Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's Accused Chief Intimidator Was An Official Officer Of The Local Bankruptcy Court

The Daily Beast has just published another explosive news article on former Bear Stearns insider and billionaire convicted pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein: Behind Pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's Sweetheart Deal .

The article, written by Conchita Sarnoff, a top notch investigative bulldog, states:

"Documents obtained by The Daily Beast reveal how pedophile hedge fund mogul Jeffrey Epstein escaped a hefty jail sentence despite overwhelming evidence of sex crimes with dozens of young girls. Conchita Sarnoff and Lee Aitken on how the fear and intimidation experienced by victims during pre-trial proceedings, combined with a ferocious, protracted campaign to undermine the prosecution, culminated in a set of charges that became a virtual slap on the wrist."

One of the alleged chief Epstein intimidators identified by the Palm Beach Police Department  is William Riley. Mr. Riley was, and still is, an 'officer of court' in the local bankruptcy court in the Southern District of Florida. He obtained 'officer of the court' protection under secret, off-the-docket bankruptcy court filings.

Mr. Riley was secretly paid by Bear Stearns. His amazing 'red carpet treatment' and 'officer of the court' immunity, granted by the local bankruptcy court, was arranged by Paul S. Singerman, of Berger Singerman P.A., and his partner, James H. Fierberg.That bankruptcy court was the local hangout of convicted Trustee Lewis Freeman and Trustee Marika Tolz (who is now also facing Florida state charges).

Mr. Fierberg's and Mr. Singerman's backdated (nunc pro tunc) Riley filings (with an attached perjured affidavit by Mr. Fierberg) and the resulting off-the-docket orders, were illegally kept off-the-docket and sealed. They were never served on the U.S. Trustee's Office, just one of the many missing prerequisites to legitimacy. For years, Mr. Riley's 'officer of the court' status and protection remained a carefully guarded secret from: myself, my attorneys, the U.S. Trustee's office, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and all reviewing courts. This continued until the district court finally ordered the bankruptcy court to disgorge the secret record — an order that, even today, has still not been fully complied with.

(The Riley court papers, including the Fierberg affidavit, related orders, and other documents are posted at http://www.scribd.com/sjlawrence95)

What the secret off-the-docket court papers contained was shocking and repugnant:

Although the papers are misleadingly labeled as only an "application" to have Mr. Riley hired as an 'officer of the court,' they were, in effect, much more than that. They show:

— a secret hearing was held without a court reporter and with no indication on the court docket. Years later, the Riley papers and order were inserted on the docket as #1426 ..., which was the docket position at the date of the insertion, not the date the papers were submitted years earlier. So, not even normal sealing procedures (as in the many other sealed documents) were followed for the off-the-docket assignment of 'officer of the court' status to Mr. Riley.

— Mr. Riley's 'hiring' was backdated (nunc pro tunc). So obviously, by the time of the secret hearing, he had already done some of his 'work' and could testify without a court reporter being present (This pattern of 'nunc pro tunc' secret hirings and hearings was repeated many times over the years)

— Bear Stearns' name is nowhere mentioned in the "application," even though they paid Riley for his 'work.'

— There are no other traces of Riley, on or off the bankruptcy record, including bills, applications to approve specific payments by the bankruptcy estate to Mr. Riley, orders approving any payment for submitted bills. Mr. Riley's secret testimony and 'officer of the court' status simply vanished from view. In short, Mr. Riley's 'hiring' was a sham designed to give him 'officer of the court' status and allow him to testify against me without a court record and reporter, without a chance to confront him, and without his identity ever being known.

— Mr. Singerman's lead co-attorney, James H. Fierberg, through his affidavit attached to the Riley papers, and his unknown testimony at the secret hearing, became a principal sworn secret witness against me. Those accusations were perjured. Mr. Fierberg swore to the testimony of numerous witnesses that I threatened many people, including children, in order to force false testimony from them. Every one of those purported witnesses was readily available for deposing and the obtaining of sworn statements. If the many purported witnesses had really spoken to Mr. Fierberg, then there is no reason they would not have given truthful statements and testimony about those fictitious events.

— The correct (and required) procedure, in the face of the serious accusations made, was to immediately refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office ... not to hire a questionable P.I. using bizarre and illegal secret procedures.

