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Affidavit of Daniel William Hanley in Support of the Securities and
Exchange Commission and Department of Justice Investigation of
Alleged Fraud in the United Airlines Post-9/11 Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Exchange Commission and Department of Justice Investigation of
Alleged Fraud in the United Airlines Post-9/11 Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
_______________________________________________________
I, Daniel William Hanley, being first duly sworn, on oath, states as follows:
1. I am of legal age and competent. This affidavit is made on my personal knowledge of all matters set forth and referenced herein. If sworn and called as a witness in this case, I could, and I would, testify competently as to each fact set forth and incorporated herein by reference.
2. The alleged facts supported with evidence are true and correct to the best of my personal knowledge of the facts, evidence, information and belief.
3. Subsequent to my first flight as a pilot in 1968, I have accumulated 35 years of combined Naval aviation and United Airlines pilot experience with a total of approximately 20,000 flight hours in numerous civilian and military aircraft. I served patriotically with distinction as a naval officer and have an untarnished flying record in that I have never failed a flight check ride or physical examination, nor ever received a flight violation in my 35 year aviation career.
4. Most of the correspondence sent and actions taken as referenced and stated below were performed as public spokesperson for a large group of active and retired airline employees who provided and distributed information and evidence in this case, but wished to remain anonymous for their own safety and security.
Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration Fraud
5. On September 11, 2001, I served as a Boeing 777 captain based out of JFK International Airport in New York City and had flown many flights between JFK and London’s Heathrow Airport prior to that date.
6. I flew the third United Airlines flight out of Newark Airport to London in the week following 9/11 during the time frame that very little added security was afforded to passengers and aircrew members, which was quite contrary to statements being made by President Bush and others at the time. Many aircrew members and passengers were very upset and bringing forth their concerns to me requesting that I address obvious frailties that existed at the time in security processes that were readily identifiable and easily fixable, but were not being addressed by upper echelon managers at United Airlines.
7. Approximately two months later, after I had filed numerous in-house company reports attempting to point out security frailties still existent in the system, I had numerous phone conversations with my JFK Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) union chairman Captain Mark Seal who informed me of the Washington politics that had been injected into the discussion that precluded his invention or representation.
8. Additional phone conversations between my United Airlines JFK Chief Pilot Captain Bob Spielman advised me of the same difficulties both with management and in Washington, DC. As a result of these discussions, I filed a Captain’s Report with United Airlines flight management in hopes of bringing these same frailties to company management’s attention. The ‘Captain Report’ is an in-house report whose procedures for administration are contained in the United Airlines Flight Operations Manual, which intrinsically is a federal regulation, as prescribed by Federal Aviation Regulations Part 121 pertaining to all aspects commercial airline flight operations. The purpose of these reports is to share information regarding incidents and concerns that occur on the line while flying to appropriate departments within the airline and upper-level management for response and disposition.
9. Shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from Captain Spielman advising me that the United Airlines Executive Vice-President of Safety, Captain Ed Soliday, had personally phone-contacted him asking him if he knew me personally. According to Captain Spielman, Captain Soliday remarked, “You tell that (expletive deleted) that if he thinks that he can do a better job than me, then effective Monday morning he can serve as the Vice-President of Safety for United Airlines” (sic) I felt that this response was most inappropriate given that some aircrew members were in tears regarding their concerns since many of them had lost dear friends in Shanksville, Pennsylvania who had died a violent death in the crash of United Airlines flight 93 on September 11, 2001.
10. It was during this phone conversation with Captain Spielman that he requested of me not to submit any further FAA mandated reports to company management without first informing his office of the content. I reminded Captain Spielman that I had, in fact, addressed every issue contained in the company report with both him and Captain Seal, my ALPA union council chairman, and intended to follow both company regulations and the Federal Aviation Administration procedures outlined in our flight operations manual in reporting both safety and security issues to company management in the future but, as a courtesy, would advise him of my reports to keep him in the communications loop.
11. Without expounding on the transpiration of subsequent events, I have appended a copy of a sworn affidavit submitted to the Senate Aviation Subcommittee hearing that was chaired by Senator Byron Dorgan on June 17, 2009 regarding the Colgan Air 3407 accident for your perusal, which is part of congressional public record. The chronology of events pertaining to my ‘hostile work environment forced psychiatric evaluation’ that enabled my medical grounding, as well as an affidavit regarding my 35-year resume of pilot experience is contained therein. It should be pointed out that since close pilot friends had warned me that the company employed these processes to rid the pilot ranks of ‘trouble-maker’ pilots, I previously consulted with the best mental health professionals in the Atlanta area who confirmed the soundness of my mental health via consultation and multiple testing in their offices.
12. After expulsion from United Airlines property on what I allege was a ‘hostile work environment forced psychiatric evaluation’ not unlike the cause for termination of National Security Agency federal whistleblower Russell Tice, during the course of the past few years I have asked the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate this issue involving public air transportation safety and security, but have been stonewalled at every turn.
13. In early 2006, I received what I felt at the time a letter via Federal Express with subtle and threatening undertones from Mr. Paul Lovejoy, United Airlines General Counsel, advising me to send all future correspondence to United Airlines to his office. Because of my previous experiences with inept and corrupt management officials at this company, I thought it would be most prudent to attempt to protect myself legally, as United Airlines might possibly file suit against me or take some other legal action to suppress my testimony again. The company had infinitely more money than I and very powerful legally and politically, so I decided that I must somehow protect myself.
14. By this point in time, both active and retired pilots and other airline employees had formed a rather large email communications system that I partook in to convey my thoughts and opinions and provide information that I had available to me at the time. This group was yet unnamed and the title ‘Whistleblowing United Pilots Association’ was adopted so that we might collectively address our concerns and information. I served as the public spokesperson for this group.
15. In April 2006, I sent a joint letter to Attorney General Gonzales, Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff, and DOT Secretary Mineta requesting that they join our noble crusade in exposing possible injustices in the United Airlines bankruptcy, as we felt that we had ample evidence and witnesses who had information to offer in an investigation. A few months later, both the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice deferred my case to the Department of Transportation who stonewalled me for three years before recently closing my case without interviewing a single witness nor reviewing available evidence, which alleged possible violations of RICO statutes and federal aviation regulations. Countless letters and faxes have been sent, and phone calls have been made to every level and branch of government and law enforcement in the interim.
16. Recently, the Department of Transportation Assistant Inspector General Bob Westbrooks had the audacity to close my case on frivolous grounds that I did not meet the AIR 21 requirement to report my findings to the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health department. My intent in filing the FAA Whistle Blower Report was not to seek reinstatement in my job as a B-777 captain at United Airlines, but to report to this commercial aviation oversight agency allegations of a serious crime(s) committed by the Federal Aviation Administration, senior United Airlines management, and possibly the officers of the Air Line Pilots Association at United Airlines.
Social Security Disability Income Fraud
17. In early 2004, in accordance with the ALPA work contract with United Airlines, Inc., I was obliged to apply for both workman’s compensation and Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) even though I was fully capable of employment, but not as a pilot due to the loss of my federally-issued airman’s medical certificate. The contract also required that after the initial denial of both workman’s compensation and SSDI, I would be obliged to appeal for this disability through the administrative law process in Atlanta, Georgia to which I complied.
18. In mid-2008 prior to appearance in the court of administrative law Judge F. Jefferson Hughes, I was put in contact with New York Times reporter Mary Williams-Walsh who had authored a series of articles pertaining to SSDI fraud and I agreed to obtain a copy of the court transcripts of my appeals hearing, which I did. Much of what I stated and was digitally-recorded under oath before Judge Hughes involved alleged RICO issues stated above as well as purported violations of federal aviation regulations that I strongly feel would support the current SEC investigation of United Airlines in Atlanta. Others and I have copies of the digitally-recorded court transcripts available on request. These court transcripts are the legal equivalent of an FBI deposition, given what I stated in court on record.
19. Subsequent to this hearing, I filed an SSDI fraud report with the office of SSA IG Patrick O’Carroll and spoke on the phone a few times with Senator Grassley staffer Brian Downey regarding the specifics of my case. Additionally, in June 2009 while in DC, I paid a visit to Senator Grassley’s office and dropped an evidence file with Mr. Downey. To date, I have not received a single response from this office.
20. The Office of the Social Security Administration Inspector General Patrick P. O’Carroll has not responded to my fraud report submitted to this office in 2008 nor a follow-up letter from me of January 2010.
