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California prosecutors: PG&E could face manslaughter charges — in theory

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES

California prosecutors: PG&E could face manslaughter charges — in theory


Manslaughter and murder are among the crimes Pacific Gas and Electric Co. could have committed under California law if its reckless operation of power lines is found to have sparked any recent deadly wildfire, according to the state’s top prosecutor.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his deputies described to a federal judge Friday a range of possible consequences PG&E could face at the state level, depending on the utility’s “mental state,” if it is deemed responsible for wildfires that have ravaged the state.
The potential crimes vary widely, from minor offenses related to vegetation and power lines to felonies or misdemeanors about causing fires or even implied-malice murder and involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors said.
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Becerra’s office laid out the possibilities in a brief to U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who is considering how the wildfires could affect PG&E’s probation from a criminal case born out of the aftermath to the 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion.
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Insider Terrorism on the California Power Grid









Sniper attack on California power grid may have been 'an insider,' DHS says

Rest assured it was a inside job leading to other deadly explosions

The 2013 Sniper Attack on California Electric Grid

A top DHS official revealed on Wednesday that an infamous 2013 sniper attack on a California energy grid substation may have been committed by someone on the inside. The attack, which nearly took out power to parts of Silicon Valley, has been called "the
most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred" by the nation's top electrical utility regulator. The yet-unsolved case has been shrouded in mystery. No suspects have been named, and
as of last year, no motive identified. But at an energy industry conference in Philadelphia this week, we got our first glimpse at who the government thinks might have attacked the grid. "While we have not yet identified the
shooter, there's some indication it was an insider," said Caitlin Durkovich, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection at the Department of Homeland Security.






Was it a current or former employee of PG&E (PCG)? A hired contractor? DHS will not comment on an ongoing investigation. Shortly after midnight on April 16, 2013, some people snuck up on PG&E's substation in Metcalf, California. They cut fiber-optic
AT&T phone lines, shutting off service to nearby neighborhoods. They also fired more than 100 rounds of .30-caliber rifle ammunition into the radiators of 17 electricity transformers. Thousands of gallons of oil leaked,
causing electronics to overheat and shut down. PG&E engineers were able to reroute power, but it was a struggle to keep the power on during the attack. The assault lasted only 19 minutes, but it caused $15 million in damage.
It also became a harsh wake-up call for energy providers, who have since become obsessed with the physical security of their remote power stations. PG&E alone has pledged to spend $100 million to improve security at its
facilities. Also, it and AT&T (T) have each announced separate $250,000 rewards to catch the attackers.

Why the alarm?

Transformers are often custom designed, sometimes costing $3 million each -- and replacements are slow. Plus, physical attacks on energy distribution machines are much more effective at taking out the power grid than a computer
hack. And it's incredibly easy to pull off, several energy utility firms told CNNMoney. Experts attending GridSecCon, held by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation this week, are now discussing the need to enclose
electronics in 1/2-inch thick armor plating that can stop high-powered rifle rounds. Power utilities have started loading remote substations with infrared cameras, gunshot audio sensors and even seismic recorders that catch
vibrations. Correction: The headline and first sentence of this story have been updated to reflect the comment made by the DHS official.


The Insider Terrorists Meeting


Deliver of the Maps during PG&E Meeting

Placed via external drive provided by PG& Pete Bennett's laptop by Ravenel Enterprises SVP Paul Reddit. Meeting Location: Pacific Gas & Electric Company Address: 1850 Gateway Blvd Fl 6, Concord, CA 94520 Phone: (800) 743-5000

California Data Breach and Microsoft Sharepoint

Example map of over 20,000 internal documents directly from the SharePoint Server.








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Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures

Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures

Pete Bennett cabinet business began in late 70's in a small 2 car garage in Pleasant Hill CA.   Working hard every day, eventually outgrew the garage then moving to Cloverdale Ave, Pittsburg CA. The shop folded when FBI Agent Frank Doyle Jr. arrived when





Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures



Cnetscandal.blogspot.com

One beautiful morning on or about August 27, 1987, Pete Bennett needed to send fax. One of his restuarant designer customers was just around the the corner allowed free use of their fax as back a fax machine was expensive.





