Private company uses FBI for DIRTY TRICKS to cover up INSURANCE FRAUD and Texas murders

FOIA documents shed light on puzzling FBI case


By Bill Conroy,

Posted on Mon Jul 11th, 2005 at 09:14:12 PM EST




Sometimes, the quest for justice is like playing with a Rubik’s Cube. It can take a lot of turns and time to get all the colors to line up in a row.
In the case of an Iranian family convicted of insurance fraud some six years ago in the wake of a controversial FBI investigation, those colors are still lining up. The latest twist of the cube came in the form of a couple hundred pages of documents released recently as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The FOIA documents reveal some startling information about the way the FBI conducted its investigation of the Lampazianies, who were born in Iran and later emigrated to the United States. They eventually became U.S. citizens — changing their family name from Tabib to Lampazianie, in part, some family members say, to avoid the persecution that often comes with being identified as Iranian in the United States.

The FOIA records obtained by Narco News show that the insurance-fraud case brought against Lampazianies was started not by the FBI, but rather by a private company, an insurance-industry-funded group called the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

The FOIA documents also reveal that employees of the private-sector NICB participated with FBI agents in interrogating witnesses and that an NICB employee even accompanied FBI agents in the search-warrant raid of the Lampazainies’ now-defunct health care clinic — The Pain Therapy Clinic of San Antonio, Texas.


The revelations, though disturbing on their own, also appear to run counter to written claims made by an FBI legislative counsel in response to a congressional inquiry.

In a letter directed to a Texas congressman, an FBI lawyer stated that employees of the corporately funded NICB are not allowed to “execute arrest or search warrants.”

Yet, according to the FBI’s own records, obtained through the FOIA request, an NICB employee did, in fact, help “execute” the search warrant in the Lampazianie case.




Aligning the cube

The Lampazianies were indicted in 1997 on insurance fraud charges in the wake of an investigation conducted jointly by the FBI and the NICB. The conspiracy allegedly involved a complicated scheme of over-billing, fraudulent claims and staged auto accidents.

Two years after being indicted, five members of the family were convicted and sentenced — four of them to a stint in federal prison.

The Lampazianies' case was part of a nationwide FBI/NICB insurance-fraud sting called Operation Sudden Impact. The family’s clinic in San Antonio was raided in 1995 as part of that operation.

Operation Sudden Impact resulted in 22 searches and 126 arrests across the country on May 24, 1995, according to the FOIA documents.

But the Lampazianies charge that they were framed. They contend that in their case, witnesses were intimidated, documents altered, and other evidence suppressed by the federal prosecution team.


[tommythebug: Happens all the time. FBI is AND ALWAYS WAS, A TOTALLY OUT OF CONTROL BABYBURNING, LYING, SCHEMING, FAGGOT, MOMMA SHOOTING, RIGHT WING IDIOT FACTORY OF WIND UP TOY ROBOTS]




The family members claim further that they were victims of racial profiling.

NICB and FBI officials counter that the Lampazianies’ claims are without merit and stress that they do not target individuals on the basis of race.

However, FOIA documents and newspaper archive research do show minorities were targeted by investigators in Operation Sudden Impact at a rate of nearly 8 to 1 compared with Anglos.

In New Orleans, for example, 26 of the 27 individuals targeted by Operation Sudden Impact were African American, according to the FOIA records.

More recently, in El Paso, Texas, the NICB was again accused of racial profiling. Figures compiled by the Hispanic civil rights group LULAC show that between 2001 and 2004 in El Paso, some 20 cases of alleged insurance fraud were brought to the El Paso Police Department by the NICB. Of that number, LULAC claims, 18 involved minorities — most of them Hispanic or African American.




Informant squeals

The case against the Lampazianie family also involved a paid U.S. government informant who was relocated to San Antonio from out of state to set up a sting against the Iranian family

The informant, himself of Iranian descent, spent months worming his way into the Lampazianie circle of friends in an effort to persuade some of the members of the family to authorize medical treatment to him as part of a staged auto accident.

The sting operation was undertaken in late summer 1994. It failed. The clinic was raided the following spring.

The Lampazianies produced notarized transcripts of conversations held between the paid informant and an acquaintance of the Iranian family. That acquaintance was never indicted or otherwise charged in the case. The conversations, which occurred in Farsi, were translated from a tape recording by a professional translation service.

On the tapes, the informant claims that he was hired to target the Lampazianie family. He also alleges that "in San Antonio, the FBI ... is only working against Iranians." The informant also claims that "... they (the government) spent so much money to get this family.... And they'll get them sooner or later...."

The attorney for one of the Lampazianies did address the informant's actions in pleadings filed with federal court in San Antonio in late April 1999:


The government knows that (the informant) was rebuffed in his attempt to lure the law firm and (Lampazianies’) clinic into this illegal effort. The government is in possession of a tape recording and transcript made of its paid agent telling another individual that the informant was hired by the FBI “to get” the Lampazianie family .... and that he undertakes this type of activity aimed at Iranians across the country for the FBI for money....
The FBI letter

The Lampazianie case prompted LULAC to call for a congressional investigation into the relationship between the NICB and FBI.

In addition, U.S. Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, made an inquiry into the relationship between the FBI and NICB.

In response to the Congressman’s query, A. Robert Walsh, a legislative counsel with the FBI’s Office of Public and Congressional Affairs, drafted a letter defending the bureau's relationship with the NICB.

