Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Couri claims to have left Scamraiders.com, yet he continues his social media campaign under the monikers "The Shadow" at Scamsos.com and as "Travertine" at http://twitter.com/travertine. Read his words. Are they the language of a consumer advocate or a twice convicted felon?



Recently, Couri Refused To Comply With Four Court Orders to Make His Tax Returns Available. He Now Refuses To Comply With A Court Order to Make His Medical Records Available.


Couri's Admitted Forging of a Notary's Signature Raises Serious Credibility Questions About His Medical Claims


Couri Claims to Leave Scamraiders But Still Has Not Given Medical Authorizations

Today twice-convicted felon James Couri unilaterally declared that he's giving up his Scamraiders hoax website to care for his personal health. He even went so far as to arrange to have himself photographed in a hospital setting holding up a newspaper "demonstrating" his alleged life-threatening skin cancer. One problem: Although Couri is well enough to make videos, motions and maintain Scamraiders, Couri has not complied with the November 11, 2009 court order directing him to sign medical authorizations to allow independent verification of his unsubstantiated medical claims. As predicted in this weblog on December 10, the ruse appears to be part of a scheme to avoid paying the $8 million he and his companies took from a respected New York surgeon. Read my December 10, 2009 prediction HERE.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Has Couri and Scamraiders.com scammed News Channel 3 and KESQ.com?

Reporter Emilie Voss of News Channel 3 and KESQ.com reported on December 4, 2009 that James C. Couri's website Scamraiders.com receives 1.5 million hits per month and that it is the go-to website to learn about scams.

Significantly, News Channel 3 did not report that Couri is a twice convicted felon, is subject to a lifetime ban of securities law violations, is a prolific and abusive pro se litigant, is a  legally declared nuisance (resulting from his campaign of harassing letters, telephone calls and verbal threats to a tenant and the family from which he rented an apartment), is heavily in debt, is described by his mother as a ruthless, amoral, liar, in need of psychiatric help, who maintains his lifestyle by cheating others, is accused by a California notary public of forging her signature on 33 of Couri's court affidavits in 2009, and is currently being sued for $8M for fraud in NYC. This information may be found from a Google search of his name. Naturally, the Scamraiders website which is desperately in need of credibility, prominently displays the KESQ news story.

Contrary to Couri's claims, Compete.com reports that the number of website hits are nowhere near the 1.5 million reported by Emilie Voss. For example, in October and November 2009, the number of hits were 722 and 408, respectively. Further, the most hits in a month was in August 2009 when there were 2,925. If Couri so grossly misrepresented the volume of traffic to his website, what else did he misrepresent? Finally, a review of the Scamraiders website found that many of the third-party posts were by spammers or by scam artists themselves.

This is where Channel 3 News and KESQ.com suggest their viewers and website readers go for help? They owe it to their consumers to set the record straight.

According to Compete.com, the number of hits generated by Scamraiders.com are as follows:

293 June 2009
297 July 2009
2,925 August 2009
2,454 September 2009
722 October 2009
408 November 2009

EDITOR'S NOTE: KESQ.com removed the television broadcast video from its website on December 14, 2009, at approximately 4:00 pm. KESQ.com, however, over my objection, left the print version of the story on it's website.

To contact KESQ-TV write or call:
Bob Smith
Director of News and Promotion
KESQ-TV/KDFX-TV/KCWQ-TV/KUNA-TV
42-650 Melanie Place
Palm Desert, California 92211
(760) 340-7091

Monday, December 7, 2009

"Couri" Has Sued Hundreds of People and Businesses in NY County Supreme Court, Alone. Almost all in a Self-Represented Capacity.

JAMES C. COURI is a PROLIFIC PRO SE LITIGANT. After "making a living" at the 60 Centre Street Courthouse for decades, recently Mr. Couri commenced an internet-based campaign alleging the Courthouse suffers from widespread corruption. Mr. Couri claims he observed court corruption first hand while watching his father and his father's political cronies. Later in life, Mr. Couri claims to have befriended attorney Roy Cohn who, Mr. Couri claims, caused brown paper bags containing cash to be delivered to judges in exchange for favorable decisions.


Mr. Couri's charaterizations of his father and Roy Cohn, however, have nothing to do with Mr. Couri's eviction from the Pavia-owned apartment, and the only cash that exchanged hands, was the $160,000 recovered from Mr. Couri.


Mr. Couri's claims against Mr. Pavia have been fully litigated two and three times. Notably, Mr. Couri FAILED TO PERFECT HIS APPEAL of the jury's verdict. It is wholly inconsistent for Mr. Couri to claim his legal rights were violated and for him to not pursue his appeal.

Readers of this blog are free to contact the hundreds of parties sued by Mr. Couri. My educated guess is that they will give you an earful about how the court system was more than fair to Mr. Couri.


Notably, only three of Couri's lawsuits filed in New York County were filed BEFORE 1996. Remember, these are just the cases in New York County Supreme Court filed by Mr. Couri as a plaintiff. The list does not include cases where Couri is a defendant, or cases brought in other state or federal jurisdictions, nor does it include lawsuits brought by companies he owned or controlled.

James C. Couri Dropped Out of College After a Few Months at Each of Two Different Universities

Mr. Couri's biography states he attended Columia University at night, but in the Presentence Memorandum, dated September 8, 1981, filed on behalf of James C. Couri in United States of America v. James C. Couri, 80 Cr. 361, 81 Cr. 219 (MEL), the criminal defense attorneys for Mr. Couri stated: "[Couri] dropped out of college after a few months at each of two different universities [specifically, Duke University and Columbia University]."