United Airlines Bankruptcy Fraud
21. As mentioned before, I allege that I was removed from scheduled flight operations as a United Airlines B-777 in 2003 because I suggested in correspondence that possible violations of RICO statutes and federal laws and regulations were infringing on my ability to report legitimate safety and security concerns via appropriate afforded communications channels within United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration. Based on knowledge and information received since that time, I allege that sufficient evidence and witness testimony is available to prove my original 2003 assertions for the reasons stated herein.
22. Based on face-to-face/phone conversations with numerous United Airlines junior managers and Air Line Pilots Association officers regarding questionably legal and political pressures being exerted as a result of United Airlines bankruptcy filing, I commenced a letter writing campaign to establish a legally protective correspondence trail coupled with the submission of federally-mandated safety and security reports. The personal tragedy for me in this regard lies in the fact that the very pilots who encouraged me to continue to submit these letters/reports, in the end, turned their back on me as I was ushered out the door. Some of these pilots have since admitted to me their wrongdoing, including former United ALPA Grievance Committee Chairman Captain Chuck Pierce who I spoke with at 8 p.m. on November 8, 2006 regarding a phone conversation on speaker phone initiated by United ALPA attorney Bob Nichols with Captain Pierce in the room with him wherein he stated, “Go ahead and send that letter in (to CEO Tilton) if you never want to fly another United airplane again in your life”. The letter that I had intended to Fedex to Mr. Tilton was never sent, but instead I filed a series of Aviation Safety Awareness Reports that essentially contained the same information and was immediately removed from scheduled flight operations as a B-777 captain by senior flight operations managers without just cause.
Many witnesses are willing to step forth in support of my testimony, but the Department of Transportation Inspector General Calvin Scovel has ignored my request for an investigation. Our association membership, through coordination with many other organizations and individuals are going to do their job for them.
23. In a recent phone conversation with Scott Harding, the Compliance Officer in the office of the Department of Transportation Inspector General, he asked me why I waited until April 2006 to file a report with the FAA regarding criminal wrongdoing in my case. The reasons stated below will justify my delayed action in reporting these matters to relevant government officials.
24. Because the United Airlines FAA Principle Operation Inspector ignored my initial reports in 2003 when Bush occupied the Oval Office, I was made aware of the appointment of attorney Kirk Van Tine as general counsel for the Department of Transportation who left Baker-Botts law firm just prior to 9/11 to serve in this capacity. Mr. Van Tine also served as one of the three voting members of the Airline Transportation Stabilization Board that rejected the United Airlines application for a loan guarantee that might have precluded the filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
25. I honestly believed that any attempt to file a report with the FAA at this time would be an exercise in futility since the FAA Principal Operations Inspector had already ignored everything written in the ASAPs mentioned above and would also be blocked by the office of Mr. Van Tine. His boss, former Secretary of State James Baker served as an officer of the Carlisle Group at the time and was a long-time friend of the Bush family and the House of Saud. Additionally, I did not wish to risk exposure of alleged corruption in the bankruptcy by public exposure that might risk a successful restructuring of United Airlines, nor at the time, did I not possess ample evidence/witnesses to back my RICO and other assertions.
26. Over the course of the next two years, while still maintaining email contact with our group, I spent much time in search of other pilots and other employees who I was certain had information that would support my RICO and FAA suppression allegation.
27. In early 2006, with the defined-benefit pension plan termination at United Airlines as part of their restructuring plan for emergence from bankruptcy with the approval of Chief Bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, the campaigning Democratic party candidates were making promises to citizens of ‘draining the swamp’ and ridding us of the culture of corruption’, which I trusted would happen after the horrific Bush years.
28. With United Airlines emerging from bankruptcy, the evolution of this grassroots effort was affected by the behind-the-scenes email/phone exchanges between many active and retired pilots all of whom realized the gross financial disenfranchisement effected by the bankruptcy process. Believing in the Democratic Party campaign promise for change, I volunteered to serve as public spokesperson for the ‘Whistleblowing United Pilots Association’, which was the name selected at the time and later changed to the ‘Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association’ as the membership increased in size.
29. On April 12, 2006, on behalf of our association, I sent a joint letter to then Attorney General Gonzales, Department of Homeland Security Chertoff, and Transportation Secretary Mineta, advising them that I was a federal whistleblower who had reported on air safety and security issues via a filed FAA Whistleblower Protection Report and also of the establishment of the grassroots Whistleblowing United Pilots Association, while asking for their cooperation and assistance. Copies of this letter was also sent to every Democratic U.S. senator. Additionally, I sent a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union offices in New York and Atlanta and followed up with phone calls to these same offices petitioning their assistance.
30. On May 12, 2006, I received a letter from DHS Bryan, which ignored the fact that I wanted to report security issue frailties, but assured me that the Department of Transportation would handle my FAA Whistleblower Report in a timely manner.
31. The Department of Transportation never responded to my April 12th letter and ‘lost’ my FAA Whistleblower Protection Report.
32. In July 2006, I received a copy of a Business Wire press release via email from members of our association that was transmitted on behalf of Michael W. Lynch by attorney David Martin Price, which contained serious allegations of purported judicial corruption surrounding United Airlines bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, while also naming other Illinois state and federal judges. In response to this email, I left voice mail with Mr. Price thanking him for his efforts while giving him my phone contact number. Two hours later, Mr. Lynch phoned me and after a brief introduction, detailed the legal issues surrounding his McCook Metals, LLC case against Alcoa Aluminum and offered his assistance to our association in our case.
33. At the time, Mr. Lynch had been working closely with Dr. Sheila Mannix, PhD, director of the Illinois Family Court and also Mr. Sam Lipari and Mr. Bret Landrith of Missouri in attempting to expose issues of judicial corruption concerning separate issues but co-related institutions pertaining to the judicial kidnapping of children in courts in the state of Illinois. Mr. Lynch assured me/us at the time that if I cooperated with him, there were many others working behind the scenes, including former FBI/CIA agents, federal judges, and many others, including businessmen like him, nationwide that could/would expose the issues of judicial corruption in this case. I had never engaged in this legal/political process for financial purposes, but Mr. Lynch kept informing me that if I followed through on this case, I would be a wealthy man. I repeatedly asked that he not bring up financial remuneration to me regarding my involvement in this matter, as my sole motive for participation was exposure of heinous crimes against the good citizens of our country and not financial recompense.
34. On July 30, 2006, retired United Airlines Captain Jim Hosking, then head of the grassroots Pension Preservation Network (PPN), advised me via email that he had previously spoken on the phone with Illinois judge chaser Sherman Skolnick numerous times regarding issues of judicial corruption concerning bankruptcy Judge Eugene R. Wedoff and Mr. Skolnick’s affiliation with Michael Lynch. He suggested that I ask Mr. Lynch who Sherman Skolnick was, which I did in an email that evening.
35. Early in the morning of July 31, 2006, Mr. Lynch phoned me to inquire as to who I had spoken with regarding Sherman Skolnick. He went on to advise me of his work with him and the fact that Mr. Skolnick had recently passed away. He further advised me that he had met with Mr. Skolnick in the hospital before his death and had been provided with much information that he felt incredulous, but had now been proven by himself and others that he had been working with the past several months. During this same phone conversation, Mr. Lynch remarked, “Dan, I just want you to know that the highest levels of La Cosa Nostra are involved in these matters.” (sic) It was at this time that I did not desire to cooperate with Mr. Lynch, but put him in touch with other grassroots organizations that I was in contact with and who I felt could better legally employ his information.
36. In researching Mr. Skolnick on the internet, I discovered that he had alleged that both himself and Mr. Lynch had been placed on the ‘domestic terrorist watch list’. With the passage of the Patriot Act and the potential threat of being arrested and detained with denial of my Habeas Corpus rights, I was placing myself at grave risk of imprisonment through cooperation with Mr. Lynch and others.
37. On October 13, 2006, Mr. Lynch appeared in the Chicago courtroom pro se with Sheila Mannix as his witness before Judge Paddy McNamara for the purpose of presenting criminal evidence in the judge’s chambers for an in-camera review, as purportedly members of organized crime were present in the courtroom, which would have endangered the lives of his informants if their identities were revealed.
38. Because Mr. Lynch would not publicly produce his evidence in court nor his witnesses who were not available in the Chicago area at the time for questioning, Judge McNamara held Mr. Lynch in contempt of court and sentenced him to 60 days in Cook County Jail and ordered the bailiff to remove him from the courtroom on the spot without a separate sentencing hearing as prescribed by law.