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Biographies of the Secretaries of State: George Pratt Shultz (1920–)

Biographies of the Secretaries of State: George Pratt Shultz (1920–)

Introduction

George Shultz was named as Secretary of State by President Ronald Reagan on June 25, 1982. Following confirmation by the Senate, he assumed the office of Secretary on July 16, and he remained in that position until January 20, 1989.
George Pratt Shultz, 60th Secretary of State

Rise to Prominence

Born and raised in New York City, Shultz completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University in 1942. After serving with the United States Marine Corps Reserves in the Pacific theater during World War II, he pursued a Ph.D. in industrial economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving his degree in 1949. From then until 1968, he taught economics at MIT and the University of Chicago.
His first experience in government came in 1969 when President Richard Nixonappointed him Secretary of Labor (1969–70), then Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1970–72), and then Secretary of the Treasury (1972–1974).
After returning to private life, Shultz took up a position teaching management and public policy at Stanford University, and also served as Executive Vice President and President of Bechtel Corporation, and President of Bechtel Group, Inc.

Influence on American Diplomacy

As Secretary of State, Shultz played a crucial role in guiding U.S. diplomacy during his lengthy six and a half year tenure in office. Upon his confirmation, he inherited a number of foreign policy challenges, including war in Lebanon, delicate negotiations with the People’s Republic of China and the Government on Taiwan, and a ratcheting up of Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union.
Over the next several years, Shultz focused U.S. diplomatic efforts on resolving the conflict in the Middle East, defusing trade disputes with Japan, managing increasingly tense relationships with several Latin American nations, and crafting U.S. responses to the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and the new Soviet policies of perestroika and opening to the West.
In part due to his collegial relationships with President Reagan and other members of the Administration, Shultz was able to exert considerable influence over U.S. foreign policy in regards to these issues. Although he was unable to forge a lasting resolution to the Middle East conflict, he negotiated an agreement between Israel and Lebanon and convinced Israel to begin withdrawing its troops in January 1985, in spite of Lebanon’s contravention of the settlement.
He completed the discussions between the United States and China, begun under Secretary of State Alexander Haig, which led to the joint communiqué of August 1982 that has provided stability for U.S.-Chinese relations ever since.
Shultz had not been able to halt the arms-for-hostages deals with Iran that provided funds for the Contras in Nicaragua, which he had opposed, but by 1988 he had helped to broker agreements that eased the disputes of Nicaragua’s civil war.
He had other successes in Latin America, but his crowning achievements came in regards to U.S.-Soviet relations. Through positive responses to the overtures of Gorbachev and his Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, and through his own initiatives, Shultz helped to draft and sign landmark arms control treaties and other agreements that helped to diminish U.S.-Soviet antagonism.
As a result, under Shultz’s leadership, U.S. diplomacy helped to pave the way for the ending of the Cold War during 1989.
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Suspected Corruption Investigation at the City of Pittsburg




