Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
“Patriotism and Freedom of Speech in Action”
January 31, 2009
President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
SUBJ: UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY CORRUPTION
Dear Mr. President,
On behalf of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association, please allow me to extend our sincere congratulations and best wishes to you and Vice-President Biden on your tremendously successful political journey to the White House. Your elevation to the Oval Office is a much-welcomed breath of political fresh air and relief to the 300-million citizens of this great country at a time of grave political and economic peril. Well done, sir!
The Whistleblowing United Pilots Association is a national grassroots coalition comprised of employees and retirees from all airlines whose purpose is to help discover the truth regarding alleged white-collar criminality associated with post-9/11 airline bankruptcies and serve justice on the criminals who perpetrated these crimes. I serve as a public spokesperson for this group.
With your vision of hope and promise for change, which includes a greater openness in government, exposure of government fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption, including the untoward influence of K-Street lobbyist and Wall Street financial pressures, excessive executive compensation, and white-collar criminality, whose exposure is further enhanced through the strengthening of whistle blower protection laws, suffice it to say that you have the full support and cooperation of our association in achieving those lofty objectives in the future.
As you may or may not know, on November 16, 2006, I wrote to your senate office, as well as that of Senators Reid and Durbin, apprising you of the existence of available evidence in support of allegations of white-collar criminality in the United Airlines, Inc. and McCook Metals, LLC bankruptcies. Neither Senator Reid's nor Senator Durbin's office responded to this letter.
On May 14, 2007, Ms Joan Currie-Leonard, your Special Assistant in your Chicago senate office, responded to my a letter informing me that since I was not an Illinois resident and hence, not your constituent, congressional courtesy dictated that home state representatives be afforded the opportunity to respond to my concerns.
With the surfacing of significant additional federal criminal evidence, petition was been made to numerous branches of government, including relevant congressional committees and the Department of Justice, for political and legal intercession during this same time frame to no avail.
Given the unfolding events, and as a public spokesperson for the association, while realizing that I was not personally a member of your constituency, but spokesperson for the association, on October 24, 2007, a second letter was mailed to Ms Currie-Leonard, this time on behalf of the association membership that outlined the chronology of events surrounding these controversial legal and political issues.
Rather than expound, kindly review the enclosed letter for details. Once again, Ms Currie-Leonard responded as before deferring me to my home-state of Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, this in spite of the fact I had written to your office on behalf of members of the subject association, many of which reside in Illinois which, as you recognize, is the single largest employer in the state of Illinois.
On October 22, 2007, an unsolicited letter was received from Senator Chambliss acknowledging his awareness of criminal evidence associated with the United Airlines bankruptcy and his assurances that he would respond to me upon receipt of an answer to his Department of Justice inquiry, which he had recently made. But just 15 days later, on November 5, 2007, he sent me a letter advising that, “…as a U.S. Senator, have no jurisdiction over matters such as these.”
Because these matters had been stonewalled for so long by so many levels and branches of government including the Department of Justice, on October 18, 2007, I concurrently filed for whistle blower protection under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 with letters of petition to Senator Carl Levin and Securities and Exchange Commissioner Christopher Cox. In subsequent discussions with Senator Levin's staff, I was advised that the issues could not be investigated due to staff shortages and committee focus on the overabundance of higher priority issues.
On February 14, 2008, I filed a federal complaint (#2008-9580) with the office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago pending forthcoming evidence and witness testimony, which will be presented to this office shortly.
On January 29, 2008, frustrated by over a year lapsed time and no SEC response, coupled with the exposition of DOJ "deferred compensation agreements" by New York Times investigative journalist, Eric Lichtblau, described in his April 9, 2008 article, “In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials”, I wrote to H. David Kotz, the Security and Exchange Commission Inspector General, expressing my frustration and dismay over the lengthy delay of an appropriate SEC response, given that sufficient information, which included my sworn affidavit and other information, had been provided to warrant a preliminary investigation.
Very recently, letters were also sent to the Office of Inspector General at the Departments of Justice, Treasury, Transportation, and Labor, as well as to the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration on a tangentially relevant issue. Copies of these letters are enclosed for your perusal.
Given your recent elevation to the Oval Office with present jurisdiction over these departments of government, and in light of your proclamations concerning openness of government and diminishment of corruption in both the civil and federal sector, our association members are highly confident of your assurance of extensive investigations into these matters by the Inspector General of each department, and stand ready to fully support and cooperate with them in the future.
Last week, the Government Accountability Project office sent a letter of petition to your office asking your support of pending enhanced whistle blower protection legislation, which has been appended as an amendment to the Economic Stimulus Bill currently under debate in the Senate. You will note that my name/association appear as signatory toward the bottom of this document. It is because of my personal past abuse as a whistle blower on numerous counts, as well as the thousands of other unheard informants, that I strongly support passage of this legislation, as do members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association.
When individual whistle blowers garner the courage to step forth with criminal evidence, they do so with the hope and promise that laws will be upheld and the agencies assigned to enforce them will perform these duties, with the added personal safeguards provided by federal law.
As a Harvard Law graduate, teaching law at the University of Chicago, a U.S. Senator, and now President of the United States, I?m certain that we can agree that this is a nation of laws with time-honored established institutions of support. Over the course of the past eight years, we have observed the most disgraceful abuse and denigration of power of the U.S. Constitution in our nation?s history. Citizens want their Constitution and good government back. More so, they beg for the restoration of law and order that embraces the precepts of this sacred document.
We want to believe that Lady Justice is blind in the criminal prosecution of unlawful behavior in this country. Based on the frustrating past several years experiences of our association, we've come to believe this only to be the case with selective issues and individual cases. Kindly prove us wrong in this instance.
It is blatantly obvious to all that you are a good and loving family man, husband, and father. Please empathetically realize the horrific pain, sadness, familial maladies, and other hardships wrought on the good people of the airline industry during the post-9/11 bankruptcies which, as our membership asserts, were affected by alleged illicit means. In this regard alone, we beg for your understanding, cooperation and assistance.
Our association stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our president, ready, willing, and able to rout out the possible white-collar criminals who may have committed these crimes against airline employees who were willing to give the shirt off their backs to sustain the industry in the post-9/11 era. In the end, they did. Is this their reward for their sacrifices?
The Whistleblowing United Pilots Association membership sincerely wishes you, Michelle, Malia Anne, and Sasha much happiness and success during your stay at the White House. You've travelled a very long road in life to get there. Please reflect on the long career paths travelled by airline employees with hopes and dreams for a happy and successful retirement, only to realize them shattered in the eleventh hour of their careers, with nowhere else to turn for sustenance in the twilight years of life. It wasn't right.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Spokesperson – Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
Encl: Letter dated November 18, 2006 to Senators Reid, Durbin, and Obama
Letter dated May 4, 2007 from Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard
Letter dated October 24, 2007 to Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard
Letter dated October 22, 2007 from Senator Saxby Chambliss
Letter dated November 5, 2007 from Senator Saxby Chambliss
Letter dated November 6, 2007 from Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard
Letter dated October 18, 2007 to Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman
Letter dated October 18, 2007 to Senator Carl Levin
Letter dated January 25, 2009 to Calvin L. Scovel, DOT Inspector General
Letter dated January 28, 2009 to H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Gordon S. Heddell, DOL Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Glenn A. Fine, DOJ Inspector General
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Eric Thorson, Treasury Inspector General
Letter dated January 26, 2009 from Government Accountability Project Coalition
Cc: Calvin L. Scovell - Inspector General, Department of Transportation
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Gordon S. Hedell – Inspector General, Department of Labor
Glenn A. Fine – Inspector General, Department of Justice
Eric Thorson – Inspector General, Department of Treasury
Tom Devine – Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Whistleblowing United Pilots Association Membership
Please Click Here
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October 24, 2007
Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard
Special Assistant
Office of U.S. Senator Barack Obama
John C. Kluczynski Federal Building
230 South Dearborn Street, Suite 3900
Chicago, Illinois 60604
SUBJ: WHISTLEBLOWING UNITED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
Dear Ms. Currie-Leonard,
On November 18, 2006, an association joint letter was sent to Senators Reid, Durbin, and Obama petitioning their political help in investigating alleged white-collar criminal activity associated with the United Airlines bankruptcy. Although not a resident of Illinois, my purpose in writing merely served as the voice of the subject association.
The Whistleblowing United Pilots Association is somewhat of a misnomer in that it is an independent grassroots coalition of all airline employees and retirees from every airline across the nation whose purpose is to help discover the truth and serve justice on the white-collar criminals who perpetrated the crimes, which enabled the demise of post-9/11 airline employees and retirees in bankruptcy.
On May 4, 2007 you responded in writing that, since I was not a resident of the state of Illinois and hence, not one of Senator Obama’s constituents, that ‘Congressional courtesy dictates that the current federal senators and representatives be afforded the opportunity to respond to their constituents of the districts from which they were elected’.
On May 1, 2007, as one of his constituents, I received a personal letter from Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) offering political assistance in the investigation into my personal issue with the Federal Aviation Administration as to why previously submitted federally mandated reports had been stonewalled. Since the concerns and scope of the subject association extended far beyond my personal issues, and since previous attempts to address these issues with federal law enforcement officials had been ignored, it was felt unnecessary to pursue my issue with the help of Senator Chambliss at the time for the reasons stated herein.
Previously, on November 20, 2006, an association letter had been written to District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald petitioning his office to investigate the available evidence surrounding said potential criminal activity in the United Airlines/McCook Metals bankruptcies. On December 11, 2006, a letter was received from his office with advisement that the office of Chicago FBI Director Robert Grant be contacted if there was any direct evidence of violations of federal law. At the time, it was known that former Chairman and CEO of McCook Metals LLC Michael Lynch had previously briefed both Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr.Grant on the evidence at hand, but needed federal witness protection for his informants in this case. This evidence and witness testimony is directly related to criminal activity in the United bankruptcy.
During this same time frame, with the congressional mid-term election results elevating key Democrats to key committee chair positions, association letters were sent to relevant chairmen addressing these very issues. Realizing that the Democratic party had the first 100-hour agenda and other pressing matters such as the firing of District Attorneys to deal with as well as a back log of other committee oversight issues to address (due to virtually no congressional oversight by the previous GOP-controlled committees), we patiently watched in hopes that eventually our association concerns would be addressed as well.
