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.
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