From the letter, sent to U.S. Rep. Gonzalez in August 2000:


Although the extent of the NICB’s involvement in the individual FBI investigations varies, the NICB has commonly provided personnel, insurance industry expertise, and liaison contact with the victim insurance companies. In these cooperative investigations, the FBI always maintains the responsibility of leading, directing and administering the criminal investigation.
Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) are commonly utilized between the FBI and NICB in order to delineate the specific responsibilities of all parties in long-term cooperative efforts. The MOUs require the review and approval of the Contracts Review Unit at FBI Headquarters prior to their signing by NICB and FBI representatives. The FBI’s control of the criminal investigations is always reflected in the MOUs.

NICB’s degree of involvement in the individual investigations varies widely from providing data analysis support to providing investigators to work with the FBI on the investigation on a full-time basis. The NICB agents are commonly used as valuable resources in assisting the FBI in auto accident investigations….

NICB agents are not law enforcement officers and are not authorized to execute arrest or search warrants. FBI policy does not allow the use of the NICB agents or employees to conduct these or other “law enforcement” functions.

The FOIA documents obtained recently by Narco News, however, show that the NICB not only initiated the case against the Lampazianies but continued to investigate the family after the FBI had been brought into the case.

The documents show that NICB agents participated in “law enforcement” functions by jointly interrogating witnesses with FBI agents. The FOIA records also show that an NICB agent helped “execute” a search warrant by participating in the 1995 raid of the Iranian family’s health care clinic.

To this day, members of the Lampazianie family continue to proclaim their innocence -- despite the fact that they each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy as part of a group plea bargain.

However, the family members contend that the plea deal was slapped together in the courtroom just before the trial was set to begin in 1999. The Lampazianies stress that the plea deal was not in writing and was presented to them as a last-chance offer before facing a trial they believed was fixed.

The original indictment against the family members listed 29 criminal counts.

Prosecutorial foul play?

The actions of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio in prosecuting the Lampazianie case also were in the spotlight due to accusations of misconduct and alleged efforts to cover-up those misdeeds. Similar allegations are now hovering over that same U.S. Attorney’s Office in relation to yet another case involving an informant.

Johnny Sutton did not become the U.S. Attorney in San Antonio until after the Lampazianies had been sentenced. However, Sutton is now the subject of public scrutiny due to his alleged role in helping to cover up a U.S. government informant’s participation in the murders of a dozen people in Ciudad Juàrez, Mexico — dubbed the House of Death case.


[TOMMYTHEBUG: I've dealt with tough guy JOHNNY "GOP Stooge whore" SUTTON....if ya call Sutton refusing to discuss my 47 page US DOJ OIG Complaint as "dealt with Sutton"?

SUTTON and his uncle Tom stooge in Austin, ANTHONY "uncle Tom" BROWN also refused to look at a polygraph exam and info on:

----THE MEXICAN MAFIA MURDERS IN AUSTIN BY THE ALVAREZ BROTHERS...based on former Austin junkie GEORGE REYES' statement to me;

----THE CHRISTINA MOORE MURDER in Round Rock, Texas, that was done by CHENEY, HAYDEN, RUMSFIELD, NSA 902nd Counterintel Group sending the SIGINT to the NSA TSP mercenaries (NATHAN GRIFFITH, ROBERT MCNAUGHTON, PHIL THE NARC);

----The murder of Pareesh, an Austin bar owner shook down by APD, later murdered by who else...another rogue goon FBI informant.]



In the Lampazianie case, the lead prosecutor was benched by her bosses after making serious allegations of misconduct against the defense attorneys and a fellow prosecutor.

After being removed from the Lampazianie case in late January 2000, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Embry, filed a federal lawsuit in the spring of 2001. In the litigation, she accused her supervisors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio of retaliating against her for filing discrimination and sexual harassment complaints against them.

At the time, the U.S. Attorneys Office in San Antonio issued a prepared statement denying the "inflammatory allegations” contained in Embry’s lawsuit.

One of those allegations related directly to the Lampazianie insurance-fraud prosecution. Embry claimed that her supervisors solicited negative comments about her handling of the Lampazianie case and falsely claimed "to people outside the office that the judge in the case had criticized (her) handling of (the Lampazianie case), and that (she) was incompetent...."

Among those named by Embry as the "alleged discriminating officials" were William Blagg, former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas in San Antonio; John Murphy, an Assistant U.S. Attorney; and Solomon Wisenberg, Embry's former supervisor in the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Embry claimed in her lawsuit that since filing an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) discrimination complaint in 1995 against her supervisors, she had been subjected to additional sexual discrimination, age discrimination and retaliation.

The litigation also drew a connection to former President Clinton’s alleged affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

"After Ms. Embry complained of sexual harassment and other gender discrimination by Mr. Wisenberg (and others), Wisenberg left the office to serve as Deputy Independent Counsel in the Whitewater investigation," Embry's lawsuit states. "Ironically, in that position, he deposed President Clinton regarding his relationship with Monica Lewinsky."

Embry agreed to settle the lawsuit in May 2002, ending her seven-year dispute with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio over claims of sexual harassment.

Her attorney, David Schleicher, said the settlement called for Embry to be given assignments appropriate to her experience level. In addition, as part of the deal, Schleicher said the alleged discriminating manager would no longer be allowed to review Embry’s performance, and a payment was provided for attorney's fees, medical bills and compensatory damages.

While acting as the lead prosecutor in the Lampazianie case, Embry also filed a motion accusing the Iranian family’s attorneys as well as a federal prosecutor of unprofessional conduct. In those pleadings, filed in 2000, she alleged that defense attorneys were "not ready" to proceed to trial as late as the second day of jury selection.

