Category: Private-and-public-pension-fraud

May 28th, 2014

5/28/2014

THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES HAVE US NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS COME IN TO ACT AS A GOVERNING STRUCTURE BECAUSE NO WESTERN-STYLE GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE IS THERE. IN THE US------A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY BEING TAKEN THIRD WORLD, ALL OF OUR EXISTING GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE THAT MAKES THE PUBLIC KING IS BEING REPLACED BY THE SAME NON-GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURES FOUND IN THE THIRD WORLD. THIS IS HOW YOU BRING A FIRST WORLD TO THIRD WORLD.....ELIMINATE THE PUBLIC IN ALL AVENUES OF GOVERNMENT.

In Baltimore, this was preceded by a complete dismantlement of all public agencies of oversight and accountability back in the 1980s. Right now, we have Baltimore Development Corporation and Johns Hopkins with their private non-profits running all public sector activities with absolutely no public oversight or accountability----JUST AS IS DONE IN A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY. Just as in a third world country-----the entire system if rife with fraud and corruption.

SEE WHY CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND MUST NOT BE MENTIONED IN A GOVERNOR'S RACE -----ESPECIALLY IN BALTIMORE????

Continuing on the second phase of social reconstruction now that the few have all the money -----THE NEW ECONOMY OR 21ST CENTURY ECONOMY------means they are coming back for the rest of public property and assets. I want to continue with the taking of public property to benefit the same corporations that owe trillions of dollars in corporate fraud.

You don't have to be living in a city to experience this----rural areas are seeing the same thing happen and it spurs from the State of Maryland allowing these billions stolen in fraud and billions in corporate subsidy to empty government coffers and force privatization of all that is public.

Across the state O'Malley and the Maryland Assembly are working to make government offices and taxpayers 'renters' because we wouldn't want the public actually owning government office buildings----not when we have a corporate government!!!!! The ridiculous policy of having the Federal, state, and local government pay rent to private building developers further deteriorates any ability of the people to have revenue OR public assets and services. With so many vacant buildings downtown Baltimore and across Maryland corporate pols----whether Erhlich as a republican or O'Malley as democrat and this ultra-corporate Maryland Assembly instead make renters of the citizens of Maryland.

That's not all folks. All of that prime real estate attached to public housing that is no longer public housing------plant a affluent residential highrise on public land and VOILA----that developer is not paying any property taxes and gets all kinds of tax subsidy for decades just for making millions in profit. So, we have M and T Stadium, Hyatt, and Hilton all with these public land with billion dollar corporations keeping any tax base from entering Baltimore City coffers. tHE CITY RIGHT NOW IS STARVED FOR DECADES BECAUSE OF BAD DEALS THAT ARE SIMPLY PUBLIC MALFEASANCE AND HURTS THE ECONOMY OF THE CITY -----NOT HELP IT.

THE CITY IS GOING BANKRUPT SAYS MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE----WE MUST SLASH PUBLIC SECTOR WAGES AND BENEFITS BECAUSE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PENSIONS LOST 1/2 THE VALUE FROM PENSION FRAUD THAT WE ARE NOT GOING TO SEEK JUSTICE TO RECOVER!!!!

Malfeasance in office
From Wikipedia
The court then went on to use yet another definition, "malfeasance is the doing of an act which an officer had no legal right to do at all and that when an officer, through ignorance, inattention, or malice, does that which they have no legal right to do at all, or acts without any authority whatsoever, or exceeds, ignores, or abuses their powers, they are guilty of malfeasance."

Nevertheless a few "elements" can be distilled from those cases. First, malfeasance in office requires an affirmative act or omission. Second, the act must have been done in an official capacity—under the color of office. Finally, that that act somehow interferes with the performance of official duties—though some debate remains about "whose official" duties.

People need to remember, the economy is being held hostage by global corporations and their pols who want the economy stagnant and unemployment high-----it makes them rich. All we need is to rebuild a DOMESTIC ECONOMY with small and regional businesses where Maryland citizens own the businesses and Maryland citizens are employed by these businesses----gaining wealth and spending to drive the economy and -----VOILA-----A HEALTHY ECONOMY. So, all of this poverty is created deliberately to create the conditions of moving all public wealth to the top.

THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL AND NEO-CON FOR YOU-----WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT. SEE WHY ONLY BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR ARE ALLOWED MEDIA AIR TIME IN MARYLAND----THEY ARE ALL AIDING AND ABETTING THESE POLICIES. WHAT MASSIVE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION SAY BROWN, GANSLER, AND MIZEUR.

It is especially important in Baltimore that my campaign is unknown because heaven forbid a candidate running on rebuilding oversight and accountability and public justice actually get elected!!!

Let's take a look at how they are fleecing our public coffers with fraud and corruption and outright bad public policy:

Baltimore has completely mortgaged its future with these corporate tax breaks that are proven to do nothing useful for the public good. It is public malfeasance by politicians using policy that everyone knows harms the public-----and these corporate tax breaks do just that.

Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business
(Policy Focus Report) Author(s): Kenyon, Daphne A., Adam H. Langley, and Bethany P. Paquin
Publication Date: June 2012

$15.00; 76 pages; Inventory ID PF030; English; Paperback; ISBN 978-1-55844-233-7

FREE DOWNLOADS BELOW PURCHASE PRINT EDITION Rethinking Property Tax Incentives for Business PDF 3.66 MB
Abstract The use of property tax incentives for business by local governments throughout the United States has escalated over the last 50 years. While there is little evidence that these tax incentives are an effective instrument to promote economic development, they cost state and local governments $5 to $10 billion each year in forgone revenue.

Three major obstacles can impede the success of property tax incentives as an economic development tool. First, incentives are unlikely to have a significant impact on a firm’s profitability since property taxes are a small part of the total costs for most businesses—averaging much less than 1 percent of total costs for the U.S. manufacturing sector. Second, tax breaks are sometimes given to businesses that would have chosen the same location even without the incentives. When this happens, property tax incentives merely deplete the tax base without promoting economic development. Third, widespread use of incentives within a metropolitan area reduces their effectiveness, because when firms can obtain similar tax breaks in most jurisdictions, incentives are less likely to affect business location decisions.

This report reviews five types of property tax incentives and examines their characteristics, costs, and effectiveness: property tax abatement programs; tax increment finance; enterprise zones; firm-specific property tax incentives; and property tax exemptions in connection with issuance of industrial development bonds.