39. I was made aware of these facts through receipt of an email from Mr. Lynch’s wife, Kimberly, on the evening of October 13, 2006. Mr. Lynch’s attorney, Tom Durkin of Durkin and Robert law firm in Chicago, could not obtain Mr. Lynch’s release on appeal for, I believe, thirteen days.
40. Mr. Lynch contacted me by phone after his release to provide me with details, and I informed him of my intent to write Patrick Fitzgerald, the district attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, about these matters. We both agreed that it would be more prudent to wait until after the 2006 congressional midterm election results were in, as the Democratic party had made campaign promises of ‘ridding us of the culture of corruption’ earlier in the year.
41. In November 2006, former United Airlines Captain Jerry Summers and I had numerous phone conversations regarding the class action suit that had been filed in Chicago federal court by him and several other retired United Airlines captain regarding the loss of the employee stock during the United Airlines bankruptcy. I informed Captain Summers of my relationship with Mr. Lynch regarding the information he claimed to posses concerning alleged judicial corruption. I suggested to Captain Summers that he contact Mr. Lynch to learn reasons why the class action suit had failed, which he later did.
42. With the Democratic win of both chambers of Congress, on November 13, 2006, I wrote a letter to Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, advising him of issues pertaining to this case. Mr. Lynch requested that I forward the proposed letter to him for corrections and additions before transmitting this letter to Congressman Waxman, which I did. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Lynch emailed me this same letter with the following added paragraph:
“Key in his evidence are the current Bush administration member Vice–President Dick Cheney’s and former Chairman of Alcoa and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil’s involvement in the McCook Metals and United Airlines cases. They conspired to push the PBGC pension obligations away from the corporations and on to the federal government. Millions of dollars of pension obligations were forced away from Alcoa and United Airlines and illegally absorbed by the federal government.”
43. Additionally, I had numerous phone conversations and email exchanges with Waxman staffer Matt Siegler, who repeatedly advised me that Congressman Waxman’s staff would not investigate this matter. Mr. Siegler kept insisting that I allow labor unions to handle the matter, as they were working with Congressman Miller (D-CA) on these issues. I persistently reminded him that labor unions do not represent retirees with regard to the theft of their pensions. This was later ruled by a panel of three Chicago judges.
44. On July 3, 2006, I received a letter from DOJ Toner advising me to contact my nearest FBI Field Office if I had criminal information available for review, while concurring that the Department of Transportation would administrate the FAA Whistle Blower Protection Report that I had mentioned in the April 12th letter. Since Mr. Lynch had already briefed the white-collar criminal division of Chicago FBI on many issues and since other informants also resided in the Chicago area and this city was the scene of the alleged criminality, I elected to pursue this case legally in Illinois.
45. On November 18, 2006, I wrote a joint letter to Senators Reid and Durbin and then Senator Obama advising them of the availability of criminal evidence associated with this case, while requesting their assistance in bringing this case to public light. Rumors at the time were swirling of Senator Obama’s possible run for the office of the president in 2008 and Senator Durbin sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has the power to impeach federal judges if proven guilty. It was felt that since the alleged criminality took place in the city of Chicago and since I serves as public spokeperson for the association, these matters should be pursued by Illinois politicians and law enforcement officials who had immediate access to Chicago witnesses and informants to ‘drain the swamp’ and ‘rid us of the culture of corruption’ as promised throughout the Democratic congressional campaigns.
46. I advised Mr. Lynch of my intent to write to Illinois District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald advising him of our case since Mr. Lynch told me at the time that he had already spoken with him and the recently created Chicago FBI White Collar Criminal Division personnel who supposedly were fully aware of the evidence that Mr. Lynch and his legal team possessed. Mr. Lynch cautioned me not to send the letter as he felt certain in his mind for some unknown reason that my letter would be blocked by Illinois Assistant District Attorney Gary Schapiro.
47. In spite of Mr. Lynch’s caution and suspicion, on November 20, 2006, I wrote a letter to District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald advising him of this same information, while asking for legal intercession. Although recognizing that he was presently encumbered with the Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson/Yellow Cake Uranium Special Grand Jury investigation in DC, I was also apprised that the Chicago FBI office had recently created a ‘white-collar criminal investigation unit’ that was purportedly the largest such office of this kind in the country.
48. During this same time frame, I was certain that the organizations listed below would be interested in contacting Mr. Lynch and his team regarding the information that he possessed, so I called and/or emailed each apprising them of his contact information. I did not want to go this alone at any time the past several years.
- Captain Jim Hosking – Director of the Pension Preservation Network
- Captain Roger Hall – Chairman of the United Retired Pilots Benefit Protection Association
- Captain Mark Seal – Officer of United Airlines Airline Pilots Association
- Association of Flight Attendants
- International Aerospace and Machinist Workers Union
- AMFA
- Many aircrew members, legal and political offices and others
50. Consequently, I emailed Captain Hall (copied Mr. Carriglio) a letter to that affect, but he refused for whatever reason not to meet with the Lynch legal team citing the difficulty in proving judicial corruption as a reason for declining the invitation. The panel of three judges ruled against URPBPA and the Supreme Court refused to review the case on subsequent appeal.
51. I was further informed by Mr. Lynch that earlier, the House of Representatives Speaker Congressman Denny Hasstert and his GOP cohorts had attempted to introduce congressional legislation that denied petitioners under the Patriot Act the rights of Habeas Corpus under our constitution for any person who filed charges against any federal judge for any reason. I knew of Mr. Lynch’s work with the now-deceased judge chaser Sherman Skolnick and became concerned that my involvement with Mr. Lynch might result in my incarceration without legal representation for moving forward in this matter.
52. In an effort to get a legal reading and to protect myself as I moved forward, on November 28, 2006, I wrote a joint letter to Attorney General Gonzales, Supreme Court Justice Stevens, Senator Leahy, and Congressman Conyers requesting their interpretation of current laws concerning my involvement with Mr. Lynch for which I never received a response. My purpose in writing to Supreme Court Justice Stevens involved his work as a young Illinois attorney with Sherman Skolnick in exposing judicial corruption in the state of Illinois year earlier, and I believed at the time that this fact would cause his sympathy and cooperation in this matter. I never received a single response to this letter even though I had made follow-up calls to each of their offices for verification without success.
53. On December 11, 2006, I received a letter from the ‘Screening Committee’ of the office of District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald advising me to contact the office of Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant if I had criminal evidence/witnesses available to support my allegations. This office even provided me with the contact information for FBI Agent Grant in the letter.
54. During this time frame, the huge controversies concerning the firing of eight U.S. district attorneys and the highly controversial ‘McNulty memo’ erupted alongside the investigation of AG Gonzales concerning other alleged DOJ corruption. I surmised that perhaps my allegations would somehow be blocked by certain upper-echelon DOJ personnel due to the language contained in the ‘McNulty memo’.
55. On January 25, 2007, I sent letters to all Democratic Senators who sat on the Senate Judiciary and Senate Pension Committees regarding issues of judicial and pension termination corruption, but did not receive a single response from any office, even though I had made numerous calls to staffers. Phone calls to many offices proved futile.
56. On January 25, 2007,I sent letters to all Democratic congressmen who sat on the House Judiciary and Pension Committees regarding issues of judicial and pension termination corruption, but did not receive a single response from any office, even though I had made numerous calls to staffers.
57. I also completed an intake application with the Government Accountability Project in Washington DC and spoke with attorneys there for my legal protection, but Mr. Lynch advised me that his legal team could not yet come forth with their evidence/witnesses due to the fact that he still had a legal appeal hanging over his head. He refused to speak with attorneys at the Government Accountability Project Office in DC for this reason.
58. With heightened tensions concerning the fired district attorneys and the concurrent conviction of Scooter Libby in the Valerie Plame affair, I was advised that Patrick Fitzgerald had become the target for termination alongside the other eight district attorneys. The Department of Justice had just issued a marginal ‘report card’ from the Department of Justice on Mr. Fitzgerald who I knew was rated as one of the top district attorneys in the country, and Chicago Crime Commission President James Wagner had just issued a press release endorsement of Mr. Fitzgerald’s outstanding resume as a crime fighter.
59. Also during this time, after having met with the Chicago Crime Commission, Mr. Lynch advised me that rumors were swirling around the Chicago area of the indictment of Tony Rezko and that a forthcoming article in the Chicago Sun-Times would reveal a political association of URPBPA attorney Jack Carriglio with Tony Rezko. The next day I read of this association and became very much alarmed, as I had already email-contacted Captain Hall and Mr. Carriglio concerning the information that the Lynch team possessed and thought that I had put Mr. Lynch and his family in legal/physical jeopardy by doing so.
