Our mission is to expose and remedy corruption in the Probate Court of Cook County, Illinois. We assist, educate and enlighten families of the dead, the dying, the disabled and the aged to better understand their rights in order to protect themselves from the excesses of the Probate Court of Cook County. ProbateSharks.com is dedicated to networking the human element of people to people. We join together in reforming the corrupt Cook County Probate Court system.
Editor's note: The Probate Court of Cook County lawyers don't have to bilk their own firms...they bilk the helpless wards of the court. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com Mayer Brown’s Former CIO Charged With Defrauding the Firm Out of a Whole Bunch of Money By Christopher Danzig
In a time when many law firms are relatively less stable than their employees would like, it’s definitely not good to hear about a Biglaw executive allegedly defrauding his firm out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But such is the world we live in. So let’s get to it: which former executive at Chicago-based Mayer Brown is facing pretty egregious fraud charges?
It’s the former chief information officer, David Tresch, who stands accused of defrauding the company out of nearly a million dollars. From the Chicago Tribune:
A former executive at Mayer Brown was arrested Thursday on federal charges that he allegedly defrauded the Chicago law firm of at least $850,000.
David Tresch, 51, of Itasca was Mayer Brown’s former chief information officer. He allegedly approved payments to a vendor for work that had not been performed and pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars from that vendor, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago.
FBI agents seized Thursday approximately $210,000 in bank accounts controlled by Tresch, as well as a camping trailer, a van, and a luxury automobile.
Tresch was released on a $100,000 partially-secured bond.
Ohhh boy. This does not look good. It’s kind of like a weird variation of that scene in Michael Clayton: We’re not the guys you steal from. We’re the guys who fight in court for a living! Are you so f**king blind that you don’t even see what we are?
Biglaw attorneys work hard for their bucks. I imagine Mayer Brown partners are steaming mad about this. But at least it sounds like they are on top of the situation.
According to the Tribune, Tresch was fired in June “following an internal investigation” after working at Mayer Brown since 2004. When he was terminated, the firm also turned the case over to federal prosecutors.
Apparently the firm asked Tresch to stop using the unnamed IT vendor early last year due to cost cutting measures, but Tresch allegedly continued approving invoices and collecting checks anyway.
Well, at least we know he’s got the cash for a decent defense attorney. Former Mayer Brown CIO arrested on fraud charge [Chicago Tribune]
Reforming guardianship for the future of the disabled and elderly of Texas. Protecting the Constitutional, Civil and Human Rights of Texas's most vulnerable population. Advocating to ensure that our most vulnerable population are not forced into nursing homes or institutions without the opportunities to exercise all Less Restrictive Alternatives prior to the final and last resort to Guardianship.
In Texas, Guardianship violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Guardianship in Texas can or will remove all rights to life, liberty and property at the presiding judges orders. Ensuring that "incapacitation" is not used at the convenience of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services or any of Texas's certified guardians, attorney ad litems, court investigators, judiciaries, and state contract providers.
At present the general public is not aware of what is occurring in Guardianship Law today, guardianship is now a business, guardianship has lost it purpose. The disabled and elderly are becoming victims of a system that does not provided OVERSIGHT for the well being of the disabled and elderly. Family guardians are being stereotyped as perpetrators and the system of guardianship is now encouraging certified guardians are the only people who can protect the disabled and elderly from their own family members at the expense of the taxpayer.
Our goal is to advocate to promote the Quality of Life for Texas's most vulnerable population, the disabled and elderly wards as well as for our own futures.
Special judge gets cop’s disputed inheritance case Sgt. Goodwin’s $2.7M inheritance to be reviewed by new court (NH)
October 31, 2014
PORTSMOUTH — A legal dispute over a police officer’s $2.7 million inheritance has been transferred to the Strafford County Superior Court and Probate Judge Gary Cassavechia, who was recently charged with managing a special docket for the state’s most complex trust litigation cases.
By order of administrative Judge Edwin Kelly, Cassavechia will preside over the case involving the estate of the late Geraldine Webber, who changed her will months before she died to leave her waterfront home, stocks, bonds and a Cadillac to Portsmouth police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin. Webber’s last will and trust is being challenged by people and entities with diminished inheritances as a result of the bequest to Goodwin. Those entities include the Portsmouth police and fire departments.
Several lawyers allege in the probate court that Goodwin exerted undue influence over Webber, while she was impaired by dementia, to benefit from her last will and trust.
Cassavechia began presiding over the newly-established trust docket in January, when Judge David King, deputy administrative judge for the state’s circuit court system, said it was established to prevent backlog of routine estate cases, by designating complex cases to Cassavechia’s docket.
“The Circuit Court has been acutely aware of the need to make changes in response to the growing number of complicated trust cases that we are seeing in the probate division,” said King, when announcing the new docket last December. “As a result, we are instituting a new trust docket which will allow the court system to identify early on those cases where significant assets are at stake and that are most likely to result in prolonged litigation, with extensive discovery and a lengthy trial.”
According to the state judicial system, Cassavechia’s experience included presiding over the well-known Tamposi trust case that lasted several years, “in addition to many other complex trust and estate matters.” According to King’s announcement, Cassacechia “is widely respected by the probate bench and bar for his keen knowledge of the law and his ability to manage complex litigation with a multitude of issues and parties”.
The trust docket came in response to the legislature passing the Trust Modernization Act in 2011 which, according to the state judiciary department, “by design, attempts to make New Hampshire the most trust-friendly state in the country.” Attribution:
Special judge gets cop’s disputed inheritance case Sgt. Goodwin’s $2.7M inheritance to be reviewed by new court Elizabeth Dinan October 3, 2014 SeaCoastOnline.com http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20141003/NEWS/141009658/101141/NEWS#sthash.UGKVWwZ1.dpuf
This is going to sound like a simple mistake. This is going to sound like a legal "technicality" that has resulted in a sex offender going free. But when a judge upends a central pillar of American law, even accidentally, there's no other outcome.