On April 1, 2007, an association letter was written to Chicago FBI Director Robert Grant inquiring as to why an investigation into the United/McCook bankruptcies had been suspended given the evidence/witnesses at hand. Additionally, it was suggested that perhaps top-level personnel within the Department of Justice were exerting undue pressure on District Attorneys in cases involving highly-sensitive political issues.
On May 16, 2007, a letter was received from the U.S. Department of Justice-FBI office advising that the letters had been received by the FBI Public Corruption Office (an administrative arm of the FBI) and had been forwarded to the FBI Atlanta field office. The Atlanta field offices never responded.
As a result of testimony by fired District Attorneys during the AG Gonzales hearings, it was surmised that undue political influence may have been exerted through key Department of Justice personnel on the actions of District Attorneys, so on September 1, 2007, an association letter was written to Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher-DOJ Criminal Division inquiring as to why federal witness protection and immunity from prosecution had not been afforded to informants in this case.
In early September, additional evidence surfaced that was uncovered by another grassroots organization, which supported allegations surrounding criminal activity in the United Airlines bankruptcy and was reported upon by two articles appearing on The Motley Fool website as authored by reporter Rich Duprey. This additional evidence implicitly suggests possible White House collusion, fraudulent accounting practices, securities fraud, nondisclosure of certain financial assets during the bankruptcy, fraudulent government loan application processes, a government appointee which involves a conflict of interest, and questionably legal agreements between United Airlines and the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation in the distress-termination of defined-benefit employee pensions.
On October 10, 2007, a letter was received from U.S. Representative Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) advising me that a local staff member in Georgia was contacting the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the September 1st letter to Asst AG Alice Fisher. As Mr. Lynch, his investigative team, others, and myself recognized certain unnamed legal and political forces being brought to bear upon us in other arenas, drastic measures had to be taken to protect ourselves and families, our evidence, and witnesses in an attempt to bring matters to legal and political light.
On October 18, 2007, I invoked the rights, privileges, and protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in declaring myself a federal whistleblower on behalf of the employees and retirees of United Airlines. On October 19, letters were written on behalf of the subject association to the relevant congressional committee chairmen Senators Kennedy and Leahy and Congressmen Waxman, Conyers, and Miller advising them of the same while petitioning their committees to commence a congressional investigation into these matters. We are presently awaiting a response from their committee office staff.
Although I fully understand that since I personally am not a constituent of Senator Obama, he is a Democratic frontrunner for the office of President and currently represents his constituency in the state of Illinois. Since United Airlines, as one of the largest employers in the state has tens-of-thousands of employees who may have been illegally disenfranchised during the post-9/11 bankruptcy process, and since the Seventh Circuit Court system falls within their domains of influence and authority, it is hoped that both Senators Obama and Durbin will exercise such due authority and responsibility in vigorously supporting a prompt investigation into these criminal allegations.
The United States still has laws and law enforcement agencies, a criminal justice system, and a system of checks and balances governed in accordance with precepts established by our Constitution. The tax-paying citizens of this country demand that potential dysfunction of any branch of government be corrected by appropriate congressional oversight committee investigations and hearings.
There exists evidence, which suggests criminal activity that has yet to be investigated by the Department of Justice and other branches of government for whatever reasons. The employees and retirees of United Airlines want to know why this has not yet occurred.
Your cooperation and assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated by the many Illinois United Airlines workers and retirees, as well as the many other global members of the United family. We are merely being citizen-patriots attempting to uphold our Constitutional rights as citizens who pay taxes in demand of a fair and honest system of government.
Sincerely,
Dan Hanley
Encl: Letter dated October 18, 2007 to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox with attachments
Cc: Senator Ted Kennedy
Senator Patrick Leahy
Congressman Henry Waxman
Congressman John Conyers, Jr.
Congressman George Miller
Senator Richard Durbin
Please click here
*********************************
Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
“Patriotism and Freedom of Speech in Action”
February 12, 2009
Senator Johnny Isakson
120 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Saxby Chambliss
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland
1213 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
SUBJ: FAA/SARBANES-OXLEY WHISTLE BLOWER
Gentlemen,
I write to you today as a courtesy and to ask for your political assistance, being one of your constituents residing in Newnan, Georgia. Recently I wrote to numerous politicians and law enforcement officials the enclosed letters of petition, which outline the matters that I present before you today as my congressional representatives. Without expounding, kindly have members of your staff review these letters.
For almost three years, members of the grassroots organization called the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association have been unsuccessful in our attempts to bring matters of alleged federal criminality to the attention of our government. It is specifically for this reason that I herein petition your good offices to assist us in our honest and noble efforts.
In late 2007, both Senator Chambliss and Congressman Westmoreland became briefly involved in this case in writing to then Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Keeney an unsolicited letter of inquiry on behalf of our association, but the response received from the Department of Justice was inadequate in that most of the issues previously addressed in a letter to then Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher were not properly answered in Mr. Keeney’s letter response to me via your offices. I subsequently sent Mr. Keeney a follow-on letter that went unanswered by anyone within the Department of Justice. I have also enclosed these letters for your perusal.
On a personal basis, I am a legally and politically disenfranchised federal whistle blower whose rights as such have been denied on multiple counts. I am presently challenged to believe that this is still a nation of laws with government agencies empowered to enforce them, given the observed events of the past several years of my life. Although I fully recognize that you are currently encumbered by the many challenges facing our nation in this time of grave economic peril, I am nonetheless a tax-paying constituent residing in the state of Georgia and pray for your political intercession in this case.
When an individual citizen believes that he is of 'knowledge and information' that a federal crime has been committed, is it not his patriotic duty to present this information to appropriate federal authorities? Additionally, when this same individual fully believes that he is federally protected as a whistle blower by such legislation as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, is it not the patriotic duty of members of Congress to fully support this citizen in his performance of said duties? Due process of federal law has not been served in my case by the U.S. Congress, the Departments of Justice and Transportation, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as others.
Please help me, gentlemen. I am currently an unprotected federal whistle blower and am seeking protection, advice, and political assistance in this regard.
I am currently affiliated with the Government Accountability Project (GAP) in Washington, DC, as well National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project, Inc., Poplar, Inc., numerous other legal/political organizations, investigative journalists/authors, and many others. I have recently petitioned the Georgia ACLU office for assistance also.
My name/organization recently appeared amongst 264 signatories on a GAP letter of petition to President Obama asking for his support to an amendment to the Economic Stimulus bill, whistle blower protection legislation that would enable me, as well as many others, enhanced due process protections for speaking out on federal criminality issues.
A full 98% of federal whistle blower cases that even reach the appellate level in this country are dismissed. Given the sorry state of the economy and the alleged devious criminality of white-collar criminals such as Bernie Madoff, does it not make sound legal, political, and economic sense to strengthen whistle blower laws so that the good citizens of this country feel enough confidence in government to be willing to bring forth 'knowledge and information' of federal criminality and corruption? Based on my own personal experiences, I recognize this to be a legal, political, and moral imperative if we, as a nation, are to ever right this rapidly sinking ship.
Congress can throw tens-of-trillion dollars at the economy, but until the underlying cancer is eradicated, which has metastasized to lethal proportions, we are doomed as a nation to repeat the gloomy past or worse. The walls of the fortress comprised of Wall Street money through K-Street lobbyist surrounding the DC beltway has grown so tall, particularly in the past several years, that the crying voices of ordinary tax-paying citizens are muffled by this ‘sound barrier’. I believe that Leona Helmsley had it right when she quipped that the ‘little people pay taxes’. Unfortunately, we the little people, do not feel that we are getting our maximum financial return on investment in government as enjoyed recently by Wall Street bankers.
With all due respect to your good offices, I pay taxes and demand appropriate government representation, response, and protection in this matter and will patiently await a reply from your office.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Spokesperson – Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
Encl: Letter dated October 22, 2007 from Senator Saxby Chambliss
Letter dated November 5, 2007 from Senator Saxby Chambliss
Letter dated December 5, 2007 from Congressman Westmoreland
Letter dated December 12, 2007 from DOJ Gerald Toner
Letter dated December 5, 2007 from Deputy Asst Attorney General John Keeney
Letter dated February 10, 2008 to Deputy Asst Attorney General John Keeney
Letter dated January 25, 2009 to Calvin L. Scovel, DOT Inspector General
Letter dated January 28, 2009 to H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Gordon S. Heddell, DOL Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Glenn A. Fine, DOJ Inspector General
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Eric Thorson, Treasury Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to President Barack Obama
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Robert Grant, Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge
Letter dated February 6, 2009 to Attorney General Eric Holder
Letter dated February 7, 2009 to Debbie Seagraves, Executive Director - ACLU of Georgia
Letter dated January 26, 2009 from Government Accountability Project Coalition to President Obama
cc: President Barack Obama
Vice-President Joe Biden
Rahm Emanuel - Chief of Staff to the President
Calvin L. Scovell - Inspector General, Department of Transportation
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Gordon S. Hedell – Inspector General, Department of Labor
Glenn A. Fine – Inspector General, Department of Justice
Eric Thorson – Inspector General, Department of Treasury
Rebecca Batts - Inspector General, Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation
Senator Patrick Leahy - Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Charles Grassley - Member, Senate Judiciary/Finance Committees
Senator Daniel Akaka - Chairman, Senate Government Management Committee
Senator Carl Levin - Chairman, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Max Clellan - Former Democratic Senator from Georgia
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman, Government Oversight Committee
Congressman George Miller, Chairman, Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee
Rita Glavin - Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
Robert Mueller - FBI Director
Patrick Fitzgerald - District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Robert Grant - Chicago FBI, Special Agent-in-Charge
Mary Schapiro – SEC Chairman
Merri Jo Gillette - Chicago SEC, Regional Director
Eric Lichtblau - New York Times Investigative Journalist
Mary Williams-Walsh - New York Times Investigative Journalist
Jeff Bailey - New York Times Investigative Journalist
David Cay Johnston - Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Journalist/Author
Paul Krugman - New York Times Reporter/Nobel Laureate in Economics
Richard Duprey - Journalist, 'The Motley Fool'
John Perkins - Author
Jan Schwartz - CEO, Forensic Fraud Research, Inc.