60. With the investigation of the fired district attorneys intensifying, and having been informed that District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald had been allegedly targeted, in March 2007 I read a Chicago Crime Commission press release endorsement of Patrick Fitzgerald by then Commission President James Wagner, which further intensified my suspicions that Mr. Fitzgerald might be terminated from his position as district attorney by the Bush Department of Justice.
61. Consequently, on April 1, 2007, I wrote a letter to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant advising his office of some of this information, but his office never responded to this letter. Included in this letter was the following statements:
“Given that the Bush administration has set priorities for U.S. District Attorneys in the cases they are to investigate, one might reasonably conclude that cases involving purported federal judicial corruption and possible illegal White House collusion in these bankruptcies do not rank high in priority for this administration. I realize that Mr. Fitzgerald’s office is limited in staff and that the Scooter Libby trial has taken precedent in his case load, but it does arouse one’s curiosity as to who in DOJ would suspend a criminal investigation into legal matters that involve the loss of pension benefits and other union contractual provisions surrounding a victim-airline of 9/11 in bankruptcy given the compelling evidence at hand. Both Senator Durbin and Senator Obama have been apprised of these matters as well.”
62. Instead, this letter was kicked upstairs to the Washington DC office of the FBI Public Corruption Unit (PCU), which is merely an administrative branch of FBI that in reviewing their function appeared irrelevant to the investigation of facts presented in the April 1st letter to FBI Agent Grant.
63. On May 4, 2007, I received a letter from Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard, Senator Obama’s Special Assistant in his Chicago Office, in response to the joint letter I had sent on November 18th advising me to contact my home state of Georgia representatives concerning this matter since I was not an Illinois resident, even though the alleged criminality took place in the state of Illinois. Since, at the time, United Airlines was the largest single employer in the state of Illinois and the bankruptcy was the single largest airline bankruptcy in commercial aviation history with a corresponding defined-benefit pension termination that ranked amongst the largest in U.S. history, I was quite perplexed as to why Illinois politicians would not engage in an investigation into these matters pertaining to alleged judicial corruption within the Seventh Circuit Court since the offices of District Attorney Fitzgerald and FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Grant had already been apprised of this same information.
64. Concurrently, on May 16, 2007, I received a letter from FBI Washington Public Corruption Unit Anderson in response to the April 1st letter that I had mailed to Mr. Grant advising me to contact the Atlanta FBI office with information concerning this matter. Because I did not physically possess some criminal evidence nor have direct access to key witnesses in this case, and because I was made aware that Mr. Michael Lynch had already allegedly briefed the office of Patrick Fitzgerald, the Chicago FBI, and the Chicago Crime Commission on this matter as a result of a filed federal complaint, I felt that my visit to the Atlanta FBI Field Office would serve no purpose at that time.
65. Feeling additional threat through DOJ insistence that I contact the Atlanta FBI office vice Chicago’s office that had already been made aware of these issues, I felt compelled to write the head of the DOJ Criminal Division in hopes of breaking this legal/political bottleneck, since then Assistant Attorney General – Criminal Division Alice Fisher was in charge of every district attorney in the country. I knew of her involvement in the investigation of Enron and possible close ties with the Bush family and had a great deal of uncertainty and concern as to whether her office would assist us in this matter.
66. Additionally, to the best of my recollection in reviewing my email correspondence trail, during this period, I had been copied on numerous emails between Mr. Lynch and Missouri residents Sam Lipari and Bret Landrith who had filed suit in Kansas City concerning alleged RICO violations that involved Mr. Lynch, Karl Rove, Bradley Schlozman, Alberto Gonzales, the chairman of General Electric, numerous federal judges, Novation and others. In reading this suit and the information contained therein, I realized that I had somewhat gotten myself into a legal and political situation that was way over my head.
67. Mr. Lipari had contacted both the offices of Senator Leahy and Senator McCaskill regarding this suit without appropriate legal response. Without revealing my source, I was provided with the name and email address of Senator McCaskill Missouri staffer Bob Burns and emailed him asking for assistance, since Senator McCaskill was a strong advocate of federal whistleblowers and I had read that then Assistant Attorney General Bradley Schlozman had replaced fired District Attorney Todd Graves in Missouri to assist Jim Talent defeat Senator McCaskill and thought for these reasons that Senator McCaskill would come to our collective aid, even though I was not a resident of Missouri.
68. There were a few times that I sent blind-copy emails out to our group that included Mr. Burns in the list and he responded assuring me that the information had been forwarded to the DC office of Senator McCaskill, which provided me with comfort.
69. I had also read New York Times and other reports that two Fort Worth, Texas assistant district attorneys had allegedly been murdered for their investigation into Novation for Medicare fraud, which made me realize, while reflecting on the now nine fired U.S. district attorneys and the AG Gonzales debacle, just how corrupt the entire legal system in our country had become.
70. Mr. Lynch also provided me via email with a portion of a letter that was contained in an evidence package that had been delivered to the sister of Senator Biden at the Iowa caucus for delivery to him, which contained information giving further cause for hope with concurrent alarm and realization of my need to protect myself somehow both legally and politically.
71. On September 1, 2007, I wrote a letter to Assistant Attorney General – Criminal Division Alice Fisher apprising her of the same facts concerning the availability of evidence/witnesses in this case. I knew it was risky sending this letter and that in doing so would draw attention to me and increase my risk of physical harm, given the parties involved. Although near destitution and uncertain of my next protective step in this process, I left the United States on September 1st flying to Munich to commence an austere 13-day trip through Germany, Switzerland, Italy and across southern France by train that I could not really afford staying in flop-house motels while living on a shoestring budget near destitution and employing internet café computers and phone cards to keep abreast of the legal situation unfolding. I needed some time alone and out of the states to sort legal/political matters out and await a response from the Department of Justice.
72. On September 10, 2007, while at an internet café in Carcassonne, France checking my email, I was advised via an email from a retired United captain of the formation of a grassroots effort called the ‘Committee for the Restoration of Pensions at United Airlines 2007’. The email information was a letter addressed to Senator Akaka from this committee concerning detailed legal/political issues that I felt would prove that our pensions had been illegally terminated. I felt much relief and exoneration in that I was certain that this group could dovetail Mr. Lynch’s evidence into this investigation and my arduous and costly journey as a federal whistleblower would be over.
73. On September 11, 2007 while in Lourdes, France, I decided that I must return to the states, which I did via Bordeaux and Paris within the next two days.
74. Upon return to the states on September 13, 2007, I emailed a group retired pilots inquiring of the composition of the ‘Committee for the Restoration of Pensions at United Airlines 2007’ and, more specifically, who chaired this committee and was working with Senator Akaka’s staff on these pension matters. Captain Jim Hosking, (the director of the Pension Preservation Network and the same individual who told me to ask Mr. Lynch who Sherman Skolnick was in 2006), informed me via email that a United employee living in Hawaii named Kirk Stevenson had authored the letter and acquired legal representation in Hawaii and gave me Mr. Stevenson’s email address and home phone number in Hawaii.
75. After several unsuccessful attempts to phone contact Mr. Stevenson while leaving him voice mail, I emailed him and received a response. He informed me that the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) was refusing to relinquish key information to prove the alleged theft of employee pensions in bankruptcy after repeated Freedom of Information Act requests for this information. He told me that he had been in contact with Senator Akaka’s staff that were looking into his allegations.
76. Mr. Stevenson further informed me that his group was working with a website designer and intended to publicly publish all information regarding these issues on the website once published. Since the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association email communications system had grown exponentially reaching out to employees from all airlines, he asked me to break down the information contained in his letter to Senator Akaka into individual components in simple layman’s language in a series of emails to our membership so that they might better understand the soon-to-be-published website.
77. From October 1st through October 18th of 2007, while recognizing that I was further exposing myself by publicizing this critical information via emails, I sent out a series of emails containing this information. During this time frame and the subsequent months, I kept petitioning Mr. Stevenson to publish his website in hopes that the information therein would enlighten many airline employees, but he kept insisting that the web designer was experiencing construction problems. He further advised me that it was his group’s intent to file a civil RICO suit once the PBGC provided the requisite information.
78. Mr. Stevenson also requested that I promulgate form letters to all members of our association petitioning both DOL Secretary Chao and PBGC Acting Inspector General Stover-Springer for this information, which I did. To date, the PBGC has not responded to our inquiries regarding this information.
