Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Public Statement of Retraction Regarding Affiliation with 'United Pilots for Justice'
The 'United Pilots for Justice' group has asked the 'Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association' to retract our statement regarding affiliation with this grassroots effort. Apparently there was a miscommunication on their part from some of their members who contacted us. Please share the link below.
http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org/Public_Retraction.html
http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org/Public_Retraction.html
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower/Witness Michael Lynch is in Cook County Jail!
Justice, Chicago style
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
07/26/10 12:45 PM EDT
UPDATE: “Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail,” March 26
A Chicago businessman with no previous record has been ordered to report to the infamous Cook County Jail Monday to finish serving his 60-day sentence for criminal contempt of court – the longest such sentence in Illinois history. To put this in perspective, the sentence was twice as long as a man in neighboring DuPage County got for throwing an object at a judge’s head.
Michael Lynch’s offense? He complained about judicial corruption. In Chicago, that gets you thrown in the slammer.
Even more outrageous, Lynch was sentenced by one of the same judges he accused of fixing cases for organized crime – and also happens to be a witness in an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into bankruptcy fraud.
In May 2006, Lynch filed a sworn affidavit with the court claiming that he had “material evidence” of judicial corruption involving several Chicago judges – including Circuit Court Judge Alexander White – and asked for another judge to hear the case. In the affidavit, Lynch accused White of being a beneficiary of the Five Whites LLC trust fund used to launder bribe money from an organized crime family in Arizona.
Lynch told The Examiner that Judge White told him and his attorneys – in court – that he wanted to assign him to house arrest because Lynch’s wife has Stage 4 cancer. But the judge said he received a visit in his chambers from First Appellate Justice Mary Jane Theis (whose father was reportedly part of the Greylord judicial corruption scandal during the 1980’s) who reportedly told him to “put Lynch back in Cook County.”
The Examiner asked Justice Theis – twice – if she had pressured Judge White to throw Lynch back in jail, but she did not answer the question, referring us to several opinions she wrote in which she concluded that Lynch’s motion “contained unsubstantiated and far-flung allegations that Judge White was a participant in an organized crime scheme in Arizona.”
But Lynch said he never got a chance to present his evidence of judicial corruption while appealing the contempt sentence because Judge McNamara insisted he produce his out-of-state witnesses (a forensics expert and a former member of the organized crime family) within three hours – which was clearly impossible. He also refused, for their protection, to publicly identify them.
In the four years since he filed his affidavit, Lynch says, his witnesses have never been interviewed by law enforcement. Since the allegations were never investigated, how does Justice Theis know whether they’re “unsubstantiated” or not? Furthermore, strange behavior by two previous judges in the case indicates otherwise.
After Judge Barbara Disco entered an $1.8 million dollar judgment against him in the civil case, Lynch says he filed a motion asking her “to admit or deny that she was a member of organized crime.” Attached to the motion was a document listing Disco’s alleged hidden trust.
Lynch says he was sentenced for contempt on Oct. 13, 2006 by former Judge Paddy McNamara with no mandated sentencing hearing and no bond. Lynch’s affidavit also accused McNamara of accepting payoffs through Crown Central Asset Fund, Crown Central Systems, Crown Ambassador Enterprises, and Fidelity Investments.
Disco abruptly retired while Lynch was serving the first 17 days of his 60-day sentence at Cook County Jail. “The day I was released, Judge McNamara also suddenly retired and stepped down from the bench. Every one was stunned,” Lynch told The Examiner.
As I reported back in March, Lynch alleged massive judicial corruption in Chicago’s state and federal courts after his firm, McCook Metals, was forced into bankruptcy after winning an anti-trust lawsuit against Alcoa.
Lynch’s sworn affidavit specifically accuses Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, who presided over the McCook bankruptcy, and Judge White, who recently ordered Lynch jailed, of being part of a nationwide racketeering enterprise that launders illegally obtained funds through the court system using a “systematic code-based creation of fraudulent documents and identity theft” – including fraudulent federal marshal credentials.
Lynch says a federal auditor he hired through the Independent Federal Fund Oversight Committee in Topeka, Kansas uncovered material evidence – including specific bank account numbers – alleging that Judge Wedoff (who also presided over the United Airlines bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy case in U.S. history) personally oversaw a $39 million “bribery fund” in return for a verdict favorable to McCook lender General Electric Commercial Finance (GECC) and Alcoa, McCook’s competitor, in violation of anti-trust laws.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Lynch alleged that Wedoff blocked his subpoenas for the financial records of two bankruptcy trustees in on the scheme and refused to read an affidavit signed by a federal agent documenting Wedoff’s participation, including a pure trust called “ERW” that was allegedly used to hide payoffs from federal authorities.
He also accused Judge Wedoff of allowing GECC and Alcoa to disregard ERISA and bankruptcy laws by dumping McCook’s pension obligations on the taxpayer-supported Pension Benefit Guaranty Board (PBGC).
But none of these extremely serious allegations of judicial misconduct have been investigated by the either the FBI or the Justice Department, even though Lynch says he handed over the evidence to authorities four years ago. Instead, the same judge he accused of corruption is sending him back to jail.
That’s contempt, all right, but not by Michael Lynch.
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
07/26/10 12:45 PM EDT
UPDATE: “Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail,” March 26
A Chicago businessman with no previous record has been ordered to report to the infamous Cook County Jail Monday to finish serving his 60-day sentence for criminal contempt of court – the longest such sentence in Illinois history. To put this in perspective, the sentence was twice as long as a man in neighboring DuPage County got for throwing an object at a judge’s head.
Michael Lynch’s offense? He complained about judicial corruption. In Chicago, that gets you thrown in the slammer.
Even more outrageous, Lynch was sentenced by one of the same judges he accused of fixing cases for organized crime – and also happens to be a witness in an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into bankruptcy fraud.
In May 2006, Lynch filed a sworn affidavit with the court claiming that he had “material evidence” of judicial corruption involving several Chicago judges – including Circuit Court Judge Alexander White – and asked for another judge to hear the case. In the affidavit, Lynch accused White of being a beneficiary of the Five Whites LLC trust fund used to launder bribe money from an organized crime family in Arizona.
Lynch told The Examiner that Judge White told him and his attorneys – in court – that he wanted to assign him to house arrest because Lynch’s wife has Stage 4 cancer. But the judge said he received a visit in his chambers from First Appellate Justice Mary Jane Theis (whose father was reportedly part of the Greylord judicial corruption scandal during the 1980’s) who reportedly told him to “put Lynch back in Cook County.”
The Examiner asked Justice Theis – twice – if she had pressured Judge White to throw Lynch back in jail, but she did not answer the question, referring us to several opinions she wrote in which she concluded that Lynch’s motion “contained unsubstantiated and far-flung allegations that Judge White was a participant in an organized crime scheme in Arizona.”
But Lynch said he never got a chance to present his evidence of judicial corruption while appealing the contempt sentence because Judge McNamara insisted he produce his out-of-state witnesses (a forensics expert and a former member of the organized crime family) within three hours – which was clearly impossible. He also refused, for their protection, to publicly identify them.
In the four years since he filed his affidavit, Lynch says, his witnesses have never been interviewed by law enforcement. Since the allegations were never investigated, how does Justice Theis know whether they’re “unsubstantiated” or not? Furthermore, strange behavior by two previous judges in the case indicates otherwise.
After Judge Barbara Disco entered an $1.8 million dollar judgment against him in the civil case, Lynch says he filed a motion asking her “to admit or deny that she was a member of organized crime.” Attached to the motion was a document listing Disco’s alleged hidden trust.
Lynch says he was sentenced for contempt on Oct. 13, 2006 by former Judge Paddy McNamara with no mandated sentencing hearing and no bond. Lynch’s affidavit also accused McNamara of accepting payoffs through Crown Central Asset Fund, Crown Central Systems, Crown Ambassador Enterprises, and Fidelity Investments.
Disco abruptly retired while Lynch was serving the first 17 days of his 60-day sentence at Cook County Jail. “The day I was released, Judge McNamara also suddenly retired and stepped down from the bench. Every one was stunned,” Lynch told The Examiner.
As I reported back in March, Lynch alleged massive judicial corruption in Chicago’s state and federal courts after his firm, McCook Metals, was forced into bankruptcy after winning an anti-trust lawsuit against Alcoa.
Lynch’s sworn affidavit specifically accuses Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, who presided over the McCook bankruptcy, and Judge White, who recently ordered Lynch jailed, of being part of a nationwide racketeering enterprise that launders illegally obtained funds through the court system using a “systematic code-based creation of fraudulent documents and identity theft” – including fraudulent federal marshal credentials.
Lynch says a federal auditor he hired through the Independent Federal Fund Oversight Committee in Topeka, Kansas uncovered material evidence – including specific bank account numbers – alleging that Judge Wedoff (who also presided over the United Airlines bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy case in U.S. history) personally oversaw a $39 million “bribery fund” in return for a verdict favorable to McCook lender General Electric Commercial Finance (GECC) and Alcoa, McCook’s competitor, in violation of anti-trust laws.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, Lynch alleged that Wedoff blocked his subpoenas for the financial records of two bankruptcy trustees in on the scheme and refused to read an affidavit signed by a federal agent documenting Wedoff’s participation, including a pure trust called “ERW” that was allegedly used to hide payoffs from federal authorities.
He also accused Judge Wedoff of allowing GECC and Alcoa to disregard ERISA and bankruptcy laws by dumping McCook’s pension obligations on the taxpayer-supported Pension Benefit Guaranty Board (PBGC).
But none of these extremely serious allegations of judicial misconduct have been investigated by the either the FBI or the Justice Department, even though Lynch says he handed over the evidence to authorities four years ago. Instead, the same judge he accused of corruption is sending him back to jail.
That’s contempt, all right, but not by Michael Lynch.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
SEC Settles with Aguirre
WHISTLEBLOWING AIRLINE EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION
"Patriotism and Freedom of Speech in Action"
To All:
This is huge...see below! At least the SEC is acknowledging their mistakes. Gary Agguire was a federal employee who went the MSPB legal route and won. Bradley Birkenfeld wasn't so lucky as a civil employee. Harry Markopolous was, but it took him years to nail Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.
Please keep the legal/political heat on! It's the only way we can collectively nail these corporate white-collar criminals!
Besides the SEC/DOJ purported blind-eyes mentioned in the article below, our association wants to prove the lengths that airline manager's and government will go through in silencing airline pilots who attempt to speak out on safety issues during financially distressful times, but are slam-dunked by the system...their heads squashed like grapes...for speaking out. It is a very dangerous scenario for the unwary traveling public and must be stopped. We are certain that the Colgan Air 3407next-of-kin very much appreciate our efforts in this regard.
I wasn't a federal employee in 2003, but a federally-licensed and medically certificated pilot, so I couldn't go the MSPB legal route. My only recourse in 2003, 2006, and at present was in filing FAA Whistleblower Reports, but have been stonewalled repeatedly by all levels and branches of government, as has Continental whistleblower Newton Dickson and others.
As a life-long pilot, I strongly feel that if we can prove the apparent and alleged SEC/DOJ/DOT-FAA collusion, then we can drag these latter allegations regarding public air transportation safety and security into the public limelight in an effort to prevent another Colgan Air 3407 disaster wherein 50 good people unnecessarily lost their lives because much less experienced airline pilots were suppressed from speaking out on safety issues...at a low-cost air carrier...never mind the alleged pension theft of 150,000 employees and millions bilked from investors and vendors alike at United Airlines and elsewhere!
There are presently many other Sarbanes-Oxley/RICO witnesses coming forth with evidence to SEC Atlanta, but it remains to be seen as to whether or not our Department of Justice will partake in this investigation. To date, the DOJ IG has twice stated that they 'do not have jurisdiction in matters such as these'.
Please read these articles for amplification:
Update: SEC IG looks into United Airlines bankruptcy
UPDATE: FBI, DOJ refuse to investigate charges of judicial corruption
Whistleblowers punished for warning of aviation security lapses
Pilots: United Airlines bankruptcy never should have happened
Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail
UPDATE: DOT IG urged to investigate one of FAA’s top docs
Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
Message to federal employees: Keep your mouth shut
Thank you very much, Washington Examiner Reporter Barbara Hollingsworth! ABC Anna Schecter and CBS Pia Malbran...where are you? Whistleblower Protection Senators Leahy, Grassley, and McCaskill, we need your support and protection!
President Obama and Attorney General Holder please keep your 2008 campaign promises concerning enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers!
In the meantime, judicial whistleblower Michael Lynch...one of our key Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers, is scheduled to enter dangerous Cook County jail on July 26th for 13 days for attempting to expose judicial corruption, but none of the mainstream media outlets are reporting on this flagrant violation of witness protection afforded under SOX that was requested in consonance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 1107 of this letter sent to then SEC Chairman Christopher Cox on October 18, 2007. Why not?
Please read on below the article published by the Government Accountability Project Office in Washington DC for additional information. Do you feel we need much stronger whistleblower protection legislation in place that includes jury trials for those willing to step forth with evidence/information? I do...so too does Michael Lynch, Newton Dickson, Gabe Bruno, Robert MacLean, Bogdan Dzakovic, and so many other honest citizen patriots in this country.
It is incumbent upon each of us to demand that congress immediately pass this much-needed legislation...or provide 'We the People' the reason(s) why they feel that this is not necessary.
Many Thanks!
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead ~
SEC Settles with Aguirre
(Washington, D.C.) – In what may be the largest settlement of its kind, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to pay $755,000 to settle the wrongful termination claim of Gary J. Aguirre, the attorney who headed the SEC’s insider trading investigation of Pequot Capital Management until his firing in September 2005.
A judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the federal agency with jurisdiction over Aguirre’s termination claim, issued an order today finalizing the settlement. The settlement sum equals Aguirre’s pay for four years and ten months (the elapsed period since his September 2005 discharge), plus his attorneys’ fees. Aguirre agreed to dismiss two related cases against the SEC.
Government Accountability Project Legal Director Tom Devine stated “Unfortunately, this large settlement is the exception that proves the rule. Until Congress provides real protections for financial regulatory employees such as Aguirre, existing law will remain the best excuse for government regulators to turn a blind eye.”
The SEC’s settlement with Aguirre comes one month after the SEC filed insider trading charges against Pequot, its founder, Arthur Samberg, and David Zilkha, a former Pequot employee, based on facts uncovered by Aguirre. Pequot and Samberg paid the SEC $28 million to settle the charges against them. The case against Zilkha continues.
In August 2007, two Senate committees published a scathing 108-page report criticizing the SEC’s decision to fire Aguirre and close the Pequot investigation, which included Pequot’s suspected insider trading in securities of 20 publics companies.
The Senate report chronicles Aguirre’s promising career at the SEC, including management’s decision to give him a two-step pay raise at the end of his first year for “consistently [going] the extra mile, and then some.”
But the praise vanished when Aguirre tried to subpoena an elite Wall Street banker, John Mack. His supervisors blocked the subpoena, telling Aguirre that Mack had “juice” and “political clout.”
Aguirre’s July 27, 2005, email to his supervisors explained why the Mack subpoena was essential and expressed concern that “treating Mack differently is [not] consistent with the Commission’s mission.” The Senate Report tells what happened next: “Just days after Aguirre sent an e-mail to Associate Director Paul Berger detailing his allegations, his supervisors prepared a negative re-evaluation outside the SEC’s ordinary performance appraisal process.”
One month later, the SEC fired him without warning. The Senate report concluded that Aguirre’s “termination appears to be merely the culmination of the process of reprisal that began with the August 1 re-evaluation.”
Approximately one year after the Senate report, SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz delivered his own report on Aguirre’s firing to then-SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Kotz recommended that Aguirre’s supervisors be disciplined. To date, neither the current SEC Chairman, Mary Schapiro, nor Cox, has done so.
The Pequot investigation appeared to have run its course when the SEC released its “Case Closing Report” in December 2006, explaining its decision to close the entire investigation, including Pequot’s trading in Microsoft options, without filing charges.
But Aguirre did not stop his Pequot investigation. He continued to collect and piece together the evidence that Samberg had used illegal tips to trade options on Microsoft stock. In April 2008, Aguirre obtained a court order forcing the SEC, over its objection, to turn over to him key records of its Pequot investigation.
In late 2008, Aguirre uncovered the last pieces of evidence necessary to prove an insider trading charge against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. On January 2, 2009, Aguirre sent a letter to SEC Chairman Cox enclosing the new evidence.
Aguirre’s 16-page letter explained how this new evidence, when combined with the evidence uncovered by him in 2005, proved that Samberg had used illegal tips in directing trades in Microsoft options, generating $14.2 million in profits to Pequot hedge funds under his management. But still the SEC would not file a case.
On May 26, 2010, Aguirre filed papers in his FOIA case seeking an order directing the SEC to release additional Pequot records to him. He argued the SEC had to turn over the records under FOIA, because it had filed no case against Pequot or anyone else. Early the next morning, the SEC filed charges against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. The allegations closely track the facts stated in Aguirre’s January 2, 2009 letter.
Asked how he feels about the settlement, Aguirre replied, “I think it’s fair to the public that the SEC pays for my work over the past four years and ten months, since it generated $28 million to the U.S. Treasury. But it’s a shame the team I worked with at the SEC did not get to complete the Pequot investigation. The filing of the case in 2005 or 2006, before the financial crisis, would have been exactly what Wall Street elite needed to hear at the perfect moment: the SEC goes after big fish too.”
The email below was transmitted with the identical hyper-linked pages as above. We are hopeful of a government response with enhanced legal and physical protection for federal whistleblowers and key witnesses in this case from OUR government.
from Dan Hanley
to SEC ATL ATTY Debbie Hampton,
Washington Examiner Reporter Barbara Hollingsworth,
Louis Markopolous,
Federal Judicial Whistleblower Michael Lynch,
TSA Whistleblower Bogdan Dzakovic,
Hollywood Fleur De Lis Studios Film Producer/Director BJ Davis,
Hollywood Fleur De Lis Studios Screenplay WriterJulia Davis,
David Gibbons,
Radio Host David Gibbons and Producer Jeff Spinard,
"White Collar Corruption Executive Director Dr. Jan Schwartz, PhD",
POPULAR Attorney Zena Crenshaw,
Government Accountability Project Legal Director AttorneyTom Devine,
Government Accountability Project Shanna Devine,
National Whistleblower Center Senior Counsel Dave Colapinto,
National Whistleblower Center Jane Turner,
Medical Whistleblower Executive Director Janet Parker,
Project on Government Oversight Keith Rutter,
"Judicial Whistleblower Dr.Sheila Mannix, PhD",
Buffalo News DC Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski,
Rodney Stich,
RodneyStichWhistleblower,
FAA Whistleblowers Alliance Executive Director Gabe Bruno,
ABC National Reporter Anna Schecter,
CBS National News Producer Pia Malbran,
FAA Whistleblower Rich Wyeroski,
FAA Air Traffic Controller Whistleblower Anne Whiteman,
Fired Federal Air Marshal Whistleblower Robert Maclean,
Retaliated Federal Air Marshal Whistleblower Craig Sawyer,
CBS National News Tyler Jahn,
Bloomberg News Holly Rosenkrantz,
"\"Plane Business\" Editor Holly Hegeman",
Continental Airlines Pilot Whistleblower Newton Dickson,
Delta Airlines Whistleblower Captain Wayne Witter,
"SafeSkies.ca Canadian Kirsten Stevens",
Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform Executive Director David Hutton,
"Aerotoxic.org Executive Director Captain John Hoyte",
New York Times Aviation Reporter Matthew Wald,
Investigative Journalist/Pulitzer Prize Winner David Cay Johnston,
Huffington Post Dan Froomkin,
New York Times DOJ Reporter Eric Lichtblau,
Mary Williams-Walsh,
"U.S. Deputy Marshal Whistleblower Matthew Fogg",
Captain Dan Hanley - National Public Spokesperson - Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
cc Securities and Exchange Commission Inspector General David Kotz,
Securities and Exchange Commissioner Mary Shapiro,
Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel III,
FAA Adminstrator Randy Babbitt,
Colgan Air 3407 Next-of-Kin Congressional Hearing Spokesperson Scott Maurer,
"Ms. Heather Albert - Director of FAA Complaint Analysis - Department of Transportation Inspector General",
Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder,
FBI Director Robert Mueller,
Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant,
US District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald,
Senator Leahy Staffer Lydia Griggsby,
Senator Byron Dorgan,
Senator Dorgan Staffer Rich Swayze,
Congressman Jerry Costello,
ALPA National President Captain John Prater,
Former Department of Transportation Inspector General Attorney Mary Schiavo,
Former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta,
Senator Claire McCaskill,
Senator Levin Subcommittee on Investigations,
Senator Charles Grassley,
Senator Daniel Akaka,
Senator Johnny Isakson,
Senator Saxby Chambliss,
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland,
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland,
Senator Charles Grassley,
CBS 60 Minutes <60m@cbsnews.com>,
CBS Chicago News Michelle Youngerman,
NBC National News Producer Anita McQuillan,
Chicago Tribune Reporter John Kass,
Chicago Tribune Columnist Clarence Page,
Chicago Sun-Times David Roeder,
Newsweek Howard Fineman,
Newsweek Richard Wollfe,
Salon Media Group Glen Greenwald,
Salon Media Group Joan Walsh,
"GritTV.org Laura Flanders",
Media Matters David Brock,
Washington Post Caroline Little,
Washington Post Ed O'Keefe,
BizBash CEO David Adler,
OpEd News Editor Rob Kall,
Tom Dispatch Editor Tom Engelhart,
Author/Journalist Andy Worthington,
New York Times Editor Ron Lieber,
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner,
Patrick O'Carroll,
"Department of Labor Inspector General Gordon S. Heddell",
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation Director Vincent Snowbarger,
Department of Treasury Inspector General Eric Thorson,
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
date Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 1:31 PM
subject SEC Settles with SEC Whistleblower Gary Aguirre!
mailed-bygmail.com
To All:
This is huge...see below! At least the SEC is acknowledging their mistakes. Gary Agguire was a federal employee who went the MSPB legal route and won. Bradley Birkenfeld wasn't so lucky as a civil employee. Harry Markopolous was, but it took him years to nail Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.
Please keep the legal/political heat on! It's the only way we can collectively nail these corporate white-collar criminals!
Besides the SEC/DOJ purported blind-eyes mentioned in the article below, our association wants to prove the lengths that airline manager's and government will go through in silencing airline pilots who attempt to speak out on safety issues during financially distressful times, but are slam-dunked by the system...their heads squashed like grapes...for speaking out. It is a very dangerous scenario for the unwary traveling public and must be stopped. We are certain that the Colgan Air 3407next-of-kin very much appreciate our efforts in this regard.
I wasn't a federal employee in 2003, but a federally-licensed and medically certificated pilot, so I couldn't go the MSPB legal route. My only recourse in 2003, 2006, and at present was in filing FAA Whistleblower Reports, but have been stonewalled repeatedly by all levels and branches of government, as has Continental whistleblower Newton Dickson and others.
As a life-long pilot, I strongly feel that if we can prove the apparent and alleged SEC/DOJ/DOT-FAA collusion, then we can drag these latter allegations regarding public air transportation safety and security into the public limelight in an effort to prevent another Colgan Air 3407 disaster wherein 50 good people unnecessarily lost their lives because much less experienced airline pilots were suppressed from speaking out on safety issues...at a low-cost air carrier...never mind the alleged pension theft of 150,000 employees and millions bilked from investors and vendors alike at United Airlines and elsewhere!
There are presently many other Sarbanes-Oxley/RICO witnesses coming forth with evidence to SEC Atlanta, but it remains to be seen as to whether or not our Department of Justice will partake in this investigation. To date, the DOJ IG has twice stated that they 'do not have jurisdiction in matters such as these'.
Please read these articles for amplification:
Update: SEC IG looks into United Airlines bankruptcy
UPDATE: FBI, DOJ refuse to investigate charges of judicial corruption
Whistleblowers punished for warning of aviation security lapses
Pilots: United Airlines bankruptcy never should have happened
Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail
UPDATE: DOT IG urged to investigate one of FAA’s top docs
Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
Message to federal employees: Keep your mouth shut
Thank you very much, Washington Examiner Reporter Barbara Hollingsworth! ABC Anna Schecter and CBS Pia Malbran...where are you? Whistleblower Protection Senators Leahy, Grassley, and McCaskill, we need your support and protection!
President Obama and Attorney General Holder please keep your 2008 campaign promises concerning enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers!
In the meantime, judicial whistleblower Michael Lynch...one of our key Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers, is scheduled to enter dangerous Cook County jail on July 26th for 13 days for attempting to expose judicial corruption, but none of the mainstream media outlets are reporting on this flagrant violation of witness protection afforded under SOX that was requested in consonance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 1107 of this letter sent to then SEC Chairman Christopher Cox on October 18, 2007. Why not?
Please read on below the article published by the Government Accountability Project Office in Washington DC for additional information. Do you feel we need much stronger whistleblower protection legislation in place that includes jury trials for those willing to step forth with evidence/information? I do...so too does Michael Lynch, Newton Dickson, Gabe Bruno, Robert MacLean, Bogdan Dzakovic, and so many other honest citizen patriots in this country.
It is incumbent upon each of us to demand that congress immediately pass this much-needed legislation...or provide 'We the People' the reason(s) why they feel that this is not necessary.
Many Thanks!
SEC Settles with Aguirre
(Washington, D.C.) – In what may be the largest settlement of its kind, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to pay $755,000 to settle the wrongful termination claim of Gary J. Aguirre, the attorney who headed the SEC’s insider trading investigation of Pequot Capital Management until his firing in September 2005.
A judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the federal agency with jurisdiction over Aguirre’s termination claim, issued an order today finalizing the settlement. The settlement sum equals Aguirre’s pay for four years and ten months (the elapsed period since his September 2005 discharge), plus his attorneys’ fees. Aguirre agreed to dismiss two related cases against the SEC.
Government Accountability Project Legal Director Tom Devine stated “Unfortunately, this large settlement is the exception that proves the rule. Until Congress provides real protections for financial regulatory employees such as Aguirre, existing law will remain the best excuse for government regulators to turn a blind eye.”
The SEC’s settlement with Aguirre comes one month after the SEC filed insider trading charges against Pequot, its founder, Arthur Samberg, and David Zilkha, a former Pequot employee, based on facts uncovered by Aguirre. Pequot and Samberg paid the SEC $28 million to settle the charges against them. The case against Zilkha continues.
In August 2007, two Senate committees published a scathing 108-page report criticizing the SEC’s decision to fire Aguirre and close the Pequot investigation, which included Pequot’s suspected insider trading in securities of 20 publics companies.
The Senate report chronicles Aguirre’s promising career at the SEC, including management’s decision to give him a two-step pay raise at the end of his first year for “consistently [going] the extra mile, and then some.”
But the praise vanished when Aguirre tried to subpoena an elite Wall Street banker, John Mack. His supervisors blocked the subpoena, telling Aguirre that Mack had “juice” and “political clout.”
