By Aaron Kesel
You are about to read and learn how Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital stole its way to ownership of Toys R Us, and the reasons why it was inevitable Toys R Us was going to be slaughtered like the companies before it.
Bain Capital, often at times, is very bad at running a business (may even be criminal in its ways. But, unfortunately, Bain Capital is really good at bankruptcy fraud and federal corruption.
Meanwhile, Romney is a happy man; because Bain Capital just set a new World Record with its firing of 33,000 employees.
Most are unaware that Bain Capital’s plot to destroy Toys R Us began 20 years ago when Goldman Sachs, in partnership with Mitt Romney, Bain Capital and Thomas Lee Partners, shoved The Learning Company up Mattel’s butt; damn near bankrupting Mattel via $4 billion dollar instant, catastrophic – cooked books fraud – loss.
Delaware was where the merger happened, and Romney got protected from investigation and prosecution by his partnership with Goldman Sachs.
Both Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital have been represented by the Delaware law firm of Morris Nichols Arsht and Tunnell (MNAT), and The Learning Company merger with Mattel was also handled by MNAT.
The MNAT law firm, had it not jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, could have claimed the firm had no idea about what was going on – criminally; but that plausible deniability went straight out the window when MNAT made Delaware Assistant United States Attorney, Colm Connolly, into an MNAT partner. (Colm Connolly’s resume.)
Once Romney got inside both MNAT’s direct connection to the DOJ and also inside the top echelons of Mattel, then the schemes and artifice to defraud became commonplace.
Bankruptcy after bankruptcy, KB, eToys, Zainy Brainy, the Parent Company and even FAO Schwartz, were all brought down, via backdoor dealings, so that Bain Capital could get those Toy companies as cheap as possible; and Goldman Sachs could get away with billions of dollars in fraud, as the end result.
America is shell-shocked now at the complete demise of Toys R Us.
From the 33,000 laid-off employees, all the way down to the KB and eToys case whistleblower, Laser Haas, people everywhere are expressing their concerns about the lack of candor at the real reasons behind the senseless killing of Toys R Us.
It was once a joy to be a Toys R Us, kid; but Romney’s Bain Capital took that joy away. Adults’ greed destroyed children’s dreams again.
Meanwhile, Bain Capital and Bain’s executives receive untold millions and the 33,000 employees of Toys R Us were given Mitt’s joy of firing people – a straight middle finger.
Truth be told, Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital personnel, along with their lawyers (including, possibly, Jay Clayton), should be indicted for Obstruction.
Romney and Goldman Sachs racketeering thrives on refusals to prosecute corruption.
Those who have been following this reporter’s series of articles on Wall Street fraud and the abysmal failure of the federal system of justice, know full well that there are multiple dynamics of federal court and federal agent corruption in numerous toy store bankruptcy cases.
(Wall Street frauds – KB, Learning Mattel failed merger, eToys.)
Unfortunately, thousands of people lost collective billions, and people have died, to get Mitt rich, quick (including eToys shareholder, Robert Alber, and Marty Lackner, who woke up dead – Marty was the brother of Minnesota Assistant U.S. Attorney, James Lackner)!
Readers should better understand how these rackets operate by the end of this article.
It is a fact that Goldman Sachs personnel are in partnership with Bain Capital parties, and that those Sachs and Bain employees have colluded to rip off investors and companies, both private and public, for billions of dollars for more than 20 years.
Unfortunately, the Federal System of Justice is part of the problem, not the underlying solution. The DOJ would be embarrassed if all the facts were to come out in formal proceedings that the Justice system would rather remain staunchly silent, concerning the fact the DOJ has been willfully blind, which is aiding and abetting the White Collar organized crimes of Wall St.
It is a pathetic state of affairs that led to the implosion of Toys R Us for ill-gotten profits.
Many questions still remain unanswered as to what federal agents or judges received to assure that Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital’s two-decade crime spree will succeed unimpeded from law enforcement.
Surely the many betrayals of the public’s trust, and the vast breaches of fiduciary duties, resulting in billions of dollars in material adverse harms, along with corresponding mayhem and homicides (including the death of a brother of an Assistant United States Attorney, Marty Lackner), was not gifted to billionaires, totally, for free?
As for those of you, including Arizona Congressman, Andy Biggs, who recently, boldly, spoke out about the United States Trustee program’s failure to perform appropriately; I’ll try to help you all see the bigger picture.
Evidently, the Congressman, his Committee, and Senator Sanders are unfamiliar with the fact that former USAG John Ashcroft spoke out, over a decade ago, concerning the facts that there are “corrupt federal judges in collusion with high ranking members of the United States Trustee program.”
Please see Ashcroft’s archived remarks at the U.S. Courts website – here.
Meanwhile, please allow this reporter to walk you down evidentiary, memory lane.
For nearly a year now, I’ve been reporting with serial whistleblower (Laser Haas) who has pointed out multiple frauds, in various cases, including – Tom Petters Ponzi, Marc Dreier, Mattel/Learning, Fingerhut, KB, eToys and other fraud cases.
As a matter of fact, despite Laser finding smoking guns to compel court-documented confessions by MNAT and Paul Traub law firms, there still has been no arrest by the United States Trustee program in the KB, Fingerhut and eToys cases.
Congressman Biggs is ‘Spot On’ (here) about the failure to perform by the United States Trustee program; which is a large part of the problem.
Our United States Trustee program has two simple jobs, but it is failing – miserably according to Laser Haas.