79. Also during this time frame, because Senator Akaka’s staff was supposedly investigating the allegations of the ‘Committee for the Restoration of Pensions at United Airlines’, I contacted Akaka staffer Lisa Powell by phone and subsequently emailed her much information as attachments to apprise her of my dilemma. Since Senator Akaka is also a big whistleblower advocate, I felt compelled to write his office for the same reasons that I contacted the office of Senator McCaskill above.
80. After several months’ coordination with Mr. Stevenson and his group, he asked me to drop my work with Mr. Lynch and his team and join his efforts in filing a limited party class action civil RICO suit that would impact a very restricted group of United Airline employees. He further stated that his group would not be launching the promised website and that he could move no further legally until they received the requisite information from the PBGC.
81. I advised Mr. Stevenson that my role as a public spokesperson for an anonymous group of employees and retirees had placed me in a most precarious position in that I had already exposed much information on the federal side of the house and, when the time came, assuming a congressional/DOJ response for support and investigation, a federal racketeering suit could/would be filed (Qui Tam) that would expose all elements of criminality in this case. Mr. Stevenson then ceased all email communications with me and would not respond to my phone calls. In essence, I was left holding the bag after promulgating the information that he had provided me with. There are others who possess information but, to the best of my knowledge, have not stepped forward with valuable information and evidence for fear of harsh recriminations up to and including death for doing so.
82. During this time frame, President Bush had nominated Chicago Federal Judge Mark R. Filip to the post of Deputy Attorney General and Mr. Lynch suggested that we were both at extreme risk due to the fact that Judge Filip had been named as one of the four federal judges in Mr. Lynch’s affidavit that attorney David Martin Price had previously submitted to the Department of Justice in his earlier Qui Tam filing in Kansas City, Missouri on behalf of Mr. Lynch.
83. This caused me greater alarm, as I had previously submitted this same affidavit to various government offices in hopes that an investigation into this matter would be initiated. Mr. Lynch further suggested that perhaps certain individuals in government might concoct methods of criminally indicting us and recommended that I get my financial affairs in order, including my tax returns. I assured him that my financial house was in good order, but was much taken back by this information.
84. Mr. Lynch also previously provided me via email with a portion of a letter that was contained in an evidence package that had been delivered to the sister of Senator Biden at the Iowa caucus for delivery to him, which contained information giving further cause for alarm and realization of my need to protect myself somehow both legally and politically.
85. Deflecting panic and fear, on October 24, 2007, I once again wrote a letter to then Senator Obama’s Special Assistant Joan Currie-Leonard, only this time as spokesperson for the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association, more specifically detailing the information that was available, while requesting that Senator Obama launch an investigation into this matter. I was insistent in this letter, that although I was no longer an Illinois resident, I nonetheless served as public spokesperson for the then-named Whistleblowing United Pilots Association. I also phone contacted the Chicago office, but the individual that I spoke with supported the previous letter sent to me by Ms. Currie-Leonard and insisted that I contact my Georgia representatives.
86. On October 6, 2007, I received an unsolicited letter from my home state of Georgia Congressman Westmoreland advising me that his staffer Jean Stoddard would look into this matter with the Department of Justice and do everything to assist me.
87. Having exhausted what I felt was all legal and political avenues of assistance and protection, in a final desperate attempt to legally/politically insulate myself and protect our families from harm, on October 18, 2007, I wrote a letter to then SEC Commissioner Christopher Cox, with enclosures, declaring myself a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower, while demanding an investigation into this case and insisting on guarantees of enforcement of the protective provisions of this law. Mr. Lynch would still not come forward publicly with his witnesses and evidence while claiming that he would legally jeopardize his appeal regarding his earlier wrongful incarceration in Cook County Jail by Judge Paddy McNamara on October 13, 2006.
88. On October 19, 2007, I wrote letters to Senators Kennedy and Leahy, and Congressmen Waxman, Miller, Conyers, and Westmoreland advising them that I had filed for Sarbanes-Oxley protection, but their offices never responded to offer me any assistance. Additionally, on this date, I wrote my Congressman Westmoreland advising him of this fact, but his office never responded.
89. On October 22, 2007, I also received an unsolicited letter from Senator Chambliss advising me that “I have contacted the Department of Justice on your behalf and will certainly share their response with you when I receive it”.
90. On October 25, 2007, I sent a letter with enclosures to Senator Carl Levin, Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which contained the same information sent to Mr. Cox, and requesting protection under this law. I was advised in subsequent phone conversations with his staffer, Kata Sabenga who sat right outside Senator Levin’s office, that due to staff limitations, Senator Levin would be unable to assist me even though I tried desperately to convince her that my life and others might be in imminent danger as a result of our revelations to government. Ms. Sabenga acknowledged to me on the phone that Senator Levin’s staff had, in fact, reviewed all the information that I had sent to their office via registered mail, but no one was going to initiate an investigation into the matter.
91. On November 5, 2007, I received a letter response from Senator Chambliss advising me “While I regret to learn of your difficulties, I, as a United States Senator, have no jurisdiction over matters such as these”. I knew at this point in time that I was being stonewalled at the highest levels within the Department of Justice. If my home state senators would not respond to my petition for help, who could I turn to in government to support and defend me?
92. On November 5, 2007, I also received a letter from SEC Senior Counsel Juliet Gardner advising me that “I have passed your views on to the people at the SEC who specialize in the issues you’ve raised. If they have any questions or wish to respond to your comments, they will contact you”. Because I had enclosed in this letter an affidavit stating that Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, the federal bankruptcy judge in the United Airlines/McCook Metals, LLC bankruptcies allegedly maintained a $40-million bribery fund, I felt that the SEC was not going to further investigate this matter, which left me further in harm’s way. This information and belief as stated in my affidavit was based solely on the Lynch affidavit and other information provided to me by key witnesses and informants in this case who had previously been stonewalled by our government and not guaranteed witness protection.
93. On November 6, 2007, in a letter response to me, Ms. Leonard, the Chicago Special Assistant to Senator Obama, once again deferred me to my home state congressional representatives in Georgia, while completely ignoring the information contained in the detailed letter that I had written to her office. Since then Senator Obama was running for the office of president and from the state of Illinois, I was certain that his Illinois senate office would be interested in this information.
94. On December 12, 2007, I received a cover letter from DOJ Toner with an enclosed letter from Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Keeney, in response to my April 1st letter to Assistant AG Fisher, which totally skirted every issue that I addressed in that letter. His decision not to investigate this matter was based solely on his reference to the ruling by the three judges in the earlier URPBPA case that defended Judge Wedoff’s previous ruling. One of the three judges was Judge Bauer who is also listed in paragraph 42 of the Lynch affidavit. This apparent non-response that skirted my issues alarmed me as well.
95. On December 18, 2007, I received a copy of this same letter from Mr. Keeney from my Congressman Westmoreland.
96. On February 10, 2008, I sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Keeney requesting that he review the content of my letter to Asst AG Fisher, as I felt that his letter did not respond to my questions, but never received a response from his office. Mr. Keeney resigned from office shortly thereafter and no one within the Justice Department ever answered the Asst AG Alice Fisher letter of September 1, 2007. Ms. Fisher too resigned from the Department of Justice.
97. Because I recognized that I had inadvertently over-exposed myself to criminal elements and others in delusion that my government would defend and represent me, on February 14, 2008, I phone-contacted the office of the Chicago FBI and filed a federal complaint (Complaint # 2008-9580) with FBI Agent David Barusko at the intake unit desk, while asking him to keep the file open pending future submission of evidence/witness list with guaranteed witness protection for informants. During this phone conversation, I was advised by Agent Barusko that a secret meeting could be arranged at an undisclosed location of our choice in the Chicago area wherein informants could be questioned and evidence collected, but that DOJ would have to review the case before witness protection could be afforded due to the expense of federal marshal protection.
98. My intent in doing this was to protect myself, Mr. Lynch, our families, and our informants given what I had already said and done.
99. Additionally, on February 14, 2008, after numerous phone conversations with Senator Leahy staffer Matt Robinson, I emailed to him evidence pertaining to this case regarding alleged judicial corruption, but no assistance was rendered by this office. I also email-exchanged and left voice mail with Senator Leahy staffer Lydia Griggsby, a senior staffer on the Democratic side of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversees issues of alleged judicial corruption.
100. During this same time frame, because Mr. Lynch and Senator Feingold were both alumni of the University of Wisconsin and Senator Feingold an outspoken critic of the Bush administration who also sat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Lynch suggested that I contact Senator Feingold’s DC Judiciary Committee office with this information, which I emailed to one of his staff members without receiving a response.