Aguirre’s July 27, 2005, email to his supervisors explained why the Mack subpoena was essential and expressed concern that “treating Mack differently is [not] consistent with the Commission’s mission.” The Senate Report tells what happened next: “Just days after Aguirre sent an e-mail to Associate Director Paul Berger detailing his allegations, his supervisors prepared a negative re-evaluation outside the SEC’s ordinary performance appraisal process.”
One month later, the SEC fired him without warning. The Senate report concluded that Aguirre’s “termination appears to be merely the culmination of the process of reprisal that began with the August 1 re-evaluation.”
Approximately one year after the Senate report, SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz delivered his own report on Aguirre’s firing to then-SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Kotz recommended that Aguirre’s supervisors be disciplined. To date, neither the current SEC Chairman, Mary Schapiro, nor Cox, has done so.
The Pequot investigation appeared to have run its course when the SEC released its “Case Closing Report” in December 2006, explaining its decision to close the entire investigation, including Pequot’s trading in Microsoft options, without filing charges.
But Aguirre did not stop his Pequot investigation. He continued to collect and piece together the evidence that Samberg had used illegal tips to trade options on Microsoft stock. In April 2008, Aguirre obtained a court order forcing the SEC, over its objection, to turn over to him key records of its Pequot investigation.
In late 2008, Aguirre uncovered the last pieces of evidence necessary to prove an insider trading charge against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. On January 2, 2009, Aguirre sent a letter to SEC Chairman Cox enclosing the new evidence.
Aguirre’s 16-page letter explained how this new evidence, when combined with the evidence uncovered by him in 2005, proved that Samberg had used illegal tips in directing trades in Microsoft options, generating $14.2 million in profits to Pequot hedge funds under his management. But still the SEC would not file a case.
On May 26, 2010, Aguirre filed papers in his FOIA case seeking an order directing the SEC to release additional Pequot records to him. He argued the SEC had to turn over the records under FOIA, because it had filed no case against Pequot or anyone else. Early the next morning, the SEC filed charges against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. The allegations closely track the facts stated in Aguirre’s January 2, 2009 letter.
Asked how he feels about the settlement, Aguirre replied, “I think it’s fair to the public that the SEC pays for my work over the past four years and ten months, since it generated $28 million to the U.S. Treasury. But it’s a shame the team I worked with at the SEC did not get to complete the Pequot investigation. The filing of the case in 2005 or 2006, before the financial crisis, would have been exactly what Wall Street elite needed to hear at the perfect moment: the SEC goes after big fish too.”
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Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead ~
"Patriotism and Freedom of Speech in Action"
To All:
This is huge...see below! At least the SEC is acknowledging their mistakes. Gary Agguire was a federal employee who went the MSPB legal route and won. Bradley Birkenfeld wasn't so lucky as a civil employee. Harry Markopolous was, but it took him years to nail Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.
Please keep the legal/political heat on! It's the only way we can collectively nail these corporate white-collar criminals!
Besides the SEC/DOJ purported blind-eyes mentioned in the article below, our association wants to prove the lengths that airline manager's and government will go through in silencing airline pilots who attempt to speak out on safety issues during financially distressful times, but are slam-dunked by the system...their heads squashed like grapes...for speaking out. It is a very dangerous scenario for the unwary traveling public and must be stopped. We are certain that the Colgan Air 3407next-of-kin very much appreciate our efforts in this regard.
I wasn't a federal employee in 2003, but a federally-licensed and medically certificated pilot, so I couldn't go the MSPB legal route. My only recourse in 2003, 2006, and at present was in filing FAA Whistleblower Reports, but have been stonewalled repeatedly by all levels and branches of government, as has Continental whistleblower Newton Dickson and others.
As a life-long pilot, I strongly feel that if we can prove the apparent and alleged SEC/DOJ/DOT-FAA collusion, then we can drag these latter allegations regarding public air transportation safety and security into the public limelight in an effort to prevent another Colgan Air 3407 disaster wherein 50 good people unnecessarily lost their lives because much less experienced airline pilots were suppressed from speaking out on safety issues...at a low-cost air carrier...never mind the alleged pension theft of 150,000 employees and millions bilked from investors and vendors alike at United Airlines and elsewhere!
There are presently many other Sarbanes-Oxley/RICO witnesses coming forth with evidence to SEC Atlanta, but it remains to be seen as to whether or not our Department of Justice will partake in this investigation. To date, the DOJ IG has twice stated that they 'do not have jurisdiction in matters such as these'.
Please read these articles for amplification:
Update: SEC IG looks into United Airlines bankruptcy
UPDATE: FBI, DOJ refuse to investigate charges of judicial corruption
Whistleblowers punished for warning of aviation security lapses
Pilots: United Airlines bankruptcy never should have happened
Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail
UPDATE: DOT IG urged to investigate one of FAA’s top docs
Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
Message to federal employees: Keep your mouth shut
Thank you very much, Washington Examiner Reporter Barbara Hollingsworth! ABC Anna Schecter and CBS Pia Malbran...where are you? Whistleblower Protection Senators Leahy, Grassley, and McCaskill, we need your support and protection!
President Obama and Attorney General Holder please keep your 2008 campaign promises concerning enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers!
In the meantime, judicial whistleblower Michael Lynch...one of our key Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers, is scheduled to enter dangerous Cook County jail on July 26th for 13 days for attempting to expose judicial corruption, but none of the mainstream media outlets are reporting on this flagrant violation of witness protection afforded under SOX that was requested in consonance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 1107 of this letter sent to then SEC Chairman Christopher Cox on October 18, 2007. Why not?
Please read on below the article published by the Government Accountability Project Office in Washington DC for additional information. Do you feel we need much stronger whistleblower protection legislation in place that includes jury trials for those willing to step forth with evidence/information? I do...so too does Michael Lynch, Newton Dickson, Gabe Bruno, Robert MacLean, Bogdan Dzakovic, and so many other honest citizen patriots in this country.
It is incumbent upon each of us to demand that congress immediately pass this much-needed legislation...or provide 'We the People' the reason(s) why they feel that this is not necessary.
Many Thanks!
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead ~
SEC Settles with Aguirre
(Washington, D.C.) – In what may be the largest settlement of its kind, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to pay $755,000 to settle the wrongful termination claim of Gary J. Aguirre, the attorney who headed the SEC’s insider trading investigation of Pequot Capital Management until his firing in September 2005.
A judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the federal agency with jurisdiction over Aguirre’s termination claim, issued an order today finalizing the settlement. The settlement sum equals Aguirre’s pay for four years and ten months (the elapsed period since his September 2005 discharge), plus his attorneys’ fees. Aguirre agreed to dismiss two related cases against the SEC.
Government Accountability Project Legal Director Tom Devine stated “Unfortunately, this large settlement is the exception that proves the rule. Until Congress provides real protections for financial regulatory employees such as Aguirre, existing law will remain the best excuse for government regulators to turn a blind eye.”
The SEC’s settlement with Aguirre comes one month after the SEC filed insider trading charges against Pequot, its founder, Arthur Samberg, and David Zilkha, a former Pequot employee, based on facts uncovered by Aguirre. Pequot and Samberg paid the SEC $28 million to settle the charges against them. The case against Zilkha continues.
In August 2007, two Senate committees published a scathing 108-page report criticizing the SEC’s decision to fire Aguirre and close the Pequot investigation, which included Pequot’s suspected insider trading in securities of 20 publics companies.
The Senate report chronicles Aguirre’s promising career at the SEC, including management’s decision to give him a two-step pay raise at the end of his first year for “consistently [going] the extra mile, and then some.”
But the praise vanished when Aguirre tried to subpoena an elite Wall Street banker, John Mack. His supervisors blocked the subpoena, telling Aguirre that Mack had “juice” and “political clout.”
Aguirre’s July 27, 2005, email to his supervisors explained why the Mack subpoena was essential and expressed concern that “treating Mack differently is [not] consistent with the Commission’s mission.” The Senate Report tells what happened next: “Just days after Aguirre sent an e-mail to Associate Director Paul Berger detailing his allegations, his supervisors prepared a negative re-evaluation outside the SEC’s ordinary performance appraisal process.”
One month later, the SEC fired him without warning. The Senate report concluded that Aguirre’s “termination appears to be merely the culmination of the process of reprisal that began with the August 1 re-evaluation.”
Approximately one year after the Senate report, SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz delivered his own report on Aguirre’s firing to then-SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Kotz recommended that Aguirre’s supervisors be disciplined. To date, neither the current SEC Chairman, Mary Schapiro, nor Cox, has done so.
The Pequot investigation appeared to have run its course when the SEC released its “Case Closing Report” in December 2006, explaining its decision to close the entire investigation, including Pequot’s trading in Microsoft options, without filing charges.
But Aguirre did not stop his Pequot investigation. He continued to collect and piece together the evidence that Samberg had used illegal tips to trade options on Microsoft stock. In April 2008, Aguirre obtained a court order forcing the SEC, over its objection, to turn over to him key records of its Pequot investigation.
In late 2008, Aguirre uncovered the last pieces of evidence necessary to prove an insider trading charge against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. On January 2, 2009, Aguirre sent a letter to SEC Chairman Cox enclosing the new evidence.
Aguirre’s 16-page letter explained how this new evidence, when combined with the evidence uncovered by him in 2005, proved that Samberg had used illegal tips in directing trades in Microsoft options, generating $14.2 million in profits to Pequot hedge funds under his management. But still the SEC would not file a case.
On May 26, 2010, Aguirre filed papers in his FOIA case seeking an order directing the SEC to release additional Pequot records to him. He argued the SEC had to turn over the records under FOIA, because it had filed no case against Pequot or anyone else. Early the next morning, the SEC filed charges against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. The allegations closely track the facts stated in Aguirre’s January 2, 2009 letter.
Asked how he feels about the settlement, Aguirre replied, “I think it’s fair to the public that the SEC pays for my work over the past four years and ten months, since it generated $28 million to the U.S. Treasury. But it’s a shame the team I worked with at the SEC did not get to complete the Pequot investigation. The filing of the case in 2005 or 2006, before the financial crisis, would have been exactly what Wall Street elite needed to hear at the perfect moment: the SEC goes after big fish too.”
The email below was transmitted with the identical hyper-linked pages as above. We are hopeful of a government response with enhanced legal and physical protection for federal whistleblowers and key witnesses in this case from OUR government.
from Dan Hanley
to SEC ATL ATTY Debbie Hampton
Washington Examiner Reporter Barbara Hollingsworth
Louis Markopolous
Federal Judicial Whistleblower Michael Lynch
TSA Whistleblower Bogdan Dzakovic
Hollywood Fleur De Lis Studios Film Producer/Director BJ Davis
Hollywood Fleur De Lis Studios Screenplay WriterJulia Davis
David Gibbons
Radio Host David Gibbons and Producer Jeff Spinard
"White Collar Corruption Executive Director Dr. Jan Schwartz, PhD"
POPULAR Attorney Zena Crenshaw
Government Accountability Project Legal Director AttorneyTom Devine
Government Accountability Project Shanna Devine
National Whistleblower Center Senior Counsel Dave Colapinto
National Whistleblower Center Jane Turner
Medical Whistleblower Executive Director Janet Parker
Project on Government Oversight Keith Rutter
"Judicial Whistleblower Dr.Sheila Mannix, PhD"
Buffalo News DC Bureau Chief Jerry Zremski
Rodney Stich
RodneyStichWhistleblower
FAA Whistleblowers Alliance Executive Director Gabe Bruno
ABC National Reporter Anna Schecter
CBS National News Producer Pia Malbran
FAA Whistleblower Rich Wyeroski
FAA Air Traffic Controller Whistleblower Anne Whiteman
Fired Federal Air Marshal Whistleblower Robert Maclean
Retaliated Federal Air Marshal Whistleblower Craig Sawyer
CBS National News Tyler Jahn
Bloomberg News Holly Rosenkrantz
"\"Plane Business\" Editor Holly Hegeman"
Continental Airlines Pilot Whistleblower Newton Dickson
Delta Airlines Whistleblower Captain Wayne Witter
"SafeSkies.ca Canadian Kirsten Stevens"
Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform Executive Director David Hutton
"Aerotoxic.org Executive Director Captain John Hoyte"
New York Times Aviation Reporter Matthew Wald
Investigative Journalist/Pulitzer Prize Winner David Cay Johnston
Huffington Post Dan Froomkin
New York Times DOJ Reporter Eric Lichtblau
Mary Williams-Walsh
"U.S. Deputy Marshal Whistleblower Matthew Fogg"
Captain Dan Hanley - National Public Spokesperson - Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
cc Securities and Exchange Commission Inspector General David Kotz
Securities and Exchange Commissioner Mary Shapiro
Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel III
FAA Adminstrator Randy Babbitt
Colgan Air 3407 Next-of-Kin Congressional Hearing Spokesperson Scott Maurer
"Ms. Heather Albert - Director of FAA Complaint Analysis - Department of Transportation Inspector General"
Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder
FBI Director Robert Mueller
Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant
US District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
Senator Leahy Staffer Lydia Griggsby
Senator Byron Dorgan
Senator Dorgan Staffer Rich Swayze
Congressman Jerry Costello
ALPA National President Captain John Prater
Former Department of Transportation Inspector General Attorney Mary Schiavo
Former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta
Senator Claire McCaskill
Senator Levin Subcommittee on Investigations
Senator Charles Grassley
Senator Daniel Akaka
Senator Johnny Isakson
Senator Saxby Chambliss
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland
Senator Charles Grassley
CBS 60 Minutes <60m@cbsnews.com>,
CBS Chicago News Michelle Youngerman
NBC National News Producer Anita McQuillan
Chicago Tribune Reporter John Kass
Chicago Tribune Columnist Clarence Page
Chicago Sun-Times David Roeder
Newsweek Howard Fineman
Newsweek Richard Wollfe
Salon Media Group Glen Greenwald
Salon Media Group Joan Walsh
"GritTV.org Laura Flanders"
Media Matters David Brock
Washington Post Caroline Little
Washington Post Ed O'Keefe
BizBash CEO David Adler
OpEd News Editor Rob Kall
Tom Dispatch Editor Tom Engelhart
Author/Journalist Andy Worthington
New York Times Editor Ron Lieber
Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner
Patrick O'Carroll
"Department of Labor Inspector General Gordon S. Heddell"
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation Director Vincent Snowbarger
Department of Treasury Inspector General Eric Thorson
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
date Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 1:31 PM
subject SEC Settles with SEC Whistleblower Gary Aguirre!
mailed-bygmail.com
To All:
This is huge...see below! At least the SEC is acknowledging their mistakes. Gary Agguire was a federal employee who went the MSPB legal route and won. Bradley Birkenfeld wasn't so lucky as a civil employee. Harry Markopolous was, but it took him years to nail Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.
