight to women, racial minorities and to sexual orientation and gender identity.

The suit had argued that the process amounts to illegal discrimination against whites and men, and that it diminishes the prestige for alumni who earned spots in the past.

The lawsuit had requested that the U.S. Education Department immediately cut federal funding to the school until the journal stopped considering race or sex.

The appeals ruling affirmed a lower court judge’s decision to reject the lawsuit for lack of standing to sue.

The group’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawyer representing NYU, Tamar Lusztig, said the university is thrilled with the court’s decision.

“NYU and its faculty and staff are committed to furthering the pursuit of knowledge, justice, and equality under the law,” Lusztig said in an email. “We hope the law students and wider NYU community who work hard to make the law school an inclusive place can now put this matter behind them.”

Washington
Tech exec sentenced to 2 years for $1.8M COVID fraud
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state tech executive has been sentenced to two years in prison after fraudulently obtaining nearly $1.8 million in federal COVID-19 disaster relief loans.

Mukund Mohan, of Clyde Hill, previously worked for Microsoft and Amazon and was making more than $200,000 a year as the chief of technology for the Canadian e-commerce company BuildDirect when he was arrested in July 2020.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said he submitted eight fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications seeking $5.5 million for companies he purportedly ran, and he actually received almost $1.8 million.

Mohan’s attorneys sought a 60-day sentence, noting Mohan had no criminal history and had spent only $16,500 of the money. They said his actions, possibly triggered by mental health issues, were such an aberration for him that he fainted when federal agents knocked on his door.

Federal authorities were able to seize the money from Mohan’s accounts. He paid back the amount he had spent and was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.

As part of the scheme, Mohan submitted fake and altered documents, including phony federal tax filings and altered incorporation documents. He said one of his companies had dozens of employees when in reality it had none.

In a news release, Corinne Kalve, acting special agent in charge of IRS Criminal Investigation, attributed the crime to Mohan’s greed, saying that when people abuse such benefit programs “they are stealing from those that are most vulnerable.”


Georgia
Agent: $210 of $5.9M cash deposited in court clerk accounts
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — Only $210 in cash was deposited in accounts for a Georgia county court during years in which the clerk’s office received $5.9 million in cash, an FBI agent told a federal magistrate judge.

The cash was collected from 2010 to 2019, Special Agent Kate Furtak testified Wednesday at a detention hearing for former Muscogee County deputy court clerk Willie Demps, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.

Demps, who worked 30 years for the clerk’s office, is among eight people accused of stealing more than $467,000 from the office in 2019.

Authorities expect to ask for a superseding indictment totaling $1.5 million, Assistant U.S. Attorney Melvin Hyde told U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Hyles.

“There is much, much more,” Hyde said.

The judge agreed with prosecutors that Demps, currently being held in Opelika, Alabama, should stay jailed as a flight risk.

Defense attorney Charlie Cox argued that Demps, 63, of Phenix City, Alabama, stayed put even after he knew he was being investigated. His wife is from Cameroon and they have relatives in Nigeria, Cox told the judge.

Outside the courthouse, he said, “We’re on the front end of this. We’ll see what develops as I begin to go through discovery and I figure out what the facts are.”

Demps was charged last week with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, 35 counts of wire fraud and 34 of interstate transportation of stolen property.

The indictment accuses him of writing clerk’s office checks to accomplices who cashed them at Columbus banks.

Much of the money is still unaccounted for, Hyde said.

The detention motion filed last week said Demps “wired or caused to be wired over $500,000 to various locations in Africa” between 2010 and 2018.

“The money primarily went to Africa, and Cameroon specifically,” Furtak testified.

She said it went to 40 people in countries including Nigeria, Senegal, Gabon, Gambia, Ecuador and Canada.

Furtek said Demps wired money so often that Western Union eventually refused his business, suspecting him of laundering money.

Demps then began having others wire money for him, and sending it through another service or from an account of his own in Columbus, Furtek said.

She said the IRS has found that Demps has never reported more than $38,531 in income, though records show he gained about $1 million from 2010 to 2019.

As the hearing ended, the judge asked whether anyone was present to represent the Superior Court Clerk’s office, the victim in Demps’ case.

No one stood.

“Amazing,” the judge said. “That’s absolutely amazing, but so be it.”

Superior Court Clerk Danielle Forte texted the newspaper that, “so as to not interfere with any outcome, I’ve been asked not to comment on the case by the U.S. Attorneys’ office.”

She said last week that she asked for an audit and investigation when she took office in 2018.

The others indicted include four residents of Columbus, and one from Lawrenceville, Georgia, and two people from Smiths Station, Alabama.