171 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
171 lines
9.2 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: FEDERAL CORRUPTION FILE: UFO2768
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
PART 1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Filename: Harry1.Art
|
|
Type : Article
|
|
Author : Harry Martin
|
|
Date : 03/12/91
|
|
Desc : Federal Corruption Series Part I
|
|
|
|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
|
|
FEDERAL CORRUPTION
|
|
By Harry V. Martin
|
|
A NEW SERIES
|
|
(c) Copyright Napa Sentinel, 1991
|
|
March 12, 1991
|
|
Reprinted with permission of the Napa Sentinel
|
|
|
|
|
|
EDITOR'S NOTE: When discussing the widespread corruption in the
|
|
federal Bankruptcy Courts, it is difficult to focus on just the
|
|
Northern California jurisdiction. This new series will focus on the
|
|
extent of the corruption throughout the nation and its linkage to
|
|
various courts.
|
|
|
|
When the U.S. Government sent Anthony Souza to Northern California to
|
|
investigate what government officials called "the dirtiest system" in
|
|
the United States, it was aware that the entire bankruptcy system is
|
|
unraveling. Former LendVest Trustee Charles Duck was the main focal
|
|
point of Souza's investigation-even though a local bankruptcy judge
|
|
called him the most "honest man" he had ever known. Duck's ties to
|
|
bankruptcy judges throughout the Bay Area is providing a picture of
|
|
intense corruption going deep inside the law enforcement agencies. Even
|
|
Souza admits privately that his hands are tied.
|
|
|
|
There has been one known murder in Northern California that has
|
|
strong possible links to the bankruptcy system. There have been several
|
|
more in Texas. This series will focus on different incidents from
|
|
various parts of the country.
|
|
|
|
One of the most bizarre cases of corruption in the bankruptcy system
|
|
involves a small Washington-based computer software firm called INSLAW.
|
|
In 1982 the firm signed a three year contract for $10 million with the
|
|
U.S. Department of Justice. The software program INSLAW developed was a
|
|
case-management computer program called PROMIS. The software, which was
|
|
developed by Bill Hamilton, enabled the U.S. attorneys to keep track of
|
|
information on cases, witnesses and defendants, and to manage their
|
|
caseloads more effectively.
|
|
|
|
Though the U.S. Attorney's Office placed the PROMIS program into
|
|
operation in several of its offices, it refused to pay Hamilton.
|
|
Subsequently Hamilton was forced into the bankruptcy court. Former U.S.
|
|
Attorney General Elliot Richardson, representing Hamilton, advised him
|
|
to sue the Justice Department for stealing his software.
|
|
|
|
Anthony Pasciuto, who was the deputy director of the Executive Office
|
|
for U.S. Trustees, which oversees bankruptcy estates on behalf of the
|
|
court, had stated that the Justice Department was improperly applying
|
|
pressure on his office to convert INSLAW's Chapter 11 reorganization
|
|
into a Chapter 7 liquidation, which would mean that all company assets,
|
|
including the rights to PROMIS would be sold at auction.
|
|
|
|
U.S. Trustee Cornelius Blackshear corroborated Pasciuto's story. Two
|
|
days after he was visited by Justice Department officials, Blackshear
|
|
issued a sworn affidavit recanting his earlier testimony.
|
|
|
|
The Justice Department recommended that Pasciuto be fired. The memo
|
|
seeking his dismissal reads ". . . but for Mr. Pasciuto's highly
|
|
irresponsible actions, the Department would be in a much better
|
|
litigation posture than it presently finds itself."
|
|
|
|
Federal Bankruptcy Judge George F. Bason, Jr., ruled in 1987 that the
|
|
Justice Department had acted illegally in trying to put INSLAW out of
|
|
business. Bason sent Edwin Meese a letter recommending that he
|
|
designate an appropriate outside official to review the dispute because
|
|
of the prima facie evidence of perjury by Justice Department officials,
|
|
Meese did not respond.
