Monday, January 31, 2011

http://www.gibsondunn.com/practices/Pages/bci.aspx
Excerpt:
PRACTICE GROUP DESCRIPTION
The White Collar Defense and Investigations Practice Group  successfully defends corporations, senior corporate executives, and public officials in a wide range of federal and state investigations and prosecutions, and conducts sensitive internal investigations for leading companies in almost every business sector. Composed of over 100 attorneys, we have members in every domestic office of the firm and draw on more than 75 attorneys with deep  government experience, including numerous former federal and state prosecutors and officials, many of whom served at high levels within the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other key investigative arms of the government.

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/2:2007cv08428/404051/
Excerpt:

Global Horizons, Inc. et al v. U S Department of Labor et al

Plaintiffs:Global Horizons, Inc. and Mordechai Orian
Defendants:U S Department of Labor, Elaine L Chao, Michael Chertoff, Emilio T Gonzalez and Paul Novak
 
Case Number:2:2007cv08428
Filed:December 31, 2007
 
Court:California Central District Court
Office:Western Division - Los Angeles Office
County:Los Angeles
Presiding Judge:George H. King
Referring Judge:Victor B. Kenton
 
Nature of Suit:Civil Rights - Other Civil Rights
Cause:28:1331 Fed. Question
Jurisdiction:U.S. Government Defendant
Jury Demanded By:None

http://www.gibsondunn.com/publications/Documents/Manos-RecoveryOfInterest.pdf

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-1717.ZS.html
Excerpt:
RICHLIN SECURITY SERVICE CO. v. CHERTOFF (No. 06-1717) 472 F. 3d 1370, reversed and remanded.
Syllabus Opinion
[Alito]
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Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321 .
Michael Chertoff on Wikileaks video
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/64890596/





Michael Chertoff

Senior Of Counsel

http://www.cov.com/mchertoff/#
Download V-card
Covington & Burling LLP
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004-2401
Tel: 202.662.5060

http://www.cov.com/mchertoff/
Excerpt:

Michael Chertoff is senior of counsel in the firm’s Washington, DC office and a member of the White Collar Defense and Investigations practice group.

Most recently, Mr. Chertoff served as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.  As Secretary, he led a 218,000 person department with a budget of $50 billion.  Mr. Chertoff developed and implemented border security and immigration policy; promulgated homeland security regulations; and spearheaded a national cyber security strategy.  He also served periodically on the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council, and on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Prior to his appointment to the Cabinet, Mr. Chertoff served from 2003 to 2005 on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  Before becoming a federal judge, Mr. Chertoff was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  In that position, he oversaw the investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and formed the Enron Task Force, which produced more than 20 convictions, including those of CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay.

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=13238
Excerpt:
The Naked Body Scanners are manufactured by the Rapiscan Systems, which employs The Chertoff Group as a consultant to promote sales. If that name is familiar to you, it should be, the President and CEO of The Chertoff Group is none other than former Homeland Security Czar and Secreatry, Michael Chertoff, who first authorized these machines. Chertoff has been criticized by Flyers Rights.org for abusing his former position to promote the scanners.
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/04-10-05/discussion.cgi.66.html
Excerpt:
This report presents a study of Michael Chertoff’s role in the 1993 WTC bombing, the OKC bombing and the 9-11 terrorist attacks as well as Chertoff’s coverup of FBI and DOJ foreknowledge and provocation of these attacks. The information in the report strongly implicates Chertoff in intentionally helping create and provoke these terrorist acts and terror funding in order to provide a pretext for much of the controversial police state provisions in laws which Chertoff has helped write. Chertoff’s unethical and criminal roles and conduct revealed in this report raises grave concerns that Chertoff, as head of Homeland Security, would further attempt to impose a US police state and continue to use illegal, unconstitutional and immoral tactics against the America people. The recently enacted National ID card provisions to be finally determined and enforced by the Homeland Security agency under Chertoff are likely to be those of a Russian style police state as revealed in this report.