Please help me understand.

Please help me understand why the man pictured at left, a thrice-convicted felon and perennial abuser of the court system, is not presently in jail?

Instead, James C. Couri splits his time between Palm Desert, California and New York City where he lives a pleasant enough life, even as he goes about methodically harassing and scamming those with whom he comes into contact. This includes scores of innocent, hard-working people. Even his own brother and parents were not spared.

In her sworn affidavit, Mr. Couri's mother described her son as "a liar, cheat and ruthless person who only thinks about himself. He has no morals and has maintained a lifestyle by cheating others."

It's clear Mr. Couri is deeply troubled. He has delusions. He sincerely believes that his scams are a result of corruption by
everyone other than himself. Recently, he was caught red-handed forging the signature and stamp of a California notary public on 33 of his affidavits with the intent to defraud the New York courts. He then turned and accused the notary of misconduct, which could lead to the loss of her license.

Mr. Couri refuses to take responsibility for his despicable and libelous actions. This includes the filing of hundreds of frivolous and unfounded legal motions in an effort to avoid paying for the crimes he has committed. More recently, he has embarked on a twisted web-based vendetta under the ruse of exposing corruption. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

He once wrote the New York State Committee on Judicial Conduct
complaining that the behavior of the judge in the Pavia-Couri litigation was not unlike Dr. Mengele's at Auschwitz.

A story in the The New York Times captured his essence when it reported: "Mr. Couri then upped the ante. In a 2003 letter to Michelle
A. Maratto, one of Mr. Pavia’s lawyers, Mr. Couri accused Ms. Maratto, who was converting to Judaism, of 'crazy, abhorrent, shakedown behavior' and went on to tell her that 'you are not worthy to become part of the Orthodox Jewish faith. You belong in jail.'"

So again I ask: how has this nuisance of a man been able to avoid incarceration? Hopefully, the U.S. Attorney's Office, which has him in its sites, will finally give Mr. Couri the "justice" he has coming to him...in handcuffs. The innocent people whose lives he's attempting to wreck will surely breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Federal Court Judge Says James C. Couri Has Checkered Past.

James C. Couri's lack of honesty has been the subject of judicial comment. As Judge Charles S. Haight, Jr. has noted (Drobbin v. Nicolet Instrument Corp., 631 F.Supp. 860, 868 [S.D.N.Y. 1986]): "([James C.] Couri has a checkered past. He has twice pleaded guilty in this Court to charges of fraud. One charge involved securities fraud. The other involved fraudulent statements made to a bank in connection with an art gallery Couri controlled. Couri is the subject of an injunction against securities law violations obtained by the Securities and Exhange Commission."

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Couri's Attorneys State That Couri Paid a $3,000 Bribe to a Bank Officer.

In the Presentence Memorandum, dated September 8, 1981, filed on behalf of James C. Couri in United States of America v. James C. Couri, 80 Cr. 361, 81 Cr. 219 (MEL), Couri's attorneys stated: [In or about November and December 1979] Couri also tried to buy the good graces of the bank's new loan officer by giving him a $3,000 bribe."

Criminal Court Upholds The Sufficiency of Aggravated Harassment 2nd Degree Against James C. Couri --- Complaint Alleges Couri Threatened To Make George M. Pavia's "Life a Living Hell."

On December 4, 2002, in The PEOPLE of the State of New York v. James Couri, the Hon. Gerald Harris of the Criminal Court, New York County, found the Complaint against James C. Couri alleged facts sufficient to support the charges of Aggravated Harassment in the 2nd Degree (PL 240.30(1) and Harassment in the 2nd Degree (PL 240.26(3) against James C. Couri.

The Complaint alleged that defendant James C. Couri, (a tenant in a building owned by the complainant George M. Pavia), told the complainant that he would "make his life a living hell" after the complainant refused defendant's offer to buy his own apartment or the entire building.

It was further alleged that, between January 1, 2000 and May 28, 2002, defendant faxed more than 100 letters to complainant's office and that the letters contained statements which annoyed and alarmed the complainant. The complaint contains quotes attributed to seven of the defendant's letters - the quoted language generally constitutes epithets and/or accusations of criminal behavior. Two of the letters were allegedly copied to newspapers including the New York Times.

The Complaint also accuses the defendant of making more than 50 telephone calls to the complainant's home at hours earlier than 6 A.M. and either hanging up or cursing the complainant.

On two occasions, the Complaint alleges complainant's attorney wrote to defendant's attorney, with copies to the James C. Couri, demanding that defendant's harassment of the complainant be stopped.

Justice Gerald Harris found the Complaint to be facially sufficient and denied James C. Couri's motion to dismiss in full.

EDITOR'S NOTE: According to James C. Couri, after many months and $35,000 in legal fees, Mr. Couri's criminal defense team convinced the NY County District Attorney's Office to dismiss the charges. Notably, however, in the civil case of Pavia v. Couri, a unanimous jury dismissed Mr. Couri's claim against Mr. Pavia that he maliciously prosecuted Mr. Couri by having him arrested for Aggravated Harassment and Harassment.

Significantly, during the evidentiary portion of the trial Mr. Couri did not ATTEMPT to justify the horrific acts he perpetrated against the Pavia Family. During closing arguments, when forced to confront this fact, Mr. Couri attempted to justify his endless campaign of scurrilous acts not by referring to facts, because none were to be found, instead, Mr. Couri simply claimed he was "at war with the Paivas, not unlike the Korean War and the Conflict in Vietnam."  Wow.