Three people charged with bilking the state's recycling program out of $7 million by importing cans from Arizona pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
Howard Leveson, 68, the owner of Perris Valley Recycling, and two of his employees entered their pleas to a total of 18 counts including recycling fraud, grand theft and conspiracy, the Riverside Press-Enterprise said.

Attorney General Jerry Brown said the center used containers not eligible for state funds.

"These people pretended to be recycling California aluminum cans when they were really importing tons of cans from Arizona," Brown said in a statement issued Wednesday. "They brazenly defrauded the state's successful recycling program."

The center raised suspicion because it was collecting about 10,000 pounds of cans per day starting in early 2009 while similar facilities average only about 500, and special agents from the Attorney General's office began an investigation.

Officials estimate the center brought in 4.4 million pounds in cans from Arizona, worth about $7 million in state funds.

An Annapolis man admitted yesterday that he stole more than $340,000 of copper cable intended for use in the construction of unmanned drones destined for U.S. foreign military operations - possibly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Levon Smith, 54, faces up to 10 years in prison when sentenced Dec. 17 in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

"Theft of Defense Department property is an issue that reverberates throughout the contracting process," said Robert Craig, special agent in charge for the Mid-Atlantic field office of the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Criminal Investigative Service. In a prepared statement, he claimed that such thefts raise safety concerns and cost taxpayers money.

"Our men and women serving in harm's way deserve better," he said.

Smith pleaded guilty yesterday to theft of government property.

According to a plea agreement, Smith was a senior material control analyst at AAI Corp., a defense contractor based in Hunt Valley that designs and builds aerospace equipment for the federal government and other entities.

The government purchased copper cables and other supplies for AAI to install in unmanned aerial vehicles that eventually would be deployed for the nation's foreign military operations.

On more than 40 occasions between June 2008 and October 2009, Smith stole rolls of the cable from AAI buildings and sold it to an area recycling center, prosecutors said.

Smith attempted to cover his tracks by using an expired Arizona driver's license when dealing with Maryland Recycling in Rosedale.

In all, Smith stole about $340,000 worth of government materials, prosecutors said. He received about $22,000 from the recycling company.

New York state courts will require lawyers in residential foreclosure actions to certify they have taken “reasonable” steps to verify the accuracy of documents submitted to the court.

The new rule, released in a statement by the New York state Unified Court System, is effective immediately.

Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman introduced the requirement in response to disclosures of deficiencies in residential foreclosure filings nationwide, including notarization and “robo-signing” and affidavits that falsely state the signer has knowledge of the facts, the statement said.

“We cannot allow the courts in New York State to stand by idly and be party to what we now know is a deeply flawed process, especially when that process involves basic human needs -- such as a family home -- during this period of economic crisis,” Lippman said in the statement.

Metro Atlanta attorney Michael Shaw pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $500,000 from Atlanta law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP.

Shaw, a 37-year-old resident of Mableton, Ga., worked as an associate attorney at Greenberg Traurig, specializing in bankruptcy and commercial-foreclosure litigation. From 2003 to 2009, Shaw regularly performed investigative services for clients himself, but submitted invoices in the name of an investigator who also worked for the firm. These invoices totaled $90,000.

At the same time, Shaw performed title-examination services for clients himself, but submitted invoices to the firm in the name of a fictitious vendor. He obtained the vendor’s social security number from federal bankruptcy filings and submitted fraudulent W-9 forms in the vendor’s name. These invoices totaled $425,000.

For almost six years, Shaw regularly performed work for clients, submitted fraudulent invoices to the firm’s accounting department, received checks, endorsed the checks over to himself, and deposited the funds into his personal checking account. He also continued to receive his regular law firm salary.

In June 2009, the law firm completed a client’s billing review, discovered the misconduct and fired Shaw. He was also disbarred by the Georgia State Bar.

He now faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing is set for Jan. 5, 2011.

The former top attorney for the Cleveland area's sewage agency has been sentenced to five years, 10 months in prison for pursuing thousands of dollars in bribes.

Sixty-4-year-old William Schatz admitted shaking down a contractor for more than $682,000 and diverting about $167,000 in agency checks to his accounts.

The federal judge in Cleveland who sentenced Schatz on Tuesday also ordered him to pay back the money and gave him two years of supervised release.

Schatz resigned in 2007 from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. He pleaded guilty in May to bribery, theft and tax fraud.

He could have received more than seven years in prison. His attorneys had asked for mercy, noting his age and statements he made expressing remorse.

Britain's Supreme Court Wednesday ruled in favor of a German heiress seeking to protect her considerable fortune from her ex-husband — a decision that gives new strength to prenuptial agreements in England.

The ruling marks a potential turning point in the legal battle over prenuptial agreements in England, where courts have generally refused to recognize them as valid, binding agreements.

Nicholas Phillips, the president of the Supreme Court, said the judges decided by an 8-1 margin to let stand an earlier Appeals Court ruling that the prenuptial agreement in this case was fair and should be applied.

It is a victory for Katrin Radmacher, 40, a paper industry heiress with a fortune of at least 55 million pounds ($86.5 million), and a defeat for her ex-husband, Nicolas Granatino, 39, a former investment banker who had been seeking a greater share of her wealth than had been spelled out in their pre-nup.

The case was complex: Radmacher is German, her ex-husband is French, but they married, lived and divorced in England. The prenuptial agreement was signed at Radmacher's father's insistence in Germany, and would have been recognized in both France and Germany, where pre-nups are commonly upheld.