1/24/12 12:30pm

Crime and Punishment

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Parole Denied for Former Assistant at GVA Williams

An administrative assistant at GVA Williams who was convicted of swindling $3 million from former company executive Andrew Roos over the course of nine years was denied parole earlier this month, The Commercial Observer has learned.

Agnes Dickinson, 59, was ordered to continue her up-to-13-year prison sentence at a Jan. 12 parole board hearing, according to the New York State Department of Corrections. She has been incarcerated at the Bayview Correctional Facility in Manhattan since 2008, shortly after being convicted of grand larceny, forgery and money laundering.

“After a review of the record and interview, the panel has determined that, if released at this time, there is a reasonable probability that you would not live and remain at liberty without again violating the law, and your release would be incompatible with the welfare of society,” the parole ruling reads.  Read More

By Max Abelson 12/03/08 12:06am

Xerox CEO—and Obama Transition Aide—Sells Condo to Novartis Boss for $3.8 M.

In the wonderful imaginations of wild-haired, politically active college sophomores everywhere, the chief executive officers of multinational corporations meet in volcanic caverns lit by candelabra, drink good port, snicker about the foolish masses and sell one another their 24th-floor Manhattan condos with handshakes.

In reality, CEO-to-CEO deals really do happen, even during horrendous economic Read More

By Michael Calderone 10/17/05 12:00am

Jaqui Safra Asks $50 Million For East Side House

Banker Jaqui Safra, the nephew of the late billionaire banker Edmond Safra, and his longtime girlfriend, former Woody Allen producer Jean Doumanian, have just entered the Upper East Side’s newest elite.

They’ve put their 50-foot-wide limestone mansion at 4 East 75th Street on the market—quietly—for $50 million.

“Quietly” means you won’t find a listing for Read More

By Jonathan A. Knee 3/22/04 12:00am

Legal Battle Over Copyright-Intellectual Property Gets Hip

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity , by Lawrence Lessig. Penguin Press, 368 pages, $24.95.

In a profession dominated by nerds, intellectual property (I.P.) lawyers have long served the useful role of letting other lawyers feel that at least they’re not the nerdiest. Read More

By Jonathan A. Knee 3/22/04 12:00am

Book Review

Ripped From the Headlines,

A Sad, True Novel About Haiti

The Dew Breaker , by Edwidge Danticat. Alfred A. Knopf, 244 pages, $22.

Only a few hours away by luxury jet lies an island paradise of palm trees and warm sand where the air itself feels forgiving. Lovely chocolate-skinned women wear pink nightgowns, Read More