Please keep the legal/political heat on! It's the only way we can collectively nail these corporate white-collar criminals!
Besides the SEC/DOJ purported blind-eyes mentioned in the article below, our association wants to prove the lengths that airline manager's and government will go through in silencing airline pilots who attempt to speak out on safety issues during financially distressful times, but are slam-dunked by the system...their heads squashed like grapes...for speaking out. It is a very dangerous scenario for the unwary traveling public and must be stopped. We are certain that the Colgan Air 3407next-of-kin very much appreciate our efforts in this regard.
I wasn't a federal employee in 2003, but a federally-licensed and medically certificated pilot, so I couldn't go the MSPB legal route. My only recourse in 2003, 2006, and at present was in filing FAA Whistleblower Reports, but have been stonewalled repeatedly by all levels and branches of government, as has Continental whistleblower Newton Dickson and others.
As a life-long pilot, I strongly feel that if we can prove the apparent and alleged SEC/DOJ/DOT-FAA collusion, then we can drag these latter allegations regarding public air transportation safety and security into the public limelight in an effort to prevent another Colgan Air 3407 disaster wherein 50 good people unnecessarily lost their lives because much less experienced airline pilots were suppressed from speaking out on safety issues...at a low-cost air carrier...never mind the alleged pension theft of 150,000 employees and millions bilked from investors and vendors alike at United Airlines and elsewhere!
There are presently many other Sarbanes-Oxley/RICO witnesses coming forth with evidence to SEC Atlanta, but it remains to be seen as to whether or not our Department of Justice will partake in this investigation. To date, the DOJ IG has twice stated that they 'do not have jurisdiction in matters such as these'.
Please read these articles for amplification:
Update: SEC IG looks into United Airlines bankruptcy
UPDATE: FBI, DOJ refuse to investigate charges of judicial corruption
Whistleblowers punished for warning of aviation security lapses
Pilots: United Airlines bankruptcy never should have happened
Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail
UPDATE: DOT IG urged to investigate one of FAA’s top docs
Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
Message to federal employees: Keep your mouth shut
Thank you very much, Washington Examiner Reporter Barbara Hollingsworth! ABC Anna Schecter and CBS Pia Malbran...where are you? Whistleblower Protection Senators Leahy, Grassley, and McCaskill, we need your support and protection!
President Obama and Attorney General Holder please keep your 2008 campaign promises concerning enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers!
In the meantime, judicial whistleblower Michael Lynch...one of our key Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers, is scheduled to enter dangerous Cook County jail on July 26th for 13 days for attempting to expose judicial corruption, but none of the mainstream media outlets are reporting on this flagrant violation of witness protection afforded under SOX that was requested in consonance with Sarbanes-Oxley Section 1107 of this letter sent to then SEC Chairman Christopher Cox on October 18, 2007. Why not?
Please read on below the article published by the Government Accountability Project Office in Washington DC for additional information. Do you feel we need much stronger whistleblower protection legislation in place that includes jury trials for those willing to step forth with evidence/information? I do...so too does Michael Lynch, Newton Dickson, Gabe Bruno, Robert MacLean, Bogdan Dzakovic, and so many other honest citizen patriots in this country.
It is incumbent upon each of us to demand that congress immediately pass this much-needed legislation...or provide 'We the People' the reason(s) why they feel that this is not necessary.
Many Thanks!
SEC Settles with Aguirre
(Washington, D.C.) – In what may be the largest settlement of its kind, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has agreed to pay $755,000 to settle the wrongful termination claim of Gary J. Aguirre, the attorney who headed the SEC’s insider trading investigation of Pequot Capital Management until his firing in September 2005.
A judge with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the federal agency with jurisdiction over Aguirre’s termination claim, issued an order today finalizing the settlement. The settlement sum equals Aguirre’s pay for four years and ten months (the elapsed period since his September 2005 discharge), plus his attorneys’ fees. Aguirre agreed to dismiss two related cases against the SEC.
Government Accountability Project Legal Director Tom Devine stated “Unfortunately, this large settlement is the exception that proves the rule. Until Congress provides real protections for financial regulatory employees such as Aguirre, existing law will remain the best excuse for government regulators to turn a blind eye.”
The SEC’s settlement with Aguirre comes one month after the SEC filed insider trading charges against Pequot, its founder, Arthur Samberg, and David Zilkha, a former Pequot employee, based on facts uncovered by Aguirre. Pequot and Samberg paid the SEC $28 million to settle the charges against them. The case against Zilkha continues.
In August 2007, two Senate committees published a scathing 108-page report criticizing the SEC’s decision to fire Aguirre and close the Pequot investigation, which included Pequot’s suspected insider trading in securities of 20 publics companies.
The Senate report chronicles Aguirre’s promising career at the SEC, including management’s decision to give him a two-step pay raise at the end of his first year for “consistently [going] the extra mile, and then some.”
But the praise vanished when Aguirre tried to subpoena an elite Wall Street banker, John Mack. His supervisors blocked the subpoena, telling Aguirre that Mack had “juice” and “political clout.”
Aguirre’s July 27, 2005, email to his supervisors explained why the Mack subpoena was essential and expressed concern that “treating Mack differently is [not] consistent with the Commission’s mission.” The Senate Report tells what happened next: “Just days after Aguirre sent an e-mail to Associate Director Paul Berger detailing his allegations, his supervisors prepared a negative re-evaluation outside the SEC’s ordinary performance appraisal process.”
One month later, the SEC fired him without warning. The Senate report concluded that Aguirre’s “termination appears to be merely the culmination of the process of reprisal that began with the August 1 re-evaluation.”
Approximately one year after the Senate report, SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz delivered his own report on Aguirre’s firing to then-SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Kotz recommended that Aguirre’s supervisors be disciplined. To date, neither the current SEC Chairman, Mary Schapiro, nor Cox, has done so.
The Pequot investigation appeared to have run its course when the SEC released its “Case Closing Report” in December 2006, explaining its decision to close the entire investigation, including Pequot’s trading in Microsoft options, without filing charges.
But Aguirre did not stop his Pequot investigation. He continued to collect and piece together the evidence that Samberg had used illegal tips to trade options on Microsoft stock. In April 2008, Aguirre obtained a court order forcing the SEC, over its objection, to turn over to him key records of its Pequot investigation.
In late 2008, Aguirre uncovered the last pieces of evidence necessary to prove an insider trading charge against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. On January 2, 2009, Aguirre sent a letter to SEC Chairman Cox enclosing the new evidence.
Aguirre’s 16-page letter explained how this new evidence, when combined with the evidence uncovered by him in 2005, proved that Samberg had used illegal tips in directing trades in Microsoft options, generating $14.2 million in profits to Pequot hedge funds under his management. But still the SEC would not file a case.
On May 26, 2010, Aguirre filed papers in his FOIA case seeking an order directing the SEC to release additional Pequot records to him. He argued the SEC had to turn over the records under FOIA, because it had filed no case against Pequot or anyone else. Early the next morning, the SEC filed charges against Pequot, Samberg, and Zilkha. The allegations closely track the facts stated in Aguirre’s January 2, 2009 letter.
Asked how he feels about the settlement, Aguirre replied, “I think it’s fair to the public that the SEC pays for my work over the past four years and ten months, since it generated $28 million to the U.S. Treasury. But it’s a shame the team I worked with at the SEC did not get to complete the Pequot investigation. The filing of the case in 2005 or 2006, before the financial crisis, would have been exactly what Wall Street elite needed to hear at the perfect moment: the SEC goes after big fish too.”
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Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
"Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead ~
Sarbanes-Oxley Judicial Whistleblower Michael Lynch Is Going To Jail
Sarbanes-Oxley Judicial Whistleblower Michael Lynch Is Going To Jail
UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld is currently serving a 40-month federal prison sentence for his honesty as a federal whistleblower involving U.S. tax cheats who off-shored their wealth in UBS accounts, while paying no taxes. The U.S. Department of Justice entered into a ’deferred prosecution agreement’ with UBS that protected over 10,000 of these tax cheats, whilst exonerating the white-collar criminals who perpetrated these federal crimes.
On March 4, 2009, internationally renown Los Angeles attorney Richard Fine, was charged with “contempt of court” and “moral turpitude,” disbarred by California’s Supreme Court and jailed by Superior Court Judge David Yaffe “in retaliation for bringing the cases and exposing the unconstitutional payments,” once later held to be unconstitutional. Fine’s case is currently before the US Supreme Court.
On July 26, 2010, United Airlines Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower Michael Lynch will be incarcerated in Chicago’s Cook County jail to serve the remainder of his 60-day sentence handed down on October 13, 2006 by former Judge Paddy McNamara for ’contempt of court’ without due process of law being served in this case.
Mr. Lynch alleged judicial corruption during the October 13th hearing, which purportedly implicated the sitting Judge McNamara. Mr. Lynch never was granted a separate sentencing hearing, as mandated by law, but was marched directly from the court room by the bailiff to commence serving this sentence. By law, due to purported conflicting interests presented during this hearing, Judge McNamara perhaps should have recused herself. Instead, she retired from the bench to Florida while Mr. Lynch served the first several days of his sentence until released on appeal by the court.
Cook County jail was under investigation in 2008 by District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and the Office of the Chicago FBI as one of the most corrupt and dangerous correctional institutions in the country.
In spite of the fact that Mr. Lynch serves as a key witness as a Sarbanes-Oxley judicial corruption whistleblower in the United Airlines bankruptcy currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which should have provided him with witness protection under federal law, the Department of Justice and their congressional oversight committees in the House and the Senate, consistently refuse to investigate his allegations of judicial misconduct involving the largest airline bankruptcy and pension termination in the history of the United States.
Mr. Lynch is currently in contact with Ms. Debbie Hampton, a senior attorney in the Atlanta office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is currently overseeing the United Airlines investigation, as well as numerous print, radio, and TV investigative journalist reporting on this case. The Department of Justice has been apprised of these issues since late 2006, as has the President of the United States, but have not acted to legally and politically intercede on behalf of Mr. Lynch and his legal team in Chicago. Why?
In a legally parallel case, United Airlines federal bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff refused to recuse himself in a case involving Mr. Lynch over similar issues concerning a conflict of interest and issues of alleged judicial corruption. Why?
The legal offices of the Government Accountability Project, the National Whistleblower Center, the Project on Government Oversight, POPULAR, and OAK, as well as many other white-collar crime and national judicial watch groups have been apprised of this case, as have the tens-of-thousand global members of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association. Mr. Lynch will appear in the very near future as a guest on international radio and TV to air his grievances for the court of public opinion to judge.
Not unlike now indicted former Governor Rod Blagojevich, who has employed the media in attempts to sway public opinion, Mr. Lynch and his legal team feel this purported unjust incarceration for honest whistleblower testimony presented before the court should be publicly reviewed on the global stage.
Our association has learned of a major forthcoming civil suit that perhaps will further expose and support the allegations currently under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Transportation Inspector General’s office. If successful, this suit will help to save the American tax-payer billions in lost revenue, while further amplifying the need for strengthening today’s almost meaningless weak federal whistleblower laws, and in particular, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 spared of the legal axe by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2010.
In late 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission ignored our petition to investigate these same allegations, while denying witness protection for key informants in this case. In late 2009, Securities and Exchange Commission Inspector General H. David Kotz acknowledged in a letter this remission in their oversight responsibilities, which led to the current SEC investigation in Atlanta.
It should be noted in the 2007 letter to then SEC Commissioner Christopher Cox, witness protection was requested for Mr. Lynch and his family. To date, this petition to both the SEC and DOJ has been ignored. Instead, Mr. Lynch is presently at grave risk on July 26th while being incarcerated yet another time in one of the nation’s most dangerous correctional facilities interned with the general criminal populace without added physical protection, as provided by SOX law. Why?
In 2008, President Obama campaigned on a promise of a greater openness in government with enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers. As an Illinois senator, he was apprised in November 2006 of the plight of Mr. Lynch as such and yet failed to respond to our petition for political intercession based on congressional jurisdiction issues at the time.
Should physical harm befall Mr. Lynch while he is incarcerated in Cook County jail this month, it will send a most chilling signal to any other would-be Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower in the country during a time of economic peril, as has the example set by the wrongful incarceration of UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld and whistleblower attorney Richard Fine.
With only a 2% probability of success for federal whistleblowers in this country, combined with the advent of ’deferred prosecution agreements’ and the purported wrongful incarceration of honest whistleblowers, it’s of little wonder why our country is experiencing the rampant criminal activity of white-collar criminals who are robbing the American tax-payer blind. They KNOW they can get away with it.