According to the U.S. Trustee website (here), it states that:
The United States Trustee Program is the component of the Department of Justice responsible for overseeing the administration of bankruptcy cases and private trustees under 28 U.S.C.
§ 586 and 11 U.S.C. § 101, et seq. We are a national program with broad administrative, regulatory, and litigation/enforcement authorities whose mission is to promote the integrity and efficiency of the bankruptcy system for the benefit of all stakeholders–debtors, creditors, and the public. The USTP consists of an Executive Office in Washington, DC, and 21 regions with 92 field office locations nationwide.
It is plain to see, as Congressman Andy Biggs has pointed out (here) in another Virginia case, of the facts that the United States Trustee program (the actual police if the bankruptcy system) are failing – miserably – to do their damn job.
It isn’t the first time that someone other than Laser Haas has pointed out the fact that the policing of the bankruptcy system appears to mysteriously be absent.
Back when Laser’s whistleblowing was causing chaos in the KB and eToys cases, USAG John Ashcroft wrote about corrupt federal judges in collusion with high-ranking members of the United States Trustee program.
Speciously, Ashcroft’s remarks vanished, for a decade, after NJ U.S. Attorney, Chris Christie, awarded John Ashcroft (and other furtive federal prosecutors) a $50 million dollar, no-bid, deferred prosecution agreement.
In a legitimate realm of justice, U.S. citizens call it bribery when federal agents receive a payout of millions of dollars to defer a federal prosecution.
Does anybody think that the rank and file of federal prosecutors didn’t take notice of how prosecutors could win the lottery for leaving Wall Street alone?
To name a few of the stalwarts in the U.S. Trustee program, Laser has a large amount of evidence against their failures to perform. Those Trustee stalwarts include – Roberta DeAngelis, Mark Kenney, Andy Vera, Kelly Beaudin Stapleton and Executive Office of United States Trustee Directors, Lawrence Friedman and Clifford White.
Clifford White has been there ever since Laser yelled at Lawrence Friedman, which resulted in Friedman’s resignation, after Laser found two more $100 million dollar frauds of Paul Traub’s during the very same time EOUST Director Friedman was – purportedly – punishing Paul Traub for eToys frauds and perjuries.
Department of Justice, Deputy Director (number 3 from Top of USAG) Lawrence Friedman, on December 22, 2004, had replaced Roberta DeAngelis as Region 3 U.S. Trustee over the eToys cases.
Coincidentally, December 22, 2004, was the same exact date of the Emergency hearing, in the eToys case, resultant of eToys whistleblower, Laser Haas, finding the smoking gun proof that Barry Gold (the new CEO of eToys) was partners with Paul Traub (who was court approved counsel for the creditors of eToys).
Creditor and Debtor, are required, by law, to be totally arm’s length – in this case, they were anything but.
Resultant of the Emergency eToys December 22, 2004 hearing, MNAT confessed its failure to disclose Goldman Sachs; and Paul Traub confessed his partnership with Barry Gold.
To this day, Traub, Barry, and MNAT continue to obstruct justice and lie under oath, to conceal their direct connections to Bain Capital/KB; because Traub, Barry, and MNAT swore under oath, many times, they had nothing to do with Bain Capital and KB when they reduced the sales prices of eToys to KB.
On February 15, 2005, the Assistant United States Trustee, Frank Perch, put forth (here) the U.S. Trustees Motion to Disgorge (“Disgorge Motion”) against Traub’s law firm for $1.6 million dollars.
Inside that policing of the bankruptcy system, in the prosecution of Paul Traub, it notes in paragraph 18 the fact that Paul Traub confessed deliberately leaving bogus affidavits (15) to stand before the bankruptcy court.
Also within the Disgorge Motion, in paragraph 19 it is testified by Frank Perch that Traub asked permission to replace eToys executive (Laser Haas) and the United States Trustee cautioned (forewarned) Paul Traub to avoid conflicts of interests. (He failed to do so.)
That makes Traub’s disobedience, and the replacing of Haas with Traub’s partner, Barry Gold, to be a criminal conspiracy matter, both audacious and reprehensible.
In paragraph 35 of the Traub Disgorge Motion, Assistant United States Trustee points out that Traub’s firm has extensive experience in national bankruptcy cases; Perch then reiterates the fact that Traub was forewarned not to do the very criminal conspiracy that Traub did with MNAT and Barry Gold, in secret.
In his Disgorge Motion conclusion, the Assistant United States Trustee stipulated that Traub’s law firm was guilty of – Fraud upon the Court.
Fraud upon the Court, by an approved officer of the court, is so egregious that the U.S Supreme Court ruled, in the Hazel-Atlas Glass v Hartford Empire case, that there are absolutely no statute of limitations for such a crime.
Enigmatically, Frank Perch disappeared from the U.S. Trustee program after his mind-blowing statement!
According to the Codes and Rules of Law, the U.S. Trustee program was supposed to do a similar Motion against MNAT.
But that never happened!
Furthermore, the police of the bankruptcy system and the Chief Justice over the eToys bankruptcy cases, were required, by Law, to disqualify MNAT, Barry Gold, and Paul Traub, from the eToys cases. (They did not.)
As a matter of fact, even the judge was required by 18 U.S.C. 3057(a) and the U.S. Trustee was required by 28 U.S.C. 586(a)(3)(F) to refer the matter for federal prosecution to the United States Attorney’s office.
The issue with that was, everyone knew (except for the victims) that the Delaware United States Attorney was MNAT’s partner, Colm Connolly.
Reporting it, officially, to Colm Connolly, as a matter of protocol, required the case to be referred to the Public Integrity Section; and that the Delaware United States Attorney’s office be recused from the case.
