One of our favorite classic scams is the "You broke my glasses" scheme, where someone tells an unsuspecting mark that he/she has broken a pair of glasses and must pay. Variations include "You broke my bottle" routine and "you made me drop my insulin shot." Now someone is going to prison for trying to con clueless rubes—according to the Daily News, Naim Jabbar was sentenced to seven years for getting caught last year. more ›

Governor Paterson's decision to commute the prison sentence for a man who killed a teenager in a racially-charged confrontation gets worked over once more as the Post reports that the governor's panel of legal advisers apparently told him not to commute John White. But Paterson responded to the Post's story today by saying, "There’s no official panel. There are people in the office who had different types of opinions, many of whom did not see the entire case, and we had varying opinions on what to do with this situation from giving a pardon to doing absolutely nothing about it." He added, "“First of all it’s not a pardon - do we have that straight? Do you think you can get that on paper that it was not a pardon?” more ›

Yesterday, a Long Island judge sentence four teenagers to prison sentences for their role in the hate crime attack on Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant who died from the 2008 stabbing. The teens said they had gone "beaner hopping," and the incident highlighted racial tensions in Patchogue and Suffolk County. The AP reports, "Anthony Hartford, Jordan Dasch and Jose Pacheco, all 19, had each pleaded guilty to gang assault, conspiracy and attempted assault as a hate crime" and received seven year sentences while Christopher Overton, who also pleaded guilty to those charges, received six years. Pacheco said to Lucero's family, "I shouldn't ask for mercy. God knows what I did was wrong." In May, Jeffrey Conroy was sentenced to 25 years for manslaughter as a hate crime for killing Lucero. more ›

Last December, it was reported that Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff was assaulted at the North Carolina federal prison where he's being held for his 140-year sentence. Then prison officials said that he was not beaten and that he was simply being treated for hypertension and dizziness. Now the Wall Street Journal says that the 71-year-old "was physically assaulted by another inmate in December, according to three people familiar with the matter" and was "treated for a broken nose, fractured ribs and cuts to his head and face." more ›

A man found guilty of multiple rapes and robberies in Brownsville was sentenced to 430 years in prison today. Boker Thomas received the four-century sentence after being found guilty of trailing seven women as they walked into elevators, stairwells and apartments in public housing projects and raping them or robbing them, according to the Daily News. more ›

The Scarsdale mom who stole $12 million in gold from her job at a Queens jewelry manufacturer has been sentenced to six months behind bars, according to the Post. Teresa Tambunting pleaded guilty after investigators realized she had stolen about 500 pounds of gold — one piece at a time — by slipping the items into the lining of her purse. Law enforcement sources told the tabloid the 51-year-old former vault manager got such a lenient sentence because had no criminal record, she turned herself in, and she returned all of the gold she had taken (though she brought it back bit-by-bit). "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she reportedly told Queens Supreme Court Justice Pauline Mullings. more ›

A year ago today, Bernard Madoff confessed to running a "giant Ponzi scheme." "Giant" to the scale of claiming that his investors—from the wealthy to charities, from banks to retired couples— were owed $60 billion that didn't exist. He went from his Park Avenue duplex—and homes in Montauk and Palm Beach—to federal prison in North Carolina. more ›

Nixzaliz Santiago, who was convicted of manslaughter in her 7-year-old daughter's death, was sentenced to "the maximum consecutive sentence"--40 1/2 to 43 years-- in prison. The death of Nixzmary Brown shocked the city--the girl was found unconscious after her stepfather threw her head into a bathtub faucet (he claimed she had been misbehaving). She severely malnourished, the victim of severe child abuse, and it turned out that the Administration for Children's Services had been contacted numerous times about the family. Stepfather Cesar Rodriguez was convicted of manslaughter earlier this year and is serving a 29-year prison sentence. more ›