VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

FRT members (l to r) Andy Dillon, Darrell Burks, Kenneth Whipple, Ron Goldsberry, Thomas McTavish

State fails long-term liability test it demands Detroit pass

Burks’ Pricewaterhousecoopers guilty of fraud across globe

Whipple on Miller-Buckfire board; co. hired to be Detroit’s investment banker, sell assets, refinance; parent co. Stifel charged in fraud cases

By Diane Bukowski

Feb. 24, 2013 

VOD: This article examines the six DFRT members’  backgrounds; a second article will examine its report. 

State Treasurer Andy Dillon looking frazzled at previous Financial Review Team meeting in March, 2012, during which the public shouted down its members. FRT meetings are now closed to the public.

DETROIT — Who created the City of Detroit’s alleged financial crisis? Members of Detroit’s “Financial Review Team,” which just sent its report to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, ignored the real culprits, and for good reason—they and their employers or previous employers are among those who devastated Detroit and the global economy. 

“This review team spent two months pouring (sic) over the city’s finances, taking careful consideration of both long and short-term issues, including recent actions by the administration and City Council,” said State Treasurer Andy Dillon, a member of the Detroit Financial Review Team’s six-person panel, in an official release. 

“While we appreciate the steps the city has taken over the past number of weeks, key reform measures have not occurred quickly enough, if at all. The team collectively believes the city needs assistance in making the difficult decisions necessary to achieve the significant reforms that are so crucial to the city’s long-term viability.”  (Full release at Review Team Finds Financial Emergency in Detroit.)

Was Dillon downing dirty martinis as he “poured” over Detroit’s books?

Perhaps Dillon was “pouring” dirty martinis instead of “poring” over Detroit’s books. One thing is sure, however. Dillon, Michigan Auditor General Michael McTavish, and Budget Director Frederick Headen, who sit on the Review Team, held Detroit to far more rigorous accounting standards than those the state of Michigan meets. 

The Institute for Truth in Accounting (IFTA) reported in 2012 that 46 states, including Michigan, use “outdated accounting policies to calculate state budgets and financial reports,” resulting in the failure to report “more than $900 billion of promised retirement benefits.” 

The IFTA said, “They only focus on what is payable in the current year, so setting money aside to pay for future benefits is not required in the states’  budget planning. It notes $425 million is missing from Michigan’s debt statements. Wall Street ratings agencies recently gave the state glowing reports after meeting with Dillon and Gov. Rick Snyder. 

But the Snyder-appointed Detroit Financial Review Team hammered at the city for exactly the same situation. 

It reported, “City officials have projected that over the five-year period 2013 through 2017, expenditures for health-care benefits for active employees, healthcare benefits for retirees, pension benefits, principal and interest for pension certificates, and debt service, will total approximately $1.9 billion.  Therefore, these long-term liabilities will pose an ongoing challenge to the City’s financial condition.” (Chart below is included in report.)

 That said, let’s take a look at the six men sitting in allegedly “impartial” judgment on  the City of Detroit. The list is in alphabetical order, since the story of Darrell Burks’ company is the lengthiest. 

DARRELL BURKS of  PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS (AIG AUDITOR) 

PwC London HQ.

Darrell Burks is also a member of the “Financial Advisory Board” (FAB) appointed under the city’s Public Act 4 consent agreement. Never mind that PA 4 was repealed, the FAB has proceeded merrily on its way, recently ordering that Detroit’s unionized workers take more pay cuts.

Burks is currently a board member of the Greektown Casino along with Mike Duggan and Freman Hendrix, among others.  He previously was a member of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s “Turn-around Team,” which recommended downsizing of city government and privatization of services.

Burks’ employer, Pricewaterhousecoopers (PwC) headquartered in London, is the world’s largest professional services firm, with revenues of $31.5 billion in 2012. It has offices in 776 cities in 159 countries. But likely more numerous than the countries it occupies are its fraudulent schemes. Following are only a few of those cited in Wikipedia:

Protest against AIG bailout.

AIG collapse— Most glaringly, PwC was the auditor for the American International Group, Inc. (AIG),  a U.S. based global insurance firm, which suffered a “liquidity crisis” in Sept, 2008 (i.e. collapsed). The AIG and Lehman Brothers’ collapses triggered the 2008 global economic meltdown.  The U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and the U.S. Treasury (tax dollars, remember) bailed the company out to the tune of $182.5 BILLION, including a $60 billion credit line. The company continues to sell many subsidiaries and other assets to pay down loans received.  PwC has paid a fine of $97.5 million so far to settle AIG-related lawsuits.

ChuoAoyama Suspension – In 2006, the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan suspended PwC’s Japanese affiliate ChuoAoyama  from providing some auditing services for two months, the first suspension ever imposed on a major accounting firm in Japan. The FSA linked ChuoAoyama to the collapse of cosmetics company Kanebo, claiming the PwC affiliate falsely reported $1.9 billion in Kanebo earnings over five years.

Tyco Exec Dennis Kozlowski

Tyco settlement — In July 2007, PwC paid $229 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by shareholders of Tyco International Ltd. over a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud. The chief executive and chief financial officer of Tyco were found guilty of looting $600 million from the company.

Satyam case –In January 2009 PwC was connected, along with the promoters of Satyam, an Indian IT firm, to a $1.5 billion fraud. PwC faces lawsuits in the U.S. as a result. Two of PwC’s partners in India were charged by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation.

Run on India’s Global Trust Bank

Global Trust Bank Ltd and DSQ Software — India’s accounting standards agency cited PwC partners for “professional negligence,” in the now-defunct Global Trust Bank Ltd. case of 2007. The Reserve Bank of India then banned PwC from auditing any financial company for over a year. PwC was also associated with an accounting scandal at DSQ Software in India. The country’s Small Investor Grievances Association (SIGA) has requested the Indian stock market regulator SEBI to ban PwC permanently and seize its assets in India, alleging more scandals.   

Transneft Russia case – PwC was the auditor for Transneft, a company involved in the construction of the $13 billion ESPO (East Siberia-Pacific Ocean) pipeline. The Audit Chamber of the Russian Federation reported that over $4 billion was stolen and siphoned from the company during the project. PwC denied wrongdoing.

House of Lords inquiry in the UK –In 2011, a House of Lords inquiry criticized PwC for its failure to report risky business practices of its client Northern Rock, which the UK government bailed out during the financial crisis.

Anti-water privatization protest in Delhi, India.

JP Morgan Securities audit— In 2012, the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) of the UK fined PwC a record £1.4m ($2.2m) because the company neglected to report that JP Morgan failed to hold clients’ money separate from JP Morgan’s money.

World Bank Favoring PwC for Water Privatization in Delhi –The World Bank chose PwC to handle the privatization of Delhi, India’s water distribution system, despite the repeated failure of PwC’s bids. The privatization scheme collapsed after an investigation revealed that exorbitant salaries for administrators would increase the budget by 60 percent, and raise water taxes by nine times. 