But that’s in a legitimate world of justice, which the toys Industry cases appear not to be in!
Just a few days after the Disgorge Motion, once Frank Perch was out of the picture, the Delaware Department of Justice decided to give Paul Traub immunity. (Yes, you read that right!)
The problem is, the immunity was reportedly provided by U.S. Trustee trial Attorney, Mark Kenney, and Delaware Bankruptcy Court, Chief Justice, Mary F. Walrath, who signed off on the immunity deal.
But neither one of those parties have the authority to grant Article III immunity because bankruptcy courts are not Article III entities.
Haas became enraged and screamed at DOJ Deputy Director Lawrence Friedman, who responded with this email (here) stating in a similar manner that Eric Holder remarked the parties are too big to jail.
From: [email protected]
Date: 02/25/05 14:49:58
To: ‘[email protected]’
Subject: RE: Item sent to the record today
Mr. Haas:
You most assuredly have our attention and my personal commitment that we will act in every case where action is required and we are aware of it. Please understand however, that like any prosecutor, we must exercise appropriate discretion in carrying out our responsibilities which while sometimes in a particular case may seem unjust, it is done with perspective to ALL matters we handle. I sympathize with your frustration and again assure you that my staff is extremely competent to handle this matter and will exercise appropriate judgment.
Lawrence A. Friedman, Director
Executive Office for US Trustees
United States Department of Justice
Washington, DC
Then Laser Haas discovered two more smoking gun proofs that, while Director Friedman was promising to punish Paul Traub, the scoundrel Traub was perpetrating another $100 million dollar fraud in eToys and the KB Case fraud, too.
When Haas brought these two unaddressed crimes to the attention of U.S. Trustee Director Lawrence Friedman, he chose discretion over valor, resigning.
Then Clifford White took over and the United States Trustee program, which has gone downhill ever since.
For more than a decade, Deputy DOJ Clifford White has sat back at his cushy desk of power and corruption, allowing lawyers to violate conflicts of interests laws, freely.
When the authorities refuse to prosecute organized crimes, then the perpetrators steal bigger, faster, from as many as they can.
Hence, Toys R Us being destroyed, and Mattel may be right behind.
The crony corrupt Clifford White secretly promoted the removed, Region 3 Trustee, Roberta DeAngelis, to the position of General Counsel over the United States Trustee program criminal investigations.
Unknowingly, between DeAngelis, Clifford and Colm Connolly, Laser Haas was asking crooked federal agents, to investigate themselves.
Should Congressman Andy Biggs and Senator Bernie Sanders happen to read this article, Clifford White would be impeached; Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, Paul Traub, MNAT and Colm Connolly would be indicted.
Then the victims of Bain Capital Toys Industry fraud could get some recompense!
That is if we were in a legitimate system of justice.
But we aren’t!
By the way, there’s no need for discovery. It’s not as if these facts of racketeering and bankruptcy frauds are a secret. They are visible within the public docket records.
Or, at least – they were.
A few weeks ago this reporter did a story about the Trump Administration doing overt acts of Obstruction for Mitt Romney and Goldman Sachs sake.
In that article (here) we point out the fact that the D.C. Clerk of Court Illegally blocked Laser Haas’s lawsuit, against Trump, the FBI, the SEC, the DOJ, Ellen Slights and Clifford White.
Upping the ante in Obstruction, Laser Haas has alerted this reporter to the fact that the fascists are burning the books (so to speak). Specifically, the Public Access Cory Electronic Records (PACER) system is being altered to make Paul Traub case information vanish from the public court docket records.
Fortunately, whistleblower Laser Haas has many back-up copies!
Should the KB, Stage Stores, Fingerhut, Mattel and eToys cases finally get some justice, then it is highly likely many people would be serving time (possibly, even Mitt Romney, Paulson & Blankfein) for ripping off investors and deliberately destroying public and private companies like eToys and Toys R Us.
It’s not too late, Laser Haas could still save them both from extinction.
But, he can only do so in a legitimate realm of justice; which – currently – neither eToys, nor Toys R Us, are within.
Making matters worse, public servants, such as taxpayer-paid United States Trustee, are regularly betraying the public’s trust; and they also are Obstructing Justice while aiding in putting tens of thousands of workers out of a job.
It is also a fact that Paul Roy Traub was documented to have been the control of Tom Petters’ Ponzi, and Traub was involved in most of the crooked dealings, but the DoJ constantly refuses to investigate or indict Paul Traub.
The DOJ’s staunch refusal to prosecute Paul Traub is a glaring red flag.
So what does KB, Fingerhut and eToys have in common? They served as unjust enrichment to Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs, and their cronies of lawyers like Paul Traub.
To put this bluntly – If there had been arrests in those cases and the feds did their jobs, then it is highly likely Toys R Us would never have been forced to close its doors!
Recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders and other lawmakers posed serious questions on the legality of whether or not private equity owners of Toys R Us intentionally forced the toy company toward bankruptcy, causing mass layoffs and the third-largest retail Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Specifically, Senator Sanders remarked –
“We are concerned that your investment firms have deliberately chose this path for the company, its works and its communities,” the Congressional Progressive Caucus wrote in a letter to executives at Bain Capital, KKR, and Vornado Realty Trust, the firms that bought Toys “R” Us in 2005”.
Sanders and the other members of Congress faulted the buyout model employed by the investment firms for causing the toy company’s failure, and asked the executives whether it was a deliberate policy to “load the company with debt.”