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If you haven't heard about the states who have been renting space for their Veterans Administration buildings now being told they will not receive some Federal funding because these agencies are no longer recognized after 50 years of renting space and outsourcing VA operations......AS IF THESE POLS ARE SURPRISED BY THIS ACTION......it is happening all across America. The amount of taxpayer money lost to government renting private property is tremendous. Maryland has placed this practice on steroids with Erhlich and O'Malley racing to hand all of government into corporate hands.

Do we really need a Baltimore City Hall if Baltimore Development Corporation and Johns Hopkins runs the city? Why not have the City Council meet in an auditorium at the Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health?

When this article says these behaviors are not illegal------we need to ask-----if we know these decisions are not in the public interest and a politician takes an oath to protect and work in the public interest-----it becomes public malfeasance.

Below you see Baltimore's State Center being handed to private developers who get the benefit of building on public land, tax breaks for being there, and have the citizens of Maryland paying leases for government space to this developer. Remember, the State of Maryland has dismantled all oversight and accountability and this is why the State Center has been emptied of agencies and employees. The Department of Labor and Licensing DLLR is a shell of itself in this State Center facility.

NEO-LIBERALISM MEANS NO GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND ALL PROFIT GOES TO CORPORATIONS WHICH IN TURN WRITE ALL PUBLIC POLICY. CITIZENS ARE ONLY NEEDED TO PAY EVER HIGHER TAXES TO SUPPORT ALL THIS CORPORATE SUBSIDY!!!!

GOV. O'MALLEY ANNOUNCES BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS APPROVAL OF STATE CENTER LEASES

US Fed News Service, Including US State News July 29, 2010

ANNAPOLIS, Md., July 28 -- Gov. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., issued the following news release:

Governor Martin O'Malley announced today that by a unanimous, 3-0 vote the Board of Public Works approved long-term leases at two new office buildings to be built as part of the redevelopment of State Center in Baltimore City. The state commitment to lease office in the redevelopment provides the private sector development team with the ability to seek the private financing necessary to build the first phase of the project.

"The Board of Public works took a big step today in shaping Maryland's future and bringing thousands of jobs to the heart of Baltimore City," said Governor O'Malley. …

NOTHING BETTER THAN USING TAX PAYER MONEY TO FILL OFFICE SPACE FOR PRIVATE DEVELOPERS AND HAVE PUBLIC PROPERTY ASSURE NO TAXES, PHYSICAL UPGRADES TO LEASED PROPERTY, AND PUBLIC MAINTENANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE! AND AFTER 50 YEARS----THE PUBLIC IS HANDED A TEE SHIRT AND TOLD TO LEAVE.

End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley 2606

“Why waste time and effort cleaning your rental property when End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley can do it spotlessly and efficiently? And, best of all affordably?”

The professionally trained and fully equipped cleaning team at End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley will take your rental property from its current condition and return it to you spotlessly clean in no time. You won’t need to worry about a thing.

Landlords can be fussy when it comes to final inspections – after all they are only protected their asset. But, with the expert cleaning services of End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley, you will have the peace of mind knowing that professionals are taking care of returned your rental back to its cleanest condition.

End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley Perform The Following End Of Lease Cleaning Jobs –

Vacuum Carpets, Vacuum & Mop Flooring, Dust & Wipe Ceiling Fans & Light Fittings

Remove Cobwebs, Dust & Wash Cupboards, Wardrobes, Drawers, Wipe Down Doors

Clean Skirting Boards, Spot Clean Walls, Clean Windows & Window Frames, Dust Blinds

Scrub Tiled Areas, Shower, Bath, Shower Screen, Bath, Remove Soap & Mould (Light) Residue

Clean Drawers, Vanity, Tapware, Sanitise Toilet, Degrease Exhaust Fans, Clean Sink

Clean Oven, Stove Top & Grill

End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley Perform the Following Optional End Of Lease Cleans –

Clean Decking Areas, Driveways, Garage, Remove Cobwebs, Clean Windows, Carpet Steam Cleaning

Using the expert services of an end of lease cleaning service is a reliable way of ensuring your rental is returned to its owner in its cleanest possible condition. Call End Of Lease Cleaning O'Malley when you’re looking for an end of lease cleaning service that ticks all the boxes when it comes to reliability, price and quality of cleaning services.

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Social Security office to move to downtown Towson next spring High-rise at 28 Allegheny Avenue will be new home

The Social Security Administration is moving its Towson office from the West Road Corporate Center at 110 West Road to the Penthouse Condominium high-rise at 28 Allegheny Avenue in downtown Towson next spring, and the move is being seen by some as a boon for the downtown area.

"All those people who work for or visit Social Security will be having breakfast or lunch or doing a little shopping," said Nancy Hafford, executive director of the Towson Chamber of Commerce.

Some residents of the 28-floor Penthouse, though, are concerned that the presence of SSA could be problematic — depending on how many people the office draws to the building.

"There has been some discussion about bringing strangers into the building and people tying up the elevators," said Julio Gonzales. "And parking might be a big problem."

SSA spokesman Aidan Diviny said the new location will offer "the same service" as what's offered on West Road, but could not provide information about how many employees would be making the move and how many visitors come to that site routinely.

Gina Blyther Gilliam, a spokeswoman for the General Services Administration, said in an email that the Social Security Administration currently occupies 11,365 square feet of office space at West Road, and has been there since June 2003.

She said the GSA awarded a lease for 11,618 square feet of office space with 45 parking spaces in May 2010 to Ravens Penthouse. The annual rent will be about $322,400, she said.

Towson resident Joe Werner, who owns the 300-space mid-rise garage adjoining the Penthouse, said he believes parking won't be a problem. Ravens Penthouse is providing free parking for the SSA, thanks to fifth- and sixth-floor parking spaces they will lease from him.

The Social Security offices will be on the fourth floor of the Penthouse, which is at street level on Joppa Road. It will feature an entrance for employees and delivery people.

Since street level is different in the front of the building, SSA clients will use the main entrance on Allegheny and be directed to walk up one flight of stairs to SSA on the fourth floor, Werner said. Most won't be using the elevators.

Those who are driving to the SSA office will park on the designated levels of his garage and take an elevator to the entrance to the Penthouse's fourth floor.

County Council member David Marks, who represents the 5th District, which includes Towson, said he's anxious for the Social Security move as a means of adding people to downtown Towson.

"Every little project produces more foot traffic," he said.

"There's a tremendous amount of action going on in the core," Marks said. "Allegheny Avenue will just be hopping. I hope we can spread that down York Road."