ANDY DILLON, STATE TREASURER, FORMER BUSINESSMAN 

Dillon has been in charge of Public Act 4 takeovers since the Act’s initiation, and has continued them after the act’s repeal by reverting to PA 72.  He has authorized the takeovers of Benton Harbor, the Detroit Public Schools, Ecorse, Flint, Highland Park Public Schools,  Inkster and Pontiac, all but Ecorse majority-Black cities or school districts. 

Rev. Edward Pinkney leads first protest against EM takeover of Benton Harbor.

He is an attorney who was president of DSC (Detroit Steel Co.) Ltd. until 1999. His company bought the closed McLouth Steel plant in Trenton in 1996 after an employee stock-ownership plan failed, leaving thousands jobless. DSC Ltd. never got the plant up and running. Current Wayne County Tax Records show the property owes $4, 219,201.19 in delinquent taxes. Although it has not paid for at least five years, it has never faced foreclosure. 

Dillon also worked as the managing director of Wynnchurch Capital, vice president of GE Capital and as a financial analyst at WR Grace. The last is a chemical company allegedly involved in asbestos contamination of workers and residents of the entire towns of Libby, N.Y. and Troy, Montana., and Woburn and Acton Massachusetts. The book and film “A Cilvil Action,” were based on these cases. 

Dillon, formerly Democratic Speaker of the House, went over to Snyder’s side after Democratic progressive candidate Virg Bernero, Mayor of Lansing, won the gubernatorial nomination. Bernero had advocated standing up to the state’s corporations and banks. 

RONALD GOLDSBERRY 

Demolition of Ford Wixom Assembly Plant.

Goldsberry currently works for Deloitte Consulting and lives in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Like fellow Review Team member Kenneth Whipple, Goldsberry spent the major part of his life working for Ford Motor Company, one of the Big Three automakers which devastated Detroit by moving its plants elsewhere and destroying the city’s main source of employment and tax base. Although Ford did not directly receive a bail-out from the U.S. government, it has admitted it profited from the $34 billion GM and Chrysler got in taxpayer-funded loans. UAW workers, however, say they have suffered from mass lay-offs, and drastic concessions in wages and benefits, retiree health care, and working conditions.

Goldsberry began work for Ford in 1983 after the company outbid his effort to buy his previous employer, Parker Chemical.  Beginning as general manager of the Plastic Products division for Ford’s Automotive Components Group, he eventually ascended to global vice-president in 1997.  He was a captain in the U.S. army and sits on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Central State University, and UNUM Corporation, an insurance company.

FREDERICK HEADEN 

Headen has been director of the state Treasury’s local government services division since 1997. Headen has been appointed by Governors John Engler, Jennifer Granholm and now Rick Snyder to serve on at least 15 review teams. He has authorized the takeovers of Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Flint, Highland Park, Inkster, and Pontiac.

Financial Template.Ppt

He formerly was legal counsel to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan, which frequently advocates privatization of public services. Its board members represent AT&T, Blue Cross, BorgWarner, Citizens Bank, CMS Energy, Comerica Bank,Compuware, Deloitte LLP, Detroit Economic Club, Dickinson Wright PLLC, DTE Energy, Dykema Gossett PLLC, Ernst & Young LLP (being sued for helping Lehman Brothers cook its books before its collapse); Hennessey Capital LLC, Hudson-Webber Foundation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Kelly Services, Inc., Manoogian Foundation, Meritor, Inc. Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, PLLC, PNC Financial Services, Rockbridge Growth Equity, LLC, W. E. Upjohn Institute and Wells Fargo Bank . 

THOMAS MCTAVISH, STATE AUDITOR GENERAL 

McTavish has served as State Auditor General since 1989, when he was first appointed by the Michigan State Legislature. Previously, the position was elected. Dillon and State Senator Michael Bishop (R), wrote recommendation letters for him, saying he helped build the OAG into “one of the country’s most effective and highly regarded state audit departments.” He has focused on producing more audit reports of performance than of financial operations. He is a former president of the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers.

The Institute for Truth in Accounting rates Miichigan “Timely” in filing the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), but does  not consider the state’s CAFRs, and those of the other states, to be accurate representations of the state’s financial condition because the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) basis does not include significant liabilities for the pension plans and for other post employment benefits, such as health care. 

KENNETH WHIPPLE 

Whipple is listed here last, but he is by far not the least influential of the DFRT team members. He is vice-chair of the city’s “Financial Advisory Board,” whose continued existence is legally questionable. He is listed as CEO of Korn/Ferry International, a global executive search corporation. But he is also CEO and director of Ford Holdings, LLC, which has approximately $1 billion in revenues annually. He was previously chairman and CEO of CMS Energy. 

Significantly, he also sits on the advisory board for the New York-based Miller, Buckfire and Co, recently taken over by St. Louis Missouri-based Stifel Financial. As Miller Buckfire, the company was awarded a $1.8 million “investment banker’ contract with the city of Detroit in January as part of the Bing/Snyder “Milestone Agreement. (Conflict of interest, anyone?) 

Executives of Stifel Financial, which bought out Miller Buckfire.

“Miller Buckfire will act as the City’s investment banker and will provide financial advisory services, including possible strategic asset sales and related refinancing actions,” City Council Fiscal Analyst Irvin Corley said in a report. 

As VOD earlier reported, Stifel manages $91 billion in assets world-wide and has been gobbling up dozens of other companies. It has been sanctioned for violating securities laws in Florida, fined for running a fraudulent Ponzi scheme in Missouri, and charged with securities fraud in Indiana. The Securities and Exchange Commission is now conducting hearings on charges filed in 2011 alleging the company defrauded five Wisconsin school districts by selling them risky investments, causing the districts to lose $200 million. 

Whipple spent the main part of his career with Ford. He is currently CEO and Director of Ford Holdings, LLC., which averages approximately $1 billion in revenue annually. He spent almost 40 years as a Ford executive, from 1959 through 1999, holding various positions including president of Ford Credit. He was also vice president and head of corporate strategy. chairman and CEO of Ford Europe, and  president of Ford Financial Services Group.

________________________________________________________________

 To download two-sided flier in PDF and print it, click on Cleveland police murders. Video below is from December march and includes interviews with family members.

Carlos Miller Assaulted by 50 State Security Employees at Miami-Dade Metrorail

Posted on 21 January 2013 by Miami Cop Block

VOD editor Diane Bukowski, then a reporter for the Michigan Citizen, under arrest Nov. 4, 2008, the day Pres. Barack Obama was first elected.

(VOD editor: I first made contact with photographer Carlos Miller in 2008, when I was assaulted by Michigan state troopers, arrested and eventually convicted because I took photos of the scene where two Black Detroiters died as a result of an illegal state trooper chase. Miller had been assaulted previously for photographing cops, and established a national website, “Photography is not a Crime.”)