Embry also charged that a fellow U.S. prosecutor advised her to "be extremely harsh" to one of the Lampazianie family members. The reason, according to Embry, was that the attorney for that Lampazianie family member "had filed a complaint against (the U.S. prosecutor) with the Office of Professional Responsibility for allegedly influencing a witness in another case."

Embry’s motion caused a brief stir, but ultimately was buried and had no bearing on the fate of the Lampazianes. (A similar pattern of burying allegations of misconduct appears to now be playing out in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio over the House of Death case.)

Four Lampazianie brothers swept up in Sudden Impact have since served their time in federal prison – some two years each -- and have been released. Their sister was sentenced to a term of five years on probation.

Frank Lampazianie, one of the brothers sentenced to prison and since released, did file an unsuccessful appeal of his conviction. However, Frank says he has not given up the struggle to clear his family’s name.

“What happened to us is not justice,” he adds.

_____________________________


tommythebug: What does this have to do with The Yogurt Shop Murders and other TEXAS MURDERS USED TO FACILITATE CIVIL SUIT PAYOUTS?

One lawyer working with Austin lawyer ERIC MOEBIUS (run out of Texas by a corrupt apathetic punk police state) was NICK MILAM, (run out of Texas by a bogus malicious FBI raid that stole all Milam's files).

The Texas Insurance Group working and buying the Texas FBI Faggot act....is in on the TEXAS MURDERS (Yogurt Shop...Sulphar Springs Texas Quik shop...bowling alley in New Mexico) USED TO FACILITATE INSURANCE FRAUD AND MONEY LAUNDERING IN THE FORM OF A CIVIL SUIT PAYOUT.

What chance is there...that faggot punk clown idiots at TEXAS FBI are gonna bring justice to the crime victims mentioned in my PROBABLE CAUSE MEMO supporting a fed investigation into Texas murders?

None.

The punk FBI is as dirty, lazy, stupid, and full of smoke and shit, as any other corrupt little hotdog flag waiving faggot police agency in Texas.

STADTER's daring Mexican prison escape: busted with EHLEN (my neighbor in South Dakota)

from TIME MAGAZINE:



Fans of Mission: Impossible or The Great Escape could best appreciate the precision planning and bold execution of the Joel Kaplan caper (TIME, Aug. 30). Consider the facts: an American serving a murder sentence in Mexico was plucked from behind the walls of a heavily guarded prison, transferred to a light plane, then flown across the U.S. border to the safety of an unknown hideout. Amazing, just amazing. Even more amazing, if one can believe Kaplan's Mexican lawyer, is that his brilliantly engineered escape from Santa Marta Acatitla prison last month was all done quite legally.


Unquestionably, the plot was carried out with punctilious regard for legal niceties. Kaplan was whisked away by helicopter while all but a handful of prison guards were watching a movie. Not a shot was fired, or a paving stone displaced, when the whirlybird swooped into Santa Marta Acatitla. In addition, the helicopter used in the escape was bought (for more than $25,000) rather than leased. The purchase was apparently a precaution against being accused of theft by the leasing company when the helicopter was taken over the border into Mexico. The single-engine Cessna used to complete the break was also purchased—and paid for in full with a cashier's check. Both planes carried the proper identifying numbers required by the Federal Aviation Administration.

After the jail break, the Cessna landed at Brownsville, Texas, to check in with U.S. Customs. Pilot Victor E. Stadter and Kaplan gave their correct names to customs officials, thus avoiding a charge of having entered the country under assumed identities. Proper flight plans were put on record with airport authorities, and Kaplan flew off toward California. He has not been heard from since.

Feeling Better. Despite recurring rumors that Kaplan was an employee of the CIA (the agency denies it), his escape reveals a fine legal mind at work as surely as it does the hand of a swashbuckler. One plausible reason given for his escape was that Kaplan had to be returned to the U.S. in order to draw on a multimillion-dollar trust fund. As it happens, the celebrated and ingenious San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli now has power of attorney over Kaplan's one-third share of the trust fund. Kaplan's sister is a friend of a lawyer in Belli's firm; she' is believed to have been instrumental in making this arrangement.

Kaplan remained out of touch reportedly somewhere in California—under treatment for illnesses contracted during his nearly ten years in prison. According to his Mexican lawyer, Kaplan has reason to feel better. His escape, the lawyer claims, was perfectly legal since jail breaks are a crime in Mexico only if violence is used against prison personnel or property or if prison inmates or officials aid the escape. Mexican authorities disagree, insisting that the use of accomplices—the pilots, in Kaplan's case—makes the escape illegal. However, Mexican officials have not yet initiated extradition proceedings against Kaplan or his partners, who seemed to have pulled off a practically noncriminal crime.

___________________________

tommy:

More on Victor E. Stadter includes excerpts from former FBI agent WILLIAM TURNER, who edited the first infamous conspiracy magazine called RAMPARTS.

From Turner's book, "Rearview Mirror: Looking back at the FBI, the CIA and Other Tails"...we find Victor Stadter on page 272--276, 282.

--..."...A rugged individualist who disdained bureaucracy in all its forms, Vic was a straight shooter who exhibited old-fashioned chivalry...A har d drinker, he preferred, of course, Old Smuggler Scotch. He had a reputation as one of the hottest pilots for hire, a crap shooter who could flee up canyons and survive. Although he had done a stretch in prison for hauling marijuana, he contended he had been stung by an informant and actually confined his trafficking to nondrug contraband ranging from capuchin adn spider monkeys to lobsters and linens. Cocky to the core, Vic was a bogeyman to U.S.Customs agents, who never were able to catch him in the act. He told me he didn't believe in national borders.