Holly Hegeman - Editor, 'Plane Business'
Keith Olberman - NBC News Correspondent
Chris Matthews - NBC News Correspondent
Rachel Maddow - NBC News Correspondent
Lou Dobbs - CNN News Correspondent
Ed Schultz - Public Talk Radio Show Host
Michael Lynch - Associate
Tom Devine - Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
Monday, November 30, 2009
November 20, 2006
Patrick J. Fitzgerald
United States Attorney
Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division
219 South Dearborn Street, 5th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60604
SUBJ: WHISTLEBLOWING UNITED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
Dear Mr. Fitzgerald,
I personally have admired you from afar as a man of honesty, courage, and professional integrity in your capacity as a law enforcement official. This is specifically why I am writing you today to address grave matters that lie within your legal jurisdiction as U.S. District Attorney.
Through the unnecessary United Airlines Chapter 11 bankruptcy that commenced in December 2002 and ended in February of this year, tens of thousands of honest, law-abiding citizens (like you and I) have been criminally wronged. Since United Airlines and the Seventh Circuit Court system lie within you legal domain, I feel you need to be apprised of our current legal and political plight.
There are individuals within certain agencies and organizations, who strongly believe they possess substantial criminal evidence of, and have witnesses to, this pathetic criminal activity. We desperately need a trustworthy human as a legal channel to oversee an investigation, analysis, and collation of these data to confirm our collective allegations and bring to justice these consciousless, white-collar criminals. You’re him.
A massive number of disenfranchised airline employees from every airline in the country (as well as workers in other industries) will also be in receipt of this letter and waiting with bated breath for your decision regarding your response to our legal and political concerns. On behalf of those 40-million American workers who are covered by over 30,000 defined-benefit pension plans, don’t let us down now.
It is hereby respectfully requested, at your earliest convenience, that you contemplate the initiation of a grand jury investigation into all questionable legal matters pertaining to the United Airlines and McCook Metals, LLC bankruptcies. I have included as enclosures for your perusal, other letters of petition to high-ranking government officials also requesting a congressional investigation into these matters that will hopefully lead to a full Senate hearing on this and other airline industry and pension issues. Your affirmative decision to engage this much needed legal process will have a profound and dramatic impact on workers from every industry in the country.
Please be there for us; we’re all counting on your honesty, compassion, and professional legal expertise to win the day for millions of real American citizens. Thank you for your consideration. I will patiently await your reply.
Very Respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Encl: Letter dated April 6, 2006 to DOJ, DOT, and DHS
Letter dated November 18, 2006 to Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Letter dated November 18, 2006 to Senators Harry Reid, Senator Richard Durbin,
Senator Barak Obama
cc: Honorable Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States
Honorable Michael J. Chertoff, Department of Homeland Security
Honorable Mary E. Peters, Department of Transportation
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI)
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Senator Barak Obama (D-IL)
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Congressman George Miller (D-CA)
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)
Congressman Jerry Costello (D-IL)
Glenn Tilton, CEO United Airlines
Jack Brace, CFO United Airlines
Paul Lovejoy, General Counsel United Airlines
Captain Mark Bathurst, Chairman, United ALPA MEC
Robert Nichols, Attorney, United ALPA MEC
Dr. Donald Hudson, ALPA National Aeromedical Consultant
New York Times
Washington Post
Chicago Tribune
St. Louis Post Dispatch
Belleville New Democrat
Detroit Free Press
Los Angeles
**********************
February 2, 2009
Mr. Robert D. Grant
Special Agent-in-Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
2111 West Roosevelt Road
Chicago, Illinois 60608
SUBJ: WHISTLEBLOWING UNITED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
Dear Mr. Grant,
This morning, I flew from my home domicile of Atlanta to Chicago, rented a car and drove to the Chicago Office of the FBI with the intent of providing criminal evidence and a list of witnesses as directed in letters by members of the Department of Justice on three separate occasions, which I have enclosed for your perusal.
I must admit that I was very much shocked and disheartened by the meeting that I had with one of your agents in the briefing room immediately behind the check-in desk on the first floor of the building. I announced to the female agent, (whose name she claimed she could not provide due to FBI regulations), that I was a disenfranchised unprotected FAA and Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower whose legal rights had been denied. Additionally, I advised her that I was a public spokesperson for the subject association, had filed federal complaint (#2008-9580) a year ago, and had written your office during this time frame in hopes of arranging a meeting with FBI agents, as suggested at the time by Agent David Barusko, to which I received no response.
Additionally, I told her that, although unprotected, I wanted to provide material evidence and a list of preliminary witnesses that supported my stated criminal allegations in the affidavit that was previously sent to your office. I went on to tell her that I had brought a USB storage device that contained much information, but the security guards at the gate told me that it would have to be stored in one of the lockers and, if the agent desired this information, I could give her the key and she would retrieve it. She refused to retrieve this device.
Disappointed, but not frustrated after having been stonewalled by DOJ for almost three years, I asked her if I could at least speak to an agent in the white-collar criminal division of your office. She refused this request, so I asked her if I could possibly speak to the agent in charge of this department since my associate, Michael Lynch, had already briefed this department on other matters and had a file there containing evidence relevant to my case. She refused.
Finally, although I knew you were presently encumbered with the Blagojevich debacle and other matters, I asked if I could talk to you personally for just a few minutes, since two letters previously sent to your office had gone unanswered. She refused and then informed me that the Department of Justice was not going to investigate our case, which was bewildering to me.
I then queried as to how the FBI could arrive at such a decision not to prosecute a case without ever having viewed a single shred of evidence or questioned witnesses, given that United Airlines was the
single largest employer in the state and the bankruptcy and pension termination were amongst the largest in history. She could not provide an answer, but continued to insist that DOJ was not going to investigate this case.
This was the ultimate DOJ stonewall in the history of this case, especially after I was merely following the DOJ direction of reporting criminal evidence to an FBI office. Why should one bother to even file a federal criminal complaint, if the FBI will not even receive evidence or hear witness testimony in the matter? Better yet, why should one even risk being an FAA or Sarbanes-Oxley whistle blower if the protective covenants afforded by these acts are ignored?
Due process of federal law is not being served here. While recognizing that 18 U.S.C.§ 4 “Misprison of felony” only applies to those who knowingly conceal and do not as soon as possible report a federal crime to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States at the risk of being fined or imprisoned not more than three years, or both, the converse holds true here in that I’m attempting to report a federal crime in accordance with Sarbanes-Oxley, but being prevented from doing so by the very federal law enforcement agency empowered to prosecute, while posing grave risk to myself in the process.
If a deferred prosecution agreement has been reached between United Airlines, the Department of Justice, and an assigned external monitor, then would someone in the Department of Justice kindly do me the small favor of informing of such, so I can at least explain this to the association membership and investigative journalists and authors who are tracking this case, while at the same time apologize to my broken family for having wasted three years time with this senseless and frustrating legal exercise in futility? I’m still unprotected; that isn’t asking much.
Last year, the Department of Justice provided a partial list of those corporations who had reached such agreements, with the consequence of white-collar criminal exoneration of their wrongdoings, and financially disenfranchised victims being offered no legal recourse to recoup their losses. United Airlines was not on this list, which I believe is still under investigation by the House Judiciary Committee.
Additionally, would your office staff be so kind as to at least provide a written response to this correspondence alone, explaining the reason(s) your office will not review evidence in this case, since I have received no responses in the past?
On January 31, 2009, I wrote to Glenn Fine, the Department of Justice Inspector General advising him of the chronology of DOJ legal stonewalls of the past few years, while requesting DOJ cooperation in this case.
Today’s response from your office was not the level of cooperation I had hoped for.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Spokesperson – Whistleblowing United Pilot Association
Encl: Letter dated December 11, 2006 from Patrick Fitzgerald
Letter dated May 16, 2007 from FBI DC
Letter dated December 5, 2007 from Deputy Asst AG John Keeney
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to DOJ IG Glenn Fine
Cc: Senator Patrick Leahy – Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Charles Grassley – Senate Judiciary/Senate Finance Committees
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. – Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
Glenn Fine – Inspector General, Department of Justice
Calvin L. Scovell – Inspector General, Department of Transportation
Patrick P. O’Carroll – Inspector General, Social Security Administration
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Eric Thorson – Inspector General, Treasury Department
Eric Holder – Attorney General
Rita Glavin – Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
Robert Mueller – FBI Director
Patrick Fitzgerald, District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Tom Devine – Government Accountability Project Legal Director
Eric Lichtblau – New York Times Investigative Journalist
Mary Williams-Walsh – New York Times Investigative Journalist
Members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
February 6, 2009
Eric Holder – Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
SUBJ: WHISTLEBLOWING UNITED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
Dear Mr. Holder,
On behalf of the subject association, please allow me to extend to you our sincerest congratulations and best wishes on your recent confirmation as attorney general, the highest law enforcement official in our great nation. As such, we hold great hope that you share in President Obama’s promise of change in governance enabling a greater openness in our government and law enforcement agencies, thereby routing out the cancerous white-collar corruption that has permeated throughout all levels and branches of government and business the past several years.
In consonance with the Department of Justice stated mission, all members of our association share these same hopes and visions for a better tomorrow.
"To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans."
Established in April 2006, the ‘Whistleblowing United Pilots Association’ is a national grassroots coalition comprised of employees and retirees from all airlines whose purpose is to help discover the truth regarding alleged white-collar criminality associated with post-9/11 airline bankruptcies and serve justice on the criminals who perpetrated these crimes. I serve as a public spokesperson for this group.
On April 12, 2006, I sent the attached letter to then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announcing the establishment of our association, while petitioning his support of our grassroots efforts. Four months later in a letter response dated, DOJ Gerald Toner advised me to contact an FBI office with evidence of alleged federal criminality.
On November 20, 2006, I wrote District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a letter advising him of our knowledge of the existence of federal criminal evidence, while asking for his prosecutorial support in this case.
On December 11, 2006, I received a letter from the office of Patrick Fitzgerald suggesting that I contact Robert Grant, Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge, if I had 'any evidence of violations of federal law'.