The physical protection of Michael Lynch while in Cook County jail is in the hands of the President, the Department of Justice, and key congressional committee oversight chairmen. Should harm come to Mr. Lynch whilst incarcerated, the American citizenry must demand that these offices respond to their failure to protect a key Sarbanes-Oxley federal witness and patriot who is acting in the public interest in potentially saving ’We the People’ billions in tax-savings.
Mr. Birkenfeld and Mr. Fine are presently asking our help while in jail.
Had enough yet?
UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld is currently serving a 40-month federal prison sentence for his honesty as a federal whistleblower involving U.S. tax cheats who off-shored their wealth in UBS accounts, while paying no taxes. The U.S. Department of Justice entered into a ’deferred prosecution agreement’ with UBS that protected over 10,000 of these tax cheats, whilst exonerating the white-collar criminals who perpetrated these federal crimes.
Our Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association website is currently being read/downloaded in over 100 countries around the world. Please visit this page of our site and it with our global friends.
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
Never Forget!
UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld is currently serving a 40-month federal prison sentence for his honesty as a federal whistleblower involving U.S. tax cheats who off-shored their wealth in UBS accounts, while paying no taxes. The U.S. Department of Justice entered into a ’deferred prosecution agreement’ with UBS that protected over 10,000 of these tax cheats, whilst exonerating the white-collar criminals who perpetrated these federal crimes.
On March 4, 2009, internationally renown Los Angeles attorney Richard Fine, was charged with “contempt of court” and “moral turpitude,” disbarred by California’s Supreme Court and jailed by Superior Court Judge David Yaffe “in retaliation for bringing the cases and exposing the unconstitutional payments,” once later held to be unconstitutional. Fine’s case is currently before the US Supreme Court.
On July 26, 2010, United Airlines Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower Michael Lynch will be incarcerated in Chicago’s Cook County jail to serve the remainder of his 60-day sentence handed down on October 13, 2006 by former Judge Paddy McNamara for ’contempt of court’ without due process of law being served in this case.
Mr. Lynch alleged judicial corruption during the October 13th hearing, which purportedly implicated the sitting Judge McNamara. Mr. Lynch never was granted a separate sentencing hearing, as mandated by law, but was marched directly from the court room by the bailiff to commence serving this sentence. By law, due to purported conflicting interests presented during this hearing, Judge McNamara perhaps should have recused herself. Instead, she retired from the bench to Florida while Mr. Lynch served the first several days of his sentence until released on appeal by the court.
Cook County jail was under investigation in 2008 by District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and the Office of the Chicago FBI as one of the most corrupt and dangerous correctional institutions in the country.
In spite of the fact that Mr. Lynch serves as a key witness as a Sarbanes-Oxley judicial corruption whistleblower in the United Airlines bankruptcy currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which should have provided him with witness protection under federal law, the Department of Justice and their congressional oversight committees in the House and the Senate, consistently refuse to investigate his allegations of judicial misconduct involving the largest airline bankruptcy and pension termination in the history of the United States.
Mr. Lynch is currently in contact with Ms. Debbie Hampton, a senior attorney in the Atlanta office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who is currently overseeing the United Airlines investigation, as well as numerous print, radio, and TV investigative journalist reporting on this case. The Department of Justice has been apprised of these issues since late 2006, as has the President of the United States, but have not acted to legally and politically intercede on behalf of Mr. Lynch and his legal team in Chicago. Why?
In a legally parallel case, United Airlines federal bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff refused to recuse himself in a case involving Mr. Lynch over similar issues concerning a conflict of interest and issues of alleged judicial corruption. Why?
The legal offices of the Government Accountability Project, the National Whistleblower Center, the Project on Government Oversight, POPULAR, and OAK, as well as many other white-collar crime and national judicial watch groups have been apprised of this case, as have the tens-of-thousand global members of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association. Mr. Lynch will appear in the very near future as a guest on international radio and TV to air his grievances for the court of public opinion to judge.
Not unlike now indicted former Governor Rod Blagojevich, who has employed the media in attempts to sway public opinion, Mr. Lynch and his legal team feel this purported unjust incarceration for honest whistleblower testimony presented before the court should be publicly reviewed on the global stage.
Our association has learned of a major forthcoming civil suit that perhaps will further expose and support the allegations currently under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Transportation Inspector General’s office. If successful, this suit will help to save the American tax-payer billions in lost revenue, while further amplifying the need for strengthening today’s almost meaningless weak federal whistleblower laws, and in particular, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 spared of the legal axe by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30, 2010.
In late 2007, the Securities and Exchange Commission ignored our petition to investigate these same allegations, while denying witness protection for key informants in this case. In late 2009, Securities and Exchange Commission Inspector General H. David Kotz acknowledged in a letter this remission in their oversight responsibilities, which led to the current SEC investigation in Atlanta.
It should be noted in the 2007 letter to then SEC Commissioner Christopher Cox, witness protection was requested for Mr. Lynch and his family. To date, this petition to both the SEC and DOJ has been ignored. Instead, Mr. Lynch is presently at grave risk on July 26th while being incarcerated yet another time in one of the nation’s most dangerous correctional facilities interned with the general criminal populace without added physical protection, as provided by SOX law. Why?
In 2008, President Obama campaigned on a promise of a greater openness in government with enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers. As an Illinois senator, he was apprised in November 2006 of the plight of Mr. Lynch as such and yet failed to respond to our petition for political intercession based on congressional jurisdiction issues at the time.
Should physical harm befall Mr. Lynch while he is incarcerated in Cook County jail this month, it will send a most chilling signal to any other would-be Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower in the country during a time of economic peril, as has the example set by the wrongful incarceration of UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld and whistleblower attorney Richard Fine.
With only a 2% probability of success for federal whistleblowers in this country, combined with the advent of ’deferred prosecution agreements’ and the purported wrongful incarceration of honest whistleblowers, it’s of little wonder why our country is experiencing the rampant criminal activity of white-collar criminals who are robbing the American tax-payer blind. They KNOW they can get away with it.
The physical protection of Michael Lynch while in Cook County jail is in the hands of the President, the Department of Justice, and key congressional committee oversight chairmen. Should harm come to Mr. Lynch whilst incarcerated, the American citizenry must demand that these offices respond to their failure to protect a key Sarbanes-Oxley federal witness and patriot who is acting in the public interest in potentially saving ’We the People’ billions in tax-savings.
Mr. Birkenfeld and Mr. Fine are presently asking our help while in jail.
Had enough yet?
UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld is currently serving a 40-month federal prison sentence for his honesty as a federal whistleblower involving U.S. tax cheats who off-shored their wealth in UBS accounts, while paying no taxes. The U.S. Department of Justice entered into a ’deferred prosecution agreement’ with UBS that protected over 10,000 of these tax cheats, whilst exonerating the white-collar criminals who perpetrated these federal crimes.
Our Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association website is currently being read/downloaded in over 100 countries around the world. Please visit this page of our site and it with our global friends.
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
Never Forget!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association Response to United ALPA Letter of June 17th
The Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association is in receipt of a letter being circulated amongst United Airlines ALPA pilot membership, which contains some apparent 'facts' by an 'expert' regarding the termination of all defined-benefit pension plans during the United Airlines post-9/11 bankruptcy. After reviewing this correspondence, it is stronly felt by many of our members that enlightenment of this 'expert' is in order.
Firstly, it is wildly bewildering that a staunch union supporter would strongly endorse supposed 'legal actions' taken by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) with United in bankruptcy, during the anti-labor Bush administration years, which totally shredded labor contracts and destroyed the lives of so many honest union retirees through pension termination. Why?
The author of this letter discounts the fact that the PBGC is currently under senate investigation for misdeeds during this time frame, as well as the ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) currently investigating these same allegations. Additionally, this noted expert ignores the potential for possible upcoming litigation in the near future that must be legally addressed by the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice prior to approval of said merger.
While tossing out facts and figures, most of which might be true without consideration of the above, he fails to recognize that allegations currently under review by the SEC if proven true, negates the validity of any comments he has made with regard to pension termination/restoration.
While the United ALPA Master Executive Council may over rule forthcoming union resolutions regarding the requirement that pensions must be restored prior to pilot merger contract agreements, coincident with United CEO Glenn Tilton's recent remarks before Congressman Costello's June 16th congressional committee hearing that no provisions have been made regarding restoration of United pilot retiree and other pension plans, 'no one is above the law' if it is proven in a court of law that pension and/or securities regulations and laws were violated.
Apparently suffering from selective amnesia, while attempting to trivialize the allegation that United Airlines hid the valuable 'Mileage Plus' asset during bankruptcy, this author weakly denigrates our assertions backed by solid evidence and witness testimony that this asset had cash value during bankruptcy, which could have offset the requirement for pension termination.
His suggestion that no credible media outlet has reported on these issues might be true if one is to believe that Motley Fool's Rich Duprey and New York Times Susanna Ray and Hugo Miller are all rookie reporters for useless and unreliable news media sources. The author further ignores the distinct possibility of these issues being reported in the near future via major reputable foreign media outlets around the world.
If the 'Mileage Plus' asset had cash value to be offered immediately upon bankruptcy exit, one must ask on which side of the ledger sheet was this 'asset' posted during bankruptcy? This is one of the key issues under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission that is ripe for litigation in the future.
While tossing out facts and figures with excuses that this entire pension termination process was legitimate, this 'selectively knowledgeable' writer fails to mention that there is no provision within ERISA for a 4047 waiver, which begs for a legal argument in a court of law. If laws and regulations were followed to a 'T', then why has the Department of Labor and PBGC refused to respond for over two years to our Freedom of Information Act requests for answers to the six questions below?
1) Request clarification and legal authority regarding the specific reasons for the ERISA 4047 waiver in light of the weak financial health of the PBGC.
2) Request specific legal clarification and rationale regarding paragraph 13 of the attached legal agreement between United Airlines and the PBGC.
3) Request confirmation that some or all of the original $5.2-billion has been returned to United Airlines with specific dollar figures and financial arrangements made to accommodate said transaction.
4) FOIA requests made indicate that there is no record of an ERISA-mandated pension audit conducted to determine the financial soundness of employee pensions before termination. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
5) There is no record of an ERISA-mandated forensic audit being conducted after the pension terminations. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
6) Information regarding the data used in the formulation of the Gross Average Mortality (GAM), which is employed to assess the financial soundness of pension programs is unavailable. Kindly provide the data used to formulate the GAM.
The SEC has these issues under investigation also.
With regard to allegations concerning the bankruptcy judge, it should be noted that the Department of Justice Inspector General's office has consistently stated that 'this office does not have jurisdiction over matters such as these', while both Senator Leahy and Congressman Conyers continue to ignore the serious allegations leveled by key Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower witness Michael Lynch and his associates. The SEC has been apprised of these matters also with hopes of encouraging the DOJ to join this investigation in the near future.
The author fails to mention that key ALPA leadership officials were invited to join Mr. Lynch and his legal team in Chicago over two years ago to review strong evidence and interview witnesses, but declined the invitation to this meeting.
Finally, the author suggests to ALPA pilot retires that "the time has come - as it eventually does with all life's tragedies - to let go emotionally and move on" while failing to acknowledge that active United pilots received a $550-million bankruptcy exit bonus for agreeing to terminate ALL pension plans on the property on bankruptcy exit. Additionally, the younger pilots are very happy with 9% going into the B-fund and 7% going into the C-fund. With 16% of their gross and maximizing their 401 K contributions, a pilot with 20 years to go is looking at $2 million or more at retirement.
As the old adage states 'what goes around comes around' and the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association membership will continue to observe these pilots repeat the history of the past of 'shared sacrifice' as they are destined to repeat it as the global airline industry consolidation continues.
Aer Lingus is just the tip of the iceberg and most analysts anticipate the future passage of legislation that enables foreign ownership of U.S. carriers and cabotage laws enabling foreign cockpit crews to absorb routes over U.S. airspace once held by their carriers, but relinquished to lower paid cockpit crews. Makes good 'business sense', doesn't it?
Where oh where have the REAL ALPA PILOTS gone? This is the repeated question being asked by retired pilots from days of yore who fought hard for the contracts of the past that were destroyed through acceptance of a 'few pieces of silver' by line pilots today. History is destined to repeat itself.
Firstly, it is wildly bewildering that a staunch union supporter would strongly endorse supposed 'legal actions' taken by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) with United in bankruptcy, during the anti-labor Bush administration years, which totally shredded labor contracts and destroyed the lives of so many honest union retirees through pension termination. Why?
The author of this letter discounts the fact that the PBGC is currently under senate investigation for misdeeds during this time frame, as well as the ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) currently investigating these same allegations. Additionally, this noted expert ignores the potential for possible upcoming litigation in the near future that must be legally addressed by the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice prior to approval of said merger.
While tossing out facts and figures, most of which might be true without consideration of the above, he fails to recognize that allegations currently under review by the SEC if proven true, negates the validity of any comments he has made with regard to pension termination/restoration.
While the United ALPA Master Executive Council may over rule forthcoming union resolutions regarding the requirement that pensions must be restored prior to pilot merger contract agreements, coincident with United CEO Glenn Tilton's recent remarks before Congressman Costello's June 16th congressional committee hearing that no provisions have been made regarding restoration of United pilot retiree and other pension plans, 'no one is above the law' if it is proven in a court of law that pension and/or securities regulations and laws were violated.
Apparently suffering from selective amnesia, while attempting to trivialize the allegation that United Airlines hid the valuable 'Mileage Plus' asset during bankruptcy, this author weakly denigrates our assertions backed by solid evidence and witness testimony that this asset had cash value during bankruptcy, which could have offset the requirement for pension termination.
His suggestion that no credible media outlet has reported on these issues might be true if one is to believe that Motley Fool's Rich Duprey and New York Times Susanna Ray and Hugo Miller are all rookie reporters for useless and unreliable news media sources. The author further ignores the distinct possibility of these issues being reported in the near future via major reputable foreign media outlets around the world.