The Los Angeles judge erred during the December 2006 voir dire in the sex-crime trial of Bryant Keith Williams, according to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The judge said Williams had pleaded guilty to the charges, though he intended to say Williams had pleaded not guilty.
The judge's error came to light when jurors who had been deliberating for less than an hour sent the judge a note. "As a group," the note read, "we the jury feel we heard the judge state the defendant pleaded guilty before the trial. Is this true?"
The judge tried to correct his mistake. He said that the defendant pleaded "not" guilty, and asked the jurors if they could still look back on the trial with that in mind. One juror was dismissed. The rest said that they could, and returned a guilty verdict.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. The court said, "Viewed in the context of the trial as a whole... the judge's initial misstatement and his ineffective attempts to cure it were devastating to Williams."
It's also got to be pretty devastating to Williams's alleged victim. How Appealing reports that the circuit court had to throw out a 50 year sentence.
But I don't think the 9th Circuit had any other choice. From the perspective of all the jurors, Williams had already pleaded guilty to the crime. Who knows how the jurors rationalized still having a trial after a guilty plea. Maybe they thought Williams changed his mind? Maybe they thought the point was to see if Williams could prove his innocence? Who knows. It doesn't really matter. What seems clear is that the jurors did not think that Williams was innocent unless the prosecution could prove beyond a reasonable doubt otherwise.
Williams can be re-tried. That would seem like the most fair outcome for Williams and his alleged victim.
ARDC
130 E. RANDOLPH ST. SUITE 1500
CHICAGO, IL 60601
Attn. Mr. Jerome Larkin
Sent via FAX 312-565-2320
Re: Estate of Alice R. Gore, deceased, a 99 year old disabled ward of
the Probate Court of Cook County #06-P-482
Dear Mr. Larkin, Ms. Guzman, Immediate Supervisor
Responding to your letter of Oct. 17, 2014, please direct your attention regarding
two instances that I believe the law supports as felonies and have been
discussed in open court in the Probate Court of Cook County. (There are
many more incidents reported that are criminal in nature.)
All the attorneys, GALs and judges sited in my previous IARDC complaints
were aware of these crimes and either participated, acted in concert, or are
part of a cover-up. No new issues are required at this time. My discussion of these crimes in previous letters and contact with you, the IARDC, to investigate these and other activities by attorneys that are compelled by state and federal law to report, but did not and particular the following:
1. The theft, suppression, forgery and concealment of the16 annuity checks payable to
my mother, Alice R. Gore.
2. The opening of two safety deposit boxes owned by Alice R. Gore and allegedly containing
over 80 lbs. of antique silver coins. Judge Kawamoto ordered the now deceased Mr. Trausch and GAL Martin to investigate the history and events of the two safety deposit boxes. The response of the late Mr. Trausch was that the boxes, "were owned by others". These coins were never
inventoried to my mother’s estate and allegedly are considered stolen. No proof was ever demanded by the court of inventory, ownership or transfer of the ownership of the boxes.
I have reason to believe that the legal participants in mother’s estate are directly or
indirectly involved with the Nursing Home Cartel. These court appointed officials (by Judge Kawamoto) including law firms representing a guardian of my mother, Alice, have financial and political interests in nursing homes. There appears to be an obvious paucity of investigations by the IARDC of probate matters. Attorneys involved with Illinois probate have disproportionately less investigations considering the vast quantity of complaints. It appears your august body may be protecting these probate miscreants. This is a reasonable and fair conclusion.
I am forwarding this letter along with your response letter of 10-17-2014 to various law enforcement agencies, political officials, candidates and other interested parties. Please direct
to me the responses of the complained parties mentioned in your letter of 10-17-2014. For your information my mothers estate was closed in June, 2013 and I have never received statement of final dispersal!
Editor's note: How sad it is that a clone of the Probate Court of Cook County is abusing the elderly of New York. Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com
How New York’s Elderly Lose Their Homes to Guardianship
A prominent New York attorney is caught in the middle of apparent abuses of the elderly and allegedly pilfers their estate during the guardianship process, according to relatives of victims who hope to bring exposure that will stop her actions.
Mary Giordano is a partner with the New York State law firm, Franchini and Giordano, and among her duties is that Giordano is routinely chosen by the Nassau County Superior Court system to be a guardian for elderly guardianship cases.
But two relatives involved in cases in which Giordano was a guardian say their relatives were forcibly removed from their homes, their assets plundered, and their family members had the life sucked out of them until they died depressed and isolated.
Diane Wilson found her mother Dorothy Wilson unconscious at her home on December 8, 2008. Advised due to long standing family disputes to enter her mother into guardianship, Wilson said by January 2009, at the order of then Nassau Supreme Court Judge Joel Asarch (pictured above) she was removed as guardian and instead Asarch appointed Giordano as the court appointed guardian.
As Wilson’s guardian, Giordano was given power over nearly every decision in Wilson’s life including how her money was spent, where she lived, and her medical care.
Giordano ordered a reverse mortgage be placed on Dorothy Wilson’s home which netted about $275,000 and along with Wlson’s pension of about $2,300 month, Judge Asarch claimed in court the money would last for five years.
But it only lasted two years, and Diane Wilson told RebelPundit that proper accounting of the expenses were never provided by Giordano.
Worse yet, in November 2010, Wilson was tricked and forced to move out of her home and into a nursing home.
“Dorothy Wilson is currently placed in the Bristal, an assisted living facility in Massapequa. She was taken there on November 3, 2010, on the pretense of having lunch, by her daughter, Candice Bruder,” Diane Wilson said in a complaint to the New York State Unified Court Grievance Committee. “After she was there, she was told she was moving in there and her clothes were brought later that same day. She is not allowed to leave the Bristal at all, including Thanksgiving. The family is only permitted to go there and visit.”
The elder Wilson, who was 87 at the beginning of the process, was miserable and felt like a prisoner her entire time at Bristal.