Without expounding, on April 1, 2007, I wrote the attached letter to Mr. Grant that was forwarded by his office to the FBI DC Public Corruption Unit, an administrative arm of the FBI, who responded in a letter dated May 16, 2007 by suggesting that I contact the FBI Field office in Atlanta. Because I was aware that FBI Chicago already had a filed open federal complaint on a matter related to this case, as well as other issues under consideration at the time, I chose not to contact this specific office for reasons that I will not outline in this letter.
On February 2, 2009, I paid a visit to the Office of the FBI in Chicago for the express purpose of delivering federal criminal evidence and a list of witnesses, but this information was declined by an agent in this office. Additionally, I was informed that the FBI did not intend to prosecute this case, even though no one within the bureau had reviewed the tiniest shred of evidence. I am nonplussed, as are members of our association.
On this same date, I transmitted the attached letter to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant expressing our concerns regarding the fact that due process of federal law was not being served in this case, even though I was merely adhering to DOJ recommendations on three separate occasions to contact the FBI if I had evidence of alleged federal criminality as a Sarbanes-Oxley whistle blower.
As our newly-appointed highest federal law enforcement official in government, request is hereby made that the Department of Justice kindly provide our membership the reason(s) as to why said evidence has been refused by the department resulting in the apparent unconcern of alleged federal criminality surrounding the United Airlines bankruptcy. Other agencies of the federal government have been contacted on relevant legal issues in this case as well, and I have included this related correspondence for your perusal.
President Obama campaigned on a promise of open government, which included the exposition of white-collar corruption, untoward lobbyist pressures, and excessive executive compensation. Although encumbered with current economic problems and many other pressing issues, it is hoped that he will fully support whistle blowers willing to step forth to expose white-collar corruption, given the sorry state of economic affairs in this country which, in part, has been caused by corrupt schemes derived by the likes of Bernie Madoff and others.
The overriding concern and consideration more generally addressed herein is whether or not we do, in fact, have whistle blower laws in this country, but more importantly the question as to whether the federal agencies empowered to investigate and prosecute alleged white-collar criminality while protecting the rights of whistle blowers still exists. We want to believe that the United States has a system of federal laws, legislated by Congress, enacted by the President, with legal processes in place to ensure adherence.
Our association membership embraces the precepts enshrined in our sacred Constitution, which ensures first amendment freedom of speech rights by patriots who stand guard against diminishments of these ideals. The citizens of this great land do not need a Patriot Act to delegate 'patriotism', as it was exemplified by the courageous words and deeds of our forefathers who were willing to risk their lives in support of these virtues and ideals. Our association motto is "Patriotism and Freedom of Speech in Action" in consonance with this same theme.
Reflecting on the words offered to Attorney General Gonzales in April 2006:
“You are hereby advised of our plight and our efforts. If DOJ, DOT, and DHS are disinterested in our investigation, that is acceptable, although not understandable, to us. However, you must be forewarned, we will be successful in discovering the truth and serving justice and then will be calling on your good offices to explain your apathetic behavior towards our just and noble cause”.
Our association membership asserts that much of the truth regarding federal white-collar criminality in this case has been uncovered. Service of federal justice is a jurisdictional matter outside the association domain of control. It is a Department of Justice function. Ordinary grassroots citizen groups should not be required to investigate and prove federal criminality, as this is a Department of Justice function also. Will you join us in our just and noble cause in support of the stated mission of the Department of Justice? To date, our association efforts have been most ineffective in our legally persuasive processes of the past.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Spokesperson – Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
Encl: Letter dated April 12, 2006 to AG Gonzales, DHS Chertoff, and DOT Mineta
Letter dated July 3, 2006 from DOJ Gerald Toner
Letter dated November 20, 2006 to District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
Letter dated December 11, 2006 from District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
Letter dated April 1, 2007 to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant
Letter dated May 16, 2007 from FBI DC Public Corruption Unit Michael Anderson
Letter dated September 1, 2007 to Asst AG Fisher, Leahy, Schumer, Conyers
Letter dated December 5, 2007 from Deputy Asst AG John Keeney
Letter dated February 10, 2008 to Deputy Asst AG John Keeney
Email dated February 2, 2009 to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant
Letter dated January 25, 2009 to Calvin L. Scovel, DOT Inspector General
Letter dated January 28, 2009 to H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Gordon S. Heddell, DOL Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Glenn A. Fine, DOJ Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to President Barack Obama
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Eric Thorson, Treasury Inspector General
Letter dated January 26, 2009 from Government Accountability Project Coalition to President Barack Obama
cc: President Barack Obama
Vice-President Joe Biden
Rahm Emanuel - Chief of Staff to the President
Calvin L. Scovell - Inspector General, Department of Transportation
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Gordon S. Hedell – Inspector General, Department of Labor
Glenn A. Fine – Inspector General, Department of Justice
Eric Thorson – Inspector General, Department of Treasury
Rebecca Batts - Inspector General, Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation
Senator Patrick Leahy - Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Charles Grassley - Member, Senate Judiciary/Finance Committees
Senator Daniel Akaka - Chairman, Senate Government Management/Federal Workforce/DC Committee
Senator Carl Levin - Chairman, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Max Clellan - Former Democratic Senator from Georgia
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman, Government Oversight Committee
Congressman George Miller, Chairman, Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee
Rita Glavin - Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
Robert Mueller - FBI Director
Patrick Fitzgerald - District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Robert Grant - Chicago FBI, Special Agent-in-Charge
Mary Schapiro – SEC Chairman
Merri Jo Gillette - Chicago SEC, Regional Director
Eric Lichtblau - New York Times Investigative Journalist
Mary Williams-Walsh - New York Times Investigative Journalist
Jeff Bailey - New York Times Investigative Journalist
David Cay Johnston - Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Journalist/Author
Paul Krugman - New York Times Reporter/Nobel Laureate in Economics
Richard Duprey - Journalist, 'The Motley Fool'
John Perkins - Author
Jan Schwartz - CEO, Forensic Fraud Research, Inc.
Holly Hegeman - Editor, 'Plane Business'
Keith Olberman - NBC News Correspondent
Chris Matthews - NBC News Correspondent
Rachel Maddow - NBC News Correspondent
Lou Dobbs - CNN News Correspondent
Ed Schultz - Public Talk Radio Show Host
Michael Lynch - Associate
Tom Devine - Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
United Airlines Board of Directors
Captain John Prater - President, Air Line Pilots Association
Captain Steve Wallach - United ALPA Master Executive Council Chairman
Members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
Patrick J. Fitzgerald
United States Attorney
Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division
219 South Dearborn Street, 5th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60604
SUBJ: WHISTLEBLOWING UNITED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
Dear Mr. Fitzgerald,
I personally have admired you from afar as a man of honesty, courage, and professional integrity in your capacity as a law enforcement official. This is specifically why I am writing you today to address grave matters that lie within your legal jurisdiction as U.S. District Attorney.
Through the unnecessary United Airlines Chapter 11 bankruptcy that commenced in December 2002 and ended in February of this year, tens of thousands of honest, law-abiding citizens (like you and I) have been criminally wronged. Since United Airlines and the Seventh Circuit Court system lie within you legal domain, I feel you need to be apprised of our current legal and political plight.
There are individuals within certain agencies and organizations, who strongly believe they possess substantial criminal evidence of, and have witnesses to, this pathetic criminal activity. We desperately need a trustworthy human as a legal channel to oversee an investigation, analysis, and collation of these data to confirm our collective allegations and bring to justice these consciousless, white-collar criminals. You’re him.
A massive number of disenfranchised airline employees from every airline in the country (as well as workers in other industries) will also be in receipt of this letter and waiting with bated breath for your decision regarding your response to our legal and political concerns. On behalf of those 40-million American workers who are covered by over 30,000 defined-benefit pension plans, don’t let us down now.
It is hereby respectfully requested, at your earliest convenience, that you contemplate the initiation of a grand jury investigation into all questionable legal matters pertaining to the United Airlines and McCook Metals, LLC bankruptcies. I have included as enclosures for your perusal, other letters of petition to high-ranking government officials also requesting a congressional investigation into these matters that will hopefully lead to a full Senate hearing on this and other airline industry and pension issues. Your affirmative decision to engage this much needed legal process will have a profound and dramatic impact on workers from every industry in the country.
Please be there for us; we’re all counting on your honesty, compassion, and professional legal expertise to win the day for millions of real American citizens. Thank you for your consideration. I will patiently await your reply.
Very Respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Encl: Letter dated April 6, 2006 to DOJ, DOT, and DHS
Letter dated November 18, 2006 to Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Letter dated November 18, 2006 to Senators Harry Reid, Senator Richard Durbin,
Senator Barak Obama
cc: Honorable Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States
Honorable Michael J. Chertoff, Department of Homeland Security
Honorable Mary E. Peters, Department of Transportation
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI)
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Senator Barak Obama (D-IL)
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA)
Congressman George Miller (D-CA)
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI)
Congressman Jerry Costello (D-IL)
Glenn Tilton, CEO United Airlines
Jack Brace, CFO United Airlines
Paul Lovejoy, General Counsel United Airlines
Captain Mark Bathurst, Chairman, United ALPA MEC
Robert Nichols, Attorney, United ALPA MEC
Dr. Donald Hudson, ALPA National Aeromedical Consultant
New York Times
Washington Post
Chicago Tribune
St. Louis Post Dispatch
Belleville New Democrat
Detroit Free Press
Los Angeles
**********************
February 2, 2009
Mr. Robert D. Grant
Special Agent-in-Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation
U.S. Department of Justice
2111 West Roosevelt Road
Chicago, Illinois 60608
SUBJ: WHISTLEBLOWING UNITED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
Dear Mr. Grant,
This morning, I flew from my home domicile of Atlanta to Chicago, rented a car and drove to the Chicago Office of the FBI with the intent of providing criminal evidence and a list of witnesses as directed in letters by members of the Department of Justice on three separate occasions, which I have enclosed for your perusal.