DEMS still on CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS?

Conyers Makes White House Final Offer before Contempt Vote
By Paul Kiel - November 5, 2007, 12:31PM
The wheels are once again in motion towards the first court battle between the Democratic Congress and the White House. After a months-long lull, preparations are underway for a vote in the House to find White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress.

Today, House Judiciary Committee Committee Chair John Conyers (D-MI) sent his final offer over to White House counsel Fred Fielding (see below). The letter lays out a process where Congressional investigators would get what they want -- documents and testimony concerning the U.S. attorney firings -- while bowing to some White House conditions. But there's a deal breaker in there. And that's Conyers' request for "on-the-record interviews" with current and former White House staffers. Ever since the spring, the White House has refused transcribed interviews, and there's no indication that having dragged out the struggle this long, the adminstration would accept that offer now.

So the Congressional wheels are turning. Today, in addition to the letter to Fielding, Conyers submitted the committee's contempt report to the full House, a prelude to a vote on a criminal contempt resolution. Both the Democratic and Republican leadership have already launched their struggle for votes, with a special concentration on moderate Dems.

As we've noted before, things will get interesting if that vote should pass, since the Justice Department has already signaled it's refusal to enforce the resolution. Some sort of court battle is likely to ensue. Attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey has already said he hopes he'll never have to deal with that, so if he's lucky, the Dems will hold the vote before he's confirmed. Otherwise, it might be his first test on the job.

____________________________________



tommythebug: "....ain't nothing gonna happen, Cheney and the shadow government has congress all bought off, or scared (Anthrax letters, Wellstone Patriot Act Murder covered up by FBI scum, etc)....and with PELOSI WHORE and REID just a couple of posing punks, it is obvious that CHENEY WHITE HOUSE CAN AND WILL STEAL, LIE, OBSTRUCT, MURDER, TORTURE AND USE MIND CONTROL CHIPPING OF SENATE JUD COMM WITNESSES at will."

Whistleblowers get jammed: THE WAR ON DISSENT

Whistleblowers claim contractor fraud ignored

Web Posted: 11/04/2007 12:56 AM CDT

Guillermo Contreras
San Antonio Express-News




Barrington "Barry" Godfrey of Houston tried to get mega-contractor KBR to quit overcharging the government for thousands of troops he said the company never fed.
He alleges he was forced out for raising the issue, and that the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to keep his allegations secret and then refused to join him in a whistleblower suit.




Iowa businesswoman Beth A. Hanken says she sounded the alarm more than a year ago about the military's principal food distributor in Kuwait, Public Warehousing Co., over allegations it was taking kickbacks from a subcontractor that helped it inflate prices of food for U.S. troops.

A Defense Department official, she claims, responded by forwarding her allegations to Public Warehousing, touching off legal threats that she believes were meant to silence her. The Justice Department this year declined to join a whistleblower lawsuit she filed.

The companies deny any wrongdoing, but Godfrey and Hanken are among a growing list of people who contend they were abandoned by the government when they stuck their necks out to protect taxpayers footing the bill for the war in Iraq.

Alan M. Grayson, who represents Hanken, Godfrey and a handful of other whistleblowers in lawsuits about contracting fraud in Iraq, says the department is thwarting whistleblowers of helping them.




He argues that the Bush administration sweeps many cases under the rug, obtains court orders to keep details from the public and that Justice Department lawyers threaten whistleblowers with dismissal of their cases or contempt of court simply for telling people what they know.

Grayson knows of a dozen whistleblower lawsuits that recently were unsealed after the Justice Department refused to join them; he represents the whistleblowers in five of them.

"In every one of those cases, the Bush administration has taken no action to punish the war profiteers, or recover the money stolen from the taxpayers," Grayson said.

Others argue the Justice Department lacks the resources to go up against contractors with scores of corporate lawyers who can thwart any meaningful government intervention or probe. A former U.S. attorney in San Antonio, John Clark, said whistleblowers with deep pockets to take on the contractors are essential to the government.

Beyond these complexities is another problem: a loophole in the False Claims Act, the country's best weapon against corporate fraud. The law requires that false claims be "presented" to a government employee in order to be a violation. The technicality sidelined one of the most notable whistleblower cases recently.

Issues such as these permit an environment that allows graft and corruption to breed, according to critics, whistleblower advocacy groups and other observers. The corruption, fraud, waste and abuse in Iraq have been so bad that Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota described it as an "orgy of greed."

The case of Fort Sam Houston-based Army Maj. John L. Cockerham — the largest U.S. bribe investigation to come out of the war — emerged from this environment. The Army contracting officer is jailed in San Antonio awaiting trial on charges that, while stationed in a Kuwait contracting office, he steered several lucrative military service and supply contracts to companies that agreed to kick $15 million back to him.

Although Cockerham, his wife and his sister were indicted, none of the companies alleged to have bribed him has been charged or even publicly identified by the U.S. government. Critics complain this secrecy will eventually enable the government to dodge any real pursuit of the contractors, and the Justice Department will focus instead on easier targets — individuals.

The Justice Department says the investigation is ongoing, and defends its track record in all fraud-related cases. In addition, it says it has helped recover millions already in war-related fraud cases.

Watchdogs aren't so sure.