Sometime prior to 2001, Huppert began working with the FBI on an investigation into suspected corruption within the PPD. While he does not disclose what assistance he gave to the FBI, he does claim that this work was “outside [his] duties as a member of the PPD.” Then, in January 2001, his superior, William Zbacnik, informed Huppert that he would be transferred to “Code Enforcement,” also known as the “Strategic Operations Bureau.”   He was officially transferred in June 2001, and was sent to a building known within the PPD as the “Penal Colony,” because “disaffected and/or disfavored officers were assigned there.”   Huppert's new supervisor, William Hendricks (“Hendricks”), informed him that he had been sent to the “Penal Colony” because Baker wanted Hendricks to find a way to fire him.   Huppert's new office at the “Penal Colony” was a “tiny converted bathroom without computer access,” and even though he was assigned to investigate gang-related activity, the building was not equipped with the proper secured areas needed for his investigations.   During the six-month period between January and June 2001, Huppert was not permitted to work overtime.
Salgado joined the force in 1995 and was, for the majority of his tenure, a detective.   In September 2001, he was assigned to the “Strategic Operations Bureau” as Huppert's partner.   Baker assigned both of them to investigate suspected corruption at the local City-owned golf course, but told them not to inform Hendricks of this assignment.   The investigation “revealed improper conduct by members of the PPD, including gambling, accepting free golf, and possible illegal drug activity.”   After only two interviews, Baker commanded that Huppert and Salgado cease the investigation.   Once they informed Hendricks, he encouraged them to continue investigating and informed Baker that Huppert and Salgado were still looking into corruption at the golf course.   Hendricks also informed the FBI that he believed there was a major gambling operation on-going at the golf course.
Huppert claims that while Baker told them not to memorialize their findings, they drafted a report at the conclusion of their inquiry and directed it to Baker and the Pittsburg City Manager.   The report “included a finding that defendant Zbacnik had accepted thousands of dollars in gratuities and other illegal perks.”   However, following the report, Baker took no action against Zbacnik, and instead deemed Zbacnik's actions a “training issue.”
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Sidley Austin Partner's Suicide: 'Too Many Lawyers Mask Their Struggles'

Sidley Austin Partner's Suicide: 'Too Many Lawyers Mask Their Struggles'

Hopefully the U.S. Department of Justice will protect me
Learn more
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18 U.S. Code § 1513 - Retaliating against a witness, victim, or an informant


(a)
(1)Whoever kills or attempts to kill another person with intent to retaliate against any personfor—
(A)
the attendance of a witness or party at an official proceeding, or any testimony given or any record, document, or other object produced by a witness in an official proceeding; or
(B)
providing to a law enforcement officer any information relating to the commission or possible commission of a Federal offense or a violation of conditions of probation, supervised release, parole, or release pending judicial proceedings,
shall be punished as provided in paragraph (2).
(2)The punishment for an offense under this subsection is—
(A)
in the case of a killing, the punishment provided in sections 1111 and 1112; and
(B)
in the case of an attempt, imprisonment for not more than 30 years.
(b)Whoever knowingly engages in any conduct and thereby causes bodily injury to another personor damages the tangible property of another person, or threatens to do so, with intent to retaliate against any person for—
(1)
the attendance of a witness or party at an official proceeding, or any testimony given or any record, document, or other object produced by a witness in an official proceeding; or
(2)
any information relating to the commission or possible commission of a Federal offense or a violation of conditions of probation, supervised release, parole, or release pending judicial proceedings given by a person to a law enforcement officer;
or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.
(c)
If the retaliation occurred because of attendance at or testimony in a criminal case, the maximum term of imprisonment which may be imposed for the offense under this section shall be the higher of that otherwise provided by law or the maximum term that could have been imposed for any offense charged in such case.
(d)
There is extraterritorial Federal jurisdiction over an offense under this section.
(e)
Whoever knowingly, with the intent to retaliate, takes any action harmful to any person, including interference with the lawful employment or livelihood of any person, for providing to a law enforcement officer any truthful information relating to the commission or possible commission of any Federal offense, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both.
(f)
Whoever conspires to commit any offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.
(g)
A prosecution under this section may be brought in the district in which the official proceeding (whether pending, about to be instituted, or completed) was intended to be affected, or in which the conduct constituting the alleged offense occurred.
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Finding and Evaluating Antitrust Complaints

Standards for Approving a Preliminary Investigation

In a matter where the suspected conduct appears to meet the Division’s standard for proceeding criminally, the decision whether to open an investigation will depend on two questions. The first is whether the allegations or suspicions of a criminal violation are sufficiently credible or plausible to call for a criminal investigation.

