Former Philadelphia Priest Arrested for Rape

Reverend Robert L. Brennan, the former associate pastor of a Northeast Philadelphia Catholic parish, has been charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office said in a press release Thursday.

Cleric Arrested in $26 Million Plot, Leaving New Blot on Vatican Bank

Claiming to have foiled a caper worthy of Hollywood, or at least Cinecittà, the Italian police on Friday arrested a prelate and two others on corruption charges, saying that the priest plotted last summer to help wealthy friends sneak the money, the equivalent of about $26 million, into Italy while evading financial controls.

Along with the prelate, a financial broker and a military police agent deployed to the Italian Secret Service were arrested after an investigation that developed out of a broader three-year inquiry into the Vatican Bank. The case is the latest black mark on the bank, which under Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI has been trying to shake its image as a secretive tax and money laundering haven and bring itself into compliance with European norms so it can use the euro.

Rome prosecutors say the three men hired a private plane last July with the intention of bringing the cash into Italy from Locarno, Switzerland. The money was to be carried by the Secret Service agent, Giovanni Maria Zito, who would not be required to declare it at the border. But the scheme fell through, the prosecutors said, as the three began bickering and, eventually, lost their nerve. Cellphones used by the three in arranging the money transfer were later burned, prosecutors said.

The European Union and the United States have served notice in recent years that they will no longer tolerate the wall of secrecy in tax havens like Switzerland, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. As a result, major account holders have been growing increasingly nervous.

Nello Rossi, the Rome prosecutor who led the investigation, said that discussions picked up on wiretaps seemed to indicate that the 20 million euros in Switzerland was tied to the D’Amico family, Salerno shipping magnates.

Even before his arrest on Friday, the prelate, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano, was known to the authorities. An employee of Deutsche Bank before entering the priesthood, and until recently an accountant in a top Vatican financial office that oversees the Catholic Church’s real estate holdings, Monsignor Scarano was under investigation by magistrates in Salerno on accusations that he illegally moved $730,000 in cash from his account in the Vatican Bank to Italian banks, his lawyer said.

Monsignor Scarano’s lawyer, Silverio Sica, said his client would contest the charges. “I am certain he will want to speak to prosecutors to clarify his position,” Mr. Sica said. He added that Monsignor Scarano had had no previous dealings with the police or with judicial investigations.

In a statement on Friday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that Monsignor Scarano had been suspended from his position at the Vatican “more than a month ago, ever since his superiors were informed that he was under investigation.”

He added that the Holy See “has not yet received any requests from the competent Italian authorities, but confirms its willingness for full collaboration,” and that the Vatican’s internal financial watchdog was following the matter and would take, “if necessary, the appropriate measures in its competency.”

Only priests, members of religious orders, Catholic institutions, employees of the State of Vatican City and diplomats accredited to the Holy See are allowed to keep accounts at the Vatican Bank, known as the Institute for Works of Religion. But rumors have long swirled that accounts were being used as fronts for other interests, including organized crime and Italian politicians.

In the Salerno case, prosecutors accuse Monsignor Scarano of having illegally moved 560,000 euros, equivalent to $730,000, from his account in the Vatican Bank. Mr. Sica said that the monsignor had told prosecutors that the money came from a “generous donor” and was intended to finance a hospice for terminally ill patients in Salerno.

DealBook: Former BlackRock Manager Arrested in Insider Trading Inquiry

Mark Lennihan/Associated PressThe headquarters of BlackRock, the giant money manager, in New York.

LONDON – Mark Lyttleton, a former BlackRock fund manager, has been arrested in connection with an insider trading investigation in Britain, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The arrest on April 30 of Mr. Lyttleton, 41, and an unidentified 37-year-old woman comes as the British financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, continues to clamp down on market abuse in London’s financial district after a series of recent scandals.

Mr. Lyttleton, who oversaw the firm’s underperforming UK Dynamic and BlackRock UK absolute alpha funds, left the firm on March 28 and has not been charged with any wrongdoing. His departure from BlackRock was not connected to the regulatory investigation, the people added, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Under British law, individuals can been arrested as part of continuing investigations but they may not eventually face prosecution for potential wrongdoing. Any prospective indictments in the case would not be issued until late in 2013, at the earliest, one of the people said.

The Financial Conduct Authority of Britain said this month that two individuals had been questioned about insider trading and market abuse, and several homes and offices had been searched in Switzerland in connection with the investigation.

BlackRock confirmed on Tuesday that a former employee had previously been arrested by the City of London police on suspicion of insider trading. It said the accusations were related to personal activities by the individual and were not connected with dealings related to the firm’s clients.

“The alleged behavior is totally contrary to the firm’s principles and values,” BlackRock said in a statement on Tuesday. “The firm has been aiding and will continue to aid the authorities with their investigations.”

Spokesmen for the Financial Conduct Authority and BlackRock declined to comment further on the investigation. A representative for Mr. Lyttleton was not immediately available for comment.

Since the beginning of the financial crisis, British authorities have tried to shake off a reputation for light regulation by aggressively tackling market abuse allegations.

Over the last four years, the Financial Services Authority, the predecessor of the Financial Conduct Authority, successfully prosecuted 23 individuals for insider trading. Seven other people are facing prosecution on similar charges.