If the 'Mileage Plus' asset had cash value to be offered immediately upon bankruptcy exit, one must ask on which side of the ledger sheet was this 'asset' posted during bankruptcy? This is one of the key issues under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission that is ripe for litigation in the future.
While tossing out facts and figures with excuses that this entire pension termination process was legitimate, this 'selectively knowledgeable' writer fails to mention that there is no provision within ERISA for a 4047 waiver, which begs for a legal argument in a court of law. If laws and regulations were followed to a 'T', then why has the Department of Labor and PBGC refused to respond for over two years to our Freedom of Information Act requests for answers to the six questions below?
1) Request clarification and legal authority regarding the specific reasons for the ERISA 4047 waiver in light of the weak financial health of the PBGC.
2) Request specific legal clarification and rationale regarding paragraph 13 of the attached legal agreement between United Airlines and the PBGC.
3) Request confirmation that some or all of the original $5.2-billion has been returned to United Airlines with specific dollar figures and financial arrangements made to accommodate said transaction.
4) FOIA requests made indicate that there is no record of an ERISA-mandated pension audit conducted to determine the financial soundness of employee pensions before termination. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
5) There is no record of an ERISA-mandated forensic audit being conducted after the pension terminations. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
6) Information regarding the data used in the formulation of the Gross Average Mortality (GAM), which is employed to assess the financial soundness of pension programs is unavailable. Kindly provide the data used to formulate the GAM.
The SEC has these issues under investigation also.
With regard to allegations concerning the bankruptcy judge, it should be noted that the Department of Justice Inspector General's office has consistently stated that 'this office does not have jurisdiction over matters such as these', while both Senator Leahy and Congressman Conyers continue to ignore the serious allegations leveled by key Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower witness Michael Lynch and his associates. The SEC has been apprised of these matters also with hopes of encouraging the DOJ to join this investigation in the near future.
The author fails to mention that key ALPA leadership officials were invited to join Mr. Lynch and his legal team in Chicago over two years ago to review strong evidence and interview witnesses, but declined the invitation to this meeting.
Finally, the author suggests to ALPA pilot retires that "the time has come - as it eventually does with all life's tragedies - to let go emotionally and move on" while failing to acknowledge that active United pilots received a $550-million bankruptcy exit bonus for agreeing to terminate ALL pension plans on the property on bankruptcy exit. Additionally, the younger pilots are very happy with 9% going into the B-fund and 7% going into the C-fund. With 16% of their gross and maximizing their 401 K contributions, a pilot with 20 years to go is looking at $2 million or more at retirement.
As the old adage states 'what goes around comes around' and the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association membership will continue to observe these pilots repeat the history of the past of 'shared sacrifice' as they are destined to repeat it as the global airline industry consolidation continues.
Aer Lingus is just the tip of the iceberg and most analysts anticipate the future passage of legislation that enables foreign ownership of U.S. carriers and cabotage laws enabling foreign cockpit crews to absorb routes over U.S. airspace once held by their carriers, but relinquished to lower paid cockpit crews. Makes good 'business sense', doesn't it?
Where oh where have the REAL ALPA PILOTS gone? This is the repeated question being asked by retired pilots from days of yore who fought hard for the contracts of the past that were destroyed through acceptance of a 'few pieces of silver' by line pilots today. History is destined to repeat itself.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Barbara Hollingsworth: Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
For our global investigative journalists, please visit this web site for related correspondence and reports linked to this article.
WASHINGTON EXAMINER ARTICLE
Barbara Hollingsworth: Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
May 4, 2010
Now we know why so many Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers and accountants did little or nothing to prevent Wall Street bankers from playing musical chairs with toxic assets, or stop Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford from stealing billions from investors. They were too busy downloading porn on their government computers.
Which also explains why the SEC didn't bother to investigate serious allegations regarding the United Airlines bankruptcy and the largest corporate pension default in U.S. history.
When Chicago Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff declared United bankrupt in 2006, the airline was allowed to dump all its pension liabilities on the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. But retired pilots claim that the airline fraudulently listed its frequent-flier Mileage Plus asset -- worth an estimated $15 billion at the time -- as a liability in documents submitted to the court and the PBGC.
Immediately afterward, James Sprayregan, United's lead bankruptcy attorney, accepted a job at Goldman Sachs -- one of the airline's major creditors. The timing of Sprayregan's move should have at least piqued the interest of SEC regulators. It did not. They were otherwise engaged.
In an Oct. 18, 2007, letter to then-SEC chairman Christopher Cox, which was also sent to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and a host of other federal officials, former United 777 captain Dan Hanley (now the national spokesman for the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association) charged that Goldman Sachs helped United management falsify its financial records so the airline could dump its pension liabilities on taxpayers in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
On Feb. 14, 2008, Hanley called the Chicago office of the FBI to file an official complaint, including a list of evidence and key witnesses. A year later, none of the witnesses had been interviewed by either the FBI or the SEC, so Hanley asked Attorney General Eric Holder to look into the matter. On June 17, 2009, he received an unsigned letter from the DOJ inspector general's office claiming it did not have jurisdiction in the matter.
"United Airlines entered into an unprecedented secretive agreement with the PBGC, which is already near insolvency, in allowing this quasi-governmental agency to assume their massive pension liability in exchange for equity in United Airlines," Hanley charged in an April 28, 2010, letter to President Obama.
In a Nov. 3, 2009, letter to Hanley, SEC Inspector General David Kotz finally admitted that he "did not believe that sufficient action was taken by the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy." Under Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC officials have the power to seek a court order temporarily suspending United management during an investigation. So far, that hasn't happened, even though Hanley publicly accused United Chief Executive Officer Glenn Tilton of misrepresentation while testifying before the Senate Finance Committee.
In fact, United and Continental Airlines' senior management just announced a merger that will make the new airline the largest in the world -- and possibly provide multimillion-dollar bonuses to the same United executives named in Hanley's affidavit.
The Public Company Accounting Board, which was established under Sarbanes Oxley to oversee the auditors of public companies to protect investors, likewise failed to prevent the destruction of billions of dollars worth of employee-owned stock during United's bankruptcy. Nobody's asking why, even though a lot more than a merger is on the line.
When SEC employees finally take a work break from their porn surfing, they should earn their bloated salaries by determining whether Tilton and other United executives listed "Mileage Plus" on the right -- or wrong -- side of the ledger.
This is not rocket science. After three years, SEC's continued stonewalling is obscene.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is the Examiner's local opinion editor.
More from Barbara Hollingsworth
* Sticky-fingers Jimbo Traficant wants his old congressional seat back
* Letters from Readers - May 4, 2010
* Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
* Letters from Readers - May 3, 2010
* Letters from Readers - April 30, 2010
Topics
WASHINGTON EXAMINER ARTICLE
Barbara Hollingsworth: Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
May 4, 2010
Now we know why so many Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers and accountants did little or nothing to prevent Wall Street bankers from playing musical chairs with toxic assets, or stop Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford from stealing billions from investors. They were too busy downloading porn on their government computers.
Which also explains why the SEC didn't bother to investigate serious allegations regarding the United Airlines bankruptcy and the largest corporate pension default in U.S. history.
When Chicago Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff declared United bankrupt in 2006, the airline was allowed to dump all its pension liabilities on the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. But retired pilots claim that the airline fraudulently listed its frequent-flier Mileage Plus asset -- worth an estimated $15 billion at the time -- as a liability in documents submitted to the court and the PBGC.
Immediately afterward, James Sprayregan, United's lead bankruptcy attorney, accepted a job at Goldman Sachs -- one of the airline's major creditors. The timing of Sprayregan's move should have at least piqued the interest of SEC regulators. It did not. They were otherwise engaged.
In an Oct. 18, 2007, letter to then-SEC chairman Christopher Cox, which was also sent to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and a host of other federal officials, former United 777 captain Dan Hanley (now the national spokesman for the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association) charged that Goldman Sachs helped United management falsify its financial records so the airline could dump its pension liabilities on taxpayers in violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
On Feb. 14, 2008, Hanley called the Chicago office of the FBI to file an official complaint, including a list of evidence and key witnesses. A year later, none of the witnesses had been interviewed by either the FBI or the SEC, so Hanley asked Attorney General Eric Holder to look into the matter. On June 17, 2009, he received an unsigned letter from the DOJ inspector general's office claiming it did not have jurisdiction in the matter.
"United Airlines entered into an unprecedented secretive agreement with the PBGC, which is already near insolvency, in allowing this quasi-governmental agency to assume their massive pension liability in exchange for equity in United Airlines," Hanley charged in an April 28, 2010, letter to President Obama.
In a Nov. 3, 2009, letter to Hanley, SEC Inspector General David Kotz finally admitted that he "did not believe that sufficient action was taken by the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy." Under Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC officials have the power to seek a court order temporarily suspending United management during an investigation. So far, that hasn't happened, even though Hanley publicly accused United Chief Executive Officer Glenn Tilton of misrepresentation while testifying before the Senate Finance Committee.
In fact, United and Continental Airlines' senior management just announced a merger that will make the new airline the largest in the world -- and possibly provide multimillion-dollar bonuses to the same United executives named in Hanley's affidavit.
The Public Company Accounting Board, which was established under Sarbanes Oxley to oversee the auditors of public companies to protect investors, likewise failed to prevent the destruction of billions of dollars worth of employee-owned stock during United's bankruptcy. Nobody's asking why, even though a lot more than a merger is on the line.
When SEC employees finally take a work break from their porn surfing, they should earn their bloated salaries by determining whether Tilton and other United executives listed "Mileage Plus" on the right -- or wrong -- side of the ledger.
This is not rocket science. After three years, SEC's continued stonewalling is obscene.
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is the Examiner's local opinion editor.
More from Barbara Hollingsworth
* Sticky-fingers Jimbo Traficant wants his old congressional seat back
* Letters from Readers - May 4, 2010
* Porn-surfing SEC missed investigating United's bankruptcy
* Letters from Readers - May 3, 2010
* Letters from Readers - April 30, 2010
Topics
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Captain Dan Hanley Interview by David Gibbons on "In Discussion"
Please employ the 'Share' button to broadcast this interview to the world!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Affidavit of Whistleblower Michael W. Lynch
Please click on the title above and then Click 'Share" to the right and post on as many sites as possible.
Monday, March 29, 2010
UPDATE: FBI, DOJ refuse to investigate charges of judicial corruption
UPDATE: FBI, DOJ refuse to investigate charges of judicial corruption
12/03/09 3:12 PM EST
Re: “SEC IG looks into United Airlines bankruptcy,” Nov. 24
For three years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice have refused to investigate material evidence of a nationwide criminal racket that has allegedly infiltrated state and federal courts and is unlawfully manipulating and exploiting litigants in bankruptcy, family and probate courts.
According to court documents filed in Chicago, the FBI and DOJ turned a blind eye to retaliation against citizens who attempted to expose the corruption, including “kidnapping of children, false incarceration after being ‘framed’ by criminal elements in civil and criminal authorities, impoverishment, coercion under duress, and serious physical injury up to and including death.”
The 2006 affidavit claims that “multiple judges and lawyers are aware of and/or involved in alleged criminal acts,” but have not reported wrongdoing to authorities in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct. It specifically mentions four federal judges, including Eugene R. Wedoff, who was appointed chief bankruptcy judge of the Northern District of Illinois in 1986.
Judge Wedoff presided over the 2005 bankruptcy of United Airlines, in which 20 large unsecured creditors lost nearly $18 million. The airline also defaulted on $3.2 billion worth of pension obligations for over 134,000 United employees –the largest pension default in three decades – while its top executives walked off with millions in exit bonuses.
Dan Hanley, public spokesperson the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association (www.airline-whistleblowers.org) and a former United 777 captain who was forced out of his job, alleges that United management fraudulently withheld information from the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, which took over their pensions, and that PBGC never conducted the federally mandated analysis of the United pension fund before agreeing to its termination. The Securities and Exchange Commission has recently agreed to look into the matter.
The court affadavit also accuses Wedoff, who recently suffered a mysterious fractured skull, and other allegedly crooked judges of squirreling away $40 million in bribes at LaSalle National Bank in Chicago, Wells Fargo and Northern Trust Bank in Arizona. The affadavit further claims that payoffs to Wedoff eventually wound up in the ERW Living Trust, which purchased Lot 114 of Greenfield Place in Maricopa County, Arizona. The signature of ERW trustee “Richard E. Williams” is allegedly identical to Judge Wedoff’s.
The affidavit further charges that the criminal racketeering enterprise headquartered in Phoenix hacked into INSLAW, a court software program, and “through the systematic code-based creation of fraudulent documents and identity theft,” illegally hijacked it to funnel stolen private and government funds into two trusts – Omega and Anchor Pure Trusts – which ultimately dispersed the hot cash into personal trusts such as ERW, which then used fake mortgages for property that had already been bought with cash to further launder the money.
“Multiple lawyers of prominent law firms are allegedly members” of the racket, which uses phony federal marshal credentials to gain access to the Federal Court Building in Chicago, according to the affidavit.
Another signed affidavit, filed by court qualified document examiner Sidney Perceful, accused Wedoff of allowing a bankruptcy trustee to confiscate and destroy records and transfer “large sums of money” to his account at La Salle, which she called “highly irregular and illegal.”
These allegations, if true, point to a massive criminal infiltration of the federal court system. But so far, neither the FBI nor DOJ have bothered to look into them. The big unanswered question is: Why not?
Welcome to the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association!
Welcome, my friends and fellow airline industry whistleblowers!