Meet my clients
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Felony Attacks Upon the Witness



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Felony Assault Pete Bennett v. Cypress Security / Contra Costa Public Library





Examples of felony assault or battery include:
  • striking or threatening to strike a person with a weapon or dangerous object. 
  • shooting a person with a gun or threatening to kill someone while pointing a gun at the victim. 
  • assault or battery with the intent to commit another felony crime such as robbery or rape. 
  • assault or battery resulting in serious... 
Felony Assault & Battery Laws and Penalties | Criminal Law
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Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures and his former client PG&E (1981 to 1987)

Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures

Pete Bennett founded his cabinet business around 1979 in his small garage in Pleasant Hill CA. The shop survived with plenty of bumps and setbacks until 1989. The shop folded when FBI Agent Frank Doyle Jr. arrived explaining he was unable to protect me.


Of course I believed him as my left hand had just been shattered.



Mainframe Designs Cabinets and Fixtures
Cnetscandal.blogspot.com


former site of cabinet shop owned by Pete Bennett plaintiff in the Matter of Bennett verus Southern Pacific, Contra Costa County (1987)


1989 ~ The Hand Injury
Cnetscandal.blogspot.com


former site of cabinet shop owned by Pete Bennett plaintiff in the Matter of Bennett versus Southern Pacific, Contra Costa County (1987)



1987 ~ The Head Trauma and related injuries

Cnetscandal.blogspot.com





One beautiful morning on or about August 27, 1987, Pete Bennett needed to send fax. One of his restaurant designer customers was just around the the corner allowed free use of their fax as in 1987,  fax machines were expensive. 

Just a few hundred feet on a my touring bike became a life changing event.




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Culture to Culture and Walter Ng and The Billion Dollar Fraud Case




The BAR-K Investor Scandal

Many Contra Costa residents lost millions


In 2004 Mayor Candace Andersen and her husband Attorney Phillip Andersen employed by State Farm were well informed about the Building Inspector attack and the truck arson.  

I know today I am lucky to have survived the many attempts on my life but today my losses are in the millions  
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Supervisor Candace Andersen & Oath of Office

Refuses Constituent Services





Ernie Scherer III Murder Investigation


When Ernie Scherer Jr. and wife Charlene were murdered in March 2008.   Upon learning about the brutal, I called and spoke with the Alameda County Sheriff Investigator in charge.   My comments linked up events in Danville linking San Ramon Ward under the Danville Stake (See Stakes, Wards and Temples) to my truck explosion and attempted murder.










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Walter Liew Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Economic Espionage

July 11, 2014

Walter Liew Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Economic Espionage