Wife of Former JP Arrested in Connection With Texas DA Killings

The wife of a former justice of the peace was arrested today on allegations of capital murder in connection with the slayings of the Kaufman County district attorney, his wife and one of his assistant prosecutors.

Katt Williams Arrested Again….DAMNNN!!….

Comedian Katt Williams cannot avoid legal troubles. Williams was arrested for assault in Oakland last night (November 14). The incident occurred at a club named Kimballs Carnival, which is in East Oakland. Police were called to the scene and arrested Katt Williams, although he has yet to be officially charged. The incident is one in a string of events involving Katt Williams over the past 30 days. In October, Katt Williams was arrested for pulling a gun on actor Faizon Love in Hollywood, while his assistant filed a $5 million lawsuit against him, claiming he assaulted her and punched her in the face on October 6.

DealBook: Man Claiming Facebook Ownership Arrested on Fraud Charges

John Anderson/Wellsville Daily ReporterPaul Ceglia, who claimed he owned half of Facebook, at home in 2010.

In 2010, a New York entrepreneur made an explosive legal claim: An agreement that he had with Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, entitled him to a major stake in the social-networking giant.

Mr. Zuckerberg staunchly denied the allegation, and his lawyers insisted that the entrepreneur, Paul Ceglia, was a scam artist.

On Friday, federal authorities sided with Mr. Zuckerberg, arresting Mr. Ceglia and charging him with a multibillion dollar scheme to defraud Facebook.

Prosecutors say that Mr. Ceglia, 39, of Wellsville, N.Y., filed a sham federal lawsuit claiming to have been promised a 50 percent share of Facebook in 2003, and then doctored, fabricated and destroyed evidence to support his allegations.

“Ceglia’s alleged conduct not only constitutes a massive fraud attempt, but also an attempted corruption of our legal system through the manufacture of false evidence,” said Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. “Dressing up a fraud as a lawsuit does not immunize you from prosecution.”

Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersMark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook.

Mr. Ceglia is expected to make an appearance in federal court in Buffalo on Friday afternoon. His lawyer, Dean Boland, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

The improbable claims made by Mr. Ceglia received outsized attention in part because it came at around the same time as the release of “The Social Network,” the Academy Award-winning film that told the tale of Mr. Zuckerberg’s legal battle with his Harvard schoolmates, the Winklevoss twins, over the origins of Facebook. Mr. Zuckerberg paid the Winklevosses at least $65 million to settle their case.

Since the lawsuit was first filed, Facebook’s lawyers have raised questions about Mr. Ceglia’s credibility. In 1997, he pleaded guilty to possessing hallucinogenic mushrooms. And in 2010, the New York State attorney general criminally charged him with defrauding customers in a now-defunct wood pellet manufacturing business that he had run with his wife.

Questions are now also being raised about the lawyers that represented Mr. Ceglia in his lawsuit.

In his original complaint, filed in 2010, Mr. Ceglia was represented by Paul Argentieri, a sole practitioner in upstate New York. An amended lawsuit was filed in April 2011 by Robert W. Brownlie of DLA Piper, the world’s largest law firm, and Dennis C. Vacco, a former New York attorney general now in private practice at Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman in Buffalo.

In 2011, Mr. Brownlie of DLA Piper declined a request by The New York Times to produce the original documents backing his client’s legal claims. “That will come out during the course of litigation,” Mr. Brownlie said. “Anyone who claims this case is fraudulent and brought by a scam artist will come to regret those claims.”

Yet court records indicate that another law firm, Kasowitz Benson Friedman & Torres, had been hired by Mr. Ceglia before DLA Piper and Lippes Mathias becoming involved. Kasowitz Benson withdrew from the case and put DLA Piper and Lippes Mathias on notice that it had determined that the purported contract was a fraud.

Mr. Brownlie and Mr. Vacco later withdrew from the case. They did not return calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Mr. Ceglia’s alleged plot dates back to 2003, when Mr. Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard University. Mr. Ceglia had placed an advertisement on Craigslist looking for a programmer for an Internet business he was trying to get off the ground. Mr. Zuckerberg responded to the ad, and Mr. Ceglia agreed to pay him $1,000 for his work.

Months later, in his college dorm room, Mr. Zuckerberg started a business called Facebook.

Mr. Zuckerberg did not hear from Mr. Ceglia again until 2010, when he was served with a complaint that claimed Mr. Ceglia was entitled to a substantial ownership stake in Facebook.

According to the lawsuit, Mr. Zuckerberg had promised him a substantial interest in either “The Face Book” or “The Page Book.” Attached to the legal papers was a contract that contained language giving Mr. Ceglia an interest in Mr. Zuckerberg’s start-up. The filing also included e-mail exchanges between Mr. Ceglia and Mr. Zuckerberg that purported to show their collaboration on ideas for the social network business.

Federal prosecutors say that Mr. Ceglia’s claims were entirely false. Government investigators searched Mr. Ceglia’s hard drive and discovered the original contract, which had no reference to Facebook. And Harvard’s e-mail servers had no record of the supposed e-mails.

Facebook’s lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher commended the Justice Department for filing criminal charges and, in statement, indicated that it would pursue possible claims against the lawyers that represented Mr. Ceglia.

“Ceglia used the federal court system to perpetuate his fraud and will now be held accountable for his criminal scheme,” said Orin Snyder, a partner at Gibson Dunn. “Facebook also intends to hold accountable all of those who assisted Ceglia in this outrageous fraud.”