Last night our good friend Carlos Miller was assaulted and given a 100FRN ransom note by 50 State Security employees on the platform and escalator of the Miami-Dade Metrorail.

Carlos Miller

While waiting for their train, Miller was giving his friend visiting from out of town some background on the area. After his friend took a picture of the nearby courthouse, they were first told via the speaker mounted on the platform, then in-person by hostile 50 State Security employees,  that they were not allowed to film.

Miller rightly questioned where such a dictate stemmed from. His question was answered with force, as he was eventually tackled, choked, and handcuffed, by three men. His friend was taken as well.

Let the folks over at 50 State Security know your thoughts:

305.891.7000  http://50state.com

Tell those at the Miami-Dade Metrorail that they shouldn’t hire such thugs:

786-469-5420 http://www.miamidade.gov/transit/metrorail.asp

Connect with Miami Cop Block: Facebook.com/MiamiCopBlock

I was Attacked by Miami-Dade Metrorail Security Guards for Taking Photos and Shooting Video

By Carlos Miller at PhotographyIsNotACrime.com, originally published on Jan. 21st, 2013

I was attacked, choked, suffocated and handcuffed by 50 State security guards for shooting video on the Miami-Dade Metrorail Sunday night, escalating a pending state lawsuit into a possible federal suit.

Carlos Miller’s photo of friend shooting a photo of the Dade County courthouse.

As you will see in the above video, they tried to push me down the escalator and I shoved back in order to defend myself, which prompted at least three security guards to pounce on me, including one security guard named R. Myers who violently choked me to the point where I thought I was going to die.

I was video recording on my iPhone and my friend was recording on his camera. Both of us ended up handcuffed and detained until City of Miami and Miami-Dade police arrived, both who knew right away who I was.

We were released an hour later with a $100 citation accusing us of “producing loud or excessive noise,” which is a lie.

My friend, who is visiting from California, was taking a picture of the Dade County Courthouse as we were waiting for the southbound train to go back to my place.

I was taking a photo of him, taking a photo of the building for possibly uploading to Facebook. We were joking that it probably looked real gay, me kneeling in front of him as he took a photo.

Photo of Dade County Courthouse taken by Mlller’s friend.

I was taking a photo of my friend taking a photo of the Dade County Courthouse from the platform of the Miami-Dade Metrorail Government Center when we were ordered to stop through a loudspeaker.

We were not yelling or making any kind of noise.

A 50 State security guard announced on the loudspeaker to stop taking photos. He then came out to confront us. I switched my iPhone to video record and walked up to him.

He said it was illegal to photograph the rail portion of the train, which, of course, is complete hogwash. He then accused me of being drunk. I had three drinks in two hours while watching football and I am not a lightweight.

The photo my friend was taking

They then told me I had to leave the Metrorail because I was drunk and I refused because I had not done anything illegal. I just wanted to take the train home.

And I wasn’t drunk. He didn’t notice I had been drinking until he got close to me and he smelled something.

But as they started crowding me, I started walking towards the escalator.

At the top of the escalator, one of them shoved me hard as if to push me down the escalator, which is when I shoved back.

Then three of them piled on top of me, including one choking me where I couldn’t even breathe, leaving me gasping for air.

When R. Myer walked up to us, I was hoping he would de-escalate the situation but he escalated completely.

He is a tall black man who wears a USMC logo on his name badge. He was the one choking me. He wouldn’t have hesitated to kill me.

I can only imagine how many complaints he has had against him. Continue reading →

PREDATORY LENDING: Jan. 31, 2004: Wall Street ratings agenices reps Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings (speaking), and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s (to his left), foistied $1.5 BILLION loan on city of Detroit. Also shown in photo (l) then Detroit CFO Sean Werdlow, who left the Kilpatrick administation later that year to take a job with UBS ‘minority partner Siebert, Brandford & Shank as managing director, and (r) then Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams. Photo by Diane Bukowski

VOD: The global LIBOR scandal, ongoing for over two years, is just now hitting the pages of U.S. daily media such as USA TODAY. VOD has all along been publishing articles about LIBOR and the banks involved, including UBS, mentioned in this article. Along with ratings agencies Standard and Poor’s and Fitch, UBS foisted a $1.5 BILLION loan on Detroit in 2004, which has been a major souce of the city’s debt crisis since. Other banks mentioned here have also loaned money to Detroit. If Gov. Rick Snyder’s “Financial Review Team” is going to “pour” over anyone’s books (as Treasurer Andy Dillon misspelled the word in a press release), it should be the books of these banks.

By Kevin McCoy — USA TODAY

February 24, 2013  

Tom Hayes in 2005 photo, worked for Citigroup and UBS before his arrest in London in December 2012 connected to the LIBOR probe.

Financial trader Tom Hayes needed help with the Japanese yen as he worked in his Tokyo office on March 3, 2010.

Hayes, who was a Citigroup employee then, messaged a friend at a brokerage firm and explained that his trading would benefit from a low Libor rate for Japanese yen — a reference to one of 10 currency-based rates British banks set daily based on their estimated cost of borrowing from each other.

Would the broker ask a contact at Royal Bank of Scotland to submit an artificially low Libor estimate for yen the next day, thus helping keep the rate down?

Sandra Pierce, chair of Detroit’s “Financial Advisory” Board, was previously CEO of Charter One Michigan. Charter One is a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

“Any favours you can get … would be much appreciated,” the British-born Hayes messaged, according to transcript excerpts in a recently filed U.S. federal court record.

“I’ll give him a nudge later, see what he can do,” the unidentified brokerage trader responded.

“Thanks mate … really really would appreciate that,” messaged Hayes.

Royal Bank of Scotland’s yen submission edged lower the next day. The brokerage trader messaged “good work!!!!” to the Royal Bank of Scotland bank contact, the transcript shows.

The exchange is one of the first documenting the involvement of a trader at a U.S. bank in a widening scandal that so far has produced admissions of improper collusion from Royal Bank of Scotland, London-based Barclays and Swiss giant UBS. Collectively, the three have been fined more than $2.5 billion.

Authorities in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada and elsewhere are investigating the suspected manipulation because trillions of dollars in mortgages, loans and other financial instruments are pegged to Libor rates.

A U.S. federal court complaint filed in December accused Hayes of conspiracy, wire fraud and other charges related to his trades between September 2006 and September 2009 while he worked for Royal Bank of Scotland or UBS before joining Citigroup.

Hayes, who was arrested in England in December but remains free there pending further investigation, could not be reached. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Hayes texted “this goes much much higher than me.” A friend named Jennifer Arcuri said Hayes was cooperating with U.K. authorities, the paper reported.

Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos confirmed that Hayes worked for the global bank from December 2009 to September 2010, when he was fired over an incident that was reported to financial regulators.