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This list looks the same in Baltimore City. Public schools are being closed and often leased to charter schools and/or a private non-profit. Now, Montgomery County residents are shouting about a shortage of public schools just as Baltimore residents are, yet all these schools are closed and are now rental property.
Can we use these schools for government business if indeed there is no need for them in these districts? Many of these private non-profits look as though they are replacing the public sector health and social services. Why does that matter? There is no public transparency or oversight to assure equal protection and efficacy of programs. This is why Maryland is having a rise in reports from the low-income community that they are not able to access many services, or the services received were poor.

OF COURSE WE CAN....YET, WE LEASE GOVERNMENT OFFICE SPACE.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Montgomery Co. Leases for Closed School Sites

For your information, here is the list of leases for public school sites in Montgomery County for properties that are held in the name of the County. (This list does not include properties that are held in the name of MCPS.)

How many of these leases include an option to buy?

How many of these leases are standard Montgomery County lease forms signed by Montgomery County staff and how many of these leases have a unique arrangement and are signed by the County Executive.

Post your results. A quick review of these documents shows that one of these leases stands out from all the rest.

Closed Schools

1.Peary High School
13300 Arctic Avenue
Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy
Lease

2. Aspen Hill Elementary School
4915 Aspen Hill Road
Sheppard Pratt Health Systems, Inc.
Lease

3. Alta Vista Elementary School
5615 Beech Avenue
Beth Country Day School
Lease

4. English Manor Elementary School
4511 Bestor Avenue
The Children's Learning Center
Lease
1st Amendment

5. Lower Parkside Elementary School
9504 Burnett Avenue
Acorn Hill School, Inc.
Lease

6. Forest Grove Elementary School
9805 Dameron Drive
Holy Cross Hospital
Lease

7. Dennis Avenue Health Center
2000 Dennis Avenue
Spanish Catholic Center, Inc.
Lease

8. Holiday Park Senior Center
3950 Ferrara Drive
Mental Health Association
Lease
1st Amendment

Holiday Park Senior Center
3950 Ferrara Drive
Interages
Lease
9. Lone Oak Center
1010 Grandin Avenue
Centers For The Handicapped Inc
Lease
1st Amendment

10. Fernwood Elementary School
6801 Greentree Road
The Woods Academy
Lease

11. Gude Drive Shelter
600 E Gude Drive
Mobile Medical Care, Inc.
Lease

12. Randolph Junior High School
11710 Hunters Lane
Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School
Lease

13. Hillandale Elementary School
10501 New Hampshire Avenue
Centers For The Handicapped Inc
Lease

14. Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Maryland Child Services
Lease
1st Amendment
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Casa de Montessori
Lease
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Kappa Alpha Psi
Lease
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Colesville Council of Community Congregations, Inc.
Lease
1st Amendment
Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Montgomery Volunteer Dental Clinic, Inc.
Lease
1st Amendment

Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Raising Hispanic Academic Achievement, Inc.
Lease

Colesville Elementary School
14015 New Hampshire Avenue
Bethah Associates
Lease

15. Clara Barton Community Center
7425 MacArthur Boulevard
Clara Barton Day Care Inc.
License
1st Amendment
2nd Amendment

16. Arylawn Elementary School
5650 Oakmont Avenue
YMCA
Lease
1st Amendment
2nd Amendment

17. Georgetown Hills Elementary School
11614 Seven Locks Road
The Ivymount School
Lease
1st Amendment

18. MacDonald Knolls Elementary School
10611 Tenbrook Drive
Centers For The Handicapped Inc
Lease
1st Amendment
19. Broome School
751 Twinbrook Parkway
Threshold Services, Inc.
Lease

The lease for the Montgomery Hills Junior High School Closed School site is missing from this list.

That Closed School site is leased to the Yeshiva High School.
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To Rent Or Buy? For The Federal Government, It's Complicated

By Laura Sullivan
Originally published on Wed February 12, 2014 3:25 pm

Listen 4:41

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is supposed to manage federal relations with many Indian nations across the country. But the bureau is accused of doing a bad job managing its own affairs.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It faces questions about leases it's signed for many of its offices. A recent government report found the agency violated multiple rules that will cost taxpayers millions.

INSKEEP: Experts say it's just the latest in a long list of problems when it comes to federal property management. They say the federal government has lost track of what it rents, what it uses and what it owns.

NPR's Laura Sullivan reports.

LAURA SULLIVAN, BYLINE: The interior department's inspector general's office took look at 14 of the BIA's leases and found problems with all of them. The agency was overpaying for space or renting too much of it. In some cases, the agency didn't have the authority to lease space at all, all of which cost taxpayers an extra $32 million last year.

Leslie Paige with Citizens Against Government Waste says when it comes to federal property, that sounds about right.

LESLIE PAIGE: This is not illegal. It's just simply bad management practices that there are no incentives to fix.

SULLIVAN: Every year the federal government spends $4.2 billion renting office space. Some agencies rent instead of own because they're in critical locations with specific security or workplace needs. But others are more curious. Take Health and Human Services in Rockville, Maryland. When its lease expires, it will have paid rent on a private building for 60 years. Leslie Paige says that's crazy.

PAIGE: The truth is, some of this stuff is the big-ticket items. These are very expensive boondoggles that are going on.

SULLIVAN: Recent government reports have found many others. The Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle is renewing a lease that will put it in its building for 50 years. And these rents aren't cheap. The Department of Commerce in Alexandria, Virginia pays $60 million year in rent. But Kurt Stout of Colliers International, who represents companies that lease to the government, says leasing gives agencies flexibility to grow, shrink, upgrade or move.

KURT STOUT: It's kind of like buying a car. Over time, the annual cost of repairs and maintenance and upgrades to your space, and even things like furniture and telecom, far outweigh the actual cost of the real estate itself.

SULLIVAN: But if you're going to own that car for 30, 40 or 60 years, at some point you're doing better when you just flat out own it.

STOUT: I would agree with that. The thing is, is that ultimately in the federal government, capital is scarce, so a dollar spent on real estate is a dollar not spent on something else that maybe is more fundamental to the federal government's mission. And with private capital so plentiful in the commercial real estate world, why not take advantage of it?

BUT WAIT----THAT PRIVATE CAPITAL IN THE REAL ESTATE WORLD IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S MONEY STOLEN IN MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD OF TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS....SO THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT DEPLETE OF CAPITAL.....IT IS DEPLETE OF JUSTICE.

SULLIVAN: Capital is a huge problem. The government's watchdog group, the General Accountability Office, found in its reports that the government rarely has the money to cover the upfront costs of buying land and building, even if that means agencies will end up paying 10 times more than that in rent.

And then the situation gets more complicated. Once vested in a place, agencies start renovating space they don't even own. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in D.C. recently told Congress it plans to spend $95 million to renovate a building it's renting. The State Department, it just spent $80 million renovating office space for a lease that's up in five years.

