NEW YORK (Reuters) – A self-described anarchist from Brooklyn who refused to testify before a federal grand jury thought to be investigating a 2008 bomb explosion in New York’s Times Square was sent to jail on Tuesday after being found in civil contempt.

Gerald Koch, 24, had been asked last week to testify before a grand jury that his lawyer says is believed to be probing a small bomb detonation outside a U.S. armed forces recruiting station.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – UBS AG lost a bid Tuesday to dismiss a whistle-blower lawsuit by a former commercial mortgage-backed securities strategist who said he was fired for refusing to publish misleading research reports.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan found that Trevor Murray, who was fired in February 2012, could move forward with his case. Murray alleges that after he complained to superiors, the Swiss bank retaliated against him in violation of the Dodd-Frank Act.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc(GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) board member Rajat Gupta sought to reverse his insider-trading conviction on Tuesday, arguing that wiretap evidence used by the prosecution should not have been introduced at trial.

Defense lawyer Seth Waxman told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that wiretaps played for the jury were inadmissible because they amounted to hearsay evidence.

NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) – Lawyers for former Goldman
Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta sought to
reverse his insider-trading conviction on Tuesday, arguing that
wiretap evidence used by the prosecution should not have been
introduced at trial.

Defense lawyer Seth Waxman told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals in New York that wiretaps played for the jury were
inadmissible because they amounted to hearsay evidence.

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – A California-based Tea Party group sued the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Monday in what marked the first lawsuit to stem from an investigation finding the agency singled-out conservative organizations.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots accused the IRS of violating its constitutional rights due to the “intensive and intrusive scrutiny” it received while seeking tax-exempt status.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. authorities brought criminal charges against three New York University researchers on Monday, alleging they conspired to take bribes from Chinese medical and research outfits for details about NYU research into magnetic resonance imaging technology.

A criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan charged Yudong Zhu, 44, Xing Yang, 31, and Ye Li, 31, with commercial bribery in connection with NYU research financed by the U.S. government.

NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) – A former chief executive of a
financial firm who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a
probe into bid-rigging in the municipal bond market was
sentenced to two years probation on Friday by a judge who cited
his cooperation with U.S. investigators.

Martin Kanefsky, who was the chief of the now-defunct Kane
Capital Strategies Inc, pleaded guilty in April 2010 to fraud
and conspiracy charges related to his role in a scheme to
manipulate bids for investment agreements and municipal finance
contracts.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – SunTrust Banks Inc (STI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) won a court order on Friday preventing a Connecticut-based hedge fund from moving forward with a $13 million arbitration over mortgage-backed securities.

The ruling by District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan blocks Turnberry Capital Management LP from pursuing a securities arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

NEW YORK, May 17 (Reuters) – SunTrust Banks Inc won
a court order on Friday preventing a Connecticut-based hedge
fund from moving forward with a $13 million arbitration over
mortgage-backed securities.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in
Manhattan blocks Turnberry Capital Management LP from pursuing a
securities arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory
Authority.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former chief executive of a financial firm who pleaded guilty to charges related to bid-rigging in the municipal bond market was sentenced to two years probation on Friday by a judge who cited his cooperation with U.S. investigators.

Martin Kanefsky, who was the chief of the now-defunct Kane Capital Strategies Inc, pleaded guilty in April 2010 to fraud and conspiracy charges related to his role in manipulating bids by others from 1999 to 2006.