I currently serve as the national public spokesperson for the grassroots' Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association' whose purpose is to serve our 'special interests', the millions who travel by commercial air and their safety and security concerns, and not those of corporate executives, Wall Street and K-Street lobbyist, and those in Washington, DC who do not serve our interests or share our concerns about the demise of employees within the airline industry. Our interests and concerns are true public air transportation safety and security and not the security of our stock portfolios or reelection to public office.
Our members include those dedicated safety and security professionals that serve our 'special interests' daily...airline aircrew members and employees, FAA and TSA employees, and all other honest citizens who support our courageous and noble efforts to make the skies safer and 'a more user friendly' work environment to our members.
We have a website that is loaded with information concerning the alleged United Airlines post-9/11 bankruptcy corruption and subsequent ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into purported white-collar criminality and other issues. Additionally, the site contains many useful links to other information available to whistleblowers who attempt to report wrongdoing within the workplace, but are somehow stiffled.
http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org
Our Whistleblowing Airline Employees Blog Spot may be accessed by clicking on the link below where you may provide your comments and chat with other airline employees around the world. There are also accessible links on the right hand side of the site that contain useful information also.
http://www.airline-whistleblower.com/
Our facebook cause named 'Stop Federal Suppression of Airline Employee Whistleblowers' connects our members together, but is also employed to promulgate very important information via cause bulletins that you will receive via email. Please take the time to join this important cause, as you can invite up to 60 of your airline facebook friends to join us also each day.
If you are not intimately familiar with facebook, please be advised that as you accept your airline friends to be your facebook friend, you can scroll down the left hand side of their wall and suggest up to 50 of your airline friends a day to be their facebook friends also. In this way, we can all globally expand our networks and become one big happy airline family sharing interesting stories and other information concerning problems in the industry that we each face...and then collectively help bring about a positive change!
Our association periodically airs our 'Whistleblowing Airline Employee Blog Talk Radio Program' online and the programs are archived for your future listening and to forward the links to these programs to other interested facebook friends. When aired, calls are received from listeners to voice their grievances or to ask questions of our interesting guests. To access past programs, please visit the site below. Then copy/paste the URL to the program to your facebook walls so that you may share this information with your friends too!
Finally, we consult with various other professional and grassroots national efforts, whose websites are accessible on our website and blog. Please take the time to peruse each site, as they contain very important information. These organizations and links to their websites are located at the bottom of this page.
There have been countless cases of airline, FAA, and employee whistleblower abuse since 9/11 and it must be brought to public awareness by all available means in support of the DOT/FAA and DHS/TSA promises to make our skies the 'safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world'. Suppression of honest whistleblowers attempting to help rectify system errors is in diametric opposition to their stated goals and must be prevented at all costs...especiially within the airline industry.
All whistleblowers assume that they have laws and regulations to protect them, but more importantly, institutions of government support and protection to enforce them. It is only too late in many cases that the honest whistleblower realizes that neither exist after they have spoken out. The consequence is oft times the decimation of reputation, career, family, and/or fiancial ruination.
The phenomenal chilling impact that this has on other would-be whistleblowers who observe unsafe practices may in many cases impinge upon the desire to openly air their grievances, which is totally unacceptable in the airline work environment if we are truly to have the 'safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world'. Our association seeks to serve as a grassroots outlet for those individuals who may have been hampered in making reports while employing the normal communicative channels at their airline.
The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act is coming up for a vote in the senate soon. The House bill H1507 has already passed and includes provisions for jury trials, which enables discovery phase, for federal whistleblowers. The senate version, S372, is still being debated, but does not include this provision. What's more, if passed in its present form, it would be virtually impossible for any employee working in the Department of Justice and the intelligence services to ever blow the whistle on fraud, waste, and abuse issues or other criminal wrongdoing they observe.
Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, are both politically working in earnest for passage of this important legislation in its original form and, as airline employees and whistleblowers, we must each do our part to prevent this, given past whistleblower abuses!
As aviation safety and security professionals, please join our cause, while asking your airline facebook friends to invite 'Daniel William Hanley' to be their friend. As our numbers grow, so too will the strength and volume of our collective voice. Our 'special interests', the airline passengers, expect this of us and we cannot let them down!
Thank you!
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistrleblowing Airline Employees Association
http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org/New_Standard_2.html
Affiliate Organizations/Contacts and their websites:
Government Accountability Project - Attorney Tom Devine, Legal Director
http://www.whistleblower.org/
National Whistleblower Center - Attorney Colapinto, General Counsel
http://www.whistleblowers.org/
Project on Government Oversight - Danielle Brian, Executive Director
http://www.pogo.org/
National Security Whistleblower Coalition - FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, President
http://nswbc.org/index.htm
FAA Whistleblowers Alliance - Gabe Bruno - Executive Director
http://www.faawhistleblowers.com/
Fleur De Lis Film Studios - BJ Davis, President
http://www.fleurdelisfilmstudios.com/
Forensic Fraud Research - Dr. Jan Schwartz, President
http://www.whitecollarcorruption.com/index.htm
Former McCook Metals, LLC CEO Michael W. Lynch - Associate
National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project, Inc. - Atty Zena Crenshaw, Executive Director
http://www.njcdlp.org/
POPULAR - Attorney Zena Crenshaw - Executive Director
http://www.popular4people.org/Association_Members.html
Medical Whistleblower - Dr. Janet Parker, Executive Director
http://medicalwhistleblower.viviti.com/
Global Cabin Air Quality Executive - Captain Tristan Lorraine, Chairman
http://www.gcaqe.org/default2.asp?active_page_id=53
Aerotoxic Association - Captain John Hoyte, Executive Director
http://www.aerotoxic.org/
Toxic Free Airlines - Flight Attendant Sue Dale, Executive Director
http://www.toxicfreeairlines.com/
FlyersRights.org - Kate Hanni, Executive Director
OAK - Organizations Associating for the Kind of Change America Really Needs
http://oak4change.ning.com/page/goth-2010
SafeSkies.ca - Kirsten Stevenson, Executive Director
http://safeskies.ca/
Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform - David Hutton, Executive Director
http://fairwhistleblower.ca/
I currently serve as the national public spokesperson for the grassroots' Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association' whose purpose is to serve our 'special interests', the millions who travel by commercial air and their safety and security concerns, and not those of corporate executives, Wall Street and K-Street lobbyist, and those in Washington, DC who do not serve our interests or share our concerns about the demise of employees within the airline industry. Our interests and concerns are true public air transportation safety and security and not the security of our stock portfolios or reelection to public office.
Our members include those dedicated safety and security professionals that serve our 'special interests' daily...airline aircrew members and employees, FAA and TSA employees, and all other honest citizens who support our courageous and noble efforts to make the skies safer and 'a more user friendly' work environment to our members.
We have a website that is loaded with information concerning the alleged United Airlines post-9/11 bankruptcy corruption and subsequent ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into purported white-collar criminality and other issues. Additionally, the site contains many useful links to other information available to whistleblowers who attempt to report wrongdoing within the workplace, but are somehow stiffled.
http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org
Our Whistleblowing Airline Employees Blog Spot may be accessed by clicking on the link below where you may provide your comments and chat with other airline employees around the world. There are also accessible links on the right hand side of the site that contain useful information also.
http://www.airline-whistleblower.com/
Our facebook cause named 'Stop Federal Suppression of Airline Employee Whistleblowers' connects our members together, but is also employed to promulgate very important information via cause bulletins that you will receive via email. Please take the time to join this important cause, as you can invite up to 60 of your airline facebook friends to join us also each day.
http://apps.facebook.com/causes/332892?m=18eac145
If you are not intimately familiar with facebook, please be advised that as you accept your airline friends to be your facebook friend, you can scroll down the left hand side of their wall and suggest up to 50 of your airline friends a day to be their facebook friends also. In this way, we can all globally expand our networks and become one big happy airline family sharing interesting stories and other information concerning problems in the industry that we each face...and then collectively help bring about a positive change!
Our association periodically airs our 'Whistleblowing Airline Employee Blog Talk Radio Program' online and the programs are archived for your future listening and to forward the links to these programs to other interested facebook friends. When aired, calls are received from listeners to voice their grievances or to ask questions of our interesting guests. To access past programs, please visit the site below. Then copy/paste the URL to the program to your facebook walls so that you may share this information with your friends too!
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/daniel-hanley
Finally, we consult with various other professional and grassroots national efforts, whose websites are accessible on our website and blog. Please take the time to peruse each site, as they contain very important information. These organizations and links to their websites are located at the bottom of this page.
There have been countless cases of airline, FAA, and employee whistleblower abuse since 9/11 and it must be brought to public awareness by all available means in support of the DOT/FAA and DHS/TSA promises to make our skies the 'safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world'. Suppression of honest whistleblowers attempting to help rectify system errors is in diametric opposition to their stated goals and must be prevented at all costs...especiially within the airline industry.
All whistleblowers assume that they have laws and regulations to protect them, but more importantly, institutions of government support and protection to enforce them. It is only too late in many cases that the honest whistleblower realizes that neither exist after they have spoken out. The consequence is oft times the decimation of reputation, career, family, and/or fiancial ruination.
The phenomenal chilling impact that this has on other would-be whistleblowers who observe unsafe practices may in many cases impinge upon the desire to openly air their grievances, which is totally unacceptable in the airline work environment if we are truly to have the 'safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world'. Our association seeks to serve as a grassroots outlet for those individuals who may have been hampered in making reports while employing the normal communicative channels at their airline.
The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act is coming up for a vote in the senate soon. The House bill H1507 has already passed and includes provisions for jury trials, which enables discovery phase, for federal whistleblowers. The senate version, S372, is still being debated, but does not include this provision. What's more, if passed in its present form, it would be virtually impossible for any employee working in the Department of Justice and the intelligence services to ever blow the whistle on fraud, waste, and abuse issues or other criminal wrongdoing they observe.
Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, are both politically working in earnest for passage of this important legislation in its original form and, as airline employees and whistleblowers, we must each do our part to prevent this, given past whistleblower abuses!
As aviation safety and security professionals, please join our cause, while asking your airline facebook friends to invite 'Daniel William Hanley' to be their friend. As our numbers grow, so too will the strength and volume of our collective voice. Our 'special interests', the airline passengers, expect this of us and we cannot let them down!
Thank you!
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistrleblowing Airline Employees Association
http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org/New_Standard_2.html
Affiliate Organizations/Contacts and their websites:
Government Accountability Project - Attorney Tom Devine, Legal Director
http://www.whistleblower.org/
National Whistleblower Center - Attorney Colapinto, General Counsel
http://www.whistleblowers.org/
Project on Government Oversight - Danielle Brian, Executive Director
http://www.pogo.org/
National Security Whistleblower Coalition - FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, President
http://nswbc.org/index.htm
FAA Whistleblowers Alliance - Gabe Bruno - Executive Director
http://www.faawhistleblowers.com/
Fleur De Lis Film Studios - BJ Davis, President
http://www.fleurdelisfilmstudios.com/
Forensic Fraud Research - Dr. Jan Schwartz, President
http://www.whitecollarcorruption.com/index.htm
Former McCook Metals, LLC CEO Michael W. Lynch - Associate
National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project, Inc. - Atty Zena Crenshaw, Executive Director
http://www.njcdlp.org/
POPULAR - Attorney Zena Crenshaw - Executive Director
http://www.popular4people.org/Association_Members.html
Medical Whistleblower - Dr. Janet Parker, Executive Director
http://medicalwhistleblower.viviti.com/
Global Cabin Air Quality Executive - Captain Tristan Lorraine, Chairman
http://www.gcaqe.org/default2.asp?active_page_id=53
Aerotoxic Association - Captain John Hoyte, Executive Director
http://www.aerotoxic.org/
Toxic Free Airlines - Flight Attendant Sue Dale, Executive Director
http://www.toxicfreeairlines.com/
FlyersRights.org - Kate Hanni, Executive Director
http://www.flyersrights.org/
OAK - Organizations Associating for the Kind of Change America Really Needs
http://oak4change.ning.com/page/goth-2010
SafeSkies.ca - Kirsten Stevenson, Executive Director
http://safeskies.ca/
Federal Accountability Initiative for Reform - David Hutton, Executive Director
http://fairwhistleblower.ca/
Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail
Chicago judge to decide if his own accuser goes to jail
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Local Opinion Editor
03/26/10 3:24 PM EDT
How’s this for an eyeball-popping conflict of interest?
Chicago Circuit Court Judge Alexander White - the same judge accused of being on the take in a civil trial four years ago - is expected to rule today on whether his accuser has to serve the remaining 34 days of his sentence on criminal contempt of court charges in Cook County Jail.
Chicago businessman Michael Lynch, the former CEO of McCook Metals, is also a key witness in an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into the United Airlines bankruptcy in Chicago, raising new questions about retaliation and witness tampering.
In a 2006 affadavit Lynch filed with the court, he claimed to have material evidence – including bank account numbers and trust documents – implicating federal Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff, who presided over both the United and McCook cases, as well as six state judges (including Judge White), and a number of lawyers, businessmen and bankruptcy trustees. Two judges named in Lynch’s court filings abruptly retired soon afterwards.
Lynch was cited for criminal contempt for allegedly including “unsubstantiated and far-flung allegations that Judge White was a participant in an organized crime scheme in Arizona.” White currently presides over all judgment, eminent domain, quitclaim and lien cases in Cook County, which was recently chosen as the worst jurisdiction in the nation for judicial corruption in a survey of legal experts commissioned by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Lynch’s allegations are similar to those that sparked Operation Greylord, an FBI investigation of judicial corruption in Cook County during the 1980s that indicted 92 government officials, including 17 judges, on corruption charges. The now retired judge who originally cited Lynch for contempt accused him of “attacking the integrity of the court” after the businessman filed a pro se motion asking that another judge hear his case.