It has an option to buy, but if it can't come up with the money, chances are the landlord will think about that when it's time to renegotiate the rent.

REPRESENTATIVE JASON CHAFFETZ: That's just is counterintuitive.

SULLIVAN: Congressman Jason Chaffetz from Utah sits on the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform. He's introduced legislation to help get rid of thousands of empty government buildings.

CHAFFETZ: When you see these departments and agencies leasing a building and then investing millions and millions of dollars to retrofit them for their specific needs, it just sort of drives you nuts. At the same time that we've got 77,000-plus buildings that are under-utilized.

SULLIVAN: Chaffetz says federal agencies like the General Services Administration have been unable to account for all the buildings the government owns so it's hard to know if they can be of use. General Services told Congress they're working on it. Laura Sullivan, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that what is happening below is happening in the US. All of it involves fraud and malfeasance and can be reversed if we elect pols who want to do that. This is why elections in the US are so controlled and orchestrated to make sure that the only people getting publicity are those that will keep the status quo.

WE NEED THE CITIZENS OF MARYLAND TO WAKE UP------

Wake-up Call Resist the Corporate State

World Bank and aid donors accused of enabling land grabs

by Ellie Violet Bramley Guardian May 21, 2014

Aid donors and international institutions including the World Bank and World Economic Forum (WEF) have been accused of promoting an environment that fuels land grabs through policies and initiatives that pave the way for large-scale private investment.

In a report published on Tuesday, the NGO ActionAid says public money and policy incentives such as tax breaks and cut-price loans are facilitating land deals that threaten the lives and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in poor countries.

ActionAid warns that the consequences of such deals, which are too often happening behind closed doors and with little or no consultation with local communities, include “forced evictions, human rights violations, lost livelihoods, divided communities … rising food insecurity and, ultimately, increased poverty”.

THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR!!!!!!

A spokesman for the World Bank said it was also concerned about the risks of large-scale land deals and stressed that it did not support investments that took advantage of weak institutions in developing countries.

ActionAid’s report says weak governance and regulation of land use and agricultural investments have left millions of smallholder farmers and indigenous people in vulnerable situations “lack[ing] recognition over their land rights, even if they have resided in or used the area for generations”.

ActionAid’s campaign manager, Antoine Bouhey, said a “nexus of different policies” at the global level, which encourage private investment as a route to development, were also to blame.

“Governments are turning to private capital to fill the massive shortfall in public spending but too often this blind rush for investment is leading to land grabs which are leaving communities landless, homeless and hungry. Growth cannot be achieved at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable,” he said.

The NGO’s report points to the G8′s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition as one of the international initiatives “via which taxpayer money and public policies are fuelling land grabs” and failing to ensure strong safeguards to protect the poorest.

The New Alliance was condemned as a new form of colonialism this year, after African governments agreed to change seed, land and tax laws to encourage private investment.

Last month, World Development Movement, the anti-poverty group, said the New Alliance was in effect carving up Africa in the interests of big business.

ActionAid’s report also looks at how governments of developing countries are facilitating large-scale land deals through direct intervention in sales and lease agreements, and by introducing public policy incentives such as tax holidays for agribusiness investors.

It says such deals, often justified on the basis of attracting increased investment into food and farming, have come at great human cost.

Public and private investment should be redirected towards supporting sustainable agricultural practices suited to the needs of smallholder farmers, particularly women, says ActionAid. A “zero-tolerance approach” must be taken by governments over land grabs and the incentives that fuel them.

Most of the 1.4 billion people worldwide who live on less than $1.25 a day reside in rural areas and depend largely on agriculture for their livelihoods. Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people are involved in small-scale agriculture.

A World Bank spokesman said the organisation provided roughly a third of all aid to support countries in improving governance of land tenure. “Securing access to land is critical for millions of poor people. Modern, efficient, and transparent policies on land rights are vital to reducing poverty and promoting growth, agriculture production, better nutrition, and sustainable development,” he said. “Our role is to be a leader in assisting countries to improve land governance and the behaviour of private investors.”

Lisa Dreier, a senior director working on food security and development at the WEF, said its New Vision for Agriculture helped found the Grow Africa initiative, which created 33,000 jobs and gave 2.6 million small farmers in Africa access to technology, financing and new markets.

“Smallholder farmers are key to the future success of Africa’s agriculture and governments can support them by implementing clear rules on land ownership that protect smallholder rights and encourage investment,” she added.
What is a land grab?

“Many land deals are, in fact, land grabs carried out without proper consultation, consent and compensation,” says ActionAid.

The NGO uses a definition of land grabs that draws on the Tirana declaration, agreed at a 2011 international conference. The declaration defines land grabs as deals that are “in violation of human rights, particularly the equal rights of women, not based on principles of free, prior and informed consent, or are in disregard or fail to thoroughly assess social, economic and environmental impacts, not based on transparent contracts … ” or are not based on “effective democratic planning, independent oversight and meaningful participation”.

Conclusive, independent data on the scale of land grabs worldwide is hard to come by. ActionAid’s report looks at data from the international Land Matrix project, which suggests that the vast majority of large-scale deals have been struck in sub-Saharan Africa (41%), south-east Asia (32%), and the Americas and Caribbean (19%).
- See more info at: http://farmlandgrab.org/

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April 15th, 2014

4/15/2014

0 Comments

THE SAME CORPORATIONS RECEIVING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE TAX BREAKS FROM NEO-LIBERALS IN MARYLAND ARE THE SAME ONES MOST GUILTY OF PAYROLL AND WORKPLACE FRAUDS THAT COST ALL MARYLAND CITIZENS THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND MANY PEOPLE THE ABILITY TO SIMPLY EARN A LIVING.

Have you noticed that corporate NPR/APM says nothing about the Affordable Care Act ending Medicare and Medicaid as Federal programs and having a goal of creating global health institutions that will operate like Wall Street banks? It is their job to make sure the public receives what is called DIS-INFORMATION or what NPR likes to call TRUTHINESS/SPIN. Our public media was the source of real public interest information but was taken corporate and now simply uses taxpayer money as a corporate subsidy.
Today, NPR did the same with Social Security and again they used airtime to promote the privatization of Social Security with the policy of myRA. Employers contributing matching funds to a private payroll deduction that goes into a 401k plan? REALLY????? Do you know there is a shortfall in Social Security and private pensions not only from fraud but from the fact that corporations have failed to make their contributions. With no Federal oversight of payroll payments retirement plans have been left without legally required contributions. See why the 1% are telling us the American people have no retirement savings?
The face of this report was another person of color telling what are largely workers of color to do something that is really, really bad for them.....placing your money in a 401k plan and allow what will become mandatory payroll deductions. The people depending on Social Security the most....are low-wage earners and it is this same group that will lose the most as this social safety net is ended by corporate neo-liberals like Hillary and Obama. Although the low-wage earners are the ones who will suffer most, all Americans know and love Social Security whether democrat or republican so this move to end all social programs including Medicare and Social Security by neo-liberals will not stand. Keep in mind as well that corporate NPR/APM has gone from being a voice of the people to telling the people what will happen. This is state media not public media.