“On November 15 (2010), after placing three phone calls during a 3 ½ hour period, I was finally able to speak with my mother. During the entire phone call her “caseworker”, Tracy, sat next to her while my mother begged me to come and pick her up and take her home. She had no privacy. When I went to visit her in the evening, she cried the entire time, begging me to take her home, asking me over and over again why I never came, why no one visited her, why no one called,” Diane Wilson said the same complaint.
Wilson was force to stay in the facility for thirty days at a cost of $53,000, and Giordano never provided a line by line breakdown of why the costs were so high.
On August 22, 2011, on the direction of Giordano, Dorothy Wilson was again moved to Meadowbrook Care Nursing Home in Freeport, New York again against her will
On September 2, 2011, Giordano again moved Wilson into another nursing home Maria Regina Nursing Home in Brentwood, NY. Giordano also attempted to sell Wilson’s house.
What followed was a series of furious court maneuvers until on October 18, 2011, Giordano resigned as guardian but still Judge Asarch kept Dorothy Wilson in the nursing home. She died there on October 23, 2011.
Throughout the process Dorothy Wilson sent aseries of letters to the judge begging to be allowed to be cared for by her daughter.
“It’s very strange that my daughter Diane is not allowed to go into my house.” Dorothy Wilson said in a letter dated October 20, 2011. “She is the only one I trust.”
Dorothy Wilson also made a series of You Tube videos begging to be released.
“I hate it here. I want to go home.” Dorothy Wilson said while holding back tears in one You Tube video. “I feel like I’m locked up in a jail.”
A call to Giordano’s law firm was left unreturned.
Kevin Kelley told Rebel Pundit he experienced something very similar with the guardianship of his grandfather, Richard Maass, which also started when a family dispute introduced guardianship directed again by the combination of Judge Asarch and Mary Giordano.
Kelley said his story started in 2008 when he was living in a home his grandparents owned since 1951, and helping to take care of his grandfather who had Alzheimer’s after his grandmother’s death in 1998.
After a dispute between Kelley and one of his cousin’s, Judge Asarch brought in Giordano to be Maass’s guardian, and the nightmare began, Kelley told Rebel Pundit.
Asarch decided that Kelley wasn’t “immediate family” and forced him to move out of the home which Kelley did moving to an apartment near the home in March 2009.
In September 2009, without telling Kelley, Giordano had Maass moved out of his home and into a nursing home.
Kelley said that Giordano never produced an inventory of Maass’s personal property and personal items were missing in the days immediately following Maass’s forced removal from his home.
Kelley said in a follow up visit he noticed items missing: all of the artwork on the walls, grandfather clock, the entire crystal and china collection, two antique end tables, all of Maass’s clothing, an air conditioner wall unit, a mattress, lamps, a therapeutic/massage recliner and most of the assorted knickknacks accumulated by his grandparents over six decades.
Kelley said Maass was forced to live out the rest of his life in a nursing home for Jewish people even though he was Christian. He said his grandfather repeatedly expressed a desire to move back into his home but that Giordano never allowed it.
According to court documents, Maass’s estate was in excess of $600,000 at the time guardianship began, however at the time of his death on February 28, 2011, Kelley never received a final accounting of his grandfather’s assets and he isn’t sure how much if any money was left.
Worse yet, Giordano changed the date of Maass’s funeral at the last minute forcing the family to scramble as many people were coming in from all over the country.
A former employee, Janet Bergen, who assisted Giordano with Wilson’s case, died in her forties of cancer in 2010.
Another former employee of the firm who asked to remain anonymous said that Bergen repeatedly asked to be taken off the case and felt extremely stressed over the way it was being handled.
RebelPundit has confirmed that Giordano is currently being investigated for her handling of the estate of Joan Bebry, a wealthy woman who died in March 2014.
According to David Brooks spokesperson for the New York State Unified Court System discipline is done by that entity’s Grievance Committee and he was unaware of any malfeasance by Giordano.
Diane Wilson filed a formal complaint with the Tenth District’s Grievance Committee. According to a representative of the Grievance Committee, Giordano hasn’t been disciplined.
Giordano’s law partner, Emily Franchina, has been on the Grievance Committee in that district since 2000. Judge Asarch died suddenly at 60 in 2013, and according to the New York State Judicial Commission, which is in charge of discipline for judges, Judge Asarch’s record is also clean, though Wilson also filed a formal complaint with the New York State Judicial Commission. Giordano continues to be assigned cases as a guardian.
Vintage Spider Man and X-Men Marvel comic books are seen at St. Mark's Comics in New York City.
Mario Tama
Copyright Getty Images
Copyright Getty Images
Vintage Spider Man and X-Men Marvel comic books are seen at St. Mark's Comics in New York City.
Mario Tama
A long-running legal dispute over the rights to some of Marvel's most popular characters has finally come to an end and the result was less climactic than most superhero action movies.
The family of Jack Kirby, the deceased creator of several beloved characters like Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, Spider-Man and The X-Men, has been in a legal battle with Marvel over the rights of characters Kirby created since 2009. A district court ruled that since Kirby had signed those rights away to Marvel, his family had no claim to the characters and an appellate court agreed.
The family had been seeking a Supreme Court review of that appeal until The New York Times reported Friday they had reached an out-of-court settlement with Marvel.
A statement from Marvel read: “Marvel and the family of Jack Kirby have amicably resolved their legal disputes and are looking forward to advancing their shared goal of honoring Mr. Kirby’s significant role in Marvel’s history.” Find out more by watching this Newsy video.
When the executives who distribute 5-Hour Energy, the popular caffeinated drinks, learned that attorneys general in more than 30 states were investigating allegations of deceptive advertising — a serious financial threat to the company — they moved quickly to shut the investigations down, one state at a time.
But success did not come in court or at a negotiating table.
Instead, it came at the opulent Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel in California, with its panoramic ocean views, where more than a dozen state attorneys general had gathered last year for cocktails, dinners and fund-raisers organized by the Democratic Attorneys General Association. A lawyer for 5-Hour Energy roamed the event, setting her sights on Attorney General Chris Koster of Missouri, whose office was one of those investigating the company.