A Chicago Tribune article “Trading Privacy (Freedom) for Security” dated April 21, 1995, two days after the OKC Bombing, carried quotes by Admiral Studeman, the acting Director of CIA who had been appointed by HW Bush. Studeman stated that the OKC Bombing indicated “ the true globalization of the terrorist threat.” In other words, Studeman tried to create the public impression that the OKC bombing was the result of global terrorist efforts, not just those of Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

The title of the article “Trading Privacy (Freedom) for Security” quoting Admiral Studeman belied the past and future attempts of HW Bush, GW Bush and their appointee, Michael Chertoff, to push for loss of freedoms to fight terrorism (PATRIOT Act flaws and FISA court violations by Ashcroft and Chertoff).


http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=38703
Excerpt:
Pfizer caught editing negative information about its products on wikipedia

September 12, 2007

Covington & Burling, a Pfizer law firm, caught cleaning up its reputation on Wikipedia.

We recently wrote that several drug companies have been caught deleting important information from Wikipedia, in order to downplay the risk of their drugs.

Now the law firms working for the drug companies are getting caught doing the same thing and we got this story from the outstanding blog ClinPsych.
Covington & Burling, one of the largest white-shoe law firms in the country, representing AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Schering-Plough and Pfizer, just got caught very red handed deleting Wikipedia entries about the firm like crazy. Seems like them lawyers aren't that smart after all . . .
[Update, here is another Pfizer law firm we found doing hilarious edits: Ropes & Gray, yet another Pfizer law firm caught changing Wikipedia. Click on link to learn about their "epic parties," "phenomenal dining," "summer of ecstacy," and even "cool summer associates" like Seth Piken and his office-mate, "the jerk."]

If you want to see for yourself what the glorious lawyers at Covington & Burling have been up to, go here. If you just want the facts, keep on reading:

One entry deleted was the connection between Covington & Burling and secret societes:

There have been many connections drawn between Covington & Burling and the Skull & Bones or Illuminati. One notable connection is William P. Bundy who started out his career in 1947 working for Covington & Burling. In 1951 Bundy quit Covington & Burling to begin openly working for the CIA as an analyst, and then as assistant to the deputy director of the CIA.

Another deletion dealt with Covington & Burlings involvment with mad cows and toxic smoke:

In April 2004, the Washington DC newspaper The Hill reported: "Creekstone Farms Quality Beef, which has been battling the U.S. Department of Agriculture to get permission to test its cattle for mad cow disease, has hired Covington & Burling to help it make its case."[2]

At the time, Creekstone was one of two U.S. beef producers who were seeking to resume exports to Japan, South Korea and other countries by testing every head of cattle they processed for mad cow disease.
According to a September 2003 press release from the firm, Covington & Burling successfully argued on behalf of the Southern Peru Copper Corporation to drop a lawsuit brought against it under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) by Peruvian citizens charging the copper company with polluting communities and causing health problems. ATCA has been used to address serious human rights violations in places like Burma and East Timor. In their release, Covington & Burling decried the "aggressive, expansionist plaintiffs' litigation" under ATCA.[3]

Covington & Burling also served as corporate affairs consultants to the Philip Morris group of companies, according to a 1993 internal budget review document which indicated the firm was paid $280,000 to "serve as general counsel to the Consumer Products Company Tort Coalition, agree the legal objectives with member company litigators, draft legislation and amendments, prepare lobby papers and testimony for legislative committees and administer the coalition's budget". [4]

During the $280 billion U.S. federal lawsuit against big tobacco, Covington & Burling partner John Rupp, a former lawyer with the industry-funded Tobacco Institute, testified that "the industry sought out scientists and paid them to make an 'objective appraisal' of whether secondhand smoke was harmful to non-smokers, a move they hoped would dispel the 'extreme views' of some anti-smoking activists." He "said the scientists, who came from prestigious institutions such as Georgetown University and the University of Massachusetts, did not consider themselves to be working 'on behalf' of cigarette makers even though they were being paid by the industry." Rupp said, "We were paying them to share their views in forums where they would be usefully presented," according to Reuters. [5]

Something else the Covington people didn't like was for people to learn their association with Halliburton and the following was deleted:

In 2003 Halliburton hired the firm to lobby Washington on behalf of its KBR Government Operations division, the same division being pummeled by the media, the Pentagon and Congress for its handling of Iraq contracts. Covington & Burling was paid $520,000 to handle "inquiries concerning company's construction and service contracts in Iraq," the firm said in a filing.