101. For the same reasons, I also contacted the DC office of Senator Whitehouse with this same information in hopes that his office would intercede and protect us, but never received a response.
102. Fully realizing that I had mostly inadvertently dug myself into a very deep legal/political hole, I called and spoke with Matt Robinson the day before Judge Filip’s senate confirmation hearing and asked him if he and Ms. Griggsby had, in fact, reviewed all the information that I had sent to their offices and he admitted to me that he had. He then asked me in muffled tones if I had legal representation and who I was working with on these matters. I informed him that I did, in fact, have attorneys and was working closely behind the scenes with numerous print media journalists and many others. I further informed him that since both he and Ms. Griggsby had reviewed all the materials that I had sent them, if the information were true and Judge Filip was confirmed as Deputy Attorney General of the United States, that I would lose all faith in our government and my representatives.
103. Judge Filip was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on March 3, 2008. Senator Durbin, who endorsed him, was aware of our allegations since November 2006, as were Senators Reid and Obama.
104. On February 21, 2008, I once again petitioned Congressman Waxman staffer Matt Siegler via email to assist in this matter, but he never responded to my call for help. Mr. Waxman did however find room in the oversight committee agenda to hold hearings on professional baseball player Roger Clemen’s alleged illegal use of steroids while millions in this country were denied their pensions.
105. During this month, I also contacted the offices of Congressman George Miller, Chairman of the House Labor/Pension Committee and advised the staff of the information that we possessed and the refusal of the PBGC with regard to release of information under the FOIA. After only one phone conversation, the cognizant staffer that I had spoken to never answered his phone, voicemail messages, or emails that I sent to this office.
On February 22, 2008, I wrote a letter to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Grant advising him of my phone conversation with Agent Barusko, while detailing the protections we would need to meet at an undisclosed location of our choice in Chicago, but his office never responded. My reasons for requesting witness protection stemmed from written statements made by Sam Lipari in his legal filings regarding attempts made by alleged criminals in Chicago to lure him to a meeting at an undisclosed location wherein he felt that his life might be terminated should he accept the invitation. Additionally, Mr. Lynch previously informed me that his life, as well as that of his brother Kevin and his only son had been threatened by criminal elements prior to our meeting and that the Illinois Family Court system at one point in time attempted to ‘judicially kidnap’ his children, which was his reasons for collaborating with Dr. Sheila Mannix and the Ifffff up until the time we met and he discontinued his affiliation with this group.
106. On February 26, 2008, I also received the same copy of Mr. Keeney’s letter from Senator Chambliss in response to my September 15, 2007 letter to Assistant Attorney General Fisher. You will note that in my February 10, 2008 registered letter response to Mr. Keeney, a copy of this letter was also sent to the following government personnel:
Encl: Letter dated September 1, 2007 to Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher
Cc: All members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
All members of the House Judiciary Committee
All members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
FBI Director Robert Mueller
District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
Chicago FBI Director Robert Grant
Securities and Exchange Commissioner Christopher Cox
All Members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Assn
107. On July 23, 2008, I appeared under oath before Social Security Administrative Judge F. Jefferson Hughes regarding my Social Security Disability Income appeal hearing, which I claimed that I was not entitled to SSDI due to the fact I was fully capable of employment, but not as a pilot since I had been ‘permanently grounded’. During this hearing, I detailed my legal and political plight the past several years, which included allegations of white-collar criminality associated with the United Airlines bankruptcy that I had been attempting to report to competent legal and political authorities. I felt at the time that since Judge Hughes had recently served as a Department of Justice attorney, since he was an officer of the court, he would be obliged to report this alleged wrongdoing to the Department of Justice. The entire testimony was digitally-recorded and I obtained a copy of the court transcripts a few days after the hearing, which are available upon request from the Security and Exchange Commission and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
108. Approaching the fall 2008 presidential election, with then Senator Obama promising a greater openness of government with enhanced protection for federal whistleblowers, I decided to wait until after his inauguration to petition a new cabinet and congressional leaders for assistance as a federal whistleblower. There were GOP attacks made on then Senator Obama regarding his association with the now indicted Tony Rezko in Illinois that caused me mild concern.
109. Shortly after President Obama’s victory, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojavich was indicted and controversies once again were swirling in the air concerning the vacated senate seat of Senator Obama being allegedly auctioned off to the highest bidder by Governor Blagojavich.
110. In spite of these controversies, I had already contacted Senator Obama’s Illinois senate office in Chicago on two previous occasions wherein I had been deflected to my home congressional representatives who in turn advised me that they had no jurisdiction in matters such as these. I realized that as commander-in-chief, President Obama now had jurisdiction over his cabinet and was certain that I would finally receive the support I needed as a federal whistleblower from a strong advocate of whistleblowers that promised us a greater openness of government during his campaign.
111. On January 25, 2009, I wrote a letter to Department of Transportation Inspector General Scovel advising him that my April 2006 FAA Whistle Blower Report had never been administrated. I subsequently received an email response that there was no record of the report and that no further action would be taken by the DOT IG office regarding this matter. Because both the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, in response to my April 12, 2006 letter to their offices, had deferred me to the Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration for a response, I felt compelled to demand a response from the Department of Transportation since then DOT Secretary Mineta had not responded to the same letter of April 12, 2006.
112. On January 26, 2009, after phone conversations with Senator Grassley staffer Brian Downey, I wrote Senator Grassley a letter advising him that I was an FAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Social Security fraud whistleblower, but his office never responded to this letter, nor to subsequent voice mail messages left for Mr. Downey.
113. On January 28, 2009, I wrote a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission Inspector General Kotz advising him that my filed October 2007 Sarbanes-Oxley report had been ignored by the SEC and petitioned his office for assistance. Because former SEC Senior Counsel Juliet Gardner had merely responded to my SEC Sarbanes-Oxley filing of October 2007 by ‘thanking me for my views’ after I had over-exposed myself to criminal elements and very powerful financial institutions, I felt compelled to demand an investigation into the allegations made in my letter to SEC Chairman Cox and the affidavit that I had attached to this letter along with numerous other relevant pieces of correspondence.
114. During this time frame, UsAir Captain Sully Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles had heroically ditched their A-320 in the Hudson River. Based on previous email discussions with UsAir pilots and corresponding news reports, I was aware that UsAir had cancelled their Aviation Safety Awareness Reporting (ASAP) system based on recriminations suffered by reporting pilots, just as I had been fired for my reports.
115. On January 28, 2009, I sent a joint letter to DOT Inspector General Scovel, DOT Secretary LaHood, and the FAA administrator advising them of these facts and my similar case while addressing the recent United Airlines court injunction against their pilots for other reasons. I did not receive a response to this letter, but UsAir quietly reinstated their ASAP reporting system shortly thereafter. There was never an acknowledgement from any of these offices regarding a response to my filed FAA Whistle Blower report.
116. On January 29, 2009, I filed a Social Security fraud report with the Social Security Office of Inspector General O’Connell concerning my SSDI appeal and received an email receipt from this office advising me that my report had been received, but I would receive no further information on my case until the investigation was completed.
117. On January 30, 2009, I called the Chicago FBI office to confirm that my filed federal complaint of February 14, 2008 was still an open file, which I was assured that it was. I advised the intake agent of my intent to visit the Chicago FBI office for the purpose of providing information pertaining to my federal complaint. I further advised this agent that I was an unprotected federal whistleblower on numerous counts and felt uneasy regarding my visit to Chicago FBI.
118. On January 31, 2009, I wrote a letter to President Obama detailing the events of the past two years since I had written his Illinois senate office in the fall of 2006, while petitioning his office for support, since he then had jurisdiction over his relevant cabinet members. To date, I have not received a White House response to this letter.
119. On January 31, 2009, I sent a letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Fine detailing all of the issues addressed above, while asking for his legal assistance in this matter.
120. On February 2, 2009, I flew to Chicago, rented a car, and drove to the Chicago FBI office to deliver evidence and the names of witness to be included in the complaint file, but was advised by the reviewing agent that the FBI was not going to investigate my case without ever having reviewed the tiniest shred of evidence nor interviewing a single witness. I had requested that this agent retrieve an 164 MB storage device that contained all my information and evidence that I was required by FBI security to leave at the gate. I even offered this key to the agent, as the security guards assured me that an agent would retrieve this device once I provided her with the key to the locker. This agent refused to accept this key. I then requested that I be permitted to speak with an agent in the white-collar criminal division since Mr. Lynch had purportedly already briefed this division, but she would not permit me to do so. Exasperated, I asked this agent if I could possibly speak with the head of the white-collar criminal division and she refused. Finally, in desperation, I admitted to her that I knew that Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant was a very busy man, but asked her if I could have but a few minutes of his time since I had previously written his office numerous letters without receiving a response from a single letter. This agent advised me that the Chicago FBI office had read all the correspondence that I had sent and that the Department of Justice was not going to investigate my allegations.