“My client just received notification that Missouri is on this,” the lawyer, Lori Kalani, told him.
Ms. Kalani’s firm, Dickstein Shapiro,had courted the attorney generalat dinners and conferences and with thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. Mr. Koster told Ms. Kalani that he was unaware ofthe investigation,and he reached for his phone and called his office. By the end of the weekend, he had ordered his staff to pull out of the inquiry, a clear victory for 5-Hour Energy.
Articles in this series will examine the explosion in lobbying of state attorneys general by corporate interests and the millions in campaign donations they now provide.
The quick reversal, confirmed by Mr. Koster and Ms. Kalani, was part of a pattern of successful lobbying of Mr. Koster by the law firm on behalf of clients like Pfizer andAT&T— and evidence of a largely hidden dynamic at work in state attorneys general offices across the country.
Attorneys general are now the object of aggressive pursuit by lobbyists and lawyers who use campaign contributions, personal appeals at lavish corporate-sponsored conferences and other means to push them to drop investigations, change policies, negotiate favorable settlements or pressure federal regulators, an investigation by The New York Times has found.
A robust industry of lobbyists and lawyers has blossomed as attorneys general have joined to conduct multistate investigations and pushed into areas as diverse as securities fraud and Internet crimes.
But unlike the lobbying rules covering other elected officials, there are few revolving-door restrictions or disclosure requirements governing state attorneys general, who serve as “the people’s lawyers” by protecting consumers and individual citizens.
A result is that the routine lobbying and deal-making occur largely out of view. But the extent of the cause and effect is laid bare in The Times’s review of more than 6,000 emails obtained through open records laws in more than two dozen states, interviews with dozens of participants in cases and attendance at several conferences where corporate representatives had easy access to attorneys general.
Often, the corporate representative is a former colleague. Four months after leaving office as chief deputy attorney general in Washington State,Brian T. Moran wroteto his replacement on behalf of a client, T-Mobile, which was pressing federal officials to prevent competitors from grabbing too much of the available wireless spectrum.
“As promised when we met the A.G. last week, I am attaching a draft letter for Bob to consider circulating to the other states,” he wrote late last year, referring to the attorney general, Bob Ferguson.
A short while later, Mr. Moran wrote again to his replacement, David Horn. “Dave: Anything you can tell me about that letter?” he said.
“Working on it sir,” came the answer. “Stay tuned.” By January, the letter was issued by the attorney general largely as drafted by the industry lawyers.
The exchange was not unusual. Emails obtained from more than 20 states reveal a level of lobbying by representatives of private interests that had been more typical with lawmakers than with attorneys general.
“The current and increasing level of the lobbying of attorneys general creates, at the minimum, the appearance of undue influence, and is therefore unseemly,” said James E. Tierney, a former attorney general of Maine, who now runs a program at Columbia University that studies state attorneys general. “It is undermining the credibility of the office of attorney general.”
Private lawyers also have written drafts of legal filings that attorneys general have used almost verbatim. In some cases, they have become an adjunct to the office by providing much of the legal work, including bearing the cost of litigation, in exchange for up to 20 percent of any settlement.
Money gathered through events like the one in February 2013 at the Loews hotel is flooding the political campaigns of attorneys general and flowing to party organizations that can take unlimited corporate contributions and then funnel money to individual candidates. The Republican Attorneys General Association alone has pulled in$11.7 millionsince January.
It is a self-perpetuating network that includes a group of former attorneys general called SAGE, or the Society of Attorneys General Emeritus, most of whom are nowon retainerto corporate clients.
Giant energy producers and service companies like Devon Energy of Oklahoma, the Southern Company of Georgia and TransCanada have retained their own teams of attorney general specialists, including Andrew P. Miller, a former attorney general of Virginia.
For some companies, the reward seems apparent, according to the documents obtained by The Times. In Georgia, the attorney general, after receiving a request from a former attorney general who had become a lobbyist, disregarded written advice from the state’s environmental regulators, the emails show. In Utah,the attorney general dismissed a casepending against Bank of America over the objections of his staff after secretly meeting with a former attorney general working as a Bank of America lobbyist.
That Bank of America casewas cited in Julywhen the two most recent former attorneys general in Utahwere chargedwith granting official favors to donors in exchange for golf getaways, rides on private planes and a luxury houseboat.
While the Utah case is extreme, some participants say even the daily lobbying can corrode public trust.
“An attorney general is entrusted with the power to decide which lawsuits to file and how to settle them, and they have great discretion in their work,” said Anthony Johnstone, a former assistant attorney general in Montana. “It’s vitally important that people can trust that those judgments are not subject to undue influence because of outside forces. And from what I have seen in recent years, I am concerned and troubled that those forces have intensified.”
Several current and former attorneys general say that while they are disappointed by the increased lobbying, they reject the notion that the outside representatives are powerful enough to manipulate the system.
“There is no Mr. Fix-It out there you can hire and get the job done no matter what the merits are,” said Attorney General Tom Miller of Iowa, the longest-serving state attorney general in the country, at 19 years.
Mr. Koster said he regretted the prominence of groupslike DAGAand RAGA — as the Democratic and Republican attorneys general associations are known — saying the partisanship and increased emphasis on money had been damaging.
Here is a look at some of the organizations and players that are part of the fast-growing and largely secretive world of lobbying state attorneys general.All documents.
“I wish those two organizations did not exist,” Mr. Koster said during an interview at his office in Kansas City, even though the Democratic group has contributedat least $1.4 millionto his election campaigns, more than any other source.
But he rejected any suggestion that his office had taken actions as a result of the lobbying, instead blaming mistakes made by his staff for moves that ended up benefiting Dickstein’s clients.
Some companies have come grudgingly to the influence game.
Executives from the company that distributes 5-Hour Energy, for example, have contributed more than $280,000 through related corporate entities in the last two years to political funds of attorneys general.
Company executives wrote those checks after the investigation into false claims and deceptive marketing, which initially involved 33 states, opened in January 2013. Requests started to come in for contributions,including a phone call this yeardirectly from Mr. Ferguson of Washington State,whose staff was involvedin the inquiry.