Obviously, being that Romney often bragged about getting his riches from Bain Capital, it goes without saying that if Bain Capital can’t keep its money from fraud then Romney certainly can’t keep his profits from Bain Capital frauds.
If only Senator Sanders and any honorable federal investigator would look at what really happened, perhaps justice would finally come.
Getting back to Toys R Us who claims to (purportedly) be nearly $5 billion in debt. We must state – purportedly – because cooked books and destruction of records are a bad habit of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital’s rise to ownership of Toys R Us.
Bain Capital is – purportedly – one of the top creditors of Toys R Us. As a result of that fact, there should have been a Bankruptcy Rule 2004 Examiner, appointed over the Toys R Us bankruptcy case.
But there isn’t! As the undeniable pattern is clear to see.
Toys R Us is far from the only retail toy company that has been financially ruined by Mitt’s Bain Capital, over the past two decades.
Vulture Capitalists (Venture Capitalists) reaped a reported near $500 million in extracted profits, siphoning the Toys R Us company dry of funds.
Reportedly, top executives who failed to properly manage Toys R Us, placing Toys R Us into bankruptcy, are set to leave with $16 million in bonuses.
And that ain’t right!
Prior to this, Laser Haas reported the fact that MNAT and Paul Traub doubled the salary of eToys employees, in bankruptcy, so that the workers would hate Haas for his laying them off as court-appointed CEO.
Laser was informed, by his lawyers (MNAT), who also was eToys counsel, of the facts about the WARN Act which mandates companies laying off 200 employees or more must give those employees a 60-day WARN Act notice.
In the KB bankruptcy case, MNAT also represents Bain Capital; and, in the Finova case, MNAT represents Goldman Sachs.
This is against the law because MNAT is the court approved law firm for eToys which has causes of action against Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital.
Because MNAT partner (Colm Connolly) was arranged to be the Delaware United States Attorney, over the KB, Mattel, Fingerhut & eToys cases, and Colm Connolly stated there would be no prosecution of Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, Paul Traub or MNAT; the crooks claim they are exempt from prosecution due to Statute of Limitations (SOL).
This reporter finds that to be akin to Al Capone claiming Capone is exempt from prosecution, because Frank Nitti was the federal prosecutor over the Capone cases.
Sort of like Mitt Romney’s campaign manager claiming Mitt Romney has “retroactively” retired from Bain Capital (where Mitt’s lawyer, Colm Connolly, as the Delaware United States Attorney, staunchly refused to prosecute Mitt, Bain Capital, Paul Traub, Goldman Sachs or MNAT).
To this very day, Colm Connolly continues to conceal his refusal to prosecute his partners and their clients.
Emboldened by the refusals to prosecute, Paul Traub asked to be the one to prosecute Michael Glazer and Bain, for taking out $100 million out from KB, prior to bankruptcy.
Neither Traub, asking to prosecute Glazer & Bain, nor MNAT representing Bain Capital in the KB Case, bothered to inform the victims about the facts that MNAT & Paul Traub are partners in other Bain Capital ripoffs.
There are Codes and Rules of Law of Bankruptcy Law that prohibits preferential treatment of insiders; and Sarbanes Oxley forbids executives moving from one bankrupt company to another.
However, you would need someone other than Colm Connolly or SEC Commissioner Jay Clayton to enforce those laws.
Please allow me to explain further.
Not so long ago, Congress called these schemes what they are – Frauds; but you wouldn’t know it because Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital have gotten away with such nefariousness for decades.
Inexplicably and intolerably, the Federal Systems of Justice doesn’t seem to care how many laws Goldman Sachs & Bain Capital break.
It is mind-boggling that the DOJ has given freedom to commit grand larceny, on a grand scale, to Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, MNAT and Paul Traub; but the system of Justice doesn’t give a Chit, what the public thinks.
Things are so far out of hand that Paul Traub and Barry Gold confessed to the fact they deliberately lied under oath to the Chief Justice over the eToys case; but that judge (illegally) ruled that she didn’t care.
No matter how serious the dynamics are, the Federal system of Justice flatly refuses to address the organized crimes benefiting Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital.
When Laser Haas pointed out the fact that the willful blindness of the system of Justice and the courts, resulted in homicides, the Chief Justice over the eToys case ordered that the Clerk of the Delaware Bankruptcy Court was to permanently block Laser Haas due process rights to file complaints.
It is a matter of public record that Paul Traub worked under KB CEO, Michael Glazer, at Mitt Romney’s entity of Stage Stores.
At the Stage Stores case, Dov Avni, who owned $4500 worth of stock, cried aloud about bad faith dealings; and the judge in that case, ordered Dov Avni to pay $300,000 for his frivolous allegations.
This reporter finds it really bizarre that it took $300,000 in legal fee efforts to address “frivolous” allegations.
In the Stage Stores case, Paul Traub got caught failing to disclose his conflicts of interests concerning Barry Gold after Barry Gold hired Paul Traub’s law firm.
As it is now well established that the Paul Traub/Barry Gold dynamics aren’t frivolous!
There were no prosecutions by the DOJ, in any of these cases, because the proverbial “fix” was already “in” with revolving-door parties, such as Colm Connolly to protect the racketeers!
The MNAT law firm, representing eToys, lied under oath to conceal its relationship to Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital in order to become eToys bankruptcy counsel.
Upon the success of the perjury and deceit, MNAT nominated Paul Traub (control partner of Tom Petters Ponzi) to be the one to sue Goldman Sachs for ripping off eToys public offering.
In other words, Goldman Sachs sued Goldman Sachs; and eToys lost a billion dollars – twice!
