The Nassau County DA's office has charged a NYC teacher with loan sharking, claiming that Queens ISI 141 gym instructor Sean Harris "lent a third party $40,000 at an annual interest rate more than four times the legal limit." more ›

A Brooklyn man who got into a knife fight with a loan shark which inadvertently led to a 13-year-old girl's death is claiming that he had been acting in self-defense. Kenneth Risher is charged with fatally stabbing loan shark Shawn Lewis; Lewis had attempted to flee the scene in his SUV, but ended up running down 13-year-old Kira Goddard. And the whole tragedy was over $40. more ›

Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas may end up losing his seat if accusations of gambling and unpaid debts are true. Law-school classmate Janet Cohen is suing Villegas for borrowing $500,000 to allegedly pay off loan sharks. Legal ethics expert Monroe Freedman told the Post, "If a judge is involved with organized crime, I would be very concerned. It may be reason to remove him from the bench," but you don't need an ethics expert to figure that one out. more ›

A former worker at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, accused of stealing $40,000 from the charity between August and February, says he only did it because his family was being threatened by a loan shark. Emmanuel Reyes reportedly confessed to cops, "I never made any money off this." The Post reports, "Reyes claimed to cops that he'd borrowed $8,000 from a loan shark to pay for his mother's funeral, and feared for his family's safety after welching on $16,000 in required repayments." Reyes, who was indicted on 72 counts, including grand larceny, also said, "Another manager had showed me how to do transactions without showing a receipt. I altered the number of people coming in to make the average donation around $4." more ›

The Post speaks another subset dealing with the subprime crisis: Loan sharks. Benny the Loan shark who, like the banks, has "made loans to subprime borrowers in danger of defaulting." He says, "I'm not really worried about people borrowing money from me, what I worry a lot about is whether they'll pay it back...I'm going to have to start collecting collateral - you know, like jewelry, wedding bands, necklaces and family heirlooms." His rates: $50/week in interest on loans of $100-200. Tanda, a "mid-level loan shark" has raised lowered his interest rates by 50% recently--"$200 a week on a $500 loan and $400 a week on a $1,000 loan"--and says, "Wall Street should take a lesson from me, I never lend what I can't afford to lose - and I lose very little." more ›