I must admit that I was very much shocked and disheartened by the meeting that I had with one of your agents in the briefing room immediately behind the check-in desk on the first floor of the building. I announced to the female agent, (whose name she claimed she could not provide due to FBI regulations), that I was a disenfranchised unprotected FAA and Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower whose legal rights had been denied. Additionally, I advised her that I was a public spokesperson for the subject association, had filed federal complaint (#2008-9580) a year ago, and had written your office during this time frame in hopes of arranging a meeting with FBI agents, as suggested at the time by Agent David Barusko, to which I received no response.
Additionally, I told her that, although unprotected, I wanted to provide material evidence and a list of preliminary witnesses that supported my stated criminal allegations in the affidavit that was previously sent to your office. I went on to tell her that I had brought a USB storage device that contained much information, but the security guards at the gate told me that it would have to be stored in one of the lockers and, if the agent desired this information, I could give her the key and she would retrieve it. She refused to retrieve this device.
Disappointed, but not frustrated after having been stonewalled by DOJ for almost three years, I asked her if I could at least speak to an agent in the white-collar criminal division of your office. She refused this request, so I asked her if I could possibly speak to the agent in charge of this department since my associate, Michael Lynch, had already briefed this department on other matters and had a file there containing evidence relevant to my case. She refused.
Finally, although I knew you were presently encumbered with the Blagojevich debacle and other matters, I asked if I could talk to you personally for just a few minutes, since two letters previously sent to your office had gone unanswered. She refused and then informed me that the Department of Justice was not going to investigate our case, which was bewildering to me.
I then queried as to how the FBI could arrive at such a decision not to prosecute a case without ever having viewed a single shred of evidence or questioned witnesses, given that United Airlines was the
single largest employer in the state and the bankruptcy and pension termination were amongst the largest in history. She could not provide an answer, but continued to insist that DOJ was not going to investigate this case.
This was the ultimate DOJ stonewall in the history of this case, especially after I was merely following the DOJ direction of reporting criminal evidence to an FBI office. Why should one bother to even file a federal criminal complaint, if the FBI will not even receive evidence or hear witness testimony in the matter? Better yet, why should one even risk being an FAA or Sarbanes-Oxley whistle blower if the protective covenants afforded by these acts are ignored?
Due process of federal law is not being served here. While recognizing that 18 U.S.C.§ 4 “Misprison of felony” only applies to those who knowingly conceal and do not as soon as possible report a federal crime to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States at the risk of being fined or imprisoned not more than three years, or both, the converse holds true here in that I’m attempting to report a federal crime in accordance with Sarbanes-Oxley, but being prevented from doing so by the very federal law enforcement agency empowered to prosecute, while posing grave risk to myself in the process.
If a deferred prosecution agreement has been reached between United Airlines, the Department of Justice, and an assigned external monitor, then would someone in the Department of Justice kindly do me the small favor of informing of such, so I can at least explain this to the association membership and investigative journalists and authors who are tracking this case, while at the same time apologize to my broken family for having wasted three years time with this senseless and frustrating legal exercise in futility? I’m still unprotected; that isn’t asking much.
Last year, the Department of Justice provided a partial list of those corporations who had reached such agreements, with the consequence of white-collar criminal exoneration of their wrongdoings, and financially disenfranchised victims being offered no legal recourse to recoup their losses. United Airlines was not on this list, which I believe is still under investigation by the House Judiciary Committee.
Additionally, would your office staff be so kind as to at least provide a written response to this correspondence alone, explaining the reason(s) your office will not review evidence in this case, since I have received no responses in the past?
On January 31, 2009, I wrote to Glenn Fine, the Department of Justice Inspector General advising him of the chronology of DOJ legal stonewalls of the past few years, while requesting DOJ cooperation in this case.
Today’s response from your office was not the level of cooperation I had hoped for.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Spokesperson – Whistleblowing United Pilot Association
Encl: Letter dated December 11, 2006 from Patrick Fitzgerald
Letter dated May 16, 2007 from FBI DC
Letter dated December 5, 2007 from Deputy Asst AG John Keeney
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to DOJ IG Glenn Fine
Cc: Senator Patrick Leahy – Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Charles Grassley – Senate Judiciary/Senate Finance Committees
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. – Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
Glenn Fine – Inspector General, Department of Justice
Calvin L. Scovell – Inspector General, Department of Transportation
Patrick P. O’Carroll – Inspector General, Social Security Administration
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Eric Thorson – Inspector General, Treasury Department
Eric Holder – Attorney General
Rita Glavin – Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
Robert Mueller – FBI Director
Patrick Fitzgerald, District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Tom Devine – Government Accountability Project Legal Director
Eric Lichtblau – New York Times Investigative Journalist
Mary Williams-Walsh – New York Times Investigative Journalist
Members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
February 6, 2009
Eric Holder – Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
SUBJ: WHISTLEBLOWING UNITED PILOTS ASSOCIATION
Dear Mr. Holder,
On behalf of the subject association, please allow me to extend to you our sincerest congratulations and best wishes on your recent confirmation as attorney general, the highest law enforcement official in our great nation. As such, we hold great hope that you share in President Obama’s promise of change in governance enabling a greater openness in our government and law enforcement agencies, thereby routing out the cancerous white-collar corruption that has permeated throughout all levels and branches of government and business the past several years.
In consonance with the Department of Justice stated mission, all members of our association share these same hopes and visions for a better tomorrow.
"To enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law; to ensure public safety against threats foreign and domestic; to provide federal leadership in preventing and controlling crime; to seek just punishment for those guilty of unlawful behavior; and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans."
Established in April 2006, the ‘Whistleblowing United Pilots Association’ is a national grassroots coalition comprised of employees and retirees from all airlines whose purpose is to help discover the truth regarding alleged white-collar criminality associated with post-9/11 airline bankruptcies and serve justice on the criminals who perpetrated these crimes. I serve as a public spokesperson for this group.
On April 12, 2006, I sent the attached letter to then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announcing the establishment of our association, while petitioning his support of our grassroots efforts. Four months later in a letter response dated, DOJ Gerald Toner advised me to contact an FBI office with evidence of alleged federal criminality.
On November 20, 2006, I wrote District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a letter advising him of our knowledge of the existence of federal criminal evidence, while asking for his prosecutorial support in this case.
On December 11, 2006, I received a letter from the office of Patrick Fitzgerald suggesting that I contact Robert Grant, Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge, if I had 'any evidence of violations of federal law'.
Without expounding, on April 1, 2007, I wrote the attached letter to Mr. Grant that was forwarded by his office to the FBI DC Public Corruption Unit, an administrative arm of the FBI, who responded in a letter dated May 16, 2007 by suggesting that I contact the FBI Field office in Atlanta. Because I was aware that FBI Chicago already had a filed open federal complaint on a matter related to this case, as well as other issues under consideration at the time, I chose not to contact this specific office for reasons that I will not outline in this letter.
On February 2, 2009, I paid a visit to the Office of the FBI in Chicago for the express purpose of delivering federal criminal evidence and a list of witnesses, but this information was declined by an agent in this office. Additionally, I was informed that the FBI did not intend to prosecute this case, even though no one within the bureau had reviewed the tiniest shred of evidence. I am nonplussed, as are members of our association.
On this same date, I transmitted the attached letter to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant expressing our concerns regarding the fact that due process of federal law was not being served in this case, even though I was merely adhering to DOJ recommendations on three separate occasions to contact the FBI if I had evidence of alleged federal criminality as a Sarbanes-Oxley whistle blower.
As our newly-appointed highest federal law enforcement official in government, request is hereby made that the Department of Justice kindly provide our membership the reason(s) as to why said evidence has been refused by the department resulting in the apparent unconcern of alleged federal criminality surrounding the United Airlines bankruptcy. Other agencies of the federal government have been contacted on relevant legal issues in this case as well, and I have included this related correspondence for your perusal.
President Obama campaigned on a promise of open government, which included the exposition of white-collar corruption, untoward lobbyist pressures, and excessive executive compensation. Although encumbered with current economic problems and many other pressing issues, it is hoped that he will fully support whistle blowers willing to step forth to expose white-collar corruption, given the sorry state of economic affairs in this country which, in part, has been caused by corrupt schemes derived by the likes of Bernie Madoff and others.
The overriding concern and consideration more generally addressed herein is whether or not we do, in fact, have whistle blower laws in this country, but more importantly the question as to whether the federal agencies empowered to investigate and prosecute alleged white-collar criminality while protecting the rights of whistle blowers still exists. We want to believe that the United States has a system of federal laws, legislated by Congress, enacted by the President, with legal processes in place to ensure adherence.
Our association membership embraces the precepts enshrined in our sacred Constitution, which ensures first amendment freedom of speech rights by patriots who stand guard against diminishments of these ideals. The citizens of this great land do not need a Patriot Act to delegate 'patriotism', as it was exemplified by the courageous words and deeds of our forefathers who were willing to risk their lives in support of these virtues and ideals. Our association motto is "Patriotism and Freedom of Speech in Action" in consonance with this same theme.
Reflecting on the words offered to Attorney General Gonzales in April 2006:
“You are hereby advised of our plight and our efforts. If DOJ, DOT, and DHS are disinterested in our investigation, that is acceptable, although not understandable, to us. However, you must be forewarned, we will be successful in discovering the truth and serving justice and then will be calling on your good offices to explain your apathetic behavior towards our just and noble cause”.