One has to keep in mind the fact that racket lords don’t do the dirty deeds.
Sachs and Mitt sat back and reaped all the rewards, while their goons did the dirty work. MNAT, Barry Gold, Colm Connolly, Johann Hamerski, Michael Glazer and Paul Traub are the field agents for Sachs and Bain’s enterprising.
Knowing he is never going to be arrested, much less indicted, the “Brown Bag King of New York” (Paul Traub’s nickname) actually had the brass, in 2013, at the very time the NY Supreme of Appeals ruled the eToys v. Goldman Sachs could go forward, to settle the billion dollar eToys case (eToys was renamed ebc1 after Bain Capital stole the eToys.com domain name).
Traub settled the billion-dollar case for $7.5 million; and then MNAT, Barry Gold, and Paul Traub, publicly argued about how they would carve up the $7.5 million after the deed was done.
The fact that eToys shareholder group, spearheaded by Robert Alber, had asked the Delaware Bankruptcy Court for the eToys shareholders legal right to have the eToys estate pay for a securities holder equity committee makes the eToys v. GSachs settlement extensively heinous and egregious.
MNAT, Barry Gold and Paul Traub had objected to the eToys equity committee. Those stalwarts successfully dismissed the eToys shareholders with a promise that MNAT, Barry Gold and Paul Traub “had the eToys shareholders backs.”
Barry Gold even put in a Declaration, under penalty of perjury, stating the eToys bankruptcy case was negotiated between Debtor and Creditors by “extensive” arm’s length/good faith negotiations.
Obviously, this is patently false and laughable as Laser Haas ferreted out smoking gun proof that Barry Gold and Paul Traub were partners.
Paul Traub even confessed to the court that Traub’s law firm was paying Barry Gold $30,000 per month, prior to Paul Traub sneaking Barry Gold into eToys, so that Barry and MNAT could lock Laser Haas out of eToys illegally.
As a matter of fact, things are so out of hand that Paul Traub settled eToys New York Supreme Court case, in 2013, against Goldman Sachs, as a partner of Marc Dreier.
The underlying problem with that is, Marc Dreier was in jail since 2009!
To assure no investigations or prosecutions would ever transpire, Sachs and Bain arranged for their MNAT lawyer (Colm Connolly) to become the very federal prosecutor over the Mattel, KB, Fingerhut and eToys cases from August 2001 until December 2008.
Alarmingly, to this very day, the corruption and cover-ups continue to try to protect Colm Connolly’s betrayal of the public’s trust. So much so, the Public Corruption Task Force was – Shut Down – and career federal prosecutors were threatened to keep their mouths shut (see L.A. Times article “Shake-up roils federal prosecutors”).
Compounding these issues, Trump egregiously nominated Goldman Sachs/Bain Capital guy, Jay Clayton, to be head of the SEC; and the corruption and cover-ups have gotten worse since Jay Clayton took over the SEC.
Recently, it was reported that the SEC is going to eviscerate the SEC’s whistleblower program.
We don’t know why they need to bother with risking public outcry; since the SEC has never utilized that program anyway.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Trump has the unmitigated gall to make Romney’s pal, Ambassador to Morocco (here); and Trump has renominated Colm Connolly (Romney’s other pal) to be on the Delaware Federal bench.
Back in 2008, Laser was successful in persuading, then-Senator Joe Biden, to block GW Bush’s own nomination of Colm Connolly’s to be a Delaware District Court Justice.
Then Senator Biden simply refused to sign the protocol Senate Slip, to process a judicial nomination forward.
Trump has taken care of the issue of anybody blocking the President’s nominees; where Trump publicly stated he has refuted the rights of any Senate Slip protocol!
Just in case the Colm Connolly (re)nomination schemes fail, Trump also chose another MNAT partner of Maryellen Noreika for one out of only four Delaware Federal District Court Judgeships.
It is particularly alarming that – with 50,000 lawyers registered in Delaware, and there being only four Delaware Federal District Court Judgeships – that Trump overreaches to nominate two of MNAT’s partners out of only four Judgeships.
Especially given the fact that Colm Connolly Clerked for Walter K Stapleton (also an MNAT partner) who is a Senior Justice on the Third Circuit.
Whistleblower Haas’ efforts already helped compel several law firms to disband; and MNAT most certainly would lose its malpractice insurance if MNAT’s deliberate betrayal of its court-approved clients (eToys & Laser Haas) were to be addressed in any formal hearing.
MNAT has no possible defense about MNAT betraying its court-approved clients.
The compounding fact that a man (Paul Roy Traub) quietly known as the “Brown Bag King of New York,” was involved in multiple nationally significant cases and Traub continues to elude investigation or prosecution, shows the lack of legitimate era of justice.
Paul Traub is also publicly noted to have been the “control” partner of the Tom Petters Ponzi (see Receiver’s Complaint when Romney was running for president – here).
It is also a publicly known fact that Paul Traub was partners of Marc Dreier.
Dreier is doing 20 years in prison; while Traub’s other partner Tom Petters is doing 50 years.
Meanwhile, Paul Traub has never been investigated, much less prosecuted or arrested.
MNAT also is connected to Jack Abramoff, which resulted in eToys shareholder, Robert Alber, shooting Abramoff’s and Johann Hamerski’s assigned assassin, Michael Sesseyoff, in Kingman, Arizona.
Unfortunately, eToys shareholder, Robert Alber, still wound up dead!