"In the case of these fraud cases, it's taxpayers' interests that are on the line," said Charlie Cray, director of the Center for Corporate Policy in Washington, D.C. "Given how much they're willing to spend on the war and priorities of the administration in general, I see no evidence that they are willing to protect the interests of taxpayers when it comes to corporate fraud."

Triple damages


The False Claims Act is a law forged by President Lincoln during the Civil War to punish war profiteers. Examples of fraud abounded, such as the Army ordering gunpowder and getting crates of sawdust instead.
The law stood for more than 100 years before Congress modernized it in 1986.

In the 20 years since, thousands of cases have been brought to the government's attention, largely under a litigation weapon called a "qui tam" lawsuit. The term comes from a Latin phrase that means "He who sues on behalf of the king as well as for himself."

The whistleblower, also known as the "relator," can file a qui tam lawsuit against the offending company. The suit generally remains sealed — outside of public view — for 60 days, giving the Justice Department time to investigate the allegations and decide whether to join the suit. When the department joins, it generally takes the lead from the whistleblower.

Successful qui tam cases can result in contractors having to pay back three times what they stole, overcharged or defrauded from the government. The companies could also be banned from doing business with the government, a death knell for some. The whistleblowers get a bounty — about 15 to 30 percent — of any settlement or verdict against the contractor.

Even when the Justice Department doesn't join and the whistleblower forces a settlement or a verdict, the government gets the bulk of what is recovered.

The most prominent example of that in contracting cases was a whistleblower lawsuit Grayson filed against Custer Battles, a private security contractor. After a trial, jurors hit the company with a $10 million verdict after determining it had committed more than 40 examples of fraud and abuse in Iraq.

The presiding judge overturned the verdict after determining the False Claims Act didn't apply because no fraudulent claims were ever presented to a government agency. Custer Battles was paid by the Coalition Provisional Authority, a hybrid entity that received billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to rebuild Iraq.

"It's still the (U.S.) taxpayer being ripped off, and there should be a way to close that loophole," said David Colapinto, general counsel for the National Whistleblower Center, an advocacy group in Washington.

In September, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and other lawmakers introduced a bill that aims to tighten the False Claims Act and address the technicality. Lawmakers also have been asked to include provisions that would speed up the qui tam process.

A report in 2005 by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative arm, shows that cases in which the Justice Department intervened took a median of 38 months to resolve. Some took as little as four months, or as long as 187, the report said.

The vast majority of the cases end before trial.

Since 1986, the Justice Department has recovered more than $15 billion from all cases filed under the False Claims Act. Of that, $10.7 billion were from qui tam cases where the government intervened, according to Justice Department records.

Whistleblowers who took on the contractors on their own — after the U.S. government refused to join in the qui tam lawsuits — helped recover another $412 million during the same period.

Recovered money


Patrick Burns, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Taxpayers Against Fraud, said the Justice Department does few qui tam cases, but said that is because it has few resources.
"It's a small collection of lawyers working very hard in opposition to a rising and unlimited army of corporate lawyers paid for by companies," Burns said.

He said Congress needs to appropriate more money so the Justice Department can match the muscle of corporations and more vigorously pursue corruption.

Others also observe that sometimes the Justice Department doesn't have willing clients.

"Federal agencies (which) have responsibility for administering a particular program don't always see their roles the same way that another federal agency, for example, the Department of Justice, might see them," said former U.S. attorney Clark, who now represents whistleblowers. "If an agency doesn't view a case the same way the Department of Justice does, that would make it difficult, if not impossible, for the department to prosecute it."

Burns takes it further, saying the Defense Department, for instance, may try to work out its own deal with a contractor so as not to lose funding for a contract, even a fraud-plagued one. The department might not want a contractor penalized because the money gained in a qui tam goes into the general U.S. treasury, and the agency might have to fight to get that money the following year, Burns said.

The Justice Department, in a lengthy statement, defended its enforcement and gave four examples of whistleblower cases alleging fraud in Iraq that it joined. The suits were settled, resulting in $14 million being recovered.

The department also said it has an undisclosed number of cases under investigation and denies that it has turned down cases for political or reasons other than their merit. It acknowledged it has joined fewer than 25 percent of the qui tam cases in those 20 years, but views that as a good thing.

"This means that 75 percent of the cases have not warranted our intervention, and the dollar recoveries are evidence that our decisions have been sound ones," Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller said in an e-mail. "Simply because some cases alleging fraud in Iraq have been declined does not mean that there is fraud that has been ignored, nor does it mean that there are not other matters that contain meritorious allegations that are being investigated and pursued."

Public Warehousing


Two whistleblowers didn't find a receptive government when they tried to use the False Claims Act.
Beth Hanken, president of Iowa-based Midwest Ventures, which sells meat products, filed suit in federal court in Philadelphia in January 2006. The suit names Public Warehousing Co. and Richmond Wholesale Meat Co. of Richmond, Calif., which served as consolidator for Public Warehousing.

Public Warehousing had won two consecutive contracts, including a $67 million contract in 2004 to supply food to 150,000 to 160,000 U.S. troops in the gulf region, according to court documents.

Hanken alleges in her suit that Public Warehousing "received kickbacks from Richmond in exchange for retaining Richmond and allowing Richmond to charge higher prices than other potential subcontractors."

The suit said Midwest and other subcontractors were pushed aside even though they offered Public Warehousing lower prices than Richmond. A procurement manager for Public Warehousing, the suit said, told Hanken that Richmond was being overpaid.

Hanken said she reported the alleged wrongdoing to the Defense Supply Center-Philadelphia, or DSCP.