In a statement after the company was sued by three states in July, the company strongly denied the allegations and compared being solicited for contributions to being pressured to pay “ransom.” It asked, “Is it appropriate for an attorney general to ask for money from a company they plan to sue?”
A spokesman for Mr. Ferguson first called the allegation baseless. But after being showna copy of an invitationto a fund-raising event that Mr. Ferguson held in May during a DAGA conference — where 5-Hour Energy was listed as a sponsor — hisspokesman confirmedthat Mr. Ferguson had made a personal appeal to the company.
Secluded Access
Breakfast was served on a patio overlooking the Pacific Ocean — a buffet of fresh baked goods, made-to-order eggs, lox and fruit — as the Republican attorneys general, in T-shirts and shorts, assembled at Beach Village at the Del, in Coronado, Calif.
These top law enforcement officials from Alabama, South Carolina, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Indiana and other states were joined by Ms. Kalani, of Dickstein Shapiro, and representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Pfizer, Comcast and Altria, among other corporate giants.
The group had gathered at the exclusive Beach Village at the Del — where rooms go for as much as $4,500 a night and a special key card is required to enter the private compound — for the most elite event for Republican attorneys general, a gathering of theEdmund Randolph Club(named for the first United States attorney general).
Photo
PAM BONDICorporate sponsors or state taxpayers generally cover airfare, hotels and meals at conferences for the Florida attorney general and her counterparts.CreditSteve Cannon/Associated Press
The club, created by the Republican Attorneys General Association, has a $125,000 entry fee — money used to fund the campaigns of attorney general candidates with as much as $1 million, and to pay for the hotel bills, airfare and meals for the attorneys general who attend the events.
As at the Democrats’ event, the agenda included panels to discuss emerging legal issues. But at least as important was theopportunity for the lobbyists, corporate executives and lawyersto nurture relationships with the attorneys general — and to lobby them in this casual and secluded setting. (A reporter from The Times attended this event uninvited and, once spotted, was asked to leave.)
The appeals began the moment the law enforcement officials arrived, as gift bags were handed out, including boxes of 5-Hour Energy, wine from a liquor wholesalers group and music CDs (Roy Orbison for the adults, the heartthrob Hunter Hayes for their children) from the recording industry.
Andy Abboud, a lobbyist for Las Vegas Sands, which donated $500,000 through its chief executive to the Republican group this year, has been urging attorneys general to join an effort to ban online poker. At breakfast, he approached Attorney General Pam Bondi of Florida.
“What are you going to be doing today?” he asked.
“Sailing,” Ms. Bondi replied.
“Great, I want to go sailing, too,” Mr. Abboud said, and they agreed to connect later that day.
The increased focus on state attorneys general by corporate interests has a simple explanation: to guard against legal exposure, potentially in the billions of dollars, for corporations that become targets of the state investigations.
It can be traced back two decades, when more than 40 state attorneys general joined to challenge the tobacco industry, an inquiry that resulted in a historic$206 billion settlement.
Microsoft became the target of a similar multistate attack,accused of engagingin an anticompetitive scheme by bundling its Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system. Then came the pharmaceutical industry, accused of improperly marketing drugs, and, more recently, the financial services industry, in a case that resulted in a$25 billion settlementin 2012 with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicing companies.
The trend accelerated as attorneys general — particularly Democrats — began hiring outside law firms to conduct investigations and sue corporations on a contingency basis.
Photo
CHRIS KOSTERThe office of the Missouri attorney general pulled out of an inquiry into 5-Hour Energy after he spoke with a lawyer from the law firm Dickstein Shapiro.CreditWhitney Curtis for The New York Times
The widening scope of their investigations led companies to significantly bolster efforts to influence their actions. John W. Suthers, who has served as Colorado’s attorney general for a decade, said he was not surprised by this campaign.
“I don’t fault for one second that corporate America is pushing back on what has happened,” Mr. Suthers said. “Attorneys general can do more damage in a heartbeat than legislative bodies can. I think it is a matter of self-defense, and I understand it pretty well, although I have got to admit as an old-time prosecutor, it makes me a little queasy.”
Republican attorneys general were the first to create a party-based fund-raising group, 14 years ago. An initial appeal for contributions to corporate lobbyists and lawyers said that public policy was being shaped “via the courthouse rather than the statehouse.” It urged corporate lawyers “to round up your clients and come see what RAGA is all about.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce alone has contributed $2.2 million this year to the group, making it the association’s biggest donor.
The Democrats at first fought the idea, but two years later formed a counterpart.
Dickstein, and a handful of other law firms, moved to capitalize by offering lobbying as well as legal assistance to deal with attorneys general, whom Dickstein called “the new sheriffs in town.”
In an effort to make allies rather than adversaries, Bernard Nash, the head of the attorney general practice at Dickstein and the self-proclaimed “godfather” of the field, tells clients that it is essential to build a personal relationship with important attorneys general, part of what his firm boasts as “connections that count.”
“Through their interaction with A.G.s, these individuals will become the ‘face’ of the company to A.G.s, who are less likely to demagogue companies they know and respect,” said aconfidential memothat Dickstein sent late last year to one prospective client, Caesars Entertainment.
Executing this strategy means targeting the attorneys general “front office,” a reference to the handful of important decision makers.
“Front office interest or lack of interest in an issue can come from an assessment of media reports and potential media scrutiny; advocacy group requests; political benefit or detriment; legislative inquiries; and ‘pitches’ made by law firms or other professionals in whom the front office has confidence,” Dickstein said in the memo pitching business to executives at Caesars that asked the company to pay $35,000 a month, plus expenses, for lobbying and strategic advice, not including any legal work.
Mr. Nash and his team build relationships through dinners at exclusive spots like theFlagler Steakhouse in Palm Beach, Fla.,andBrown’s Beach House Restaurantin Waimea, Hawaii, during attorneys general conferences, as well as with a constant stream of campaign contributions, totaling at least $730,000 in the last five years.
