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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Michael Jay Jackson of Hershey, Pennsylvania pleaded guilty on Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson to bankruptcy fraud related charges, according to a press release. According to U.S. Attorney Bruce D. Brandler, Jackson was charged in an indictment in February 2017 with 12 counts of wire fraud, five counts of bankruptcy fraud, nine counts of false bankruptcy declarations, and two counts of aggravated identity theft. Jackson pleaded guilty to all 28 counts of the indictment. Jackson admitted he defrauded his creditors, the Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of PA, and his wife, by filing seven chapter 13 and 11 bankruptcy petitions, five of which were filed under Jackson’s name and two of which were filed under his wife’s name without her knowledge. The petitions contained false information regarding Jackson’s income, assets, and employment, and were filed in order to postpone multiple Sheriff’s sales of his Hershey residence.

Disgraced hedge fund founder Stephen Maiden is set to testify Wednesday against two former business associates who stand accused of manipulating shares in the video-software company KIT Digital Inc. before it filed for bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. KIT’s former Chief Executive Officer Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and tech industry entrepreneur Omar Amanat are accused of using Maiden’s fund to mask KIT’s failing finances and to hide massive trading losses at an investment fund run by Amanat’s brother. In February 2015, Maiden was sentenced to seven years in prison for carrying out an $8.9 million Ponzi scheme that ripped off 39 victims. When his Charlotte, N.C.-based fund ran out of cash, Maiden started sending his customers bogus account statements. Testifying against Amanat and Tuzman could aid Maiden in seeking an early release.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc yesterday agreed to pay more than $44 million and enter a non-prosecution agreement to settle a U.S. Department of Justice criminal probe of traders accused of defrauding customers on bond prices, Reuters reported. RBS will pay a $35 million fine, plus at least $9.09 million to more than 30 customers, including Pacific Investment Management Co, Soros Fund Management and affiliates of Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Prosecutors said that from 2008 to 2013, RBS cheated customers by lying about bond prices, charging commissions it did not earn and concealing the fraud in an effort to boost profit at the customers’ expense. Some victims had received federal bailout money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The settlement arose from a five-year federal crackdown on deceptive bond trading in which eight traders, including two from RBS, have been criminally charged.

Chicago landlord Arthur Holmer is losing five properties — including two in Lakeview that nearly landed him in federal prison — after a bitter battle in bankruptcy court, Crain’s Chicago Business reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Deborah Thorne signed an order this week confirming the $41 million sale of the properties, which include two vintage River North buildings, according to court filings. Holmer has been wrangling with his creditors over the properties for more than a year, most recently pushing a plan to refinance them and retain his ownership. But Judge Thorne instead signed off on the sale to a venture led by local investor Maria Magnus. The order ends a drama that began with a federal criminal investigation of Holmer and included a guilty plea by the landlord for bank fraud, followed by several lawsuits filed by Holmer's lenders and financial partners.

Mark Johnson, the former head of HSBC’s global foreign exchange cash trading, was convicted yesterday on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and eight counts of wire fraud after a four-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the New York Law Journal reported today. Johnson and a co-defendant were charged in July 2016 of defrauding an HSBC client through a multimillion-dollar “front running” scheme, where a party uses confidential information to stake out a position on a security that will allow that person to capitalize on the increased value of that security. The federal government alleged Johnson used his position at HSBC to do just that. The British bank was selected to execute a confidential FX transaction for one of its client’s subsidiary. As part of the sale, some $3.5 billion in proceeds were to be converted to British pounds. Ahead of the December 2011 transaction, Johnson and traders working for him stocked up on British pounds. The confidential transaction was then executed in a way that drove up the price of the pound. The move generated roughly $7.3 million in profits for the HSBC traders, while defrauding the client out of millions, the government claimed.

Former New Haven, Conn.-based bankruptcy attorney Peter Ressler was sentenced to five years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after he previously pleaded guilty to wire fraud, two counts of embezzlement from a bankruptcy estate and bankruptcy fraud, the New Haven Register reported. In total, Ressler misappropriated more than $3.4 million from 48 clients and used the money for personal and family living expenses including a beach condo, frequent trips to Florida and multiple boats, to cover the expenses of his practice and to fund payments relating to other clients and other bankruptcy estates from which he had previously improperly taken monies. Along with his imprisonment, he has to pay more than $4.8 million in restitution, which includes the embezzled funds and additional monies he did not embezzle but owes to more than 60 other clients of his law practice.