In an apparent effort to hold the Guinness world record for most involvement in fraud cases, Paul Traub also was involved in Enron, Kmart, Okun 1031 Tax Group, Adelphia, Polaroid, Fingerhut, and many other schemes. (See my article – here – Meet Mitt Romney’s Frank Nitti, Paul Roy Traub.)
This reporter’s Wall St fraud series has further documented that many of those people, in the upper levels of government (including Washington, DC.) who are supposed to enforce the law and prevent financial criminals, are miserably failing to do their jobs.
What’s worse, the media is even complicit in these crimes failing to report these cases despite the overwhelming evidence.
The question that begs to be answered, is why are they letting organized criminals get away with all of these crimes against nationally significant and important companies?
Who is getting what to cover up these cases and others like them?
Former U.S. Attorney of General John Ashcroft once called out the corruption of the protecting of the perpetrators from much-needed justice.
As is noted, in transcript form, at the U.S. Courts website (here) former USAG John Ashcroft was quoted, during the “Government in Sunshine Act” hearings, as specifically stating:
…..Bankruptcy court corruption is not just a matter of bankruptcy trustees in collusion with corrupt bankruptcy judges. The corruption is supported, and justice hindered by high ranking officials in the United States Trustee Program. The corruption has advanced to punishing any and all who mention the criminal acts of trustees and organized crime operating through the United States Bankruptcy Courts. As though greed is not enough, the trustees, in collusion with others, intentionally go forth to destroy lives. Exemptions provided by law are denied debtors. Cases are intentionally, and unreasonably kept open for years. Parties in cases are sanctioned to discourage them from pursuing justice. Contempt of court powers are misused to coerce litigants into agreeing with extortion demands. This does not ensure integrity and restore public confidence. The American public, victimized and held hostage by bankruptcy court corruption, have no where to turn.
So why give you all this background information?
It’s because Toys R Us’ demise began years ago when Romney/Bain Capital, along with Thomas Lee Partners and Goldman Sachs, damn near took down Mattel Toys, with the 1999 catastrophic deal of Romney’s Learning Company.
Learning was merged with Mattel, in Delaware, by Goldman Sachs & MNAT (see my previous article on “one of the worst corporate mergers of all time”; which mainstream media, missed – here).
The Learning Company scheme, in 1999, was an issue of cooked books fraud when Colm Connolly was the Assistant United States Attorney, in Delaware.
Also, in 1999, Goldman Sachs defrauded eToys, of a billion dollars, in a classic pump-n-dump stock fraud “spinning” scheme.
Colm Connolly then switches sides (revolved door) to become a partner of MNAT.
Arguably, this joining of the proverbial “dark side” is how MNAT hides bribery of Colm Connolly.
When the gang offered Laser Haas a million dollar bribe, he turned it down and reported it to the Delaware Department of Justice.
Colm Connolly then “revolves door” back to the DOJ. This time, Colm Connolly becomes top dog, as the United States Attorney, who just so happens to have total authority over the Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital cases.
These schemes also provided Romney’s Bain Capital with an inside track at Mattel, and Mitt’s contingency reportedly received 12 million shares of Mattel stock.
In so doing, Romney/Bain Capital could get insider information on how to coerce Mattel to help tank toy retailers, so that Bain Capital could acquire their assets cheaply.
Both KB & eToys were in bankruptcy, multiple times; but KB & eToys always wound back to Bain Capital ownership (this time under Toys R Us).
It was the plan of Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, KB, MNAT, Barry Gold and Paul Traub, to get a 2-for 1, where they would sell eToys assets, super cheap, to Bain/KB/Glazer, for a paltry price $5.4 million.
At the same time, Goldman Sachs would also get away, totally ‘Scot Free’ with ripping off of the eToys stock public offering, for nearly a billion dollars. (See NY Times March 2013 article, by Joe Nocera, “Rigging the I.P.O. Game.”)
MNAT’s former partner, Colm Connolly, as United States Attorney, would always assure perpetrators Goldman Sachs, Mitt and Bain that their cooked books $4 billion dollars defraud of Mattel would go unpunished.
At the same time, Colm Connolly also covered up Paul Traub’s ripoff via the Fingerhut deals (prior to the FBI raiding Tom Petters Ponzi, Traub arranged for Bain Capital & Goldman Sachs to give $50 million to Fingerhut).
Barry Gold, MNAT, and Paul Traub settled eToys v. Fingerhut, cheaply, so that Paul Traub and Tom Petters could buy Fingerhut with Ponzi monies.
Speciously, the feds never seized Fingerhut.
Oddly enough, the feds did seize Polaroid (owned by Traub and Petters); but the bankruptcy court corruption sold Polaroid back to Paul Traub’s clients for $83 million.
Then Traub was named partner and his client (Gordon Brothers) announces a $2 billion dollar license deal for Polaroid.
When Laser Haas, as CEO of eToys, was able to stop the paltry sale of eToys assets, for a mere $5.4 million, and his Collateral Logistics drove up the bids, into the tens of millions – it was decided by the racketeers – that Laser Haas career and life efforts needed to be destroyed.
Meanwhile, Bain Capital marched on towards ownership of Toys R Us; which was the long-term, ultimate goal. (Pretty easy thing to do, to acquire major companies, when you steal billions at a time!)
One of the most alarming things in these cases is the fact that lawyers are openly betraying their court-approved clients; and the creditors and workers are stiffed, again – and again – and again.
It is a neat bizness strategy that Bain Capital haswhere they put in a little (ill-gotten gains), such as $38 million to buy KB from Big Lots; and Bain promises hundreds of millions more, later; but – instead, Bain places KB into bankruptcy – and Big Lots got stiffed.
