'Extortion': Holder Abuses Law to
Enrich Former Employer, Target Republicans
by Wynton Hall 28 Oct 2013, 11:00
AM PDT
We are going to punish our enemies
and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are
important to us. –President Barack Obama,
October 2010
The Obama Justice Department has increased Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
(FCPA) enforcement actions over 65% compared to the prior administration, a
dramatic shift that stands to benefit Attorney General Eric Holder’s former law firm Covington
& Burling—the firm that helped write the law and describes itself as “a
leading voice” on FCPA enforcement and compliance. Several FCPA investigations
by the Obama Justice Department have included companies headed by top
Republican donors including Koch Industries, Las Vegas Sands, Inc., Walmart, News
Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard.
Government Accountability
Institute (GAI) President and Breitbart News Senior Editor-At-Large Peter
Schweizer makes the stunning charges and lays out the evidence in his new book,
Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own
Pockets. Schweizer appeared last week on 60 Minutes and Hannity after the New
York Times published two articles on the book’s investigative findings.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
was created in 1977 to ban American companies doing business overseas from
bribing foreign officials. Executives found guilty of violating the law can
face up to 20 years in prison. The law was written with the help of lawyers at
Covington & Burling, the former law firm of Attorney General Eric Holder
and former DOJ Criminal Division head Lanny
Breuer.
On its website, the firm boasts, “Covington lawyers have a
unique command of anti-corruption laws, in part due to our role in helping
draft the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977.” The firm describes itself as
“a leading voice in the private bar on US legislation and policy guidance
relating to FCPA enforcement and compliance.” Breuer has since left DOJ and
gone back through the revolving door to Covington
where he makes nearly $4 million as vice chair of the firm. His duties, of
course, include helping clients navigate “anti-corruption matters.”
“For the first 30 years of the
FCPA, the Department of Justice brought just two to three cases a year against
companies,” said Schweizer in an interview with Breitbart News. “In 2009, the
Obama Justice Department sent the number of investigations soaring to at least
120."
"DOJ tells companies they
must hire a law firm to ‘monitor’ their FCPA compliance, which can cost up to
$10 million a year," he explained. "This creates a huge business
opportunity for Covington & Burling, especially since Breuer is on the
outside at Covington
and Holder is on the inside at DOJ.”
That arrangement, says Schweizer,
makes the FCPA the perfect weapon for political extortion and wealth
extraction.
Legal scholars say the Obama
Justice Department has radically expanded the FCPA’s parameters to even include
actions taken by a company’s vendors without a chief executive’s knowledge. One
pharmaceutical company that donated to a legitimate Polish charity was hit with
a charge for failing to accurately reflect the contribution on its financial
statements. Royal Dutch Shell was
charged because the mail delivery service it used allegedly paid money to
Nigerian customs officials for expedited delivery—something the company had
nothing to do with.
Schweizer says the law’s wide
scope and hazy rules give DOJ wide latitude to inflict fear and force companies
to pay hefty legal fees to law firms like Covington & Burling that
specialize in FCPA compliance.
In 2010, Lanny Breuer bragged that
FCPA “enforcement is stronger than it’s ever been—and getting stronger.” He
also said, “One cornerstone of our FCPA enforcement policy: the aggressive
prosecution of individuals.”
In Extortion, Schweizer says
Obama’s Justice Department has chosen “to pursue investigations and possible
criminal indictments against a group of individuals who were heavily involved
in supporting Mitt Romney in the general election,” including: Koch Industries, owned by libertarians
Charles and David Koch; Las Vegas Sands, Inc., owned by GOP
donor Sheldon Adelson; News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch; Walmart, as children of Walmart’s founder are large GOP
contributors; and Hewlett-Packard,
whose CEO, Meg Whitman, donated $200,000 to a Romney Super PAC.
“What motivated the Justice
Department to pursue these particular investigations?” asks Schweizer in
Extortion. “We can’t ultimately know. But given the history of the Justice
Department and the SEC doing a president’s bidding, using criminal
investigations as a tool of leverage and intimidation cannot be dismissed.”
Executives like former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister say if the FCPA applies
abroad, perhaps it should also apply in Washington.
“The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
basically says you can’t give gifts to foreign government officials—which
includes campaign contributions and donations to certain charities,” Hofmeister
told Schweizer. “Of course, that’s what we get asked to do all the time from Washington [through
leadership PACs]. Why doesn’t the FCPA cover Washington?”
Schweizer agrees.
