THE U.S. District Court for the Easter District of New York has approved the settlement of a class action lawsuit alleging that a kickback scheme between The Long Island Savings Bank and a law firm owned by the bank’s former chief executive officer led to inflated legal fees in connection with residential mortgages.
According to Judge Thomas C. Platt’s order, the class members were required to pay legal fees that the bank incurred in the processing and closing of mortgage loans directly to the now-defunct Power, Meehan & Petrelli. The majority owner of the law firm, which had previously operated under the name Conway & Ryan, was James J. Conway Jr., who had served as the bank’s chief executive officer from 1966 to 1992.