She declined to comment on that incident or Hayes’ exchanges in the March 2010 transcript, which was part of the court complaint against the trader and the deferred prosecution deal U.S. prosecutors reached with Royal Bank of Scotland earlier this month.

However, several U.S. banks are under examination by regulators and prosecutors in the interest-rate-fixing scandal. Citigroup filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed that it is cooperating with requests for information and documents from the bank’s subsidiaries.

Citigroup also disclosed that its Global Markets group in Japan was suspended from yen trading between Jan. 10 and Jan. 23, 2012, because of communications between two traders involving Libor rates and a similar Tokyo rate.

The suspension action, imposed by Japan’s Financial Services Agency, said the Citigroup traders’ actions had been “seriously unjust and malicious, and could undermine the fairness of the markets.”

JPMorgan Chase reported in an August 2012 SEC filing that it had received Libor-related subpoenas and requests for documents and/or interviews from the Department of Justice and financial regulators in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Switzerland and elsewhere.

Bank of America similarly reported in August that it had received Libor-related subpoenas or information requests from the Department of Justice and financial regulators in the U.S. and United Kingdom.

Both banks said they were cooperating with the inquiries.

Gary Gensler, Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

U.S. and global banks have also been barraged by putative class-action lawsuits over suspected Libor rigging. More than 40 cases, filed by cities, labor unions, financial funds and individuals, have been consolidated in a federal multidistrict litigation matter in Manhattan federal court.

At its simplest, Libor is an acronym for London Interbank Offered Rate. It is an internationally used standard set each morning based on what global banks operating in London say they would expect to pay for short-term loans from each other in various monetary currencies.

“It’s embedded in the wiring of our financial system,” Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, told a Feb. 14 hearing by the Senate banking committee.

Mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit card rates and commercial loans are often pegged to Libor. So are complex financial derivatives contracts.

Subprime mortgages may have been the most lucrative bet of 2012 for hedge funds, with some gaining more than 20% by buying up troubled financial crisis era mortgages./CNN Money

The Bank for International Settlements estimated that outstanding interest rate contracts linked to Libor were valued at about $450 trillion in the second half of 2009. Nearly all 2008 subprime adjustable rate mortgages in the U.S. were similarly pegged to Libor, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland report.

For instance, someone taking a mortgage on a new home would be required to pay interest costs a certain percentage above Libor.

The Libor-setting process has been criticized because it is based on estimates submitted by small groups of bankers, rather than on a known and transparent financial standard. Federal court records show how and why the rate can be improperly manipulated.

Demonstrator smashes window at RBS branch in London.

Royal Bank of Scotland, for instance, acknowledged in the deferred prosecution agreement that from 2006 to 2010 some of its traders “requested and obtained Libor submissions that benefited their trading positions” rather than the accurate rate.

That type of strategy allegedly enabled Hayes to increase trading profits for him and the banks where he worked. He made trading bets on derivatives tied to the yen Libor, and allegedly was able to generate profits from minuscule rate changes.

While working at UBS in 2008, Hayes allegedly pressed a junior employee who submitted the bank’s daily yen Libor estimate to submit a falsely high rate. The employee complied, resulting in $793,000 in extra profit for Hayes and the bank on one trading day, according to the court complaint against the former trader.

Marchers proceed from Bank of America headquarters in Detroit to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center May 9, 2012.

“mate yur getting bloody good at this libor game … think of me when yur on yur yacht in monaco won’t you,” a broker messaged Hayes in a June 2009 electronic chat, according to the complaint filed against Hayes and the UBS court settlement filed in December.

Hayes generated about $40 million in profits for the bank in 2007, $80 million in 2008 and $116 million during the first nine months of 2009, the settlement shows.

Some banks may have had at least one other rationale for the alleged manipulation. Beginning around 2007, UBS told employees who submitted the bank’s daily Libor estimates to “err on the low side” because high rates could create the impression the Swiss giant “had a credit problem,” a federal court complaint charged.

Of course, if traders and banks profited from illegal Libor-rigging conspiracies, some counterparties paying mortgages and other loans may have lost by being forced to pay artificially high rates pegged to the benchmark.

BOA demonstration in Detroit May 9, 2012.

A 2011 lawsuit filed by Baltimore officials alleged that the city had purchased tens of millions of dollars in complex derivative contracts known as interest rate swaps from eight major banks. The city “was injured” financially because those contracts were tied to Libor rates tainted by suspected rigging, the lawsuit alleged.

Similarly, Mobile, Ala., homeowner Annie Bell Adams and other nearby residents alleged in a 2012 federal lawsuit that they were financial victims of suspected Libor collusion by numerous major banks.

“It was not only foreseeable but obvious that by manipulating the (U.S. dollar) Libor rate … the defendants were able to maximize the value of their holdings and thereby unjustly enrich themselves to the detriment of the plaintiffs,” the putative class-action lawsuit charged.

In his Senate testimony, Gensler said the manipulation confirmed to date by the ongoing investigations underlines the need for a stronger, transparent benchmark.

“When a reference rate such as Libor — central to borrowing, lending and hedging in our economy — has been so readily and pervasively rigged, it’s critical that we discuss how to best change the system,” said Gensler. “We must ensure that reference rates are honest and reliable reflections of observable transactions in real markets.” 

Related articles:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/three-arrested-in-connection-to-rate-rigging-scandal/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-19/ubs-trader-used-bribery-flattery-to-make-superman-rig-libor.html

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/17/group-sues-for-detroits-debt-documents-state-review-team-leaks-negative-findings/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/23/councils-craven-cave-in-brings-new-assault-on-detroit-state-declares-new-financial-review/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/19/ubs-admits-fraud-in-1-5-billion-libor-rigging-settlement/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/10/state-blitzkriegs-detroit-to-get-deal-with-wall-street-will-council-stand-up-at-meeting-dec-11/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/09/27/detroit-dwsd-debt-shows-wall-street-never-loses-on-bad-swaps/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/23/detroit-cut-2-billion-pension-bond-deal-with-ubs-one-of-banks-sued-by-baltimore-others-in-libor-scandal/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/20/libor-scandal-could-turn-ugly-as-cities-begin-to-sue-banks/

Rev. Al Sharpton, head of the National Action Network, discusses Voting, N.A.N, Freedom March – – A No Struggle, No Development Production! By KennySnod * –Videographer for Voice of Detroit 

Kenny Snodgrass at 2011 Detroit demo.

Rev. Al, Sharpton, President of National Action Network (NAN) was in Detroit Feb. 16, 2013 to 1) discuss the need and importance of going to Washington, D.C., to support the National Voting Rights Act against a challenge in Shelby County, Al v. Holder . The Supreme Court is to hear  oral arguments on the case February 27, 2013 2) To discuss the National Action Network’s upcoming Convention in New York – April 3 – 6, 2013 and 3) “The Commemorative March Toward Freedom” June 22, 2013. – – 

A No Struggle, No Development Production! By Kenny Snodgrass, Activist, Photographer, Videographer, Author of 1} From Victimization To Empowerment… www.trafford.com/07-0913 eBook available at www.ebookstore.sony.com
2} The World As I’ve Seen It! My Greatest Experience! {Photo Book}

YouTube: I have over 370 Video’s, over 127,321 hits averaging 4,100 a month on my YouTube channel @ www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

SHELBY COUNTY V. HOLDER

By Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

Young member of Lawyers’ Committee.