Dickstein is hardly alone.
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BERNARD NASHThe head of Dickstein’s attorney general practice and the field’s self-proclaimed “godfather.”CreditGabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
Other dinner invitations have come from former Attorney GeneralThurbert E. Bakerof Georgia, whose clients have included AT&T and the debt buyers industry; former Attorney GeneralPatrick C. Lynchof Rhode Island, who represents payday lenders, Comcast and makers of online video games; and former Attorney GeneralRob McKennaof Washington State, who has been retained by Microsoft and T-Mobile.
In several cases, these former officials are clearly acting as lobbyists. Mr. Lynch, who declined several requests for comment, tells prospective clients that he can guide them “through the national network of attorneys general associations and work with them to build relationships,” yet The Times could find no record that he had registered as a lobbyist in more than two dozen states where he has worked.
State lobbying laws generally require registration when corporations hire someone to influence legislation, but appeals targeting attorneys general are not explicitly covered, even if a company is pushing its agenda.
The documents obtained by The Times includedozens of emailsthat Mr. Lynch has sent to attorneys general on behalf of clients. He is also a regular at the attorney general conferences, which include social events like trap shooting, fitness training and all-terrain-vehicle rides, in addition to cocktail parties and meals.
These conferences also include panels on topics like regulation ofoiland natural gas pipelines.
Yet often a seat on these panels is, in effect, for sale.A large donationcan secure the right to join a panel or provide an opportunity for a handpicked executive to make a solo presentation to a room full of attorneys general. That is what a top executive fromTransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, didat two recent attorneys general meetings in Utah and Colorado.
For the attorneys general, there is a personal benefit, too: Their airfare, meals and hotel bills at these elite resorts are generally covered, either by the corporate sponsors or state taxpayers.
Ms. Bondi, the Florida attorney general, for example, received nearly $25,000 worth of airfare, hotels and meals in the past two years just from events sponsored by the Republican Attorneys General Association, state disclosure reports show. That money came indirectly from corporate donors.
She has charged Florida taxpayers nearly $14,000 since 2011 to take additional trips to meetings of the National Association of Attorneys General and the Conference of Western Attorneys General, including travel to Hawaii. Those events were also attended by dozens of lobbyists. Ms. Bondi, in a statement, said the support she had received — directly or through the Republican Attorneys General Association — had not had an impact on any of her actions as attorney general.
But Matthew L. Myers, the president of the nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who was on a panel about e-cigarettes at an event in Park City, Utah, was startled by what he saw: lobbyists from regulated industries — financial, energy, alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical companies — socializing with top state law enforcement officers.
“You play golf with somebody, you are much less likely to see them as a piranha that is trying to devour consumers, even if that is just what they are,” said Mr. Myers.
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“My client just received notification that Missouri is on this.”LORI KALANI, a Dickstein partner, discussing the 5-Hour Energy case with the state’s attorney general.CreditGabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
Mr. Tierney, the former Maine attorney general, said that lobbyists were entitled to set up a meeting with the attorneys general in their offices. But to write a check, for as much as $125,000, to gain days’ worth of private time with the attorneys general is another matter, he said.
“When you start to connect the actual access to money, and the access involves law enforcement officials, you have clearly crossed a line,” he said. “What is going on is shocking, terrible.”
An Ear in Missouri
In Missouri, as in other states, the attorney general’s office has provided a springboard to higher office, either to the governor’s mansion or the Senate. So even before Mr. Koster was sworn in for his second term, he was being mentioned as a candidate for higher office. And that made him an ideal target for the team at Dickstein.
The Dickstein lawyers have donated to his campaigns, invited him and his chief deputy to be featured speakers at law firm events and hosted Mr. Koster at dinners, and stayed in close contact with his office in emails that suggest unusual familiarity.
The relationship seems to have benefited some Dickstein clients.
Pfizer, the New York-based pharmaceutical giant, had hired Dickstein to helpsettle a case brought by at least 20 states, which accused the company of illegally marketing two of its drugs — Zyvox and Lyrica — for unapproved uses, or making exaggerated claims about their effectiveness.
Instead of participating in the unified investigation with other states — which gives attorneys general greater negotiating power — Mr. Koster’s office worked directly with Mr. Nash and Pfizer’s assistant general counsel, Markus Green.
Mr. Nash negotiated with Deputy Attorney General Joseph P. Dandurandthrough a series of emails, followed by a visit to Missouri in April 2013.
But both Pfizer and Dickstein had already built a relationship with Mr. Koster. Dickstein had participated in at least four fund-raising events for Mr. Koster, with its lawyers and the firm donating $13,500 to his campaigns, records show.
Several of those contributions came after Mr. Nash had invited Mr. Koster to participate in an “executive briefing” at the Park Hyatt for Dickstein’s clients. That same day, Mr. Koster held a fund-raising event, taking in contributions from Mr. Nash and other lawyers involved in matters that Mr. Koster would soon be, or already was, investigating, the records show.
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“The folks at Pfizer are very appreciative and excited to hear from the General.”J. B. KELLY, a Dickstein partner, writing to a Missouri official about an appearance by the attorney general at an event sponsored by Pfizer.CreditGabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
Pfizer had directly donated at least $20,000 to Mr. Koster since 2009 — more than it gave to any other state attorney general, according to company records. That does not include the $320,000 that Pfizer donated during the same period to the Democratic Attorneys General Association, which in turn has donated to Mr. Koster’s campaigns.
Mr. Koster said his office was forced to negotiate directly with Mr. Nash and Pfizer because a staff lawyer missed a deadline to participate in the multistate investigation.
“This was an accident,” Mr. Koster said, adding that since he became attorney general in 2009, his office has participated in six cases against Pfizer that brought a total of $26 million to Missouri.
But the emails show that just as the negotiations on the 2013 case were intensifying, Mr. Koster’s chief deputy received anunusual invitation: Would the attorney general be interested in flying to Chicago to be the keynote speaker at a breakfast that Pfizer was sponsoring for its political action committee?