121. Stunned, I reminded her that no one had even accepted any evidence nor interviewed witnesses to date and that the United Airlines bankruptcy and pension termination was the largest in U.S. history with the alleged criminality taking place in the state of Illinois. She concluded the interview with the remark, ‘this conversation has ended’ (sic) and departed her side of the briefing room leaving me sitting on the other side of the glass dumbfounded and very confused and concerned.
122. Mr. Lynch can attest to some of these facts, as I was in cell phone contact with him throughout the day, both before and after the visit to the office of Chicago FBI.
123. On the evening of February 2, 2009, I wrote a letter to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Grant asking for an explanation as to why FBI would not investigate this case without ever having received any supporting evidence/witnesses, but his office never responded.
124. On February 2, 2009, I wrote a letter Department of Labor Inspector General Heddell requesting specific information that had previously been denied via FOIA requests to the PBGC Inspector General, but his office never responded to this letter.
125. On February 6, 2009, I wrote a letter to Attorney General Holder advising him of the events of February 2nd, while asking for his assistance in this matter.
126. On February 7, 2009, I wrote a letter to SSA Federal Judge Hughes asking him to forward my appeals court transcripts to the Department of Justice for review since I had been turned away at the door at FBI Chicago on February 2nd. Judge Hughes never responded to this letter.
127. In February, the Colgan Air 3407 crash occurred and many news stories reported on alleged safety issues related to the accident that were identical to those issues that I had reported in my Aviation Safety Awareness Reports in 2003 that terminated my career as a captain at United Airlines. Included were allegations of insufficient crew rest and suppression of pilot whistleblowers, which was very distressing to me at the time. I surmised that if I, as a 35-year veteran of aviation was terminated as a B-777 captain for reporting on these same issues, what chance of success would a 22-year old first officer have while surviving on wages that one could acquire managing their local McDonald’s restaurant?
128. During this time frame, I received in the mail a package of information from former Continental Airlines First Officer Newton Dickson regarding his forced medical grounding at that airline by FAA Flight Surgeon Dr. Michael Berry. Included in this packet was also information pertaining to a legally-precedent setting case of now retired Delta Captain Wayne Witter who won his court case in Atlanta involving his medical grounding and the same Dr. Michael Berry.
129. In April 2009, I was advised by email by the Department of Transportation Inspector General that there was no record of my April 2006 FAA Whistle Blower Protection Report, so I electronically filed another report, which included the Dorgan affidavit mentioned below and received an email response that the allegations surrounding my case were under investigation by that office (Hotline Case Number 09IH-C24-000).
130. On May 8, 2009, I received a letter from DOJ Kaiser in response to my February 6th letter to Attorney General Holder advising me to contact the Atlanta office of the FBI if I had criminal information to report. Since I had been advised the same in July 2006 by DOJ Toner and FBI Anderson in May 2007, and since the Chicago FBI office had turned me away in February 2009 without looking at evidence, it did not make sense that I should be required to report to the Atlanta FBI Field Office. For what purpose? To be turned away at the front door of the FBI office again?
131. On May 20, 2009, I wrote a letter to FBI Kaiser inquiring as to the necessity that I report alleged white-collar criminality to the Atlanta FBI Field Office when the Chicago FBI Field Office already advised that the Department of Justice had no intent of investigating this matter, even though no evidence/witness testimony had been reviewed. I never received a response to this letter.
132. Shortly thereafter, I phone-contacted the DC office of the FBI and spoke with a senior agent in the criminal division complaining of the outrageous and nightmarish runaround that I had endured with the Department of Justice since 2006. Again, this agent advised me to contact the office of the FBI in Atlanta if I had any information or evidence of alleged federal criminality. I attempted to explain to this agent that I already had an open federal complaint file in Chicago and it made no sense to visit the Atlanta FBI office since this was the same agency.
133. The same day, I called the Atlanta office of the FBI and provided this office with my federal complaint number for the complaint filed in Chicago (Complaint # 2008-9580) and provided the intake agent with details of my February 2nd visit to the Chicago FBI office. He suggested that I come to the office to fill out a new complaint and speak with agents in the Atlanta office, but I reminded him that the Chicago FBI agent had already informed me that the Department of Justice was not going to investigate my allegations. I further informed him that I had filed a Sarbanes-Oxley report with both SEC Cox and Senator Levin and many others, including President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Assistant Attorney General Breuer, and FBI Director Mueller without success and felt that my visit to the Atlanta FBI office would again be an exercise in futility.
134. During this time frame, I received a phone call late one Sunday evening from Mr. Lynch advising me that he was going to discontinue his work with me and that our work was over, and a heated conversation followed. He insisted that I would be successful in some other line of work and encouraged me to move on, as he had developed new business enterprises and felt confident that his legal affair concerning his alleged wrongful incarceration in Cook County jail would soon be resolved. After having been abandoned by Captain Jim Hosking, Mr. Kirk Stevenson, and now Mr. Lynch, I felt somewhat disadvantaged without access to his material witnesses and evidence that was the basis of my judicial corruption allegations.
135. The next day I phone contacted Dr. Sheila Mannix, PhD to inquire as to whether or not she had access to this same information since she had been working closely with Mr. Lynch in late 2006 when I first met him, which she assured me that she and many others did. At this point in time, Dr. Mannix requested that I move forward legally with her group involved with alleged judicial kidnapping of children for extortion purposes, but I informed her that another individual (Mr. Stevenson) had already abandoned me and I needed to move forward in various directions both legally and politically in an attempt to protect myself.
136. During this time, after having numerous phone conversations with Continental whistleblower Newton Dickson, we agreed that we would fly to DC in an attempt to at least produce evidence to relevant politicians on Capitol Hill regarding each of our cases, including the office of Senator Dorgan who was to hold hearings on June 17th concerning the Colgan Air 3407 crash in Buffalo.
137. On June 12, 2009, I wrote a letter with an attached affidavit for inclusion as part of congressional public record to Senator Dorgan concerning his upcoming June 17th hearing regarding the Colgan Air 3407, since I was advised by his staffer, Rich Swayze, in a phone conversation that I would not be permitted to testify as a witness, even though the safety issues that I had addressed in my 2006 FAA Whistle Blower Report, which was ‘lost’ were critically germane to the issues surrounding this crash with regard to flight crew scheduling and fatigue.
138. On June 16, 2009, I paid a visit to the Senate Aviation Subcommittee office of Senator Dorgan and spoke for a while with his staffer Rich Swayze who I had spoken with previously on the phone. He advised me that the witnesses for the hearing the next day had already been arranged, but I requested that he accept an evidence package that contained two affidavits and other information for inclusion in the public record for the hearing. I then visited the office of Senator McCaskill and spoke with her staffer Melissa Mann and provided her with this same evidence package.
139. After this meeting, I met with Washington Examiner reporter Barbara Hollingsworth, as we had previously spoken numerous times on the phone, and provided her with all the information pertaining to my case. I also had the opportunity to speak for a while with her editor, before Newton Dickson and I met with Tom Devine, the legal director of the Government Accountability Project to discuss our individual cases.
140. On June 17, 2009, I met with Newton Dickson and we revisited numerous senate and congressional offices prior to attending the Dorgan hearing. Prior to commencement of the hearing, Dorgan staffer Rich Swayze approached me in the audience to assure me that my testimony had been included as part of congressional record for the hearing.
141. After the hearing, I met briefly outside the hearing room in the hall with Captain John Prater, the national president of ALPA who had served as a witness for the hearing. He told me that he knew who I was and what I was attempting to accomplish in exposing my forced medical grounding, and I assured him that our association and others would put a stop to this process. After I spoke with Captain Prater, Newton Dickson had a few words with him as well.
142. On June 17, 2009, in an unsigned letter received from the Operations Sector of the Office of the Department of Justice Inspector General Fine, it was stated that “This office does not have jurisdiction in the matters that you describe; therefore we are unable to assist you.” This was in response to my June 17, 2009 letter to this office, which detailed the chronological events listed above and more.