“The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
bans companies from doing things in Bangladesh that go on everyday
inside the Beltway,” says Schweizer. “I agree with Hofmeister; what we need is
aWashington Corrupt Practices Act.”
Covington
& Burling
Stuart E.
Eizenstat is a partner at Covington
& Burling LLP, and a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development.
Note: Philip K. Howard
is a partner at Covington & Burling
LLP, and a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development.
Eugene A. Ludwig
was a partner at Covington & Burling
LLP, and is a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development.
Patricia F. Russo
is a director at the Hewlett-Packard Co.,
and a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development.
John P.
White is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and
was the deputy director for the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
George P.
Shultz is a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and
was a director at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.
Donna S.
Morea was a trustee at the Committee for Economic Development, and
the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.
CGI: HealthCare.gov Not Their First Government Contract
CGI Group
Inc. was the contractor that developed Healthcare.gov web site for Obamacare.
Obamacare
is Barack Obama’s signature policy initiative.
James A.
Johnson was a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), a member of the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic
Development, the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
George Soros
is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Joel
Z. Hyatt is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and was a director at the
Hewlett-Packard Co.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP was the lobby firm for the Hewlett-Packard Co, and is the lobby
firm for the Shell Oil Company.
Royal Dutch
Shell plc is a subsidiary of the Shell
Oil Company.
Covington
& Burling LLP was a lobby firm for the Shell Oil Company.
Jose H.
Villarreal is a senior adviser at Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, and was a director at the Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a senior
counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), Valerie B. Jarrett’s
great uncle, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think
tank), was the president of the National
Urban League, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
John D.
Hofmeister is the chairman for the National
Urban League, and was the president of the Shell Oil Company.
Valerie B. Jarrett
is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior
adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago,
Members Directory
Please note: This link for the
members of the Commercial Club of Chicago can no longer be found.
James S.
Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a trustee
at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Lester Crown
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was a lifetime
trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
David
H. Koch is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the EVP
for Koch Industries, the chairman
for the Americans for Prosperity
Foundation, and was a donor for Americans
for Prosperity.
Americans
for Prosperity Foundation is an affiliated group with Americans for Prosperity.
Sheldon G. Adelson
pledged support in 2012 for Americans
for Prosperity, and is the chairman & CEO & principal stockholder
for the Las Vegas Sands.
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was the chairman & CEO
for Chiquita Brands International, Inc.
Covington
& Burling LLP is the lobby firm for Chiquita Brands International, Inc.
Eric H. Holder Jr.
was a partner at Covington & Burling
LLP, Chiquita Brands International,
Inc. was his client, a board
member for the American Constitution
Society, and is the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama administration.
Robert
Raben was a director at the American
Constitution Society, and the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Janet
Reno is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society, and was the attorney general for the
U.S. Department of Justice.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society, the Human Rights Watch, and the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank).
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and was a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch.
John J.
Studzinski is a director at the Human
Rights Watch, a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank), and a papal knighthood
knight.
papal knighthood
is an honor conferred by pope for the Roman
Catholic Church.
Benedict XVI
(Joseph Ratzinger) is the pope emeritus for the Roman Catholic Church.
Was Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) A Nazi? Why Join
the Hitler Youth?
By Austin Cline
K.
Rupert Murdoch is a papal knighthood
knight, the title of his biography is “The Man Who Owns the News” and
the chairman & CEO for News Corp.
HITLER'S LEGACY
The power of the press can be
used to deliberately lead people astray, and to make them believe whatever
propagandists want them to believe. In honor of the first man to use them I
call modern propaganda and information-management techniques "Hitler's
Legacy".
When Adolph Hitler took power in Germany
he also took over the media, and he used it to shape a modern, civilized
country to his ends. With full control of the national press his propaganda
minister Paul Josef Goebbels developed sophisticated and very effective tools
of propaganda to control public opinion in Germany, and even in other countries.
He proved that if you repeat a
lie often enough in mass media, most people will accept it as the truth.
Viet
D. Dinh is a director at News Corp.,
and was the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Joel
I. Klein is a director & EVP for News
Corp., and was the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Michael B.
Mukasey is the advising independent directors on hacking scandals for News Corp., and was the attorney
general for the U.S. Department of
Justice.
John
L. Thornton was a director at News
Corp., and is the chair for the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), and Human Rights First.
George Soros
is the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Harold
H. Koh was a director at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), a director at Human Rights First, the State Department legal adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a
lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP.
Lanny
A. Breuer is a partner at Covington
& Burling LLP, and was the assistant attorney general, criminal
division for the U.S. Department of
Justice.
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