Head of American Legal Process Arrested for Alleged "Sewer Service"

One process server claimed to have made 13 round-trips in one day to serve legal papers between Brooklyn and upstate Cattaraugus County - a nearly 800-mile distance supposedly made more than a dozen times within 24 hours.

That was one of the many egregious examples of fraud cited by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who Tuesday announced the arrest of Long Islander William Singler, head of one of the largest process-serving firms in the state. Singler is charged with running a massive fraud scheme in which his employees claimed to serve legal papers that allegedly were never delivered.

As a result of the actions by Singler, the head of American Legal Process in Lynbrook, and the process servers he employed, thousands from Long Island and around the state never had notice of pending legal actions against them by creditors, and never had a chance to contest them, Cuomo said. Consequently, many had their finances frozen or wages garnished, without being present for a court hearing, the attorney general said.

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Cuomo Launches Probe Into Process Servers

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched a wide-ranging investigation of possible fraud in the process-serving industry, in which thousands of people may have had their financial accounts frozen or wages garnished without any knowledge of court proceedings against them, according to officials.

A spokesman for Cuomo, Richard Bamberger, confirmed the existence of the probe and said it's an important issue in a time of increasing economic hardship. He declined to elaborate on the scope of the investigation or on firms under scrutiny.

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