SAN FRANCISCO—Yesterday, Walter Lian-Heen Liew (aka Liu Yuanxuan) was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison, forfeit $27.8 million in illegal profits, and pay $511,667.82 in restitution for what the sentencing judge described as a “white collar crime spree” that included violations of the Economic Espionage Act, tax evasion, bankruptcy fraud, and obstruction of justice, announced U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag; John P. Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Department of Justice; David Johnson, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), San Francisco Division; and Jose Martinez, Special Agent in Charge of the Oakland Field Office, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation.
Liew was convicted on March 6, 2014, after a two month jury trial before the Honorable Jeffery S. White, U.S. District Court Judge, on each of the twenty counts with which he was charged. The jury found that Liew, his company, USA Performance Technology, Inc. (USAPTI), and Robert Maegerle conspired to steal trade secrets from E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company regarding their chloride-route titanium dioxide production technology and sold those secrets for large sums of money to state-owned companies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The purpose of their conspiracy was to help those companies develop large-scale chloride-route titanium dioxide production capabilities in the PRC, including a planned 100,000-ton titanium dioxide factory in Chongqing. This case marks the first federal jury conviction on charges brought under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996.
The jury also found that Liew, USAPTI, and Maegerle obstructed justice during the course of their conspiracy. The jury found that Liew filed false tax returns for USAPTI and Performance Group, a predecessor company to USAPTI, and made false statements and oaths in bankruptcy proceedings for Performance Group.
Liew, 56, of Walnut Creek, Calif., originally was indicted in August 2011 and the grand jury subsequently returned two superseding indictments. Liew was convicted of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, attempted economic espionage, attempted theft of trade secrets, possession of trade secrets, conveying trade secrets, conspiracy to obstruct justice, witness tampering, conspiracy to tamper with evidence, false statements, filing false tax returns, false statements in bankruptcy proceedings, and false oath in bankruptcy proceedings. Liew was an owner and president of USAPTI, a company headquartered in Oakland, Calif., that offered consulting services. USAPTI was found guilty of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, conspiracy to commit theft of trade secrets, attempted economic espionage, attempted theft of trade secrets, possession of trade secrets, conveying trade secrets, and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Evidence at trial showed that in the early 1990s, Liew met with the government of the PRC and was informed that the PRC had prioritized the development of chloride-route titanium dioxide (TiO2) technology. TiO2 is a commercially valuable white pigment with numerous uses, including coloring paint, plastics, and paper. DuPont’s TiO2 chloride-route process also produces titanium tetrachloride, a material with military and aerospace uses. Liew was aware that DuPont had developed industry leading TiO2 technology over many years of research and development and assembled a team of former DuPont employees, including Robert Maegerle, to assist him in his efforts to convey DuPont’s TiO2 technology to entities in the PRC. Liew executed contracts with state-owned entities of the PRC for chloride-route TiO2 projects that relied on the transfer of illegally obtained DuPont technology. Liew, Maegerle, and USAPTI obtained and sold DuPont’s TiO2 trade secrets to the Pangang Group companies for more than $20 million.
The jury found Liew, Maegerle, and USAPTI guilty of obstructing justice by causing an answer to be filed in a federal civil lawsuit in which they falsely claimed that no information from DuPont’s Kuan Yin plant was used in the USAPTI designs for the development of TiO2 manufacturing facilities. Liew was also found guilty of witness tampering for his efforts to influence a co-defendant’s testimony in the civil lawsuit. The jury also convicted Liew of conspiring with his wife, Christina Liew, to mislead the FBI by corruptly concealing records, documents, and other objects during the FBI’s investigation into their criminal activity.
Liew was also convicted of filing a false income tax return for his company, Performance Group, for calendar years 2006, 2007, and 2008 and for USAPTI in 2009 and 2010. The jury also found Liew guilty of making false statements and a false oath in connection with filing for bankruptcy for Performance Group in 2009.
Liew, as co-owner of USAPTI, entered into contracts worth nearly $28 million to convey TiO2 trade secret technology to Pangang Group companies. The Liews received millions of dollars of proceeds from these contracts. The proceeds were wired through the United States, Singapore, and ultimately back into several bank accounts in the PRC in the names of relatives of Christina Liew.
The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Jeffrey S. White, U.S. District Court Judge. The Court stated during the sentencing hearing that the 15 year sentence was intended, in part, to send a message that the theft and sale of trade secrets for the benefit of a foreign government is a serious crime that threatens our national economic security. In addition to the prison term, the Court ordered Liew to forfeit $27.8 million, and to pay $511,667.82 in restitution to DuPont and victims of his bankruptcy fraud and a $2,000 special assessment ($100 for each of the twenty counts of conviction).
The case was prosecuted by attorneys from the Special Prosecution Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s and the U.S. Department of Justice National Security Division. The FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division were responsible for the investigation.
Further Information:
Case #: CR-11-0573  JSW
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office at http://www.justice.gov/usao/can/index.html.
This content has been reproduced from its original source.
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U.S. v. LIEW: Opening Statements and FBI Testimony Kick Off Seven-Week Industrial Espionage Tria

U.S. v. LIEW: Opening Statements and FBI Testimony Kick Off Seven-Week Industrial Espionage Trial