In April 2010, Shelby County, Alabama (a largely white suburb of Birmingham) filed suit in federal court in Washington, DC asking that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act be declared unconstitutional. Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, No. 1:10-cv-00651 (D.D.C.). The county asserts that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority when, in 2006, it reauthorized Section 5 for another 25 years.

Map of Alabama; Shelby County in green.

Section 5 requires that certain States and localities, located primarily in the South and Southwest, obtain federal preclearance for all voting changes before they may be implemented. To obtain preclearance, a jurisdiction must demonstrate that the change neither has a discriminatory purpose nor a discriminatory effect.

On August 25, 2010, the Lawyers’ Committee intervened in the lawsuit to defend the constitutionality of Section 5. The Lawyers’ Committee is representing Bobby Lee Harris, a former council member of the Town of Alabaster, Alabama (located in Shelby County). Attorney General Holder is the named defendant in the case and other Shelby County residents also have also intervened as defendants (represented by the NAACP LDF and the ACLU Voting Rights Project).

(For more on Bobby Lee Harris, who contends he lost his seat on the city council of Alabaster, Al. due to violations of Sec. 5 of the Voting Rights Act, click on http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/02/voting_rights_act_defenders_di.html)

Black voters’ rights are under attack nationwide.

On September 21, 2011, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the constitutionality of Congress’ 2006 reauthorization of Section 5, rejecting Shelby County’s challenge. The opinion can be found here. An analysis of this opinion can be found here.

On May 18, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed the district court ruling, by a vote of two to one. The court summarized its decision as follows: “Congress drew reasonable conclusions from the extensive evidence it gathered and acted pursuant to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which entrust Congress with ensuring that the right to vote-surely among the most important guarantees of political liberty in the Constitution-is not abridged on account of race. In this context, we owe much deference to the considered judgment of the People’s elected representatives.” The opinion can be found here.

Bobby Harris (center) was previously assistant principal of Thompson High School in Alabaster, AL. He is shown here with others opening school time capsule.

Shelby County then appealed to the Supreme Court, and the Court accepted the case. On January 25, 2013, the Lawyers’ Committee filed its brief in support of the lower court rulings. We argued that Congress appropriately found in 2006 that pervasive discrimination in voting has persisted in the areas subject to Section 5, and therefore Congress properly concluded that there is a continuing need for the preclearance remedy. We further argued that Congress also appropriately determined that voting discrimination elsewhere in the country is much less severe, and therefore Congress properly concluded that the Section 5’s geographic coverage should not be altered. Oral argument will occur on February 27, 2013, and a decision is expected by the end of June. Continue reading →

Rev. David Bullock addresses crowd at Kick-Off Rally to Stop Government Foreclosures of Our Homes, Feb. 13, 2013.

 U.S. govt. agencies behind majority of 16 million foreclosures, evictions

Ground-breaking federal ‘due process’ Mandry case to be heard Wed. Feb. 20, 2 pm, before U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds

By Diane Bukowski 

February 15, 2013 

DETROIT – Foreclosed homeowners, community leaders, and activists from the metropolitan Detroit area rallied Feb. 13 against what they called “Hurricanes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” the federal agencies currently responsible for most foreclosures and evictions. They demanded that President Barack Obama issue an executive order declaring a moratorium on all such actions. 

The group also announced a ground-breaking federal lawsuit demanding Fifth Amendment “due process” hearings before foreclosures, which can expose bank fraud and predatory lending. U. S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds will hear a motion by federal agencies and the Bank of America to dismiss the case on Wed. Feb. 20, at 2 p.m. at 321 W. Lafayette. The case was filed by Attorney Jerry Goldberg on behalf of Ray Mandry of Canton, Michigan, a disabled Vietnam veteran. 

Attorney Vanessa Fluker

“This was a set-up,” Attorney Vanessa Fluker told a packed auditorium at the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO headquarters in downtown Detroit. “The government bailed out the banks during the mortgage meltdown, then gave them the power over loan modifications instead of giving it to the people. It took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which then insured toxic, predatory loans so that the banks would get paid the full mortgage balance instead of the market value of the homes.” 

Fluker, whose practice is devoted to foreclosures and evictions, testified before a House Judiciary Committee panel in Washington, D.C. in 2010. 

“People are still being thrown out on the streets every day,” Fluker explained. “We don’t go to court with them because we will win through litigation, we go to court to fight what is being done with our tax dollars by the Federal Housing Finance Agency [FHFA—the conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] to evict millions of people. Entire communities are being destroyed. I challenge everyone to take this another step. We need people in the streets. There have been 10.9 million foreclosures since 2007, and it is estimated there will be another six million from 2012-13.” 

Homeowner Angela Crockett

The rally featured personal testimonials from homeowners who have fought foreclosure and eviction, assisted by the Moratorium NOW! Coalition, People Before Banks,  Detroit Eviction Defense, Occupy Detroit, and others. 

Angela Crockett of Detroit said she was making payments on her mortgage through an assistance program beginning in June, 2011, with the promise she would not be subject to foreclosure.

“Then the insurance agent told me they were not making payments into escrow any more against foreclosures,” Crockett said. A Sheriff’s deed was issued at the end of 2011, but Crockett said she began a court fight with the assistance of attorneys Fluker, Jerry Goldberg, and Bob Day. 

Homeowner Ray Mandry

“Don’t ever sign a consent agreement in court,” Crockett warned. “You give up all your rights. You have a right to fight and defend yourself against eviction, against losing your home. I thought about the fact that mine and my mother’s tax dollars were being used to put us in the street. I encourage people not to be afraid, to be warriors.” 

Ray Mandry’s lawsuit, to be heard Feb. 20, says that because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are governmental agencies, they are subject to the Fifth Amendment, and therefore must give due process before foreclosure and eviction. 

Homeowner Bob Goss

“I lost my job in 2010,” Mandry said. “I was looking for work. We sold my wife’s car, furniture and jewelry, did whatever we could to pay the mortgage. In March 2011, we contacted the Bank of America for a loan modification. They wanted everything, W-2’s, tax returns, blood samples, but when they asked for stool samples, I decided to fight,” he added sarcastically. 

“They sent me a letter they were not going to meet with me or grant a modification. Then they snuck the sheriff in in the middle of the night, but we’re still fighting. The bank did not provide everything they were supposed to do by law. They don’t have the right to take our homes and property without due process. You are warriors, fight, don’t roll over.” 