According to the filing, Covington & Burling listed the following people as lobbyists for Halliburton/KBR: Roderick A. DeArment, who was chief of staff to now-retired Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS); Martin B. Gold, former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN); Stuart E. Eizenstat, U.S. ambassador to the European Union during the Clinton administration; Alan A. Pemberton, coordinator of the firm's government contracts practice; David M. Marchick, who served in various posts in the Clinton administration; Jack L. Schenendorf; Peter Flanagan; Jennifer Plitsch; Benjamin J. Razi; and Allegra Lane.

Halliburton's lobbying expenses are disclosed in documents submitted under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, which requires congressional and executive branch lobbyists to disclose their lobbying activities twice per year. Each year the information is disclosed at the Senate Office of Public Records.
In 2003 Halliburton hired the firm to lobby Washington on behalf of its KBR Government Operations division, the same division being pummeled by the media, the Pentagon and Congress for its handling of Iraq contracts. Covington & Burling was paid $520,000 to handle "inquiries concerning company's construction and service contracts in Iraq," the firm said in a filing.

And Covington didn’t like this description of the firm:

Covington & Burling is a major legal and lobbying firm focused on "industry and regulatory" and "corporate, tax and benefits" issues, and litigation.[1] They have U.S. offices in Washington DC, New York City and San Francisco, and European offices in London and Brussels.

Instead, they wrote this:

Covington & Burling LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 600 lawyers practicing in Brussels, London, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. Founded in 1919, the firm advises leading multinationals on many of their most significant transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. The firm has long emphasized the strength of its Corporate and Litigation Practices derived from the firm's industry expertise acquired through its broad regulatory expertise. Representative clients include The National Football League, Microsoft, PBS, and The Washington Post. Covington's pro bono program has been recognized as preeminent in the legal community. As part of its pro bono program, the firm has rotation programs, which allow attorneys and staff to work for six months at three local legal services organizations - Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP), the Children's Law Center (CLC), or Bread for the City (BFTC).

To do your own detective work on Wikipedia use the http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/25/chertoff-joins-bae-defens_n_513594.html
Excerpt:
BAE Systems, the British defense giant that is the eighth-biggest contractor to the U.S. government, recently promised it wouldn't bribe people anymore.
The occasion for the promise -- along with a staggering $447 million in fines to the U.S. and U.K. governments -- was the company's guilty plea settling long-running allegations of corruption, which were first disclosed by the British newspaper The Guardian in 2003.
Among the allegations: That BAE secretly paid Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia, then the ambassador to the U.S., $2 billion in connection with Britain's biggest-ever weapons contract.
So bribery: Not OK anymore. That's officially corruption.
But the revolving door? Bring it on.
The company announced today that Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security in the Bush administration, is joining the company's board of directors to "provide oversight and strategic counsel, further ensuring that BAE Systems, Inc. is well positioned to meet current and future customer requirements in the defense and security markets."
Chertoff was welcomed by the board's chairman, retired four-star General Tony Zinni

http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/u-s-poised-to-punish-wikileaks-as-scandal-threatens-diplomacy-1.2503118
Excerpt:
The question remained whether Americans are entitled to information about the inner workings of their government. Clinton’s reasons so far are too vague to justify quashing the documents, said Bob Steele, director of Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University.\\

http://www.drbilllong.com/SupCt/Richlin.html
Excerpt:

Richlin Sec. Service v. Chertoff

Bill Long 1/20/08
Docket No. 06-1717; Oral Arg. March 19, 2008
If Charles Dickens were alive today and desired to update Bleakhouse, he could do no better than to tell the story of this case. Indeed as the lower court, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, said, "This is the fifth time this case has come before this court," Richlin Sec. Service. v. Chertoff, 472 F3d 1370, 1371 (2006). The specific issue that comes before the US Supreme Court is a highly technical one--whether the lawyer who has prevailed in an action on behalf of his/her client against the United States is entitled to reimbursement for paralegal expenses at the going market rate for paralegals or only at the cost to the attorney for the paralegal services (i.e., since the paralegals worked for the attorney, s/he paid them about $35 an hour; the "market rate" for paralegals, if hired "off the street" was about $95 an hour). We are dealing with approximately 600 hours of paralegal time in this case; thus the total amount at issue is 600 X $60 or about $36,000. Not a huge amount, but I guess the Court wanted to clear up a minor difficulty in interpreting the Equal Access to Justice Act.
I will lay out the issue from the text of the statute below, but I thought it would be especially fun to recount the history of this case, so that you can see the nuts and bolts of how a complex case works, especially when you are suing the government. When I was in private practice I was engaged in such a case, a case which lasted more than 20 years...
The Whole Richlin Case
Richlin is a security service which, under contract with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (currently the Deparment of Homeland Security), provided guard services for detainees at the Los Angeles International Airport. As a result of a mutual mistake, the contracts misclassified Richlin's employees as "Guard I" rather than "Guard II" for wage classification under the Service Contract Act, a mistake which ......................

