February 2012 Archives

Despite the criminal charges being dropped, this is not the last time we will hear from former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. A DSK hearing has been set for March to deal with several issues leading up to the yet unscheduled civil sexual assault case.

DSK’s accuser, Nafissatou Diallo, says that she was raped by the IMF chief last year in a Manhattan hotel, reports CBS. Given Kahn’s position and the sordid details of the allegations, the story made international headlines.

Everything is fine when fraud, corruption, and financial greed allow people to make money. But as soon as a millionaire loses a few bucks, superstar hedge fund managers are sued and doubts are cast.

John Paulson made his name in 2008 as his hedge funds shorted mortgage-backed securities before everyone else got in on the act. As a result, he made billions of dollars for himself and his investors. However, Paulson has not been able to keep up his luck in recent months, and has seen some of his stock picks fall dramatically. Thanks to one bad pick, an investor brought a John Paulson lawsuit.

As you probably heard, Kim Kardashian and sister Khloe have been peddling the diet product QuickTrim. Kim claims that the product helped her shed 15 pounds and last year she tweeted that she was using the product to get ready for her much ballyhooed wedding to Kris Humphries.

But all is not well with QuickTrim, and detractors say that the magic ingredient in the diet pill is caffeine, an ingredient that experts say is not safe nor effective for weight loss, reports the New York Post. Excessive caffeine use can cause jitters and increased blood pressure and pulse. Popping too many pills can cause caffeine poisoning, which can cause heart arrhythmias.

In what could one day become the basis of an absurdist comedy, the case of the one-legged millionaire that allegedly assaulted his naked masseuse with a gold rolex recently reached resolution in the form of 60-days in jail, reports the New York Post.

Thomas Hartmann is the name of the construction worker turned real estate mogul who apparently hit Russian-born "stripper" Sophia Kandelaki with a gold Rolex after she jokingly asked him for more money. The wound required 16 stitches (could that be the title of the film?). Hartmann, meanwhile, defended himself by saying that he tripped on his prosthetic leg and did not mean to hit her, reports the Post.

Thomas Hartmann's assault conviction also bodes badly for a potential civil suit that Kandekali might hit him with.

There goes the myth that cabbies are the aggressive ones in the city.

A driver in a BMW struck a cab in the East Village early Wednesday morning, reports the New York Post. The cab driver and his passenger were seriously injured.

Gilberto Morales, who is only 20, was speeding on Third Avenue, (which admittedly tempts drivers), with his friend Brandon Evans, age 21. Morales struck the cab around 13th Street. After stopping to inspect the damage, Morales apparently drove off, though he later returned to the scene and told cops he was the driver. He was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment.

How do you value the damage caused to your family? One woman placed that number at roughly 100 times the total value of all the companies listed on the S&P 500 in her $900 trillion lawsuit.

Fausat Ogunbayo, a 46-year-old woman from New York City, sued the city's child welfare department for $900 trillion for removing her two children from her care, reports the New York Post.

Brooklyn-born actress Marisa Tomei is being sued by three insurance companies. The Marisa Tomei lawsuit charges the Oscar winning actress with being a bad neighbor, and seeks $130,000 in damages.

What did Tomei do to irritate her neighbors?

Amare Stoudemire’s brother was killed in a Florida car accident early Monday morning, reports ESPN. So far it’s unclear who caused the accident, but Hazell Stoudemire was reportedly driving a Cadillac Escalade at a high rate of speed on US 27 in Lake Wales, Florida when he struck the rear of a tractor trailer.

The accident happened before 2:00 a.m. and investigators are still determining if alcohol played a role in the crash. The 25-year-old Hazell Stoudemire was not wearing his safety belt at the time, reports ESPN. It was not reported if the truck driver was injured.

It started out as a sexual abuse case much like the one leveled against Jerry Sandusky. A former Syracuse assistant basketball coach was accused of sexually assaulting teenage ball boys for several years during the 1990s.

But the case has taken some strange turns and has morphed into a Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim defamation suit with key evidence being Laurie Fine sex allegations, reports the New York Post.

In another shopping cart thrown down story, two people were seriously injured at a Bronx Home Depot store when someone threw a shopping cart off the second level of a parking garage onto the victims.

This follows a similar incident three months ago when two juveniles threw a shopping cart onto a mother at a Harlem Target store. However, unlike the earlier incident, it appears that the Bronx shopping cart incident had more nefarious motives than just two kids playing around, as was the case at the Harlem Target, reports the New York Post.