MNAT also deceived Big Lots, by MNAT representing Big Lots v. KB.
Laser Haas originally blew the whistle in eToys when he was offered, turned down and reported a million dollar bribe to join Romney’s gangs.
That is when Colm Connolly left MNAT to become the Delaware United States Attorney over the Mattel, KB, Fingerhut and eToys cases.
Colm Connolly, to this very day, even has lied upon his Senate Judiciary filing, to conceal his conflict of interests issues, concerning Goldman Sachs, MNAT, Paul Traub, Bain Capital and Mitt Romney, cases.
Seeing that the mobsters’ efforts failed with Laser Haas, the crooks upped the ante in the KB case.
KB CEO, Michael Glazer, paid himself $18 million; and Glazer, in turn, blessed Bain Capital with $83 million, prior to Glazer filing bankruptcy of KB. (I did say the pattern is clear to see.)
The FBI has reportedly threatened Haas, multiple times. Oddly enough, the FBI understands the dynamics, as clear as day; but, instead of the FBI making arrests, the FBI accused Laser Haas of being jealous that Michael Glazer was offered $18 million; but Laser was only offered $1 million.
The thing is, Laser was offered the million dollars in 2001; and Michael Glazer got his $18 million, in 2005.
Mitt Romney and Colm Connolly are so joined at the hip, that Mitt’s campaign seeks to avoid their glaring coincidences.
Purportedly, Mitt Romney claims to be “retroactively” retired during the same time period, that Colm Connolly was partners of MNAT.
Romney’s dodging things began when Bain Capital was formulated by Mitt becoming separated from Bain and Company.
Then, Mitt received $9 Million dollar seed money from Salvadoran oligarchs linked to death squads (yes, that’s a shocking fact).
Reportedly, Romney didn’t care where the money came from; and that mentality later continued into the formulation of Stage Stores.
Corruption was so successful, from the outset that Michael Milken junk bond millions were allowed to stay in place, for Romney whilst, Judge Pollack was presiding over Milken’s case.
Judge Pollack’s wife was partners in the Stage Stores formulation deal. (See Boston Globe details that is part of Matt Taibbi’s “Greed and Debt” Rolling Stone cover story, in 2012).
Another pattern of the enterprising includes Romney’s ability to make much of the evidence evaporate into thin air like a magician.
Even now, Mitt’s guys get blessed. Recently, rumors have begun to circle that Trump might give Michael Milken, a pardon.
Previously, Mitt purportedly bailed out the Utah Olympics’, and then the paperwork that could possibly document details on Romney’s cronyism of Bain Capital – was destroyed
Similarly, just as Romney’s Massachusetts Governor rein was over, despite the fact the law forbade destruction of paperwork, for 25 years, Romney’s gangs found an end run around the law by Mitt’s team buying up his Governor’s Administration computer hard drives for $100,000; and crushing them as reported by Reuters.
Just before that, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Delaware law firm MNAT, were able to pull off a major stunt of openly perpetrating Obstruction of Justice.
MNAT asked the eToys court for the ridiculous permission to – Destroy eToys Books & Records – at the very beginning of the eToys case.
MNAT also forged a HAAS Affidavit that MNAT, Paul Traub, and Barry Gold swore to the Chief Justice was Laser Haas “waiving” his contractual potential of $20 million in fees and expenses.
An absolute ludicrous claim to make.
Once again ill ask, does anyone really believe that Laser Haas willfully waved his rights to be compensated $20 million dollars?
Traub and MNAT broke the law further by locking Laser Haas out of eToys, and replacing him with Traub’s Stage Store buddy Barry Gold.
MNAT also failed to tell the Delaware Bankruptcy Court that MNAT works for Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital.
Meanwhile, MNAT represented Bain in the KB case, of the $83 million that Michael Glazer paid Bain; after Glazer paid himself $18 million.
Paul Traub represents the Creditors in the KB and eToys cases; and, when Laser blew the whistle in the KB case, about the$100 million in fraudulent conveyance – the Delaware US Trustee trial Attorney, Mark Kenney, – had Haas’s whistleblowing stricken from the KB docket record.
That’s when Traub asked the KB court judge for permission for Traub to be the party to prosecute Michael Glazer and Bain Capital, for the $100 Million bankruptcy scheme.
As is par for the course, Paul Traub also, conveniently neglected, to disclose his own conflict of interest, in the KB Case, about the fact that Traub was working for Romney’s Stage Stores (where Michael Glazer was the Director.) Today, Glazer is the CEO of Stage Stores.
Barry Gold worked under Glazer; and the truth of the matter is, at Stage Stores, Barry Gold hired Paul Traub – and it is obvious the two men knew each other.
It’s another, simple genius, bizness strategy!
Illegal, yes; but who is going to arrest them when they have people in justice fixing it all?
Most certainly not Colm Connolly, or his left behind, Ellen Slights!
As a matter of fact, Colm Connolly’s assistant, Ellen Slights, and U.S. Trustee trial Attorney, Mark Kenney, are still at the Delaware Department of Justice, making sure no investigations or prosecutions of the KB or eToys related cases will transpire.
Three days after eToys shareholder, Robert Alber, woke up dead (coincidentally, just days before Alber was to go to Washington, D.C. with Laser Haas), the Delaware Assistant U.S. Attorney, Ellen Slights, had Delaware FBI Agent, Scott Duffey, called Laser Haas and threatened Haas with federal prosecution, if Haas failed to take down his websites; Laser’s websites named Ellen Slights, Mark Kenney and Colm Connolly).