Our association membership asserts that much of the truth regarding federal white-collar criminality in this case has been uncovered. Service of federal justice is a jurisdictional matter outside the association domain of control. It is a Department of Justice function. Ordinary grassroots citizen groups should not be required to investigate and prove federal criminality, as this is a Department of Justice function also. Will you join us in our just and noble cause in support of the stated mission of the Department of Justice? To date, our association efforts have been most ineffective in our legally persuasive processes of the past.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Spokesperson – Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
Encl: Letter dated April 12, 2006 to AG Gonzales, DHS Chertoff, and DOT Mineta
Letter dated July 3, 2006 from DOJ Gerald Toner
Letter dated November 20, 2006 to District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
Letter dated December 11, 2006 from District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald
Letter dated April 1, 2007 to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant
Letter dated May 16, 2007 from FBI DC Public Corruption Unit Michael Anderson
Letter dated September 1, 2007 to Asst AG Fisher, Leahy, Schumer, Conyers
Letter dated December 5, 2007 from Deputy Asst AG John Keeney
Letter dated February 10, 2008 to Deputy Asst AG John Keeney
Email dated February 2, 2009 to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant
Letter dated January 25, 2009 to Calvin L. Scovel, DOT Inspector General
Letter dated January 28, 2009 to H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Gordon S. Heddell, DOL Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Glenn A. Fine, DOJ Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to President Barack Obama
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Eric Thorson, Treasury Inspector General
Letter dated January 26, 2009 from Government Accountability Project Coalition to President Barack Obama
cc: President Barack Obama
Vice-President Joe Biden
Rahm Emanuel - Chief of Staff to the President
Calvin L. Scovell - Inspector General, Department of Transportation
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Gordon S. Hedell – Inspector General, Department of Labor
Glenn A. Fine – Inspector General, Department of Justice
Eric Thorson – Inspector General, Department of Treasury
Rebecca Batts - Inspector General, Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation
Senator Patrick Leahy - Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Senator Charles Grassley - Member, Senate Judiciary/Finance Committees
Senator Daniel Akaka - Chairman, Senate Government Management/Federal Workforce/DC Committee
Senator Carl Levin - Chairman, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
Max Clellan - Former Democratic Senator from Georgia
Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA)
Congressman John Conyers, Jr. Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman, Government Oversight Committee
Congressman George Miller, Chairman, Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee
Rita Glavin - Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
Robert Mueller - FBI Director
Patrick Fitzgerald - District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Robert Grant - Chicago FBI, Special Agent-in-Charge
Mary Schapiro – SEC Chairman
Merri Jo Gillette - Chicago SEC, Regional Director
Eric Lichtblau - New York Times Investigative Journalist
Mary Williams-Walsh - New York Times Investigative Journalist
Jeff Bailey - New York Times Investigative Journalist
David Cay Johnston - Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigative Journalist/Author
Paul Krugman - New York Times Reporter/Nobel Laureate in Economics
Richard Duprey - Journalist, 'The Motley Fool'
John Perkins - Author
Jan Schwartz - CEO, Forensic Fraud Research, Inc.
Holly Hegeman - Editor, 'Plane Business'
Keith Olberman - NBC News Correspondent
Chris Matthews - NBC News Correspondent
Rachel Maddow - NBC News Correspondent
Lou Dobbs - CNN News Correspondent
Ed Schultz - Public Talk Radio Show Host
Michael Lynch - Associate
Tom Devine - Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
United Airlines Board of Directors
Captain John Prater - President, Air Line Pilots Association
Captain Steve Wallach - United ALPA Master Executive Council Chairman
Members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association
November 18, 2006
Senator Harry Reid
526 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Senator Richard Durbin
332 Dirksen Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Senator Barack Obama
715 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Gentlemen,
First, please allow me to congratulate all of you and your staff members on your tremendous success and the welcomed triumph of our party in the recent congressional midterm elections. My trust and faith in government and the election process has been restored. However, certain aspects of the GOP culture of corruption survived the election and must be expeditiously exposed and removed from political power, if we, as a nation are to restore our once-enviable and prestigious position in the global political/economic arena. With a Democratic-controlled Congress, I am highly confident that you will be the leaders that forge the way in this direction.
On a much more personal note, my parents and the Catholic nuns and priests who taught me tried to instill in me a deep sense of honesty, fairness, and compassion for my fellow human beings on this planet. In this regard, I believe they were somewhat successful, as my embracement of these virtues has placed me in my current legal/political dilemma. Unfortunately, my schooling in Civics 101 did not include such issues as PAC money, extortion, bribes, deceit, illegal collusion, and mob assassination contracts, all of which we have sadly observed within the GOP culture-of-corruption the past several years.
I have included a copy of a letter that I recently sent to Congressman Henry Waxman. For Senator Durbin and Senator Obama, since criminal allegations made within this correspondence implicate the Seventh Circuit Court system and also one of the largest employers in your state, United Airlines, I felt both compelled and obliged to at least provide you with a courtesy “heads up” on these serious legal matters.
I personally am not an idealist; I recognize our current legal and political system are both far from being perfect, but I also know that I should not have had to put my family or myself through what has tragically transpired the past few years since 9/11. Nor should a respectable Chicago businessman, Mr. Michael Lynch, be forced to have 24-hour/day armed bodyguards to protect his family and himself while holed up in his Lake Forest, Illinois home because there is a mob contract out on him. His family has received death threats as well. And why? All because he has been honestly and actively attempting to help restore some semblance of “Civics 101” in this country by exposing illegal governmental collusion, extortion, bribery and a potentially corrupt judiciary. Somewhere along the line our entire system has been derailed and collectively, we are ALL to blame for passively allowing our system of checks and balances to degenerate to this pathetic level.
Additionally, I have included a joint letter that I had mailed to the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Transportation in April 2006. There was no meaningful action on their part. There have been many agencies and news outlets the past several years that have ignored my plea to hear the cry of airline employees and other industry workers with regard to meaningful pension legislation and other issues. Our petitions have gone unheeded…till now.
A few nights ago, Mr. Lynch and myself had the good fortune of an interested and sympathetic ear at CBS News. We have both told our stories and presented meaningful legal evidence to substantiate our claims. We are both very optimistic with regard to federal grand jury potentiality in this matter. We want the truth told and justice served in an honest system of government. Additionally, tens-of-thousands of airline industry and other workers have circulated nationwide the letters that had been previously sent to both the cabinet members and Congressman Waxman. Our army of concerned workers and retirees is growing by the hour as is evidenced by email responses we are receiving from every corner of the country and even distant countries abroad. Our collective voice will be heard; our story will be told; the truth will be exposed; justice will be served. We need your help in this matter.
Gentlemen, as you well know, there are 40-million workers in this country who are covered by over 30,000 defined–benefit pension plans, all of which are in jeopardy in the current legal/political scheme of things. The recent pension legislation passed into law is not worth the paper it is written on, but was endorsed by the GOP rubber-stamp Congress for obvious reasons. There are much broader issues and concerns here than just the McCook Metals and United Airlines ‘forced’ bankruptcies that resulted in the distress-termination of employee pensions and the gutting of labor contracts. There is an overlying immoral stench that permeates throughout this entire travesty of justice and must be corrected. You three distinguished gentlemen have the power to effect the necessary changes in legislation to help vaporize the stench.
Here is our heartfelt plea; kindly do not allow it to once again fall on deaf ears. After a review of the enclosed correspondence and your subsequent staff investigation into these matters, and consultation with your distinguished colleagues in the Senate, would you kindly give just consideration to a full Congressional inquiry into these matters in the name of all that is good and honest in our government and representative of the pristine dream our forefathers envisioned before we began this death-spiral into our existing culture of corruption.
Your consideration of our plight is greatly appreciated by many honest and hard-working American citizens. I will patiently await your response.
Very Respectfully,
Dan Hanley
cc: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Congressman Henry Waxman
Congressman George Miller
Congressman John Conyers
Congressman Jerry Costello
Senator Harry Reid
526 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Senator Richard Durbin
332 Dirksen Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Senator Barack Obama
715 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Gentlemen,
First, please allow me to congratulate all of you and your staff members on your tremendous success and the welcomed triumph of our party in the recent congressional midterm elections. My trust and faith in government and the election process has been restored. However, certain aspects of the GOP culture of corruption survived the election and must be expeditiously exposed and removed from political power, if we, as a nation are to restore our once-enviable and prestigious position in the global political/economic arena. With a Democratic-controlled Congress, I am highly confident that you will be the leaders that forge the way in this direction.
On a much more personal note, my parents and the Catholic nuns and priests who taught me tried to instill in me a deep sense of honesty, fairness, and compassion for my fellow human beings on this planet. In this regard, I believe they were somewhat successful, as my embracement of these virtues has placed me in my current legal/political dilemma. Unfortunately, my schooling in Civics 101 did not include such issues as PAC money, extortion, bribes, deceit, illegal collusion, and mob assassination contracts, all of which we have sadly observed within the GOP culture-of-corruption the past several years.
I have included a copy of a letter that I recently sent to Congressman Henry Waxman. For Senator Durbin and Senator Obama, since criminal allegations made within this correspondence implicate the Seventh Circuit Court system and also one of the largest employers in your state, United Airlines, I felt both compelled and obliged to at least provide you with a courtesy “heads up” on these serious legal matters.
I personally am not an idealist; I recognize our current legal and political system are both far from being perfect, but I also know that I should not have had to put my family or myself through what has tragically transpired the past few years since 9/11. Nor should a respectable Chicago businessman, Mr. Michael Lynch, be forced to have 24-hour/day armed bodyguards to protect his family and himself while holed up in his Lake Forest, Illinois home because there is a mob contract out on him. His family has received death threats as well. And why? All because he has been honestly and actively attempting to help restore some semblance of “Civics 101” in this country by exposing illegal governmental collusion, extortion, bribery and a potentially corrupt judiciary. Somewhere along the line our entire system has been derailed and collectively, we are ALL to blame for passively allowing our system of checks and balances to degenerate to this pathetic level.
Additionally, I have included a joint letter that I had mailed to the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Transportation in April 2006. There was no meaningful action on their part. There have been many agencies and news outlets the past several years that have ignored my plea to hear the cry of airline employees and other industry workers with regard to meaningful pension legislation and other issues. Our petitions have gone unheeded…till now.
A few nights ago, Mr. Lynch and myself had the good fortune of an interested and sympathetic ear at CBS News. We have both told our stories and presented meaningful legal evidence to substantiate our claims. We are both very optimistic with regard to federal grand jury potentiality in this matter. We want the truth told and justice served in an honest system of government. Additionally, tens-of-thousands of airline industry and other workers have circulated nationwide the letters that had been previously sent to both the cabinet members and Congressman Waxman. Our army of concerned workers and retirees is growing by the hour as is evidenced by email responses we are receiving from every corner of the country and even distant countries abroad. Our collective voice will be heard; our story will be told; the truth will be exposed; justice will be served. We need your help in this matter.