At about the time the above events were occurring, I had informally been told by one of the key alleged witnesses (my accountant and a personal friend for years) that he believed he was being pressured to give false testimony by persons connected to the trustee. I never paid much attention since the issue never went further and I did not know of the secret testimony that was being given against me by Mr. Fierberg and Mr. Riley.

I have no doubt that the reason Mr. Singerman and Mr. Fierberg did not refer the Fierberg and Riley secret testimony/information to the USAO — as required by law —  was their fear they could themselves be facing perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

After I discovered the existence of Mr. Riley, I was in no way surprised that the Palm Beach Police Department accused him of intimidating the child victims of billionaire pedophile Jeffery Epstein — history was just repeating itself.

The Bear Stearns -- Jeffrey Epstein Hedge Fund Connections:

One unexplored aspect of the handling of the Jeffery Epstein case is Epstein's intimate connections with Bear Stearns. He was both a former Bear Stearns insider and a mammoth player in the Bear Stearns Cayman Islands CMO hedge fund scandal. Based on my intimate knowledge of how Bear Stearns operated, I believe there existed an extensive symbiotic relationship between Bear Stearns and Jeffrey Epstein: Bear Stearns promoting Epstein to potential clients and Epstein, in turn investing heavily in Bear Stearns deals.

Was special inside information or treatment given by Bear Stearns to Epstein that wasn't given to the public victims of those Cayman Island funds? The USAO, at least publicly, believed Epstein to be a good asset in the criminal prosecution of the Bear Stearns' Cayman Islands hedge fund managers. Indeed, Epstein was taking virtually daily, all-day long — and much criticized — "furloughs" to his attorneys' offices ... purportedly to "aid" the Government in the hedge fund prosecutions.

However, the sweetheart deal given Epstein does not square with the thousands of prosecutions I saw at the FDC Miami. The USAO, almost without exception, is ruthless in placing pressure on defendants to obtain pleas. Prisoners, looking to alleviate long potential sentences, regularly scramble to turn on co-defendants. The type of threats against individuals at the USAO, that the Daily Beast article hinted at, would normally be met with immediate, ruthless, and extensive reaction — through either new indictments or added charges.

In late 2004, after I first obtained access to the sealed bankruptcy court record, I began notifying the USAO, through filings, that extensive protected law enforcement material had been stolen through their office and funneled to senior Bear Stearns management — serious criminal offenses. I identified Juval Aviv as being a key link in the theft and passing of the stolen information to Bear Stearns management. Mr. Aviv is a mysterious self-proclaimed Israeli 'hit man' cum assassin who had been indicted and prosecuted by the US Government. Mr. Aviv — amazingly — had also become a secret, protected 'officer of the bankruptcy court' in the same manner Mr. Riley had, and as a result, was supervising the USAO in the illegal phone surveillance of myself, my attorneys, my family, my friends, and reporters I was in communications with. He was also a key figure in secretly funneling the stolen information he had access to, directly and indirectly to Bear Stearns senior management.

In 2006, I filed a federal court complaint (also sent to the USAO) that, again, clearly outlined and supported allegations that Mr. Aviv was repeating crimes similar to those he had been previously prosecuted for and other serious crimes for Bear Stearns senior management. I received no response. I also notified the Office of Professional Responsibility and was met with a stone wall. I filed a Freedom of Information Request to determine the full extent of the thefts of materials related to myself. Again, I was met with a stone wall.

Whatever the extent of influence pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has, Bear Stearns has similar influence to a much larger degree. Bear Stearns (through its successor) and former management had, and continue to have, enormous incentive to protect Jeffrey Epstein from turning against them — a very likely event if Jeffrey Epstein was facing 40 years in prison, as he should have been. If, as intimated in the Daily Beast, the USAO responded to threats of embarrassing disclosures with a sweetheart deal, Bear Stearns' and Berger Singerman's successful infiltration of the USAO, to facilitate the theft and funneling of extensive law enforcement materials and the results of unlawful wiretapping to Bear Stearns, presented a parallel embarrassing incentive to take the pressure off of Bear Stearns by taking the pressure off the key potential insider witness against Bear Stearns, Jeffrey Epstein.

No comments:

Post a Comment