The topic was “the importance of corporations’ building productive relationships with A.G.s,” accordingto an email in Marchfrom Dickstein to Mr. Dandurand.
“As you know, these relationships are important to allow A.G.s and corporations to work together to address important public policy issues of concern to both the A.G. and the corporation,” the invitation said. “The conference participants also would like to hear how these relationships can help to efficiently address A.G.s’ questions or concerns before they escalate into major problems (like multistate investigations or litigation), as well as how they can carry over when A.G.s are elected to higher offices.”
Mr. Dandurand worked to accommodate the request.
“Trying now to clear his calendar,” Mr. Dandurandwrote backto the Dickstein lawyer, before confirming that Mr. Koster would accept the invitation.
“The folks at Pfizer are very appreciative and excited to hear from the General,” J. B. Kelly, a partner at Dickstein, replied.
Five days later — and just before Mr. Koster was scheduled to give the speech — Mr. Dandurand and Mr. Nashmet to discussa settlement in the fraud investigation. They agreed that Pfizer would pay Missouri $750,000 —at least $350,000 less than it would have collectedif it had been part of the multistate investigation.
“Thank you for the meeting,” Mr. Nash wrote to Mr. Dandurand, after the settlement meeting in Missouri. “Pfizer is pleased.”
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Rob McKenna of Washington State.CreditGreg Gilbert/The Seattle Times, via Associated Press
Mr. Koster said Missouri received a smaller payment from Pfizer because the state had less leverage after missing the multistate deadline. Oregon, the other state to negotiate directly with Pfizer on the Zyvox matter, secured a settlement worth $3.4 million — four times what Missouri received — even though Oregon’s population is far smaller.
Pfizer was not the only Dickstein client pleased with the firm’s representation before Mr. Koster’s office.
AT&T was also subject to an investigation by Mr. Koster’s office, something that Mr. Nash learned at the conference held at the Loews hotel. And like Ms. Kalani, Mr. Nash pleaded his case directly with Mr. Koster.
Three weeks after the conversation with Mr. Nash, Mr. Koster’s office took a step that questioned the legal strategy of a multistate investigation of AT&T’s billing practices, email records show. Mr. Koster did not officially back out of the inquiry, and Missouri ultimately benefited from a national settlement announced this month.
But frustrating leaders of the multistate investigation, Mr. Koster decided to join a small group of attorneys general who, to the industry’s pleasure, wanted to resolve the matter without subpoenas or the threat of a lawsuit, the emails show.
AT&T has been a major campaign contributor to Mr. Koster’s political causes, donating more than $27,000 in just the last two years, half before and half after his actions regarding the investigation.
Mr. Koster said the donations had no effect on his actions, adding that he was determined to investigate the company for its deceptive billing practices. With 5-Hour Energy, he added, he pulled out of the investigation because he did not believe it was merited — adding that he personally uses the energy drink.
Yet he said he was angry that his staff had not notified him before joining investigations into these two major companies.
“Its stock price would move at the mere mention of our involvement,” Mr. Koster said, referring to AT&T.
Mr. Nash’s appeals were not finished.
A month after returning from the Santa Monica meeting, Mr. Kosteradopted a new office policyrequiring lawyers and managers in his consumer affairs division to get approval from his top aides before opening any investigations involving a publicly traded company or any company with more than 10 employees.
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Patrick C. Lynch of Rhode Island.CreditStew Milne/Associated Press
Mr. Nash and Lisa A. Rickard, a senior executive from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, were so pleased with the change that they asked Mr. Koster to give a talk about his new office policy at a meeting of attorneys general in Washington.
“This is going to be titled my Lisa Rickard memorial presentation,” Mr. Koster said at the February 2014 meeting. “She was the one who initiated this idea.”
The email records also reveal the personal nature of the relationship between Mr. Koster’s office and the lawyers at Dickstein.
In an August 2013 exchange, in which the attorney general’s office assured Mr. Nash that it would not share potentially damaging information on a Dickstein client with another state attorney general who was investigating the company — saying the documents were considered confidential — the conversation took a sudden turn away from business.
“Thanks,” Mr. Nash wrote back. “I’d rather eat and drink with you any time, any place.”
And an Ear in Florida
The email records show a similarly detailed interaction with the office of Ms. Bondi, the Florida attorney general and a fast-rising star in the Republican Party.
Mr. Nash and his partners worked to help Ms. Bondi further her political ambitions at the same time they were lobbying her office on behalf of companies under investigation by it.
Accretive Health, a Chicago-based hospital bill collection company, whose operations in Minnesota had been shut down by the attorney general’s office there for abusive collection practices, had turned to Dickstein Shapiro to try to make sure that other states did not follow Minnesota’s lead. Mr. Nash contacted Ms. Bondi’s chief deputy and urged the office to take no action.
“We persuaded A.G.s not to sue Accretive Health following the filing of a lawsuit by the Minnesota A.G.,”Dickstein wrotein a recent marketing brochure.
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Thurbert E. Baker of Georgia.CreditAssociated Press
Bridgepoint Education, a for-profit online school that has been under scrutiny for what Mr. Miller, the Iowa attorney general, called “unconscionable sales practices,” turned to Dickstein toset up meetingswith Ms. Bondi’s staff, to urge her not to join in the inquiries underway in several states. Again, her office decided not to take up the matter, citing the small number of complaints about Bridgepoint it has received.
Dickstein set up asimilar meeting for Herbalife, which has been investigated by federal and state authorities for sales practices related to its nutritional shakes and other products. No investigation was opened; again, Ms. Bondi’s staff said her office had received few complaints.
Perhaps the greatest victory in Florida for Dickstein relates to a lawsuit filed by Ms. Bondi’s predecessor against online reservation companies, including Travelocity and Priceline, which Dickstein then represented, based on allegations that they were conspiring to improperly withhold taxes on hotel rooms booked in the state.
Local officials in Florida were confounded by the fact that the case, which was filed before Ms. Bondi was sworn in, suddenly seemed to come to a halt.