Gentlemen, as you well know, there are 40-million workers in this country who are covered by over 30,000 defined–benefit pension plans, all of which are in jeopardy in the current legal/political scheme of things. The recent pension legislation passed into law is not worth the paper it is written on, but was endorsed by the GOP rubber-stamp Congress for obvious reasons. There are much broader issues and concerns here than just the McCook Metals and United Airlines ‘forced’ bankruptcies that resulted in the distress-termination of employee pensions and the gutting of labor contracts. There is an overlying immoral stench that permeates throughout this entire travesty of justice and must be corrected. You three distinguished gentlemen have the power to effect the necessary changes in legislation to help vaporize the stench.
Here is our heartfelt plea; kindly do not allow it to once again fall on deaf ears. After a review of the enclosed correspondence and your subsequent staff investigation into these matters, and consultation with your distinguished colleagues in the Senate, would you kindly give just consideration to a full Congressional inquiry into these matters in the name of all that is good and honest in our government and representative of the pristine dream our forefathers envisioned before we began this death-spiral into our existing culture of corruption.
Your consideration of our plight is greatly appreciated by many honest and hard-working American citizens. I will patiently await your response.
Very Respectfully,
Dan Hanley
cc: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Congressman Henry Waxman
Congressman George Miller
Congressman John Conyers
Congressman Jerry Costello
Update: SEC IG looks into United Airlines bankruptcy
Update: SEC IG looks into United Airlines bankruptcy
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Examiner Columnist
11/25/09 4:51 PM EST
David Kotz, inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, acknowledged that the agency did not respond appropriately to allegations made in November 2007 by former pilot Dan Hanley that United Airlines violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act during its post-9/11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The law was passed after financial shenanigans by Enron management cratered the energy company.
In a Nov. 3 letter, Kotz told Hanley, now head of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association (http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org) that after reviewing his complaint, “we did not believe that sufficient action was taken by the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy.” Kotz said he was referring the matter directly to SEC Enforcement Division senior counsel Michelle Barrans for possible criminal action.
One of Hanley’s allegations was that the Department of Justice worked out a deferred prosecution agreement with United management, essentially giving them a pass on criminal charges and allowing them to collect millions of dollars in exit bonuses while United vendors, shareholders and employees – who lost their pensions – were hung out to dry.
Hanley, a veteran pilot who was forced out of his job after complaining about lax safety at the airline, also alleges that the Chicago judge who presided over the United Airline bankruptcy proceedings maintained a $40 million bribery fund, part of which was held in a land trust in Arizona under his initials.
Please click here for additional details.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Hanley
To: Lanny Breuer
Cc: Barbara Hollingsworth ; Eric Lichtblau ; CBS Pia Malbran ; Bloomberg Holly Rosenkrantz ; Michael Lynch ; David Cay Johnston ; Attorney Jeffrey C. Grass ; Dave Colapinto ; POGO Danielle Brian ; Shanna Devine ; Government Accountability Project Tom Devine ; Mary Schapiro ; David Kotz ; FBI Chicago Robert Grant ; US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald ; Robert Mueller ; Attorney General Eric Holder ; Glenn A. Fine
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 9:46 AM
SUBJ: DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENT IN UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY
November 23, 2009
Mr. Lanny A. Breuer
Assistant Attorney General – Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
SUBJ: DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENT IN UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY
Dear Mr. Breuer,
I had previously written Attorney General Holder in February of this year concerning issues of alleged corruption surrounding the United Airlines post-9/11 bankruptcy that was referred to Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, Kenneth W. Kaiser, who in turn provided me with what I considered an inadequate letter response in May of this year.
Because I had already been turned away at the office of the Chicago FBI in February 2009 where I had originally filed a federal complaint on February 14, 2008 (complaint #2008-9580) with advisement that FBI Chicago had no intention of investigating my allegations, it made no sense to me to contact the nearest FBI office in Atlanta with this same information. It was at this point in time that I realized that I had been marginalized by the Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Investigation, as this determination not to investigate my claims was reached without having even reviewed the tiniest shred of evidence, or interrogated available witnesses.
In January 2009, I had also written Securities and Exchange Commissioner Inspector General H. David Kotz the enclosed letter regarding the lack of SEC response to a letter/affidavit previously submitted by me to the SEC in November 2007. Recently, I was advised in a letter from Mr. Kotz that the alleged criminality issues addressed in the affidavit were currently under SEC Compliance Section investigation under the direction of SEC Senior Counsel Michelle Barrans.
In Mr. Kotz’s letter response to me regarding a specific inquiry concerning DOJ ‘deferred prosecution agreements’ in my January 2009 letter to him, he advised that Ms. Barrans suggested that I contact the Department of Justice Criminal Division for this information. It appears that I have gone full circle on this issue yet another time.
Request is herein made to your good office to please advise me as to whether or not the FBI intends to coordinate their investigative activities with the SEC in this matter, or if a ‘deferred prosecution agreement’ has already been reached between the Department of Justice and the management of United Airlines concerning alleged criminality associated with the United Airlines post-9/11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
President Obama campaigned on a promise of a greater openness of government with guaranteed enhancement of federal whistle blower protections. In this regard, I would greatly appreciate your attention to this matter and will patiently await your response.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Encl: Letter dated October 18, 2007 to Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman
My sworn affidavit dated October 25, 2007 submitted to SEC Chairman Cox
Letter dated January 28, 2009 to H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant
Letter dated February 6, 2009 to Attorney General Eric Holder
Letter dated May 8, 2009 from DOJ Kenneth Kaiser
Letter dated May 20, 2009 to DOJ Kenneth Kaiser
Letter dated November 3, 2009 from H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Cc: President Barack Obama
Glenn Fine - Inspector General, Department of Justice
Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States
Robert Mueller – Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Patrick Fitzgerald – District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Robert Grant – Special Agent-in-Charge, FBI Chicago
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Mary Schapiro – Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission
Tom Devine – Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Danielle Brian – Executive Director, Project on Government Oversight
David Colapinto – General Counsel, National Whistleblower Center
Jeffrey Grass – Attorney
Pia Malbran - CBS News
Katie Couric - ABC News
Holly Rosenkrantz - Bloomberg News
Barbara Hollingsworth - Washington Examiner
Eric Lichtblau - New York Times
David Cay Johnson – Author/Investigative Journalist
Print media outlets
Michael Lynch
By: Barbara Hollingsworth
Examiner Columnist
11/25/09 4:51 PM EST
David Kotz, inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, acknowledged that the agency did not respond appropriately to allegations made in November 2007 by former pilot Dan Hanley that United Airlines violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act during its post-9/11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The law was passed after financial shenanigans by Enron management cratered the energy company.
In a Nov. 3 letter, Kotz told Hanley, now head of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association (http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org) that after reviewing his complaint, “we did not believe that sufficient action was taken by the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy.” Kotz said he was referring the matter directly to SEC Enforcement Division senior counsel Michelle Barrans for possible criminal action.
One of Hanley’s allegations was that the Department of Justice worked out a deferred prosecution agreement with United management, essentially giving them a pass on criminal charges and allowing them to collect millions of dollars in exit bonuses while United vendors, shareholders and employees – who lost their pensions – were hung out to dry.
Hanley, a veteran pilot who was forced out of his job after complaining about lax safety at the airline, also alleges that the Chicago judge who presided over the United Airline bankruptcy proceedings maintained a $40 million bribery fund, part of which was held in a land trust in Arizona under his initials.
Please click here for additional details.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Hanley
To: Lanny Breuer
Cc: Barbara Hollingsworth ; Eric Lichtblau ; CBS Pia Malbran ; Bloomberg Holly Rosenkrantz ; Michael Lynch ; David Cay Johnston ; Attorney Jeffrey C. Grass ; Dave Colapinto ; POGO Danielle Brian ; Shanna Devine ; Government Accountability Project Tom Devine ; Mary Schapiro ; David Kotz ; FBI Chicago Robert Grant ; US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald ; Robert Mueller ; Attorney General Eric Holder ; Glenn A. Fine
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 9:46 AM
SUBJ: DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENT IN UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY
November 23, 2009
Mr. Lanny A. Breuer
Assistant Attorney General – Criminal Division
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
SUBJ: DEFERRED PROSECUTION AGREEMENT IN UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY
Dear Mr. Breuer,
I had previously written Attorney General Holder in February of this year concerning issues of alleged corruption surrounding the United Airlines post-9/11 bankruptcy that was referred to Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, Kenneth W. Kaiser, who in turn provided me with what I considered an inadequate letter response in May of this year.
Because I had already been turned away at the office of the Chicago FBI in February 2009 where I had originally filed a federal complaint on February 14, 2008 (complaint #2008-9580) with advisement that FBI Chicago had no intention of investigating my allegations, it made no sense to me to contact the nearest FBI office in Atlanta with this same information. It was at this point in time that I realized that I had been marginalized by the Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Investigation, as this determination not to investigate my claims was reached without having even reviewed the tiniest shred of evidence, or interrogated available witnesses.
In January 2009, I had also written Securities and Exchange Commissioner Inspector General H. David Kotz the enclosed letter regarding the lack of SEC response to a letter/affidavit previously submitted by me to the SEC in November 2007. Recently, I was advised in a letter from Mr. Kotz that the alleged criminality issues addressed in the affidavit were currently under SEC Compliance Section investigation under the direction of SEC Senior Counsel Michelle Barrans.
In Mr. Kotz’s letter response to me regarding a specific inquiry concerning DOJ ‘deferred prosecution agreements’ in my January 2009 letter to him, he advised that Ms. Barrans suggested that I contact the Department of Justice Criminal Division for this information. It appears that I have gone full circle on this issue yet another time.
Request is herein made to your good office to please advise me as to whether or not the FBI intends to coordinate their investigative activities with the SEC in this matter, or if a ‘deferred prosecution agreement’ has already been reached between the Department of Justice and the management of United Airlines concerning alleged criminality associated with the United Airlines post-9/11 Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
President Obama campaigned on a promise of a greater openness of government with guaranteed enhancement of federal whistle blower protections. In this regard, I would greatly appreciate your attention to this matter and will patiently await your response.