The Reagan Administration tripled the amount of payroll taxes taken from our wages back in the 1980s just so there would be plenty for the baby boomers when they retired......the Social Security Trust is flush with money so ignore the spin as we get corporate pols out of office to secure these funds.

Let's take a look at where all those Trust funds went to see how we are going to recover money to those Trusts!
I've spoken earlier about pension fraud and the need to recover this.....with Wall Street systemically criminal you do not want your retirement in 401k plans. Wall Street uses these plans as fodder and their value is lost every several years and with economic implosions you never increase the value/or lose money in these market plans.

Social Security Chief: Women Live Longer, So They Should Save Early

April 15, 2014 3:21 AM ET 6 min 28 sec NPR

Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin at a news conference last year. She says women need to start saving for retirement early in their careers.

Charles Dharapak/AP The Social Security Administration distributes retirement benefits to nearly 60 million Americans. And of those beneficiaries, nearly 60 percent are women.

The SSA is led by a woman, too. Carolyn Colvin was once retired herself, collecting benefits from the agency she now serves. A call from President Obama brought her back in 2010, and she recently took over as acting commissioner. As part of Morning Edition's look at the , Colvin spoke with Kelly McEvers about how women plan for financial security.

Colvin points out two realities she hopes women consider when planning for retirement. First, women make less money than men on average; when they stop working, their monthly Social Security checks are smaller, too.

Also, women tend to live longer than men. Colvin encourages women to estimate their own life expectancy with the , and find out more . Doing so, she says, often makes women realize they can outlive their savings — and that retirement benefits alone won't be enough.

Interview Highlights On men's vs. women's retirement benefits

The average amount (in 2014) is a little over $17,000 per year for men and a little over $13,000 per year for women. One of the reasons that women are likely to have lower lifetime benefits is because they often have lower lifetime earnings than men. They are more likely than men to take time out of the workforce to care for family members. And of course we still have the issue of gender inequality [in wages].

“ Many women will say they don't have the ability to save, and what I say is that they cannot afford not to save.

On the importance of personal savings

Social Security was never intended to be the primary source of retirement. It was to be one of three legs on a stool, we always say. ... And then, of course, private pension and savings. And we know now that many of the private pensions have been reduced. Some women work in jobs where they really don't have a private pension, and of course many women — particularly low-income wage earners — find themselves just not saving as much as they should in order to ensure that they are able to have a decent income during retirement.

On ways women can plan for the future

One of the things we try to focus on is encouraging women, even at very young ages, to begin to save. ... Many women will say they don't have the ability to save, and what I say is that they cannot afford not to save.

For me, I had to find a way of saving where I would not in fact use that money later. And so I found, for me, real estate was the key. I also found that it did not make sense to leave money on the table, so for every job I've worked where there has been an opportunity for the employer match, I've maximized that.

The most important thing is you need to spend below your means. Maybe it's giving up soda, or giving up cigarettes. ... And then each time they get a raise, don't take that raise. Put it into a 401(k). They haven't gotten used to spending it. It's there. And it will grow.
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You can tell the quality of media programming if everything they report has the words 'scam' attached to it. As this article shows, between outright fraud, fees, and mismanagement----there are no benefits to placing your money in 401k plans. Corporate media is selling this for Wall Street because Wall Street has lost all of its overseas business because it is known worldwide as being criminal. Corporate pols now need more domestic money coming into the stock market.

So, why is Obama creating myRA as the replacement for Social Security------a republican plan to end all social programs? Neo-liberals and neo-cons are global corporate pols working for wealth and profit.....they do not care about quality of life.

Below you see a recommendation of pensions over 401k, but with no oversight in pension management by government even this once safe investment plan is constantly defrauded.

The 401k Scam
Author: Nathaniel Downes July 7, 2012 2:31 pm

The Demos report is an eye opener as to the hidden costs which cause 401k programs to not only fail to keep up with inflation, but to fall behind even the base amount invested into these funds.

What they found was that, for the projected samples that the 401k would lose over $155k for its entire lifetime. Since the entire sample fund at the time of retirement would be $320k, that means a full third of the money which was put into the system was taken by the 401k itself in the guise of fees.

How does this work you may ask? The report goes into detail, but we shall give a simplified example here.

First, your 401k funds are typically put into mutual funds, so let us first address those.

If you put $10,000 into a mutual fund which lists a 3% return, it sounds good, yes? But that is after the fees are deducted. These fees are listed as a percentage of your total investment, but they are deducted from the revenue generated. You get $300 added to the $10,000, but that was after the $150 in “expense ratio,” mutual fund fees such as marketing fees, management fees, and administration feeds, as well as $150 in direct transaction fees have been removed. Your $10,000 had earned $600, but half of that was eaten up in fees. And it does this each and every year. $300 every year for 40 years gives you $12,000 in total fees deducted, more than your original investment.

Then there is the 401k itself, which has its own fees associated with the program. These fund ratio fees are typically around 1%, but over the life of the 401k this adds up to a substantial lump sum.

That original $10,000 over the 40 years of the fund ended up at just over $22,000. Without those fees, it would have been just over $102,000. That is a huge shortfall. Even if you invest an additional $10,000 every year, you are not catching up to this shortfall, as the $1.7 million the fund should have is reduced to $640k, a loss of over a million dollars. And that is if there has been no economic slowdown during the intervening 40 years, which an reduce the principal even further while not reducing the fees associated with that. In a downturn, the fees make the losses even more pronounced than they were before as a result.

Now, I used a high fee rate, typically double the average large mutual fund but not the highest fee currently in the market (which as of the time of writing is 1.53%, held by the HDGE Active Bear ETF Profile Fund according to my research), to best demonstrate the amount lost to these fees.

By comparison, a pension plan is a form of insurance, similar to what you would find for your automobile or your healthcare. Money taken in is used to pay out for those who have met the qualifications for payment. Many of these systems use surplus funds to invest in stable, fixed investments, such as treasury bonds. Social Security works in this manner, surplus funds paid in go into a special trust fund filled with US Treasury Notes, pre-paid cash in effect. The trade-off for this is that the amounts paid out are not directly owned by the individual, they are a large pool that all tap into.

