NEW YORK — Calling it perhaps the biggest money laundering scheme in U.S. history, federal prosecutors charged seven people Tuesday with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank that handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe.

The case was aimed at Liberty Reserve, a currency transfer and payment processing company based in Costa Rica that authorities say allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the Internet with almost no questions asked.

U.S. officials said the enterprise was staggering in scope: Over roughly seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the U.S.

Ex-Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway received prison time for hiding more than $1 million in assets while pleading with a bank for a sale on her underwater home.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Declaring herself "broken" and "disgraced," former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway tearfully took responsibility for fraud Tuesday before a judge sentenced her to a year and a day in prison for concealing assets while she was pleading with a bank for a sale on her underwater home.

Defense attorney Steve Fishman said the devastation of losing a prestigious job seemed to be enough punishment for Hathaway, who vaulted to statewide prominence through an extraordinary Supreme Court election in 2008. But U.S. District Judge John Corbett O'Meara rejected community service and instead chose prison.

Crying and reading from a statement, Hathaway, 59, blamed her crime on "personal issues" but added...

As jury selection began in James "Whitey" Bulger's murder trial, the judge said jurors wouldn't be excluded just because they've heard or read about the case.

BOSTON — Jury selection has begun in the trial of reputed Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Judge Denise Casper on Tuesday told the first pool of 225 potential jurors that the mere fact they have heard or read something about the case does not mean they will be excluded from being selected.

She said the "critical issue" is if they can put what they've read or heard aside and base their finding on what they hear in the courtroom.

A second pool of 225 potential jurors ...