Instead of investigating the complaint, the suit said, an official with the center sent the allegation to Public Warehousing.

Hanken then received a letter from the company's lawyers telling her to stop making allegations the company argued were wrong and defamatory.

"In sum, PWC, in a coordinated effort with Richmond Wholesale, eliminated Midwest as a supplier to DSCP," the suit said.

Public Warehousing denies any wrongdoing, and plans to issue its response in court.

Richmond claimed the matter stems from events in 2005, when Richmond determined meat products Hanken sent to Richmond for delivery to Public Warehousing did not meet military specifications.

Richmond said it shared the concerns with Public Warehousing, which rejected Midwest's product.

"We have always operated within the rules and regulations required by government contractors," Richmond President Werner Doellstadt said. "We have done nothing illegal, and, to the contrary, continue to maintain the highest legal and ethical standards in dealing with our customers."

The Justice Department's Miller said Hanken's case was rejected in March after the agency and investigators from the Defense Department found her evidence fell short.

That the government pulled away after a year left Hanken feeling abandoned and frustrated.

She said she may not be able to carry on without the government's help.

"I'm all alone now," Hanken said. "It costs an enormous amount of money to pursue these cases."

Two months before deciding not to join Hanken's suit, the Defense Department issued subpoenas in a separate criminal investigation of Public Warehousing, now based on allegations that the firm got improper payments from U.S. food companies, the Wall Street Journal first reported in October.

It may have begun after a former Army contracting officer in Kuwait — who later was found dead under mysterious circumstances — had blown the whistle, according to the paper.

In response to the investigation, Public Warehousing, now known as Agility Logistics, says it is reliable and cost-effective in providing its services.

"The company has always cooperated with the reviews, inspections, audits and inquiries necessary to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent appropriately," it said.

The KBR Case


Barry Godfrey feels Hanken's frustration.
The former KBR employee filed a suit in Virginia alleging KBR inflated the number of military personnel it claimed to have served and ignored massive labor markups of its subcontractors.

The suit gives several examples of unauthorized and excessive markups, which Godfrey claims he tried to stop. The suit said he was met with resistance within KBR.

Godfrey, a senior contract administrator, said that during 2004, a subcontracted dining facility near Mosul, Iraq, was serving about 2,500 people a day but billing as if there were 5,000.

"At three meals a day, this was billing for almost 10,000 meals a day that were not served," the suit said.

In other examples, Godfrey found double-billing that KBR employees authorized for subcontract work that was not done or kitchen equipment that was never obtained.

Godfrey said he made repeated attempts to force the subcontractors to reduce the bills, but that others within KBR blocked his attempts.

In December 2004, he went on vacation.

When he came back, his cell phone and computer, which contained documentation in connection with the allegations of fraud, had been stolen, the suit said.

Also, one of the subcontractors complained to a KBR contract chief that Godfrey was treating the subcontractor unfairly.

Godfrey was suspended for 10 days and told by another KBR executive, "We can't have subcontractor CEO's complaining about subcontract administrators," the suit said.

"They told me I was out of my lane," Godfrey said.

Godfrey said KBR remained complacent and did nothing because it holds so-called "cost-plus" contracts.

"The more they spend the more they make," Godfrey said.

Eventually, his suit said, his workplace was so hostile that he decided to leave KBR.

In a statement, KBR said it could not comment on pending litigation, but denied it has defrauded the government.

"Our work serving the troops in Iraq is unmatched," KBR said in a statement. "Despite the challenges of war, KBR has met the demands of our customer, the U.S. Army, often within very short deadlines, and has provided excellent service."

Godfrey, who said he went to Iraq because he felt a sense of patriotism to help U.S. forces, feels disillusioned with the way the government responded after he filed his whistleblower suit.

He waited for the Justice Department to join his suit for two years. In January, the department asked a judge to continue to keep it sealed. The judge refused and unsealed it; the Justice Department bailed out.

"They did nothing," Godfrey said. "People just tend to ignore this and continue to reward the same contractor ... with more contracts and more business."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
gcontreras@express-news.net

West Texas hot: Doyle Bramhall now a Big Bender

Leaving Big Bend....takes forever to go anywhere.

Thought I would hit the South Padre Island National Rec area....and enjoy the coolness of the coast. But hey man....it is still real hot in West Texas. You stop in little dusty gas station towns...and talk to the locals in a slow patient drawl, and time slows down. Can't imagine how the hot summer is out here.

The smart play is build a shade shelter over your house....to get something you won't see for hundreds of miles--SHADE.

The little county stores always have sportsman photos like a ten foot fat ass rattlesnake with a head the size of a kid's fist....or...a six foot long, two hundred pound ALLIGATOR GAR caught in Lake Amisted along the Mexican border.

I don't know how you gonna stop trafficking with a lake the size of FAlcone or Amisted? How many people know that the BORDER PATROL HAS BOATS?

Hmmmmm....it is hot and dry....and I don't know if it is a good time to go to the beach in Corpus. Too hot. Long drive.

STEVIE RAE VAUGHN'S OLD drummer and songwriter, DOYLE BRAMHALL is on the cover of the Big Bend monthy paper. Bramhall has a new album out....and he looks real tired and serious now that he is all cleaned up. One thing about Austin musicians...they usually move out to Alpine, Texas to get some cool air.

Terlingua used to be nothing but outlaw dessert rats. It's changed a bit. The big resort in Lajitas went bust, and is for sale. Ranchers also tried to sell the CHRISTMAS MOUNTAINS north of Big Bend...but no serious takers yet.