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/january/trafficking_012811/trafficking_012811
Excerpt:
Human Traffickers Indicted
Massive Case Involves 600 Thai Victims
01/28/11

Thai migrant worker

It seemed pretty straightforward: labor recruiters in Thailand approached impoverished rural farm workers—who made around $1,000 (U.S.) annually—and offered jobs on American farms for higher pay.   
Many, hoping to provide a better life for their families, accepted the offer, which was made through an American company called Global Horizons, in the business of recruiting foreign workers to work in the U.S. agricultural industry. But once in the U.S., the Thai workers soon discovered a harsh reality: they worked for little or no pay, and they were held in place with threats and intimidation.  


Global Horizons promotion video
http://www.daylife.com/topic/Global_Horizons

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=13100787
Excerpt:

Human trafficking suspect surrenders

Posted: Sep 03, 2010 9:29 PM MST Updated: Sep 03, 2010 9:39 PM MST
Mordechai Orian Mordechai Orian
Global Horizons Global Horizons
Clare Hanusz Clare Hanusz
Tom Simon Tom Simon
Click image to enlarge

By Brooks Baehr - bio | email
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewNow)- The head of an alleged human trafficking operation surrendered to the FBI in Honolulu Friday afternoon and was being held without bail after pleading not guilty in federal court.
Mordechai Orian is accused of importing foreign workers, then mistreating them and failing to live up to promises. The FBI calls it the largest human trafficking case ever prosecuted in the United States.
Orian, a 45 year old Israeli national, is chief executive officer of Global Horizons, a company that recruits workers from impoverished countries and finds them jobs elsewhere, often in the United States.
"What for me and what for my clients was the major injustice was the fact that they were lied to as far as how long they would be guaranteed work in the United States," said Clare Hanusz.
The government credits Hanusz and fellow immigration attorney Melissa Vincenty with helping break the case. Hanusz and Vincenty met with workers from Thailand who were allegedly recruited by Global Horizons.
Some of the workers say they paid Global Horizons as much as $21,000 in return for three years employment on farms in the United States.
The laborers planned use wages from their first year paying off the money they borrowed to get the jobs. Wages from the second and third years would be profit.
"What happened was they were moved from farm to farm and often times they would work for a new farm in a new state and maybe work for a week or two and then there would be no work for weeks or months," Hanusz told Hawaii News Now.
Because they were not being paid, the workers were not able to pay their debts back home in Thailand. And according to an indictment made public Thursday the workers could not flee. Their passports had allegedly been taken away and they were allegedly held captive on the farms.
If Orian is found guilty on all current charges, he could be sentenced to as much as 70 years in prison. It is possible more charges are coming soon.
"In court today the Department of Justice prosecutor did elude to the fact that the superseding indictment might be coming down the pipeline. However, that is a decision that is made by the grand jury whether there is probable cause for a superseding indictment, so we're not going to get into that. We're going to let the evidence be presented in the grand jury room," FBI Special Agent Tom Simon said.
The government considers Orian a flight risk. He will be held without bail at the Federal Detention Center until a detention hearing Wednesday, September 8.
Five other people were indicted with Orian.
Pranee Tubchumpol, 44, surrendered to the FBI in Los Angeles Wednesday.
The FBI said Kona resident Sam Wongsesanit, 39, has agreed to surrender next week.
Shane Germann, 41, surrendered to the FBI in Fargo, North Dakota Wednesday.
The FBI believes Ratawan Chunharutai and Podjanee Sinchai are both in Thailand and are considered fugitives.

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