A US Treasury Note, similar to one used by the Social Security Trust

By doing this, the overhead fees are minimal, typically under 1%, and as the amount is not accruing nor are large numbers of transactions being handled, this is not reapplied to the same funds repeatedly as with a mutual fund. As a result, a funded pension plan is far more likely to weather economic hardships without difficulty.

When planning ones retirement, risk is the last word you want to hear.
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Make no mistake, the groups proposing the idea of expanding Social Security are sometimes not as progressive as they seem, but this is in fact the way to recover all the losses to the Social Security Trusts and the pension that were raided. The assumption is this-----

YOU HAVE TAKEN ALL OF OUR PENSIONS, HOUSES, AND SAVINGS SO WE WILL NOW USE SOCIAL SECURITY AS OUR PRIMARY RETIREMENT SUPPORT.

The reason I am not comfortable with some of the groups putting forward these ideas is they never mention the recovery of fraud and public malfeasance in rebuilding these Trusts. Do you know how much money is lost to the SS Trust just from payroll fraud-----corporations categorizing employees as independent contractors when they are not? Over 20 million Americans fell into this category and this has happened for a decade or more. Trillions of dollars have been lost to SS Trust with this one fraud. So, not mentioning it in the solution-----just as not mentioning Medicare and Medicaid fraud in the solution of Expanded and Improved Medicare for All falls short as a solution.

Wednesday, Jul 24, 2013 12:12 PM EST

Growing consensus on Social Security: Expand it After staving off Obama's plan to cut benefits, progressives are fighting to boost checks to seniors

Alex Seitz-Wald

Back when “grand bargain” fever was gripping Washington earlier this year, progressive activists mounted an uphill campaign against their allies in the White House and the Capitol, warning there would be hell to pay if President Obama went forward with his plan to trim Social Security benefits.

Thanks in part to their effort, along with Republican recalcitrance and changing economic realities, Democrats have abandoned any plans to mess with the social safety net, at least for the moment. The federal deficit has fallen precipitously this year – Treasury actually ran a surplus in June — and with it, the impetus for a “grand bargain” trading safety net cuts for increased tax revenue has evaporated. (This may have been the White House’s plan all along.)

Now, as Obama prepares to deliver a major speech on the economy today, the scrappy activists who were until recently playing defense against cuts are turning around and pushing to increase Social Security benefits.

“Social Security is the most effective anti-poverty program in history. Forget cutting it — we need to double down on success and make it even stronger,” Jim Dean, the chair of Democracy for America, will say in an email to supporters today.

The coalition of leading progressive groups, including the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America, Credo Action, MoveOn.org, Progressives United and Social Security Works, are joining together to back a plan introduced by Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin and Mark Begich to boost benefits and shore up Social Security’s finances for the better part of the next century.

These kinds of economic justice issues are Harkin’s bread and butter, but Begich, who is up for reelection this year in deep-red Alaska, is an interesting addition. In May, he made a splash by breaking with Obama on Social Security cuts. His leadership on this issue suggests he thinks expanding the social safety net will not only not hurt him, but actually help him politically, even in one of the most Republican states in the union.

And there’s reason to believe he’s right — Social Security is overwhelmingly popular. A new PPP poll commissioned by DFA and the PCCC found that 51 percent of Kentucky voters support the Harkin-Begich framework, which would boost benefits for 75-year-old workers by $452 per year and by $807 per year for 85-year-olds. Twenty-four percent said they didn’t support the plan, and another 24 said they weren’t sure.

Obama’s budget called for changing the way inflation is calculated for Social Security by switching to the “chained CPI” (consumer price index) formula, which would have the effect of reducing benefits. Begich and Harkin have each introduced slightly different plans, but both would also change the inflation formula. Their change, however, to the “CPI-E,” better accounts for the fact that seniors spend disproportionate amounts of their income on health care, the price of which grows faster than the price of goods overall.

To pay for this expansion, and to ensure the solvency of all of Social Security for decades into the future, the plan would eliminate the income cap on Social Security FICA taxes. Currently, income above $113,700 is exempt from the tax, meaning someone who makes $1 million a year pays the tax on only about a tenth of their income. The new poll commissioned by the groups found that 62 percent of Kentuckians support removing the cap, while 20 percent oppose it and another 18 percent are unsure.

Some liberals have criticized the idea of removing the cap, arguing that it would undermine the political strength of Social Security by making the plan more of a redistributional welfare system than a social insurance scheme. But others point out that the cap means the current Social Security tax is regressive, charging poor and middle-class Americans a larger portion of their income than millionaires and billionaires.
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When people hear the words 'underground economy' they think drugs and prostitution or selling of stolen goods. It's always the poor who are placed into this category. Yet, it is the global corporations who are now the biggest 'underground economies' in the US. Make no mistake, the entire Gulf of Mexico economy is cash only just to avoid paying things like payroll tax and yet, these southern states take the most in social services in the country. These citizens have been left by their politicians paid so poorly through life with no Social Security payments because of this cash economy. The same is happening to immigrants as they and low-wage domestic workers are categorized as independent contractors illegally forced to take responsibility for the corporation's tax and insurance costs. THIS IS HAPPENING AT AN EPIDEMIC PACE AND IT HAPPENS BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT OF WAGES----

YOU KNOW----DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATION.
People being paid almost nothing don't say anything about these frauds because they cannot afford the cost of these taxes. Yet, it is these same people not able to claim Social Security benefits when they need them. The poor are being duped into participating and/or are being forced to pay that which is not required because of third world government malfeasance.

If you think this is only the shrimp boat operator or the waste removal small business person-----I have spoken often that it is Johns Hopkins who outsources the jobs to corporate Human Resources businesses they know are operating illegally. Large property management corporations are also doing this. It is going main stream and all of this is what drives the losses to Social Security.

SEE WHY NEO-LIBERALS ARE TELLING YOU THAT SOCIAL SECURITY IS GOING BUST? IF THOSE POSING PROGRESSIVE SOLUTIONS LIKE EXPANDED SOCIAL SECURITY ARE NOT SHOUTING THIS----THEY ARE NOT WORKING FOR REAL SOLUTIONS.

Underground Economy Operations

Report Payroll Tax Fraud The Employment Development Department (EDD) has a charge to investigate businesses that avoid paying payroll taxes, many of which are part of the underground economy. If you would like to help us protect workers and create a level playing field for business competition, the EDD offers several methods for reporting such businesses:

Call our toll-free hotline: 1-800-528-1783
Fax: 916-227-2772
Submit a Fraud Reporting Form online
Mail us a UEO Lead Referral/Complaint Form, available in English (DE 660) and Spanish (DE 660/S/).
Help Us Fight Fraud, DE 2370

Definition of "Underground Economy" "Underground economy" is a term that refers to those individuals and businesses that deal in cash and/or use other schemes to conceal their activities and their true tax liability from government licensing, regulatory, and taxing agencies. Underground economy is also referred to as tax evasion, tax fraud, cash pay, tax gap, payments under-the-table, and off-the-books.