LAKE AMISTED is still....one of the ugliest big lakes in the world. It attracts nomads who live by a code called "What happens in Dog Canyon, Stays in Dog Canyon". THIS MEANS, THAT...UH....ALOT OF DRUNKEN LOSERS POLICE THEIR OWN LITTLE COMMUNITY WITH THE USUAL DRUNKEN GOSSIP AND REDNECK DOWN HOME BACK STABBING.

Viva Terlingua, Texas, chili cook off in the desert

Outside of Big Bend National Park...lies 10, 000 drunken rednecks, beer vultures, and nearly drunk bimbos ready to take their shirts off to bare their tits in the hot sun.

Lately, been in on the wilderness roads along the Rio Grande....and, I can tell you...this is alot better place to park and camp then the damn campground stupidity.

Chisos Basin is a little mountain Eden in the middle of a real hot desert...and you would be surprised at the outrageous conflict in ecosystems. Take the wilderness 4x4 road to the pine tree forest to see the south side of Chisos mountains...look for bear and cougar.

GOP/BUSH drug pipeline: CIA strikes back for GOSS's arrogance

WORLD EXCLUSIVE
Oct 29, 2007
by Daniel Hopsicker



A MadCowMorningNews investigation has uncovered links between the ownership of the drug-running Gulfstream (Cocaine Two) and the other American-registered plane busted carrying a multi-ton load of cocaine in Mexico recently, the DC9 (Cocaine One) airliner caught with 5.5 tons of cocaine in Mexico 18 months ago.


Recently-released FAA records from the Gulfstream II business jet that went down in Mexico a month ago with four tons of cocaine reveal that before it was “parked” in the name of a New York real estate developer with ties to the Russian Mob, the plane was owned by a secretive Midwestern media baron and Republican fund-raiser, who had a business partner who, incredibly, owned the other American drug plane, the DC9, recently busted in Mexico.

Stephen Adams was in business with Miami attorney Michael Farkas, who founded SkyWay Aircraft, which owned the DC9 busted in Mexico 18 months ago with 5.5 tons of cocaine aboard.

Moreover at the same time the Bush Ranger extraordinaire Stephen Adams owned the Gulfstream (N987SA) in 1999 and 2000, he was personally buying over $1 million of billboard ads for George W. Bush for his 2000 Presidential election bid.




Meet the New Boss (Same as the old boss.)


According to SEC filings, Stephen Adams and Michael Farkas jointly controlled Holiday RV Superstores, Inc., which was used by arms merchant and CIA-fixer Adnan Khashoggi in a complicated securities fraud which stole as much as $300 million from investors and taxpayers.

Khashoggi, under indictment for felony fraud in the case and currently a fugitive from justice, is himself involved in the DC9 scandal through his lieutenant Ramy El-Batrawi, also a Farkas business partner, and the former owner of one of the two twin DC9's used for god only knows what.

The links between recent owners of the two drug planes, discovered during an examination of FAA registration records, suggest a continuing criminal conspiracy to engage in massive drug trafficking, involving Republican fund-raisers Adams and Senator Mel Martinez, Saudi arms dealer Khashoggi, prominent oligarchs in the Russian Mob, dirty San Diego defense contractor Titan Corp., as well as elements of American military and civilian intelligence.

The politically-explosive implications of the scandal may explain why American officials have been reluctant to move against, or even name, the true owners of the planes and basically "turned a blind eye" to the American involvement exposed by the drug trafficking seizures.




"Like hiding the salami, only easier"




Our interest in the FAA records of the Gulfstream had been quickened by the suspicion that the plane’s several recent ownership changes had been nothing more than sham transactions, a sophisticated game of “hide the pea” designed to conceal the aircraft’s true owners.

The registration had rapidly passed through the hands of two Brazilians operating a dummy front company called Donna Blue Aircraft ( or, for aficionado’s of the ‘boys’ seemingly endless cleverness in naming front companies, d/b/a for short ).

The Brazilians then supposedly “flipped” the plane, just two weeks before it crashed, to Greg Smith and Clyde O’Connor, the pair of hapless pilots, based at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, being fitted for “I’m The Patsy!” t-shirts.

Neither of the two pilots, we had soon learned, has the financial wherewithal to have paid the $2 million in cash claimed by the Brazilian men. But apparently they didn't need it. Their bill of sale states they bought the Gulfstream for the princely sum of $100. The usual statement, the one we've seen in virtually every other FAA bill of sale, states $100, OVA, meaning Or Other Valuable Consideration. Not this one, though.

Either the boys got the real plane cheap, or no one thought they'd ever be filing the paperwork. Either way, the New York Post was writing when it reported that the crashed jet had an "air of mystery."




Who owned the plane? Its "complicated."



Smith later claimed to an aviation executive at the airport that notorious convicted drug smuggler Don Whittington, for whom both did work as contract pilots, had engineered the transaction.


[tommythebug: "Whittington...like...uh...the Austin GOP lawyer that Dead Eye Dick Cheney shot on a quail hunt after arguing about 'some woman' named CHRISTINA MOORE who was murdered by The NSA TSP contractors who were sent after me...go ask former Austin FBI special drunken stumblebum JOHN "pissing in the streets" MASPERO and JIMMY "the liar" CHAPMAN about that?]



And neither of the federal agencies with apparent jurisdiction—the DEA and FAA—has so far offered any answers about how the American-registered red-white-and-blue Gulfstream business jet, whose recent owners are politically very well-connected, could have wound up carrying so much Colombian coke.