Homeowner Jerome Jackson

Bob Goss of Troy said he asked his bank for a loan modification, supposed to be guaranteed under President Barack Obama’s TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), which bailed out the banks. He said he repeatedly sent all the documents required, but the bank kept claiming they had lost various pages. He contacted numerous government officials to no avail, and his house was sold five days before he even knew there was a sheriff’s deed on it. He and attorney Fluker are continuing to fight his case in court. 

Other homeowners speaking were Jennifer Britt and Jerry Cullors of Detroit, as well as Jerome Jackson of Inkster. Their struggles have been covered in Voice of Detroit. For the sake of brevity, links to those stories are included at the end of this story. 

Homeowner Jennifer Britt

Attorney Joe McGuire and Steve Babson of Detroit Eviction Defense and People Before Banks said the coalition has been conducting weeks-long encampments in front of homes, to physically stop evictions as masses of people did during the 1930’s Great Depression. 

They said they organize neighbors, who have carried out actions like parking their cars all over the streets and property to stop a dumpster from being placed, and filling dumpsters with debris. In one case, a homeowner laid in her doorway until a representative of the bank involved agreed to meet with her. 

Attorney Joe McGuire

“The best lawyers can do is fight in court while we fight in the streets,” McGuire said. “We get the public as well to pressure the banks through emails, fliers, phone calls and the internet. The banks don’t want their dirty laundry aired in public.” 

He noted that homeowners in Spain just won a two-year moratorium on foreclosures during this global economic meltdown. 

Attorney Jerry Goldberg of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclores, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs, analyzed the struggle to date. He said the group first asked former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm to declare a state of emergency in Michigan so a moratorium could be declared, but that Granholm responded, “The banks wouldn’t like it.” 

Groups blocked eviction of homeowner Dec. 6, 2011.

“In the 1930,’s, Michigan had a five-year moratorium on foreclosures and evictions,” Goldberg said. “Such moratoriums were enacted in 25 other states as well. They involved an automatic stay on foreclosures, with a mandate that a judge hear the case to give the homeowner an affordable payment schedule.” 

Attorney Jerome Goldberg

Goldberg said Hurricane Fannie-Freddie is chiefly responsible for the devastation of Detroit. 

“Detroit wouldn’t have lost 250,000 people, neighborhoods wouldn’t look like bombs had been dropped on them, if Granholm had enacted our demand for a moratorium in 2007,” Goldberg said. “Today, the case for a moratorium is stronger than ever. In 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taken over by the federal government. The Federal Reserve spent $2 trillion dollars to buy out defaulted mortgages; there has been $180 billion of taxpayers’ money paid to the banks. This is a complete government takeover of the mortgage industry.” 

He reiterated a demand that the Moratorium NOW! Coalition has been making for several years, that President Barack Obama issue an executive order declaring an emergency moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions because housing is a “fundamental human right.” 

Upcoming events:

For further information: 

Detroit Eviction Defense @ https://twitter.com/EvictDefense or DetroitEvictionDefense@gmail.com

People Before Banks @ http://www.peoplebeforebanks.org and Steve Babson at 313-882-4009

Moratorium NOW! Coalition @ 313-744-7912  and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moratorium-NOW-Coalition/243268662379197

UAW Local 600 c/o AJ @ 313-429-5009

Related VOD articles:

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/07/12/fannie-mae-stop-eviction-of-jennifer-britt-let-her-pay-actual-value-of-home/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/05/31/flagstar-stop-the-britt-family-eviction/

Related documents:

To see the enormity of the government’s effort to stop Ray Mandry’s precedent-setting 5th Amendment countersuit, click on Ray Mandry federal docket. Copy of initial complaint will be appended shortly.

Posted by TheBlackList eNewsletter

By Steve Yip

February 17, 2013

View Blog 

Former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner is shown with photo of police hunting him before he died.

 Over the last week, the news has been filled with stories of the massive manhunt for former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner for allegedly killing three people connected to police. This has caused great turmoil in society, including within top levels of the LAPD and city government.

One thing which stands out—and which has been noted by the New York Times and other major media—is the impact Dorner’s accusations and depictions of racist brutality and discriminatory practices of the LAPD have had in many different corners of society. It has especially resonated with many who have been subjected to widespread police mistreatment. And it has given rise to societal discussion and thinking about the underlying problem of systemic police abuse, brutality, and mistreatment that Black and Latino people—and many others—experience at the hands of the police across the country.

Rodney King after brutal beating by LAPD cops, which led to a widespread rebellion by the Black community.

Without speaking to the particularities of the acts this person has been accused of carrying out, the fact that someone like this, who was “on the inside” and part of the machinery of the LAPD, considered the problem of racist brutality and corruption, on the part of the LAPD, so intolerable (citing things such as the Rodney King beating and the Rampart scandal—and saying that things have not gotten better, or may have even gotten worse, since then) and that this person, in this position, was driven to such extremes, speaks to the reality of the racist and murderous brutality of the police and the whole apparatus of repression of this system, which is widespread, continual, and systematic, and which is not simply a particular feature of the LAPD but is characteristic of police and the “injustice system” in the country as a whole, in the service of a brutally oppressive system, a system which has white supremacy build into its very foundation and structure.

As BA has summed up in BAsics 1:24:

The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people. It is to serve and protect the system that rules over the people. To enforce the relations of exploitation and oppression, the conditions of poverty, misery and degradation into which the system has cast people and is determined to keep people in. The law and order the police are about, with all of their brutality and murder, is the law and order that enforces all this oppression and madness.

Sandra Hines and Cindy Darrah of Detroit get ready to ride to court hearing on Detroit “consent agreement” lawsuit.

We are building a movement for revolution—a revolution which, in order to have a real possibility of winning, would need to involve millions of people who have become convinced of the need for this revolution and who, with the emergence of a deep-going revolutionary crisis in society, would be determined to fight to carry out such a revolutionary struggle and to fight to win. All of the work we are doing is aimed at contributing to the development of such a revolutionary movement, guided by this strategic understanding, orientation and approach. If people want to learn more about our strategy for revolution—as well as why we think such a revolution is urgently needed by the masses of humanity, and why and how it is possible—they should come to the premiere of the film BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!

— Steve Yip, P.O. Box 941, Knickerbocker Station, New York, New York 10002-0900 * 866-841-9139 x2670, yipzzz@gmail.com

Click on Dorner-Manifesto-FULL-TEXT to read Dorner’s account of police brutality and racism in the LAPD.

Moratorium NOW! marchers outside Coleman A. Young Municipal Center May 9, 2012.

By Diane Bukowski 

Feb. 17, 2013 

DETROIT – The day before a state review team leaked information about a negative report on Detroit’s finances, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition filed suit on Feb. 14 in Wayne County Circuit Court demanding “release and copies of the City of Detroit’s bond issues and interest rate swaps with the banks.” The city’s debt totals $16.9 billion through 2032. It paid $597 million on that debt in the last fiscal year. 