A prosecutor opened the economic espionage trial of Walter Liew on Wednesday by waving at jurors a key that he alleged opened Liew’s safe deposit box containing industrial secrets stolen from DuPont.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Hemann led jurors through an almost cinematic scene that culminated with FBI agents confronting Liew and his wife, Christina, with the key found during a search of their Orinda, California home. Liew sat at the defense table during opening statements in San Francisco, as did co-defendant Robert Maegerle, a former DuPont employee.
According to Hemann, when agents asked about the key, Liew instructed his wife in Mandarin as to how to respond. Eric Bozman, an FBI special agent who participated in the search of the Liews’ home, testified that the couple exchanged “a very dwelling look” when agents asked about the key. Walter Liew then spoke to his wife in Mandarian, directing her to answer, “You don’t know, don’t know,” Bozman testified. Christina Liew then told the agents: “I don’t remember” what the key opened. What the Liews apparently didn’t know is that Bozman also understands Mandarin (he identified himself as Caucasian) and understood what Liew allegedly told his wife to say.
Then, Hemann told jurors, Christina Liew drove from the home to a bank—trailed, without her knowledge, by FBI agents—where she asked bank personnel to open the safe deposit box. The bank did not immediately accommodate her, so she drove to a hotel where she met with a group of Chinese businessmen from the Pangang Group allegedly involved in the plot to steal DuPont’s secrets for building a titanium dioxide plant in China, Hemann said.
While searching the Liews’ home, FBI agents simultaneously raided the Delaware home of Maegerle. There they found confidential DuPont blueprints, Hemann said.
“The searches will prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that Walter Liew and Robert Maegerle used confidential information to give themselves advantage and to give the Pangang Group an advantage” in making titanium dioxide, Hemann said in his opening statement. Among the documents recovered from Liew, he said, were DuPont documents explaining how to build a titanium dioxide factory and internal DuPont documents on the process of making the white powder used to color everything from toothpaste to paper. That process, Hemann said, “is dirty and dangerous and difficult and DuPont figured out how to do it in a way that was commercially viable”—methods protected by trade secrets, he said.
But in his opening remarks, Liew’s defense counsel Stuart Gasner disputed that the process of making titanium dioxide with choride even qualified as a trade secret. There are thousands of patents covering the technology, many of them expired, he said. Gasner showed jurors what he said was a 1949 textbook containing a chapter on the process. “This is an area of technology that a lot of people know a lot about,” he said.
“Sure, they [DuPont] deserve a lot of credit for inventing particular aspects” of manufacturing titanium dioxide with chloride, he said.  But “time ran out on them” as their patents expired, and “they tried to go into overtime using trade secret law in a way it wasn’t intended to be used.”
Moreover, he said, Liew carefully researched both the technology and the law governing whether it was protected by trade secrets.  Liew did not believe he was using anyone’s secrets, Gasner said.  Maegerle had left DuPont 14 years before he started working with Liew on titanium dioxide and believed he was well beyond the period covered by any confidentiality agreements, he said.
As for the many documents found in Liew’s possession, Gasner said they represented a tiny fraction of the data on the computers and servers searched by government agents. Gasner showed the jury a slide depicting the five terabytes of data on those devices—information that, if printed on standard paper, would form a stack so high it would nearly reach a satellite. Prosecutors, he said, were focusing on a “tiny, tiny fraction of the work” they found on the devices, he said.
In his opening, Maegerle’s lawyer Jerome Froelic also attacked the government’s contention that DuPont’s recipes for making titanium dioxide with chloride were protectable trade secrets. Froelic acknowledged his client used information gleaned while he was employed by Dupont. “But it was information Robert Maegerle believed was not trade secret, had been revealed by DuPont and that he believed was no longer covered by his confidentiality agreement,” the lawyer said.
Emphasizing the significance of the safe deposit box key to the prosecution, the government returned to that issue by calling Bozman as its first witness.  Bozman testified he was assigned to watch the Liews while agents searched their home. While watching them, another agent asked the couple about the key.
Gasner suggested that the FBI was trying to deceive the Liews into saying something incriminating by assigning them a Caucasian minder, whom the couple would not suspect spoke Mandarin. “You don’t look Chinese. Wasn’t that part of the plan?”  Gasner asked. Bozman denied there was any such plan.
Maegerle’s attorney also tried to attack Bozman’s credibility with a series of questions about his hearing. Bozman testified he was born with a collapsed ear canal and had a hearing impediment until surgery at age 5. But under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Axelrod, Bozman said he had passed four FBI hearing tests.
Bozman was confident and congenial on the stand, and appeared to keep the jury’s attention.
Prosecutors called two other FBI agents who were involved in trailing Christina Liew during the search of her home: Special Agent Kieu Lefevre, who testified that she staked out the home in the hour before the raid and afterward; and Special Agent Kenneth Karch, who said he too trailed her after she left the home, and for several weeks afterward.
The government plans to call two other agents involved in the search on Thursday. The trial is expected to last for seven weeks.
4
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The Secret 9-11 Link to AT&T, Pete Bennett and Special Agent Kenneth Karch