Would a $500 million bank heist receive a similar cold shoulder?

And like the story of the American-registered DC9 caught in Mexico carrying 5.5 tons of pure cocaine, the recent Gulfstream crash with 4 tons was almost completely ignored in the American mainstream media.

And the few media sources who did report the big Mexican bust ended up scratching their heads and using words like “complex” and increasingly complicated” to describe the “thorny” issue of who owned the plane.

“The complex sale of the Gulfstream II jet and its end in the Mexican jungle highlight the increasingly complicated illicit drug trade,” read the McClatchy Newspapers’ account on September 29, 2007.

On the other hand, the two McClatchy reporters virtually glow with a passionate certainty about whose cocaine had been on the plane. It belonged to Mexico's most notorious drug trafficker, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

Guzman, a man with a $5 million bounty on his head in Mexico, is presumably sitting in for Pedro Escobar, who is too dead to be blamed with any believability.




"Where have you gone, Pablo Escobar?"




But all accounts agree that the plane’s journey began in Rio Negro, Colombia, which is the international airport for Colombia’s famous city of Medellin.

Medellin today is controlled by Colombia’s current President Alvaro Uribe, long suspected of “involvement” in the drug trade in the same way that New England Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady is suspected of “involvement” in the NFL.

And speaking of Escobar, a recently declassified 1991 American intelligence report by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Colombia's biggest drug traffickers says that President Alvaro Uribe, today a staunch ally in Washington's war against drug trafficking, was at that time a close associate of Escobar, Colombia's most powerful drug lord, as well as an ally of other cocaine traffickers then engulfing his country.

Making the list with Escobar and Uribe were familiar names like former Panamanian president Manuel Noriega, currently jailed in Miami on drug-trafficking charges, and... Saudi arms merchant Adnan Khashoggi.

Thus it should come as no surprise that more cynical observers view with suspicion the fact that the ownership of the American-registered plane has apparently become a bit of a sticky wicket.




Yet another mystery for the ages.



And it will likely remain one, unless the scandal grows to the point where the public demands answers, or some unexpected event occurs, like the Mafia’s Appalachin Conference in upstate New York in 1956, where a conclave of Mob bosses was underway when it was discovered and penetrated—not by the FBI’s J Edgar Hoover, who denied the Mafia even existed—but by an alert New York State Trooper.

American academics like Dr. Alfred McCoy have led the way in pointing out the hypocritical attitude nurtured by U.S. officials. Peter Moskos, for example, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a former police officer, says it is hard to fathom how perhaps billions of dollars could be handled by the drug cartels without high-level players on U.S. soil.

"There has to be someone on this side making the big bucks off it — it is not the low-level drug dealer on the corner," Moskos said.

Still, no one has had the temerity to point towards the power circles around current President George W Bush as a likely place to look for an American Tony Montana, the Miami drug baron portrayed by Al Pacino in the classic movie Scarface.

But help may be coming from an unlikely source.





Repeat after me: "There is no American Mr. Big. "




The bemusement of leaders and newspapers in Latin America about the hypocrisy foisted on Americans by their feckless press has taken on an increasingly sharp tone.

When the U.S. government talks about cocaine cartels operating in Mexico or Colombia, officials tick off the names of the foreign drug lords, their preferred smuggling routes, and sometimes even the tattoos they sport.

But when it comes to what is going on in the United States — the world's biggest consumer of illegal drugs — U.S. federal agents and police deny that an American Mr. Big even exists.

"Where is the Pablo Escobar of Texas," Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos, who was once kidnapped by Escobar, said on a recent visit to Houston. "I would love to know."

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox shared Santos' concern. "That is the question I always ask myself," Fox said recently during a speaking tour of the U.S. “Who permits the drugs to cross the border, and who transports the drugs to the markets of this great nation?"



We don't know either, but we have our suspicions.



The recently-busted drug running Gulfstream has been linked to CIA renditions.

The DC9 flew painted with a bogus but official-looking Seal, as if it were from the U.S. Dept of Homeland Security, without protest from the Coast Guard’s major air facility in the Caribbean Basin, which was located just a few hundred yards away.

Thus both planes had a drug trafficking edge: the Gulfstream from being known to have flown CIA renditions and the DC9 from being painted to impersonate a plane from U.S. Homeland Security.

From our earlier series on the seized DC9:

“The DC9 airliner dubbed “Cocaine One” actually “belongs” to an older and much larger organization than SkyWay, composed of individuals whose association with one another pre-date both SkyWay’s 2002 inception and 2005 demise.”

Alas, the revelation is not new, as shown by a newspaper quote from 1989 about the Iran Contra Scandal...

“It was reported in Senate hearings in 1988 that many pilots used by U.S. government officials to transport arms to the contras were also known drug smugglers. Drug pilots George Morales and Gary Betzner testified to landing planeloads of arms for the contras in Costa Rica and then returning to the United States with planeloads of drugs.

“Both of these men also testified to landing at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida and at Ilopango Air Base in El Salvador with U.S. protection - even during the period that they were also smuggling drugs.”

[tommythebug: Llopango Air Base was where Cele Castillo (DEA) did some photos and surveillance...and wrote about his whistleblowing]




Nothing new under the sun...



It is apparent that the ‘boys” are still using the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. And perhaps, instead of using weapons flights to provide protection, they may now be using the transfer of prisoners to the American naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba to cover their trips to Colombia.

Ignition. Rendition. Perdition.

Ever wonder where all the money goes?

Other than the odd million here or there, that is, for billboards for George W. Bush.