David Sole (r) holds sign while Rev. Charles Williams Sr. addresses rally against banks May 9, 2012.

“The lawsuit is to launch an independent review of the City’s massive debt service payments to the same banks which caused the financial crisis in the city with their racist predatory lending practices that resulted in 150,000 foreclosures from 2005-2010,” said Dave Sole, the named plaintiff in the suit, in a release. 

“The Emergency Manager Act guarantees the banks ‘payment in full of the scheduled debt service requirements on all bonds, notes and municipal securities,’ even if it means selling city assets such as Belle Isle and the Water Department, laying off more workers, cutting more city services, or attacking the pension system for retirees. Governor [Rick] Snyder’s and Mayor[Dave] Bing’s ‘financial stability agreement’ incorporates these guarantees to the banks by giving the banks direct control the city’s finances.”

The Detroit Free Press reported Feb. 17 that the Financial Review Team completed its report Feb. 15. 

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing (l) and Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon, who heads Financial Review Team.

“The report, which the state-appointed review team completed after meetings in Detroit on Friday, outlines monstrous debts and a chronic inability to reverse course, highlighted by infighting and disagreements between Bing and the council,” said the Free Press. 

It added, “State officials and others would not release the full report before Snyder reviews it this week. The report is the culmination of weeks of the review team’s work scouring Detroit’s books after the governor ordered an emergency financial review of the city as it faced adding $90 million more to its accumulated deficit.” 

Sole said the Moratorium NOW! Coalition is demanding a people’s audit of those same books and debts. 

Joe O’Keefe of Fitch Ratings and Stephen Murphy of Standard and Poor’s at Detroit City Council table Jan. 31, 2004, foisting $1.5 billion loan on city.

“We are doing this to mobilize and educate the people regarding the role of the banks in destroying our city,” said Sole, a retired Detroit Water and Sewerage Department worker and union leader. “We are contacting other organizations and individuals to join in forming a broad coalition. This takeover of Detroit is the result of a conspiracy by ratings agencies such as Standard and Poor’s, which the Federal government has accused of fraud in a $5 billion lawsuit, and banks such as UBS, which foisted a $1.5 billion pension obligation certificate loan on Detroit in 2004 and just agreed to pay a $1.5 billion penalty for criminal interest-rate rigging in the LIBOR lawsuit.  These loans and ratings downgrades have triggered defaults and financial penalties even including the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which is an enterprise agency.” 

Sole said the group will be recruiting experts to analyze the documents once they are received. He first filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the documents in January, but despite a promise from the city that it would respond promptly, it has failed to do so. 

Snyder reacts angrily after voters repeal PA 4 last November, 2012.

With regard to the review team, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed it Dec. 18, under provisions of Public Act 72, the predecessor to Public Act 4, repealed by voters in November. He did so despite the Detroit City Council’s majority cave-in Dec. 11 to all demands by his and Dillon’s offices. 

The Michigan Supreme Court on Jan. 13 refused to hear an appeal of a suit filed by Robert Davis against Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Roy Roberts, which said that PA 72 is dead according to state law. 

The legislature and Governor enacted another emergency manager law during its December lame duck session. It includes appropriations to pay EM’s, a provision which allegedly makes it exempt from voter repeal.  It will take effect March 27, 2013.

Demo against banks May 9, 2012.

In response to VOD’s request for a copy of the review team report, Snyder’s press secretary Sara Wurfel said, “[We] don’t have and haven’t seen [the] report, and my understanding is it’s not final  yet either.  Soonest slated to receive is Tuesday. Sorry, bottom line is that it’s certainly not appropriate for me to comment on anything Gov/we haven’t gotten or seen yet. RT [Review Team] hasn’t completed work by sending to the Governor either, which also makes any comment from me even more inappropriate and completely speculative.”

Ken Whipple (center) and Darrell Burks (rear) of Financial Advisory Board also sit on Financial Review Team. They are shown here announcing more furlough days for city workers.

VOD has nonetheless filed an FOIA for a copy of the report with the Governor and State Treasurer Andy Dillon, who heads the review team. Its other members are state Auditor General Thomas McTavish, Ken Whipple, board chairman of Korn/Ferry International; Darrell Burks, a senior partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers; Ronald Goldsberry of Deloitte Consulting; and Frederick Headen, a legal adviser for the state Treasury Department. 

Whipple and Burks are also members of the Financial Advisory Board appointed under a Public Act 4 consent agreement with the city of Detroit. The FAB just imposed additional furlough days on unionized city workers, despite the fact that negotiations are ongoing with the city’s unions and that the continued existence of the FAB and the consent agreement are legally questionable.

Related documents and articles:

PR lawsuit for Detroit debt docs

foia complaint filed

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/02/06/usdoj-slams-standard-poors-with-5-billion-fraud-lawsuit/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/18/the-gang-rape-of-detroit

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2013/01/14/banks-bailed-out-people-sold-out-in-u-s-settlements/

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/12/19/ubs-admits-fraud-in-1-5-billion-libor-rigging-settlement/

Promotional still from Lifetime movie “Betty and Coretta,” with Angela Bassett (l) and Mary J. Blige (r).

COMMENTARY

By Richard B. Muhammad

February 13, 2013

Movies are fiction, not fact and fiction comes from the minds of people with motives, aims and agendas. It would be a critical mistake to miss take the Lifetime movie “Betty and Coretta” as fact and a critical error to accept it and its wicked mischaracterizations of Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan as anything other than lies and misrepresentations.

Min. Farrakhan unequivocally had nothing to do with the murder of Minister Malcolm X, though he has admitted speaking into an environment created by the enemy to disrupt and destroy Black movements as Malcolm X turned against his teacher and leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Harsh words were spoken by those who took sides in a split welcomed and fostered by the U.S. government through the Counterintelligence Program [COINTELPRO] of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and J. Edgar Hoover. Those who sided with Malcolm spoke against Elijah Muhammad and those who sided with Messenger Muhammad, including a blood brother of Min. Malcolm’s, spoke against their former comrade in the struggle.

“We didn’t voluntarily split from each other. There was manipulation. There was stimulation of our own pettiness, of our own weaknesses by outside forces and the government is that outside force. The FBI is that outside force. So Betty and I shouldn’t be here alone. The government has to answer for what has happened. We know the hurt of the prominent ones among us. But what about those other families? Families of the unnamed ones that are broken to pieces. Daughters who were virgins destroyed. Young men and women that had hope in a movement destroyed. Thousands of lives ruined because the government feared our unity. We carried no weapons. We threatened no laws. We broke no laws. But because we had an ideology and a philosophy that the government did not like we were targeted by the government. They didn’t need laws passed by Congress to tap our phones, to follow us around, to harass us day and night,” said Min. Farrakhan, in 1995 at the Apollo Theater in New York.