cc
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Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Sentenced to 97 Months in Prison Fined $9 Million for Role in Laundering $30 Million of Extortion Proceeds

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Sentenced to 97 Months in Prison Fined $9 Million for Role in Laundering $30 Million of Extortion Proceeds

U.S. Attorney’s OfficeNovember 19, 2009
  • Northern District of California(415) 436-7200
SAN FRANCISCO—Pavel Ivanovich Lazarenko was sentenced yesterday to 97 months in prison, ordered to pay a $9 million fine and forfeit $22,851,000 and various specified assets resulting from his money laundering convictions, First Assistant United States Attorney David Anderson announced. The court deferred decision on restitution.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office has maintained throughout this case that Pavel Lazarenko misused his office to extort tens of millions of dollars from a Ukrainian citizen, lied to the people of Ukraine about his assets, and abused our banking system in an attempt to establish a safe haven in the United States,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Anderson said. “Yesterday’s sentence should send a strong message to corrupt foreign public officials—they will be held accountable if they misuse their office and try to make safe harbor in the United States.”
After a 10-and one-half week trial, Lazarenko was convicted by a jury on June 3, 2004, on 29 counts of money laundering, wire fraud, and interstate transportation of stolen property. During the trial, evidence showed that starting in the early 1990s, when he was the governor of an industrialized region in Ukraine, Lazarenko abused his official authority to extort Ukrainian businessman Peter Kiritchenko of 50 percent of his profits. Over time, and as Lazarenko rose in office to become the Prime Minister, Kiritchenko paid Lazarenko $30 million, which was half of Kiritchenko’s $60 million in profits. At Lazarenko’s direction, Kiritchenko assisted him in laundering the proceeds of that extortion through accounts in Poland, Switzerland, Antigua, and, ultimately, the United States, where Lazarenko used a shell company to conceal his purchase of a multi-million dollar residence in Marin, Calif. Kiritchenko pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of stolen property and testified against Lazarenko.
After trial, the court dismissed 15 counts and sentenced Lazarenko on 14 counts. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later affirmed all of Lazarenko’s money laundering convictions (eight counts) dismissed the other charges and vacated the original sentence. Yesterday’s sentencing was on the eight counts of money laundering. Because the judge who presided over the trial and initial sentencing, the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins, left the federal bench, the case was reassigned to the Honorable Charles R. Breyer, who handled the resentencing.
“We are pleased Mr. Lazarenko has been held accountable for his crimes,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Stephanie Douglas. “The wanton abuse of official power undermines people’s faith in their elected leaders and the effectiveness of any government. In this age of internationalization, we must diligently pursue corruption wherever it takes hold to help ensure public officials act for the benefit of their constituency, not for their own personal gain.”
“Uncovering the trail of money was key in identifying the corrupt actions of Mr. Lazarenko,” said Scott O’Briant, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation. “If you put illegal money gain ahead of obeying the law, you can expect to be investigated, prosecuted and sent to prison."
This case is the first prosecution of a foreign leader for laundering the proceeds of extortion through financial institutions in the United States.
Peter B. Axelrod, Stephanie Hinds, Patricia Kenney and Hartley West are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Wilson Wong, Alicia Chin, and Carolyn Jusay. The Department of Justice Organized Crime and Racketeering Section supported this prosecution. The prosecution is the result of a six-year investigation by the FBI and IRS.
Further Information:
Case #: 00-284 CRB
This content has been reproduced from its original source.
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