What Does It Cost You? A February 2005 report, California’s Tax Gap, prepared by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, estimates California’s income tax gap to be $6.5 billion. Reports on the underground economy indicate it imposes significant burdens on: (1) the State of California, (2) businesses that comply with the law, and (3) workers who lose benefits and other protections provided by state law when the businesses they work for operate in the underground economy.

Business: When businesses operate in the underground economy, they illegally reduce the amount of money expensed for insurance, payroll taxes, licenses, employee benefits, safety equipment, and safety conditions. These types of employers then gain an unfair competitive advantage over businesses that comply with the various business laws. This causes unfair competition in the marketplace and forces law-abiding businesses to pay higher taxes and expenses.

Workers: Employees of the businesses that do not comply are also affected. Their working conditions may not meet the legal requirements, which can put them in danger. Their wage earnings may also be less than those required by law, and benefits they are entitled to can be denied or delayed because their wages are not properly reported.

Consumers: Consumers can also be affected when contracting with unlicensed businesses. Licensing provisions are designed to ensure minimum levels of skill and knowledge to protect the consumer.

The ultimate impact is erosion of the economic stability and working conditions in this State. Our pamphlet Paying Cash Wages "Under the Table"...Is It Really Worth the Risk? outlines some of the costs and effects of cash pay on your business, your employees, and taxpayers in general. It is available in both English (DE 573CA) and Spanish (DE 573CA/S/).

EDD’s Underground Economy Operations The EDD is concerned about workers who lose benefits and other protections provided by state law when the businesses that they work for operate in the underground economy. When businesses operate in the underground economy, they gain an unfair competitive advantage over businesses that comply with the law. This causes unfair competition in the marketplace and forces law-abiding businesses and every citizen in California to pay higher taxes. EDD’s Underground Economy Operations (UEO) organization was established in 1993 to implement and administer the activities of the Joint Enforcement Strike Force. The mission of UEO is to reduce unfair business competition and protect the rights of workers by:

Coordinating the joint enforcement of tax, labor, and licensing laws.
Detecting and deterring payroll tax violations in the underground economy. This includes unreported cash pay, wages reported on Forms 1099, and unreported/unpaid payroll tax deductions.
Conducting research to identify strategies to increase compliance with payroll tax laws.
Educating customers on UEO programs to increase compliance with payroll tax laws.

Significant UEO Program Efforts The UEO has three significant UEO program focus areas: the Employment Enforcement Task Force, the

Labor Enforcement Task Force, and the Construction Enforcement Project.

Employment Enforcement Task Force (EETF) Participating agencies in the EETF include:

Employment Development Department (EDD)
Department of Industrial Relations (DIR)
Contractors State License Board (CSLB)

The goal of EETF is to identify and bring into compliance those individuals and businesses in the underground economy who are in violation of payroll tax, labor, and licensing laws.

The EETF agents from each agency jointly conduct on-site inspections of businesses by interviewing owners, managers, and workers to determine if businesses are in compliance with payroll tax, labor, and licensing laws. To minimize the disruption of compliant businesses, the EETF conducts investigations only if there is a reasonable belief of violations of the Unemployment Insurance Code, Labor Code, and/or the Business and Professions Code.

Employment Enforcement Task Force Program Results Result 2008 2009 Joint Inspections 504 389 Previously Unreported Employees 4,638 4,092 Unreported Wages $187,059,631 $116,249,769 Payroll Tax Audits 422 357 Payroll Tax Assessments $29,344,488 $17,915,081 Labor Code Citation Amounts $5,575,312 $4,106,894 To learn more about the EETF program, see our Information Sheet: Employment Enforcement Task Force, available in both English (DE 631) and Spanish (DE 631/S/).

Labor Enforcement Task Force (LETF) The LETF was initially formed in 2005 as the Economic and Employment Enforcement Coalition and began operating as the Labor Enforcement Task Force in January of 2012. The LETF was formed to: ensure California workers receive proper payment of wages and are provided a safe work environment; ensure California receives all employment taxes, fees, and penalties due from employers; eliminate unfair business competition by leveling the playing field; make efficient use of state and federal resources in carrying out the mission of the LETF. They focus on industries that traditionally employ low wage workers. Agriculture, construction, automotive, carwash, courier, warehouse, garment, and restaurants are the program’s current targeted industries. The LETF members include: the Department of Industrial Relation’s (DIR) Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (Labor Commissioner) and Cal/OSHA; the EDD; the Board of Equalization (BOE); and the Department of Consumer Affairs’ (DCA) Contractor’s State Licensing Board (CSLB) and Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR).

Construction Enforcement Project (CEP) The EDD recognizes that the vast majority of construction contractors are honest business people who operate legitimately within the law and properly report payroll taxes. However, there are some contractors who do not properly report, and this impacts both workers and law-abiding contractors. The CEP was developed because usual techniques for identifying tax and employment fraud were not as effective in the construction industry. Unlike other industries that have permanent business locations, construction businesses have constantly changing job sites. By the time information is developed that a contractor is probably operating in the underground economy, work at the job site has often been completed and an on-site inspection would not discover any labor law violations.

The CEP uses a variety of investigative techniques to identify contractors who avoid payroll taxes. When a CEP investigator develops evidence of underground economy activities, a payroll tax audit referral is made to the EDD Audit Program. The CEP goal is to develop techniques that will maximize the detection of construction industry employers operating in the underground economy.

Construction Enforcement Project Program Results Result 2008 2009 Previously Unreported Employees 1,777 4,965 Unreported Wages $65,646,628 $56,554,550 Payroll Tax Audits 125 115 Payroll Tax Assessments $8,834,006 $7,565,798 Joint Enforcement Strike Force On October 26, 1993, the Governor signed Executive Order W-66-93, which created the Joint Enforcement Strike Force on the Underground Economy. The Governor subsequently signed Senate Bill 1490, which placed the provisions of the Executive Order into law as Section 329 of the California Unemployment Insurance Code, effective January 1, 1995.