[On May 6, 1995, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Minister Louis Farrakhan and a host of others attended an historic public rally at Apollo Theater, shown in video above. The fund-raising rally was held on behalf of Quibilah Shabazz who was set-up in an FBI entrapment scheme via one of its informants, Michael Fitzpatrick. ]

Min. Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik Shabazz) speaks (l) with a young Min. Louis Farrakhan by his side (r).

In the end, there was an unfortunate death that created a wound inside Black America that has never healed. It is a wound that those truly responsible for the death of Malcolm X, and who are his actual killers, have tried to exploit as Louis Farrakhan has grown in influence and restored the Nation of Islam after its destruction.

So the Lifetime movie, Betty and Coretta, pointing the finger at Min. Farrakhan as involved in the death is purposely false. It is another attempt to defame Min. Farrakhan and incite murder for him in the hearts of the ignorant and set the stage for his murder by a government tied to the murders of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King. Both men were considered enemies of America and were under surveillance until their deaths. A government informant and police officer, Gene Roberts, was on stage with Malcolm X when he was shot. According to one biography of Malcolm X, agent Roberts’ first assignment was to infiltrate the newly formed Muslim Mosque Inc., founded by Malcolm X. A military defense agency was in Memphis tracking civil rights leader King when he was killed. A noted civil rights photographer, with tremendous access to Dr. King, has also been identified as a government informant. Facts not fiction.

Min. Louise Farrakhan with Rev. Jesse Jackson, 1996.

The women involved in the movie, including Mary J. Blige, are not the enemy; they are actresses who are likely doing their best to portray two Black women important to the struggle of Black America.

But the enemy remains those forces against Black liberation and in particular members of the Jewish community who have fought Min. Farrakhan since his 1984 defense of Rev. Jesse Jackson for remarks made about Zionists, Israel and Palestinians while running for president. From that opening salvo the Jewish onslaught has been relentless and largely unproductive in moving the Black masses away from Farrakhan. And at one time it was easy for these Satanic demons to use the “Farrakhan Litmus” test to scare away Black leaders, politicians and activists but it is a little harder today—though sadly some still kowtow to Jewish masters.

Coretta Scott King and Dr. Betty Shabazz.

More evidence that we need to separate fact from fiction: The portrayal of the main characters in the movie has even brought criticism from the families of the late Dr. Betty Shabazz and Coretta Scott King. Neither family, and certainly not Min. Farrakhan and his family, were allowed to play a part in making the movie or influencing it. Why not? When a person has an evil motive and an evil mission, the last thing they want is for someone with knowledge and truth to have access to their product. It creates another hurdle and could disrupt their plan. If complaints from the families of the principals came out before the film, it could raise pre-release doubts. If the criticisms came out before the film, many would not watch and others would watch with an awakened eye.

Speaking after its release puts those armed with truth in the unenviable position of chasing the lie which has spread halfway around the globe before the truth gets started.

Qubilah Shabazz (center) with Attorney William Kunstler (r)

The fiction also plays into the narrative of a Farrakhan-Shabazz blood feud. This is a dangerous lie and totally omits steps toward reconciliation between the widow of Malcolm X and the minister of the Nation of Islam in 1995, following a U.S. Attorney’s indictment of one of the daughters of Malcolm X and Dr. Shabazz. Qubilah Shabazz was charged in a murder for hire plot against Min. Farrakhan. I was personally sitting with Min. Farrakhan at his home at one point as media coverage of this January 12, 1995 federal indictment exploded. He said publicly later what he said to me privately: Qubilah Shabazz was the smallest part of any conspiracy against him. He knew both he and she were victims.

With the media camped out outside his home in Chicago, the Minister had his chief of staff make a statement to the press. Leonard Farrakhan Muhammad emphatically stated that the FBI was no friend of Farrakhan, nor the Black community, and demanded everything about the indictment be released—and declared forcefully that nothing should happen to the Shabazz family. The Minister also demanded once again that all the government files related to plots, surveillance and the murder of Malcolm X be released. Those files are still unreleased. Fact not fiction.

[Read Final Call article on the frame-up of Qubilah Shabazz at http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/article_9579.shtml.]

Min. Louis Farrakhan and Queen Mother of the Nation of Islam Khadijah Farrakhan in 2010.

Qubilah Shabazz had been lured to Minnesota by a onetime schoolmate, Michael Fitzpatrick, who was also Jewish and a government informant. Instead of finding a new life, she found herself under indictment for a murder plot. Informant Fitzpatrick also had a onetime affiliation with a radical Jewish organization. Ms. Shabazz was facing a possible 90 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines if convicted. Dr. Betty Shabazz said “her daughter was framed, The Associated Press reported. ‘It is unfortunate that anyone would do that to a young woman,’ she said. ‘And it says how quick people are and how they will do anything to get their political ends,’ ” the New York Times reported January 13, 1995.

Million Man March

I went to Minnesota to cover the initial hearing for Qubilah Shabazz but the Minister’s blast of truth was so powerful, the false case crumbled. A deal was quickly brokered and the Apollo event that was supposed to be a legal fundraiser turned into a celebration. It was billed as “A New Beginning.” Steps were taken toward reconciliation. I saw the warm hug from Nation of Islam First Lady Khadijah Farrakhan as she embraced her sister Dr. Shabazz. To me the love was palpable, it was genuine, it was deep and it was real. She and Dr. Shabazz sat together at the Apollo. I watched as a young member of the Junior Fruit of Islam presented Dr. Shabazz with a lovely bouquet of flowers and I felt the joy in seeing another plot of the enemy dispatched. Fact not fiction.

“ ‘Minister Farrakhan, may the God of our forefathers forever guide you on your journey,’ Betty Shabazz said to cheers from more than 1,000 people at the Apollo Theater in Harlem,’ ” the Los Angeles Times reported of the May 6, 1995 event. “She also thanked Farrakhan for his ‘gentle words of assurance’ for her daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, who was accused in January of hiring a hit man to kill Farrakhan. Farrakhan has defended Qubilah Shabazz, saying be believes she was entrapped by a federal informant. As Betty Shabazz left the stage, Farrakhan shook her hand and began his speech,” the Los Angeles Times said.

By October 1995, Dr. Shabazz was one of the select mothers of Black America who spoke at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., convened by Min. Farrakhan. Fact not fiction.

Lastly, there is no statute of limitations on murder, which the government knows. If you have evidence of a murder by Louis Farrakhan, charge him, arrest him, try him. But you have nothing except wicked lies and fiction which you hope to impose on people who don’t know the truth. Your lies won’t win today and we, by Allah’s grace, will never cease in our defense of an innocent man and the truth. Fact not fiction.

(Final Call editor-in-chief Richard B. Muhammad can be reached at editor@finalcall.com . You can also follow him on Facebook and @RMfinalcall on Twitter.)