143. During the next few months, I appeared as a guest of Dr. Janet Parker on her Medical Whistleblower Blog Talk Radio Program along with Wayne Witter and Newton Dickson where Dr. Parker acknowledged the widespread employment of ‘hostile work environment forced psychiatric and medical evaluations’ to terminate employment of whistleblowers. She even stated that in many cases, unethical medical professionals(?) diagnose these whistleblowers as bipolar, since once diagnosed as such, it is very difficult to remove this label in a court of law. (sic)
144. In concert with other whistleblower organizations, during this same period we launched a Whistleblowing Airline Employees Blog Talk Radio Program that included many pilot, FAA, and Homeland Security whistleblowers as guests. I served as host for these programs.
145. After almost daily phone calls leaving messages for a staffer in Security and Exchange Commission Inspector General Kotz’s office requesting response to my January 28, 2009 letter to his office, in a letter dated November 9, 2009, SEC IG Kotz finally acknowledged SEC undersight in not investigating my October 2007 Sarbanes-Oxley allegations that I had sent to then SEC Cox.
146. On December 12, 2009, I wrote a joint letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Fine, Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Skinner, and Department of Transportation Inspector General Scovel reiterating the nightmarish stonewalling of my case the past three years, while requesting their good offices to respond to my repeated requests for assistance.
147. In XXXXX, I received a letter dated XXX from Atlanta SEC Senior Counsel advising me of my rights and the fact that her office was in receipt of materials from DC and that she would be my point-of-contact in that office.
148. Shortly after receiving this letter, I phone-contacted Ms. Hampton attempting to provide more detail to my case, but she informed me that the SEC would be unable to provide me with any information surrounding their investigation until it was complete. I inquired as to whether the Department of Justice would become involved since some of the issues pertaining to alleged judicial corruption and other matters appeared to be outside the jurisdiction of the SEC. Her only response to me was that the SEC coordinates their investigations with all relevant branches of the federal government.
149. A few weeks later, I received an email from Ms. Hampton advising me that my point-of-contact would now be Matthew McNamara, the Assistant Director of the Atlanta SEC office and she provided me with his contact number and email address.
150. I spoke with Mr. McNamara on the phone and, although very congenial, he basically reiterated what Ms. Hampton stated with regard to not providing information concerning the progress of the investigation.
151. Because of the four year history of this case that included stonewalling by all levels and branches of the federal government, particularly within the Departments of Justice and Transportation, on July 20, 2010, I decided to file a federal complaint over the phone with the Atlanta office of the FBI since I had been advised on numerous occasions for whatever reason(s) to contact this particular office even though there are XXXX FBI offices located throughout the United States.
152. In two subsequent phone conversations with the FBI Atlanta intake agent, neither agent would acknowledge as to whether or not my case had been opened for investigation or whether or not the FBI would even give consideration to investigating the allegations currently being reviewed by the SEC Atlanta office.
153. A key judicial corruption witness from Chicago subsequently contacted the Atlanta FBI office by phone to provide information in this case and was advised by the intake agent to contact the Chicago FBI office that refused to accept evidence from me on February 2, 2009 with advisement by the Chicago FBI agent that day that the Department of Justice was not going to initiate an investigation into these matters.
154. On XXXXX, my son living in Atlanta phone-contacted me and advised that a business card was left in the door of his apartment by FBI Agent XXXX of the Joint Terrorist Task Force with a note indicating that he wished to speak with my son on the phone or in person. I told my son to call this agent and then provide me with his contact information so that I could return his call. Several minutes later, my son called me to inform me that Agent XXX wished to speak with me so I called him.
155. I was absolutely stunned to hear this agent advise me that the FBI had received an anonymous tip that included information concerning my specific whereabouts abroad, other personal information including my recent marriage to a foreigner, but mostly that this tipster stated that I was making derogatory remarks about the United States government. I inquired as to whether Agent XXXX had, in fact, reviewed all the pages of our Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association website and he admitted that he had and felt that we were doing some good work for citizens of our country.
156. I advised Agent XXXX that the Atlanta office of the Securities and Exchange Commission was currently investigating my Sarbanes-Oxley allegations, but that his contacting me intimating that I was making such statements about my government was ludicrous and that my conversation with him was the first ever Department of Justice-initiated contact with me since 2006. I further advised Agent XXXX that our mission was in full support of the Department of Justice mission statement and that I had referred to this very statement in numerous letters sent to DOJ, but felt that I was not exactly getting max whack for my tax buck as a tax-paying whistleblower attempting with others to expose fraud, waste, and abuse of tax-payer dollars in business and government alike. (sic)
157. In XXXX, after repeated phone conversations with DOT IG Compliance Officer Scott Harding concerning my much delayed response to my FAA Whistle Blower Report, I received a letter from Department of Transportation Assistant Inspector General Bob Westbrook’s office advising me that my case was closed without this office having interviewed a single witness nor reviewing my evidence associated with this case. This empty response was based on the frivolous grounds that I had not met the 60-day reporting window to the Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration in accordance with AIR 21. I WAS NOT attempting airline captain job restoration, but only attempting to report allegations of a serious violation of federal regulations and laws that including RICO violations, which I believe have no statute of limitations if RICO is proven.
158. Recently one of my siblings who reside in Congressman Costello’s district in Illinois was advised by his Belleville, Illinois staff to recommend to me that I contact my home state of Georgia Congressman Lynn Westmoreland’s office for assistance. I very recently spoke again with Ms. Jean Studdard in Congressman Westmoreland’s Newnan, Georgia office who assured me that she would contact his DC staffer Joe Lillis who oversees Mr. Westmoreland’s aviation matters. Congressman Westmoreland sits on the House Aviation Subcommittee that is chaired by Congressman Costello and Ms. Studdard recently emailed me a Privacy Release Form that I completed and faxed and mailed to her office via registered mail for which I have receipts for both. Hopefully, Mr. Westmoreland and his staff can contact the office of Department of Transportation Inspector General Scovel and rectify their short-sightedness in legally overseeing and investigating my case involving alleged serious criminality. If this legal matter is not resolved in short order, I am aware of numerous forthcoming suits by other airline pilot whistleblowers wherein I fully intend to serve as a witness, given the legal commonality of our cases.
159. In my October 2007 letter to SEC Cox the following request was made:
Section 1107 Retaliation against informants
The Commission is hereby commanded under this provision that my wife and two adult children, Michael Lynch, former Chairman and CEO of McCook Metals LLC and his family, his criminal informants (who have not yet been afforded DOJ witness protection/immunity), other informants and their families, as well as myself, be afforded immediate legal and other physical protections as mandated by this Act.
160. I have recently been advised by immediate members of my family that they have been receiving anonymous phone calls requesting information about my physical location. Additionally, I very recently have received a few personal emails that I perceive to be of a threatening nature. The allegations stated herein involve the potential theft of billions of dollars and may involve some of the largest financial institutions in the world and organized crime members.
161. It is respectfully requested once again that sufficient physical and legal protections be afforded to criminal informants and their families in this case as previously requested in the October 2007 letter to SEC Cox until completion of this investigation by the Security and Exchange Commission and hopefully the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been completed. If so much as a single hair is touched on any family member associated with this investigation, this affidavit will serve notice of our intent to litigate to the fullest extent of the law since due process will not have been served in this case.
162. Because, in part, I am an unprotected federal whistleblower on numerous counts and because of the extensive delay in opening an investigation into these matters during which time I expended substantial monies, I find myself at age 61 having to live abroad at undisclosed locations and filing for Chapter Seven bankruptcy protection on limited income because I have been ignored for so long.
163. I have patriotically served my country faithfully and with distinction as a naval officer and aviator having taken an oath of office as such in 1970 to support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This is the same oath of office taken by the president, his cabinet members, and all members of congress and law enforcement. I have kept my end of the bargain; my country and my government have failed me miserably in keeping their end of the bargain. My entire career, reputation, otherwise sterling credit rating, and my family has been decimated as a result of my attempting to be honest in abidance with federal laws and regulations, while perhaps naively believing that laws supposedly designed to protect and defend me would somehow be upheld during this process.
164. I am guilty only of naivety and will never regret any decision that I have made since September 11, 2001 save my decision to trust my government to which I believed would assist me while I attempted to support the mission statements of each relevant branch of Presidents Bush and Obama’s cabinet.
165. Please restore my faith and belief in my government.
Further affiant sayeth naught.
______________________________
Daniel William Hanley
SUBSCRIBED and SWORN before me on
This ____ day of _________________ 2010
______________________________
Notary Public