Lynch told The Examiner that a team of private investigators he hired determined that both Judge White and Judge Wedoff failed to report several blind trusts under management by third parties on their financial disclosure forms. Lynch says he provided copies of all evidence his team unearthed to the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
The Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear Lynch’s appeal of the contempt finding. One of the Supreme Court justices is Anne Burke, wife of Daley family loyalist Alderman Ed Burke. In his 2004 book, “When Corruption was King,” former Mafia attorney Robert Cooley - whose hidden tape recordings helped launch Greylord - accused Burke and his wife of fixing two murder cases. Alderman Burke is also chairman of the Democratic Committee that appoints judges. A Jan. 22, 2008 Chicago Tribune article called the Burkes “the state’s richest political family,” with a combined political warchest of $8.3 million – an –eyebrow-raising amount of cash for an appointed judge and a city alderman.
On March 2, a three-judge appellate panel that includes Judge Mary Jane Thies, daughter of another former Cook County official, upheld Lynch’s contempt citation even though, he told The Examiner, a legally mandated sentencing hearing was never held.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/SharpSticks/Chicago-judge-to-decide-if-his-own-accuser-goes-to-jail-89284667.html#ixzz0jJwulPdJ
Sunday, January 24, 2010
SEC INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY IMPROPRIETIES
January 22, 2010
The Honorable Gordon S. Heddell – Inspector General
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue NW
Room S-5502
Washington, DC 20210
The Honorable Hilda Solis – Secretary of Labor
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
Ms. Rebecca Anne Batts – Inspector General
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation
1200 K Street
Washington, DC 20005
Mr.Vincent K. Snowbarger – Acting Director
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation
Department 77430
PO Box 48277
Detroit, Michigan 48277
SUBJ: SEC INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY IMPROPRIETIES
Dear Inspector General Heddell, Inspector General Batts, Labor Secretary Solis, and PBGC Director Snowbarger,
On January 31, 2009, on behalf of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association, I wrote the attached letter to Department of Labor Inspector General Heddell respectfully requesting his office to investigate issues pertaining to the alleged refusal of then PBGC Acting Inspecting General Deborah Springer to release specific answers to six questions regarding alleged improprieties in the distress-termination of United Airlines defined-benefit pension plans during its post-9/11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. To date, we have not received a timely response to this inquiry.
More specifically, responses to the following questions were made to Ms. Springer in early 2008, but not received. FOIA requests for the same information were ignored by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
1) Request clarification and legal authority regarding the specific reasons for the ERISA 4047 waiver in light of the weak financial health of the PBGC.
2) Request specific legal clarification and rationale regarding paragraph 13 of the attached legal agreement between United Airlines and the PBGC.
3) Request confirmation that some or all of the original $5.2-billion has been returned to United Airlines with specific dollar figures and financial arrangements made to accommodate said transaction.
4) FOIA requests made indicate that there is no record of an ERISA-mandated pension audit conducted to determine the financial soundness of employee pensions before termination. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
5) There is no record of an ERISA-mandated forensic audit being conducted after the pension terminations. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
6) Information regarding the data used in the formulation of the Gross Average Mortality (GAM), which is employed to assess the financial soundness of pension programs is unavailable. Kindly provide the data used to formulate the GAM.
On November 3, 2009, SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz sent me the enclosed letter advising me that the Securities and Exchange Commission had wrongfully ignored through administrative improprieties the disposition of my filing an evidence package under the auspices of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in October 2007. He further stated that he had personally met with SEC Enforcement Senior Counsel Michelle Barans on October 29, 2009 regarding this matter and was assured by her that senior enforcement attorneys would “carefully scrutinize your allegations and concern for possible action”. IG Kotz further stated that “Ms. Barans assured me that careful scrutiny would take place”.
A review of the allegations made under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 306 paragraph 2 in the enclosed letter dated October 18, 2007 to then SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, which was part of the evidence package, you will note that it was stated:
“Additionally, during this same time frame, ERISA laws governing the distress-termination of employee pensions may have been violated. Evidence has recently surfaced (redacted fraudulent documents), which indicate that senior United Airlines management may have been less than truthful in disclosing the financial health of United employee pensions to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) in petitioning the board for said distress-termination.”
In support of the promised ‘careful scrutiny’ assured by Ms. Barans, it is respectfully requested that this information be provided both to Security and Exchange Commissioner Mary Schapiro and to our association for inclusion in the investigation and for our association’s legal assessment by attorneys.
President Obama campaigned on a promise of a greater openness of government and enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers. He further stated that his administration would not succumb to untoward pressures exerted by Wall Street banks and K-Street lobbyist.
Section 1107 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act guarantees retaliation against informants, while affording physical and other protections for honestly reporting alleged white-criminal activity. To date, I have received neither, while being ignored by the Securities and Exchange Commission for over the past two years.
I need look no further over my shoulder than the recent past to reflect on the trials and tribulations of Bernie Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolis or UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld to realize the precariousness of my present dilemma as a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower. Again, with all due respect to your good offices, I demand that the provisions of this law be upheld, or that I be provided with the reason(s) why I unnecessarily exposed myself, while destroying my family, career, reputation, and finances in attempting to uphold this federal law. Given my personal sacrifices, this isn’t asking too much.
If the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is not going to be upheld to the letter of the law, then congress must amend or repeal it, as it appears in my case that it is not worth the paper it is written on. This legislation, along with secretive DOJ ‘deferred prosecution agreements’ are nothing more than a mere traps for federal whistleblowers, which allow ‘exonerated’ white-collar criminals to correct their ‘discrepancies’ and ‘administrative processes’. The honest whistleblower suffers dearly, which sends a chilling signal to other would-be corporate whistleblowers contemplating the reporting of wrong doing in the workplace. It is un-American and it is wrong.
Please be advised that on November 23, 2009, a letter of inquiry was made to Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer as to whether a ‘deferred prosecution agreement’ had been negotiated between the Department of Justice and United Airlines management but, to date, a response has not been received from this office.
Your cooperation and prompt response is sincerely appreciated by the many financially disenfranchised employees and retirees of United Airlines who relinquished so much to enable United Airlines successful emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
Encl: Letter dated January 31, 2009 to SEC IG H. David Kotz
Letter dated November 3, 2009 from SEC IG H. David Kotz
Letter dated October 18, 2007 to SEC Commissioner Christopher Cox
Cc: Senator Charles Grassley – Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee
Senator Carl Levin – Chairman, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Senator Daniel Akaka – Chairman, Government Management, the Federal Workforce and DC
Congressman Henry Waxman – Chairman, Government Oversight Committee
Congressman George Miller – Chairman, House Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee
The Honorable H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Mary Shapiro – Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission
Merri Jo Gillette – Regional Director, Chicago Securities and Exchange Commission
The Honorable Eric Holder – Attorney General of the United States
The Honorable Lanny Breuer – Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
Robert Mueller – Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Patrick Fitzgerald – District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Robert Grant – Special Agent-in-Charge, Chicago Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Honorable Calvin L. Scovel – Inspector General, Department of Transportation
The Honorable Ray LaHood – Secretary, Department of Transportation
Randy Babbitt – Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration
The Honorable Richard L. Skinner – Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security
The Honorable Patrick P. O’Carroll – Inspector General, Social Security Administration
Tom Devine – Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Danielle Brian – Executive Director, Project on Government Oversight
David Colapinto – Attorney, National Whistleblower Center
Jeffrey Grass – Attorney
Member of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
The Honorable Gordon S. Heddell – Inspector General
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue NW
Room S-5502
Washington, DC 20210
The Honorable Hilda Solis – Secretary of Labor
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20210
Ms. Rebecca Anne Batts – Inspector General
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation
1200 K Street
Washington, DC 20005
Mr.Vincent K. Snowbarger – Acting Director
Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation
Department 77430
PO Box 48277
Detroit, Michigan 48277
SUBJ: SEC INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY IMPROPRIETIES
Dear Inspector General Heddell, Inspector General Batts, Labor Secretary Solis, and PBGC Director Snowbarger,
On January 31, 2009, on behalf of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association, I wrote the attached letter to Department of Labor Inspector General Heddell respectfully requesting his office to investigate issues pertaining to the alleged refusal of then PBGC Acting Inspecting General Deborah Springer to release specific answers to six questions regarding alleged improprieties in the distress-termination of United Airlines defined-benefit pension plans during its post-9/11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. To date, we have not received a timely response to this inquiry.
More specifically, responses to the following questions were made to Ms. Springer in early 2008, but not received. FOIA requests for the same information were ignored by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
1) Request clarification and legal authority regarding the specific reasons for the ERISA 4047 waiver in light of the weak financial health of the PBGC.
2) Request specific legal clarification and rationale regarding paragraph 13 of the attached legal agreement between United Airlines and the PBGC.
3) Request confirmation that some or all of the original $5.2-billion has been returned to United Airlines with specific dollar figures and financial arrangements made to accommodate said transaction.
4) FOIA requests made indicate that there is no record of an ERISA-mandated pension audit conducted to determine the financial soundness of employee pensions before termination. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
5) There is no record of an ERISA-mandated forensic audit being conducted after the pension terminations. Kindly provide records of the federally-mandated audit.
6) Information regarding the data used in the formulation of the Gross Average Mortality (GAM), which is employed to assess the financial soundness of pension programs is unavailable. Kindly provide the data used to formulate the GAM.
On November 3, 2009, SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz sent me the enclosed letter advising me that the Securities and Exchange Commission had wrongfully ignored through administrative improprieties the disposition of my filing an evidence package under the auspices of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in October 2007. He further stated that he had personally met with SEC Enforcement Senior Counsel Michelle Barans on October 29, 2009 regarding this matter and was assured by her that senior enforcement attorneys would “carefully scrutinize your allegations and concern for possible action”. IG Kotz further stated that “Ms. Barans assured me that careful scrutiny would take place”.
A review of the allegations made under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 306 paragraph 2 in the enclosed letter dated October 18, 2007 to then SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, which was part of the evidence package, you will note that it was stated:
“Additionally, during this same time frame, ERISA laws governing the distress-termination of employee pensions may have been violated. Evidence has recently surfaced (redacted fraudulent documents), which indicate that senior United Airlines management may have been less than truthful in disclosing the financial health of United employee pensions to the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) in petitioning the board for said distress-termination.”
In support of the promised ‘careful scrutiny’ assured by Ms. Barans, it is respectfully requested that this information be provided both to Security and Exchange Commissioner Mary Schapiro and to our association for inclusion in the investigation and for our association’s legal assessment by attorneys.
President Obama campaigned on a promise of a greater openness of government and enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers. He further stated that his administration would not succumb to untoward pressures exerted by Wall Street banks and K-Street lobbyist.
Section 1107 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act guarantees retaliation against informants, while affording physical and other protections for honestly reporting alleged white-criminal activity. To date, I have received neither, while being ignored by the Securities and Exchange Commission for over the past two years.
I need look no further over my shoulder than the recent past to reflect on the trials and tribulations of Bernie Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolis or UBS whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld to realize the precariousness of my present dilemma as a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower. Again, with all due respect to your good offices, I demand that the provisions of this law be upheld, or that I be provided with the reason(s) why I unnecessarily exposed myself, while destroying my family, career, reputation, and finances in attempting to uphold this federal law. Given my personal sacrifices, this isn’t asking too much.
If the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is not going to be upheld to the letter of the law, then congress must amend or repeal it, as it appears in my case that it is not worth the paper it is written on. This legislation, along with secretive DOJ ‘deferred prosecution agreements’ are nothing more than a mere traps for federal whistleblowers, which allow ‘exonerated’ white-collar criminals to correct their ‘discrepancies’ and ‘administrative processes’. The honest whistleblower suffers dearly, which sends a chilling signal to other would-be corporate whistleblowers contemplating the reporting of wrong doing in the workplace. It is un-American and it is wrong.
Please be advised that on November 23, 2009, a letter of inquiry was made to Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer as to whether a ‘deferred prosecution agreement’ had been negotiated between the Department of Justice and United Airlines management but, to date, a response has not been received from this office.
Your cooperation and prompt response is sincerely appreciated by the many financially disenfranchised employees and retirees of United Airlines who relinquished so much to enable United Airlines successful emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Captain Dan Hanley
National Public Spokesperson
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
Encl: Letter dated January 31, 2009 to SEC IG H. David Kotz
Letter dated November 3, 2009 from SEC IG H. David Kotz
Letter dated October 18, 2007 to SEC Commissioner Christopher Cox
Cc: Senator Charles Grassley – Ranking Member, Senate Finance Committee
Senator Carl Levin – Chairman, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Senator Daniel Akaka – Chairman, Government Management, the Federal Workforce and DC
Congressman Henry Waxman – Chairman, Government Oversight Committee
Congressman George Miller – Chairman, House Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee
The Honorable H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Mary Shapiro – Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission
Merri Jo Gillette – Regional Director, Chicago Securities and Exchange Commission
The Honorable Eric Holder – Attorney General of the United States
The Honorable Lanny Breuer – Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
Robert Mueller – Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Patrick Fitzgerald – District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Robert Grant – Special Agent-in-Charge, Chicago Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Honorable Calvin L. Scovel – Inspector General, Department of Transportation
The Honorable Ray LaHood – Secretary, Department of Transportation
Randy Babbitt – Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration
The Honorable Richard L. Skinner – Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security
The Honorable Patrick P. O’Carroll – Inspector General, Social Security Administration
Tom Devine – Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Danielle Brian – Executive Director, Project on Government Oversight
David Colapinto – Attorney, National Whistleblower Center
Jeffrey Grass – Attorney
Member of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association
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