Very respectfully,
Dan Hanley
Encl: Letter dated October 18, 2007 to Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman
My sworn affidavit dated October 25, 2007 submitted to SEC Chairman Cox
Letter dated January 28, 2009 to H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Chicago FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Robert Grant
Letter dated February 6, 2009 to Attorney General Eric Holder
Letter dated May 8, 2009 from DOJ Kenneth Kaiser
Letter dated May 20, 2009 to DOJ Kenneth Kaiser
Letter dated November 3, 2009 from H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Cc: President Barack Obama
Glenn Fine - Inspector General, Department of Justice
Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States
Robert Mueller – Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Patrick Fitzgerald – District Attorney, Northern District of Illinois
Robert Grant – Special Agent-in-Charge, FBI Chicago
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Mary Schapiro – Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission
Tom Devine – Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Danielle Brian – Executive Director, Project on Government Oversight
David Colapinto – General Counsel, National Whistleblower Center
Jeffrey Grass – Attorney
Pia Malbran - CBS News
Katie Couric - ABC News
Holly Rosenkrantz - Bloomberg News
Barbara Hollingsworth - Washington Examiner
Eric Lichtblau - New York Times
David Cay Johnson – Author/Investigative Journalist
Print media outlets
Michael Lynch
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Whistleblowing Airline Employees Blog Talk Radio Program
This Friday, August 28th, former United Airlines
Captain Dan Hanley, public spokesperson for the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association, will host Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project, and Gabe Bruno, a representative for the FAA Whistleblowers Alliance, in an hour-long radio program at 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Please forward the link below to all in your email network, as well as a copy/paste on the pages of your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Daniel-Hanley/2009/08/28/Whistleblowing-Airline-Employees
Since the topics being discussed on the program are critically germane to the safety and health of anyone who boards a commercial jet aircraft, it is strongly urged that you also invite your family, friends, and neighbors to tune into the program. Additionally, since many members of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association are in contact with friends at other airlines, please contact them inviting them to join us. If your Friday schedule precludes your listening to the live broadcast, the program will be archived for future listening shortly after the program airs.
Time permitting, call-ins may be taken in the latter part of the program at:
(914) 803-4354
If you wish to appear as a guest on a future program, please inform via this email address or, if you desire to remain anonymous, you may employ the Contact Us page of our website providing us with some background information and topic for the program.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
It’s Time for U.S. Airline Passenger Rights Legislation
It’s Time for U.S. Airline Passenger Rights Legislation
August 23, 2009
By Tim Cummins
I was never a great fan of government legislation as a way to drive corporate performance. In the same spirit, I prefer contracts without massive penalty and liability clauses. I like to believe that organizations are driven by a desire to do the right thing and to maintain a positive market image and good relationships with customers. But I must admit that the U.S. airline industry has managed to change my mind. Continental Express Flight 2816 en route from Houston to Minneapolis, but stranded needlessly overnight in close-by Rochester on August 8th is only the most recent example of a structural industry disregard for customers.
Recently, my young son was due to leave New York but was delayed some 6 hours. During that time, the airline kept him and his fellow passengers, from an over-booked flight, captive in a non air-ventilated room. They refused to give information; they denied requests for any sort of refreshment, even water; and of course they used ‘security’ as a heavy-handed deterrent to any sort of passenger complaint.
When it comes to customer commitment, the majority of U.S. airlines appear to have none. All of us can recount stories like my son’s. Mine was with Continental Airlines when I suffered a 26-hour delay, avoidable were it not for gross incompetence. My wife’s was on US Airways, when she finally gave up after an excessive delay and drove to another airport 7 hours away.
I acknowledge the airline industry is a complex one. However, the incompetence and hostility that major U.S. carriers rain down on their customers is more in line with Soviet-era behavior. It simply should not be accepted in a country that sees itself as the face of capitalism, the home of the consumer.
As the leader of a worldwide association that advocates high ethical standards and promotes the obligation of corporations to meet their commitments, I have long cautioned and called for increased debate on proposed government legislation and mandatory rules, versus preferably allowing voluntary industry ethical codes to work. I have highlighted the negative impact that regulation frequently has on the market, introducing distortions and complexity (e.g., export / import regulation). However, it appears there may be times when an industry must be held accountable – and, unlike the financial services sector, before it is too late.
While European airlines are far from perfect, it does seem to me that the airline passenger-rights rules that the EU introduced, enforcing compensation for inconvenienced passengers, has had a significant and positive impact. Introduced against the sky-will-fall protests of the industry, it appears to have brought a new level of discipline and attention to passengers’ needs. It seems – unfortunately – to confirm the point that organizations respond only if there are direct and meaningful consequences for their actions, or inaction.
Economists don’t generally agree on much. However, most would likely agree that some markets work well, some not so well and some not at all. After years of U.S. Congressional pressure and unfavorable press accounts of horrific passenger treatment, airlines still have not been willing or able to solve the extended tarmac delay or other troubling customer service problems. The August stranding in Rochester, MN represents just the most recent “Exhibit A” in what a swelling majority of airline industry professionals themselves considers a failed market.
The airline industry is protected; competition is limited. And that has allowed major U.S. carriers to sink to a point of the lowest common denominator. So, they either need an strong injection of competition (e.g., open the market to foreign ownership) to fix the market failure, or they need some form of compulsion such as legislation that sets forth national standards, bright-line rules and obligatory compensation to wronged customers.
…
About IACCM
Mr. Cummins is Chief Executive Officer of the International Association For Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM). With members from more than 100 countries and over 2,000 international corporations, IACCM is leading the way in responding to the demands of global networked markets. Membership is drawn from many industries and is made up of contract and commercial managers, negotiators, attorneys and supply chain professionals.
BTC EDITOR’S NOTE
On Tuesday, September 22, 2009 consumer and travel industry organizations will conduct a Stakeholder Hearing in Washington, DC regarding airline passenger rights legislation. The purpose of the hearing is to examine passenger safety-related problems such as extended ground delays. Experts representing all sides in this debate have been invited to participate. For additional information and to register, please visit http://stakeholderhearing.eventbrite.com.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Angry Airline Passengers Speak Out On Capitol Hill September 22nd!
INVITATION AND SURVEY FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT TO PROMOTE AIRLINE PASSENGERS RIGHTS EVER!
Dear FlyersRights.org Member,
I hope this note finds you well! I would like to invite you to participate in a timely AND important consumer and travel industry event in Washington, DC. Given your experience with the airline industry, you would no doubt have a big impact on the proceedings. Also, you may participate in the proceedings if you were a stranding victim and have a great story to tell and want to tell it to the people who make decisions in our Capital.
On Tuesday morning, September 22, 2009 between 8 am and 12 pm consumer and travel industry groups will conduct a Stakeholder Hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building regarding airline passenger rights; specifically the issue of extended ground delays.
Legislative prescriptions are currently included in FAA reauthorization bills in the House and in the Senate, whose version would allow passengers to disembark after three hours of delay, should a captain determine it is reasonable and safe to do so. As you know the House bill does not contain any details in its request for contingency plans that would require airlines allow passengers off at a specific time and leaves it to the airlines to decide how long they might hold passengers on the tarmac. However, the Senate bill is picture perfect with a clear timeframe that's mandatory. What's more the bill requires airlines to provide for passengers' basic human needs at all times on the tarmac. Plus, many more provisions not found in the House legislation are in the Senate version. We need your support badly at this hearing.
We are going to open up the hearing with a 60 minute Congressional Roundtable Discussion among 6 Senators and Representatives who have either sponsored passenger rights legislation, or who are opposed to it. This is why having as many actual victims there to both watch, and participate in the discussion is so important.
The role I hope you accept is as a victim representative. A link to the event for you to register is: http://stakeholderhearing.eventbrite.com. Next week I will send you a backgrounder and detailed description of the hearing. For now just know that we will have the participation of Senators, Congressmen, media, celebrity moderators, and this will be the most robust and meaningful hearing ever done for passengers rights. It's YOUR chance to be heard.
Also we are conducting a survey that we need you to participate in. It only takes 5 minutes and it's very valuable for us with our media partners to be able to show how many people support this vital legislation. Please take a little and complete the online survey at http://surveymonkey.twi.bz/i
Thank you for your ongoing support!
Best,
Kate Hanni
Executive Director
FlyersRights.org
kate@flyersrights.org
707-337-0328
Dear FlyersRights.org Member,
I hope this note finds you well! I would like to invite you to participate in a timely AND important consumer and travel industry event in Washington, DC. Given your experience with the airline industry, you would no doubt have a big impact on the proceedings. Also, you may participate in the proceedings if you were a stranding victim and have a great story to tell and want to tell it to the people who make decisions in our Capital.
On Tuesday morning, September 22, 2009 between 8 am and 12 pm consumer and travel industry groups will conduct a Stakeholder Hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building regarding airline passenger rights; specifically the issue of extended ground delays.
Legislative prescriptions are currently included in FAA reauthorization bills in the House and in the Senate, whose version would allow passengers to disembark after three hours of delay, should a captain determine it is reasonable and safe to do so. As you know the House bill does not contain any details in its request for contingency plans that would require airlines allow passengers off at a specific time and leaves it to the airlines to decide how long they might hold passengers on the tarmac. However, the Senate bill is picture perfect with a clear timeframe that's mandatory. What's more the bill requires airlines to provide for passengers' basic human needs at all times on the tarmac. Plus, many more provisions not found in the House legislation are in the Senate version. We need your support badly at this hearing.
We are going to open up the hearing with a 60 minute Congressional Roundtable Discussion among 6 Senators and Representatives who have either sponsored passenger rights legislation, or who are opposed to it. This is why having as many actual victims there to both watch, and participate in the discussion is so important.
The role I hope you accept is as a victim representative. A link to the event for you to register is: http://stakeholderhearing.eventbrite.com. Next week I will send you a backgrounder and detailed description of the hearing. For now just know that we will have the participation of Senators, Congressmen, media, celebrity moderators, and this will be the most robust and meaningful hearing ever done for passengers rights. It's YOUR chance to be heard.
Also we are conducting a survey that we need you to participate in. It only takes 5 minutes and it's very valuable for us with our media partners to be able to show how many people support this vital legislation. Please take a little and complete the online survey at http://surveymonkey.twi.bz/i
Thank you for your ongoing support!
Best,
Kate Hanni
Executive Director
FlyersRights.org
kate@flyersrights.org
707-337-0328
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