|
|
|
|
Later that year after nearly three weeks of trial, Bason ruled in
|
|
favor of INSLAW in its suit against the Justice Department. "The
|
|
department (of Justice) took, converted, stole INSLAW's software by
|
|
trickery, fraud and deceit," the judge stated, adding, "the Justice
|
|
Department engaged in an outrageous, deceitful, fraudulent game of cat
|
|
and mouse, demonstrating contempt for both the law and any principle of
|
|
fair dealing." Judge Bason ordered the Justice Department to pay INSLAW
|
|
$6.8 million. Bason's verdict was upheld on appeal by U.S. District
|
|
Court Judge William B. Bryant. Three months after Bason's ruling, he
|
|
was denied re-appointment to the bankruptcy court.
|
|
|
|
Hamilton's trouble began when a friend of Meese attempted to buy out
|
|
INSLAW, but Hamilton turned him down. In a court document, the
|
|
potential buyer is quoted as saying, "We have ways of making you sell."
|
|
It was after that the trouble for INSLAW began.
|
|
|
|
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on investigations, chaired by
|
|
Senator Sam Nunn, began an investigation into the INSLAW case. Once the
|
|
inquiry got under way, the Senate Judiciary Committee's chief
|
|
investigator, Ronald LeGrand, received a phone call from an unnamed
|
|
senior officer at the Justice Department--a person LeGrand had known
|
|
for years. The caller told LeGrand that the "INSLAW case was a lot
|
|
dirtier for the Department of Justice than Watergate had been, both in
|
|
its breadth and its depth."
|
|
|
|
The Nunn Committee completed its investigation and published its
|
|
report. It recognized that INSLAW has been a victim of the system and
|
|
stated that "the Justice Department had been uncooperative, refusing to
|
|
allow witnesses to testify without representatives of the litigation
|
|
division being present to advise them. The effect of their presence was
|
|
to intimidate those who might otherwise have cooperated with the
|
|
investigation." The report states, "The staff learned through various
|
|
channels of a number of Department employees who desired to speak to
|
|
the Subcommittee, but who chose not to out of fear for their jobs."
|
|
|
|
Congressman Jack Brooks of Texas has opened a new investigation into
|
|
the INSLAW case. Brooks is investigating allegations that Justice
|
|
Department officials--including Meese--conspired to force INSLAW into
|
|
bankruptcy in order to deliver the firm's software to a rival company.
|
|
The rival firm, according to court records and law enforcement
|
|
officials, was headed by Earl W. Brian, a former Cabinet officer under
|
|
then California Governor Ronald Reagan and a longtime friend of several
|
|
high-ranking Republican officials. Meese had accepted a $15,000
|
|
interest-free loan from Brian. Meese's wife was an investor in the
|
|
rival company. This is the same company that allegedly sought to buy
|
|
INSLAW from Hamilton and made the alleged threat.
|
|
|
|
What happened to PROMIS?
|
|
|
|
* The program is in use throughout the nation and has been used also
|
|
for military intelligence information. It has the ability to track
|
|
troop movements.
|
|
|
|
* An official of the Israeli government claims Brian sold the PROMIS
|
|
program to Iraqi military intelligence at a meeting in Santiago,
|
|
Chile. The software could have been used in the recent Persian Gulf
|
|
War to track U.S. and allied troop movements. Ari Ben-Menashe, a 12
|
|
year veteran of Israeli intelligence, made the statement in a sworn
|
|
affidavit to the court.
|
|
|
|
* The software is now operative with the CIA, the National Security
|
|
Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Department of
|
|
Justice. Only the Justice Department is authorized by the court to
|
|
use the software.
|
|
|
|
* Brian now claims he acquired the property rights to the software and
|
|
consummated a sale to Israel, although he had allowed its use by the
|
|
Israeli intelligence forces for as many as five years before the
|
|
actual sale.
|
|
|
|
In essence, a small company in Washington developed a very sensitive
|
|
computer program which the Justice Department obtained. The courts
|
|
ruled in favor of the developer and the judge who made the ruling was
|
|
never re-appointed. The software was acquired by a friend of Meese and
|
|
the Justice Department has never paid for its use and has allowed other
|
|
agencies the right of its use.
|
|
|
|
The bankruptcy court was a tool--as it appears to be with other
|
|
jurisdictions--to support the economic gain of a few. Charles Duck was
|
|
not alone--as the record will prove.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
**********************************************
|
|
* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
|
|
********************************************** |