“As our state’s highest-ranking law enforcement official, and as the people’s attorney, you have the authority to pursue action on behalf of the citizens of Florida,” Mayor Rick Kriseman of St. Petersburg, a Democrat,wrote to Ms. Bondi in 2011, while he was a state legislator,estimating that Florida was losing $100 million a year.
Behind the scenes, Dickstein had been working to get the case dropped.
“Thank you so much for chatting with me last week about the online travel site suit,”said a January 2012 emailto Deputy Attorney General Patricia A. Conners from Christopher M. Tampio, a former lobbyist for the convenience store industry who was hired to work in Dickstein’s attorney general practice, even though he is not a lawyer or a registered lobbyist in Florida.
A year later,a second round of emails arrivedin Ms. Bondi’s office: first, one inviting Ms. Bondi or her top aide to dinner at Ristorante Tosca in Washington, and then one from a Dickstein lawyer pointing out that similar online travel cases had recently been dismissed by Florida judges.
The email records provided to The Times show no response to Dickstein, other than a terse “thanks.” But two months later, Ms. Bondi’s office moved to do what the firm had sought.
“Dismissed before hearing,” the state court docket shows, as the case was closed in April 2013 even before it was officially taken up by the court.
A spokesman for Ms. Bondi said her office had dropped the matter after concluding, as Dickstein had argued, that state tax law was ambiguous. The office urged the State Legislature to clarify the matter. But several Florida counties havecontinued to pursue the matter, taking it to the State Supreme Court.
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HOTEL DEL CORONADOA conference of the Republican Attorneys General Association was held in June in Coronado, Calif. Representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Pfizer, Comcast and Altria, as well as a Dickstein Shapiro lawyer, attended the event.CreditSandy Huffaker for The New York Times
Dickstein also took unusual steps to promote Ms. Bondi’s political career.
Thefirm’s lawyers helped arrangea cover article for Ms. Bondi in a magazine calledInsideCounsel, which is distributed to corporate lawyers, and invited her, as it did Mr. Koster, to appear at an event in Washington that included the firm’s clients.
And as with Mr. Koster, the assistance included direct political contributions. Mr. Nash was a sponsor of anelaborate fund-raising eventthis year in Ms. Bondi’s honor at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, owned by Donald J. Trump, which is considered one of the most opulent mansions in the United States.
Ms. Bondi, in a statement, said none of these efforts had affected her decisions.
“My office aggressively protects Floridians from unfair and deceptive business practices, and absolutely no access to me or my staff is going to have any bearing on my efforts to protect Floridians,” she said.
The Revolving Door
In at least 31 states and in Congress, elected officials are banned from lobbying their former colleagues during a cooling-off period, which is intended to limit their ability to cash in on their contacts. Once they do start to lobby, they are required to register to disclose the work.
But even in states like Georgia, where the law prohibits state officials from registering as lobbyists or engaging in lobbying for one year after leaving office, a former attorney general made appeals almost immediately to his former office.
Mr. Baker, who left his post as the state’s attorney general in January 2011, wrote repeatedly that year to the office of his successor, Sam Olens, and to Mr. Olens’s chief deputy, who had served in the same role during Mr. Baker’s tenure, to ask them to take actions that would benefit AT&T, which he had been hired to represent.
“Hi Thurbert,” Jeff Milsteen, Georgia’s chief deputy attorney general, replied to one of the emails that Mr. Baker sent to him in 2011, as Mr. Baker sought his successor’s public support for the proposed merger between T-Mobile and AT&T. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”
The next day, Mr. Milsteen wrote back. “I’ve talked to Sam,” he said, “and he is fine with you adding him to the letter.”
A spokesman for Mr. Olens said that he saw nothing wrong with the exchanges because Mr. Baker was acting as a lawyer, not as a lobbyist, and therefore was exempt from the one-year ban — which covers only lobbying of the legislature or the governor, not the attorney general.
But Mr. Baker declined, when asked by The Times, to identify a single legal filing concerning AT&T that he had been involved with. He wrote back to say that this definition of “lawyer” was too narrow.
“Lawyers are advocates,” he said.
In Washington State, both Mr. McKenna, the former attorney general, and Mr. Moran, who had been his top deputy, were pressing their former colleagues within months of leaving their jobs last year, on behalf of clients including Microsoft and T-Mobile, emails show.
For Mr. McKenna, it was quite a turnaround.He had sued T-Mobile in September 2011to block its proposed merger with AT&T. Now, as a corporate lawyer, Mr. McKennawas setting up meetingswith his successor, Mr. Ferguson, to ask him to intervene with federal officials on T-Mobile’s behalf in the inquiry over whether the company was seeking to prevent its competitors from acquiring what it thought was too large a share of the available federal wireless spectrum.
“I write today on behalf of the millions of consumers of wireless and mobile computing services,”said a letter, drafted initially by T-Mobile, but sent out by Mr. Ferguson in January, although it made no mention of the role played by the company or the former attorney general.
Email records show a similar intervention by Mr. McKenna on behalf of Washington State-based Microsoft, with outcomes that brought praise from the corporate executives. “I know that Microsoft was very pleased that you made yourself available,” Mr. McKenna wrote to Mr. Ferguson last October. “Thank you again.”
Mr. Baker and Mr. McKenna are both regulars at the attorneys general retreats. As former attorneys general, they are also special guests at events of the Society of Attorneys General Emeritus.
They have good company in the SAGE club: More than a dozen of the members are now lawyers and lobbyists for corporations, or work at plaintiff’s law firms that are seeking to secure commission-based contracts and then sue corporations on a state’s behalf.
The schedule of attorney general conferences for the coming year is laid out — after a pause for the elections — with events set for the Fontainebleau resort in Miami Beach, the Four Seasons Hotel at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and the Grand Wailea resort on Maui, among many others. The invitations for corporate sponsorships are already being sent.
In a time when many law firms are relatively less stable than their employees would like, it’s definitely not good to hear about a Biglaw executive allegedly defrauding his firm out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