Simply put, Colm Connolly was a corrupt Federal prosecutor; and the racketeers of Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital and MNAT were Colm Connolly’s puppet master.
In eToys, KB, Fingerhut or Mattel/Learning cases (that were all beginning between 1999 through 2001), Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital were assured no federal investigation or prosecution by (secretly) having “undisclosed” relationships (conflicts of interests) with lawyers on both sides of the fence; and their cce in the hole – Colm Connolly.
At that time, the crooks simultaneously owned the Minnesota Assistant U.S. Attorney, James Lackner.
James brother, Marty Lackner, was a partner in the Tom Petters Ponzi.
Unfortunately, just like Robert Alber, Marty Lackner woke up dead – in his closet!
Laser sued Trump to block Jay Clayton to be head of the SEC; but the Clerk of D.C. Federal District Court refused to put the case into the docket record.
Jay Clayton was partners of Sullivan and Cromwell; which was duplicitous in the eToys v Goldman Sachs case.
Clayton’s wife, Gretchen, was a 20 years partner with Goldman Sachs, in the very division of Goldman Sachs that ripped off eToys.
On top of all that, Jay Clayton was invested in Bain Capital.
As a matter of fact, Laser learned of the fact that MNAT destroyed eToys Books and Records, from Jeremy Bates of Sullivan and Cromwell (see NY Supreme Court docket evidence on the destruction of books and records here).
Upon Laser informing the Delaware Department of Justice about MNAT’s Obstruction/Destruction of Evidence crimes – Jeremy Bates was nowhere to be found at Sullivan and Cromwell.
Now we have Toys R Us who had near a $700 million dollar bid to save the company by Los Angeles toy mogu,l Isaac Larian.
The offer by Larian was to buy hundreds of stores slated for closure, but it was rejected according to the law firms in the Toys R Us case because it was – purportedly – “well below the value of the assets Larian was proposing to purchase.”
As all this abundant evidence of organized crimes now shows, it is all – bullshit!
Compounding these facts there are five former Toys R Us executives, including former CEO David Brandon, sharing $8.2 million in retention bonuses.
The bonuses were approved only a week before Toys R Us declared bankruptcy.
According to the New York Post, the story of Toys R Us is one saddled with debt.
“This is the story of a company, one of the most iconic in America, that was saddled with so much debt that it could not succeed,” Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said, according to The Washington Post. “And now the big guys are walking away, and the workers are left with nothing.”
Summing it all up….
Former USAG, John Ashcroft, tried to forewarn us all about bankruptcy judges being in collusion with high-ranking members of the United States Trustee program.
Congressman Andy Biggs is asking the right questions of the United States Trustee program, concerning the U.S. Trustees willful blindness to conflict of interest issues.
Back in Delaware, a visiting Justice was duped by the United States Trustee program; and Judge Judith Fitzgerald accused the US Trustee program of aiding and abetting million dollar frauds.
Outrageously, when Justice Fitzgerald asked the U.S. Trustee to explain themselves, the spokesperson for the U.S. Trustee program informed the court that he didn’t have to answer Judge Fitzgerald’s questions.
The big thing is, Congressman Biggs, and his colleagues, appear to have – No Idea – how much collusion & corruption there really is, in our bankruptcy system.
Senator Bernie Sanders also is right in asking questions about the severance package for Toys R Us’ 33,000+ employees.
It appears that nobody informed Toys R Us employees of their rights that they are entitled to 60-days prior notice, under the WARN Act, of the exact date they are going to be laid off, permanently.
Toys R Us was doomed from the outset, once Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital entity snaked its hands into its doors, by schemes and artifices to defraud so that Bain Capital could wind up owning Toys R Us.
Whistleblower Laser Haas pointed out to this reporter the fact that Bain Capital is subject to be legally subordinate – and to even be expunged – as a Toys R Us creditor.
“If you have obtained enrichment by doing fraud, then your claim as a creditor is supposed to be void!” whistleblower Laser Haas said.
Haas states he has a plan to save Toys R Us and eToys, but that he needs to be in a legitimately just world where the court recognizes evidence; which we don’t currently appear to be in with all this rampant fraud.
Trump is helping Wall Street rip off America. Jay Clayton seeks to eviscerate SEC whistleblower protection. And now one of the judges in the Federal Appeals Court, who ruled the CFPB was unconstitutional, is Trump’s nominee for SCOTUS. CNBC reports that the Supreme Court could cripple the Obama-era watchdog if agency critic Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed.
Outgoing director of the CFPB, Mick Mulvaney, wanted the end of the CFPB, and it looks like he is getting his wish. Trump’s new nominee for the very organization Kavanaugh wants to destroy, the CFPB, is Kathy Kraninger, an official at the Office of Management and Budget who admitted she has no background in financial regulation or consumer protection, The Intercept reported.
This is what happens when Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital personnel are able to get away with racketeering; because they can steal billions and do $50 million dollar Deferred Prosecution Agreements to any federal prosecutor. Which is merely a cost of doing “bizness.”
There are more than 100 crimes of perjury, obstruction, grand larceny, schemes to fix fees, bankruptcy fraud, retaliation, intimidation of victims, witness tampering, mail and wire fraud and dynamics of mayhem and homicides; which all are forms of RICO racketeering. If USAG couldn’t stop the federal judge collusion and corruption with high-ranking U.S. trustees that is aiding Mitt’s gang and others, who can Toys R Us workers and evictions turn to?
Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.
This world is ran by the worse white collar criminals who never go to jail.