The EDD is the lead agency for the Strike Force, and the Director of EDD is the chairperson. The Strike Force is responsible for enhancing the development and sharing of information necessary to combat the underground economy, to improve the coordination of enforcement activities, and to develop methods to pool, focus, and target enforcement resources. The Strike Force is empowered and authorized to form joint enforcement teams when appropriate to utilize the collective investigative and enforcement capabilities of the Strike Force members. For more information, visit the Joint Enforcement Strike Force (JESF) page.

In addition to EDD, the other Strike Force members are:

Department of Consumer Affairs 1-800-952-5210
Department of Industrial Relations
Minimum Wage, Safety, and Work Violations 1-888-275-9243
Department of Insurance 1-800-927-HELP (4357)
Franchise Tax Board Tax Informant Hotline: 1-800-540-3453
Board of Equalization 1-888-334-3300
Department of Justice 1-800-952-5225

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IMAGINE THAT THE ABOVE POLICY WAS WRITTEN ALMOST A DECADE AGO AND SINCE THEN, ALL OF THESE CORPORATE FRAUDS AGAINST OUR RETIREMENT TRUSTS AND AGAINST THOSE EARNING THE LOWEST WAGES IS SOARING. It hurts all Americans when systemic fraud allows our Trusts to be depleted and this money must come back and not from the low-wage earner burdened unfairly.

Maryland is ground zero for these frauds and it is the DLLR-----State agency charged with oversight of these industries. See why the election for Governor of Maryland can only have candidates known to continue to turn their heads to Maryland's massive and systemic frauds? See why it was Maryland's DLLR head-----Tom Perez -----that was Obama's Labor Department choice? This is the person charged with ignoring massive wage and tax thefts by corporations operating in Maryland.

Now, immigrant workers are sometime scapegoated for taking work from domestic workers but these immigrant workers are being used and exploited while simply trying to earn a living so it is our duty to fight for justice for all workers to bring an end to these practices. Enforcing workplace laws helps everyone.

IT IS DISGUSTING AND THIS IS WHY GLOBAL CORPORATE MEDIA AND POLS ARE PRETENDING THERE ARE SHORTFALLS IN OUR SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE TRUSTS.

This is a Texas article but Maryland is just as bad....neo-liberal/neo-con means massive systemic fraud and corruption.

Employee or Independent Contractor? Employer Fraud Costs Workers

September 30, 2013 / Chris Wagner

Wrongly classifying workers as independent contractors gets around laws like workers' compensation and family and medical leave. It's costing Texas construction workers millions, according to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520 in Austin. Photo: Workers Defense Project.

Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a serious problem in the Texas construction industry—so serious that my local decided to do an undercover investigation, using covert workers to infiltrate job sites.

The conditions they found were severe.

“The workers sometimes wouldn’t even get paid that week. They were scared to report the violations to anyone. They feared their boss and the government due to deportation,” said Philip Lawhon, assistant business manager/organizer for Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 520.

“One of our members said that it reminded him of working in Mexico. He said, ‘I came to America to get away from these types of issues.’”

More than 40 percent of construction employees are misclassified as independent contractors, according to the Build a Better Texas report, released earlier this year by the Workers Defense Project.

It’s a problem for the workers who get misclassified: many labor laws do not cover them, exposing them to abuse. It’s a problem for legitimate employers, who are undercut by the unscrupulous ones.

And it’s a problem for all Texas residents, as cities and the state lose out on tax revenue, and social safety nets—already stretched thin—are forced to help out the cheated workers.

As business manager of Local 520, I instructed my organizing department to investigate these illegal employment practices and to act on their findings.

Going Undercover Twelve high-rise projects, 17 to 50 stories, in and around downtown Austin are in some stage of construction, from planning to near completion. My organizers found that, of the eight that have started construction, six are using electrical contractors that misclassify their employees as independent contractors.

Four of them are using the same contractor, Power Design Inc., from Florida. Managers at Power Design, we found, had attempted to insulate themselves from charges of payroll fraud by subcontracting out most of the labor to still other contractors, ESP Electric and ES&R, both owned by brothers Rigar and Alex Espinosa.

What Is an Employee? According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor depends on the degree of control the person has over the work.

Three categories of evidence are used to determine the degree of control and independence:

Behavioral: Does the company control, or have the right to control, what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job? Is the worker told when and where to do the work, what tools or equipment to use, where to buy supplies and services, what order to follow when doing the work? Does the worker get more detailed instructions or less detailed? The type of evaluation system also helps determine behavioral control: an employee would be evaluated on how the work is performed, while an independent contractor might only be evaluated on the end product.

Financial: Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (These include things like how the worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.) What level of investment has the worker made in the necessary tools of the trade? Does the worker incur substantial unreimbursed expenses? Does the worker have opportunity for profit or loss? What is the method of compensation? Someone paid an hourly wage is usually an employee.

Type of Relationship: Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (i.e., pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.)? Will the relationship continue, and is the work performed a key aspect of the business?

The IRS provides Form SS-8 to help employers and workers determine who is an employee and who is an independent contractor.

We got three of our members hired on with these two companies during the summer of 2012, all of them Mexican citizens fluent in Spanish.

These members found that “90 percent of the installers were undocumented immigrant workers,” Lawhon said. “These workers’ skills were very limited. The workers were trained to do basically one task and that was predominantly all they did.”

How Workers Are Abused Independent contractors are sometimes called “1099ers,” because of the IRS tax form 1099 that employers must give them at the end of the year, rather than the W-2 required for employees.

These workers are mostly unprotected by labor and employment law. They are not covered by minimum-wage and overtime requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

They are not entitled to the protection from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin afforded by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act does not protect them, nor do the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, or the National Labor Relations Act.

The Build a Better Texas survey of five cities found that 81 percent of Texas construction workers are Latino, and that 73 percent are foreign-born—making them especially ripe for abuse because of their lack of knowledge of U.S. labor and tax laws. The fact that many are undocumented means they are less likely to report abuses.

Shells As far as we can tell, ESP and ES&R exist only to provide manpower to other unscrupulous electrical contractors. We can find no records of either company contracting with any general contractors or pulling any electrical construction permits.

ESP and ES&R both pay their workers as independent contractors, anywhere from $8 to $14 an hour, with no deductions, no unemployment, no workers' comp, and no overtime pay.

Workers are hired by word of mouth and paid by check. Many frankly prefer being paid under the table—but they get upset at the working conditions and getting shorted on their pay, getting paid late, or not getting paid at all.

The workers did not even receive 1099 forms at the end of the year.

Honest Businesses Pay the Price A fair marketplace for labor assumes that all employers follow the law. Honest contractors are at a disadvantage when competing with those who misclassify their workers.

Companies that operate illegally by not paying payroll taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, and overtime compensation are able to underbid legitimate contractors by 15 to 25 percent, according to Michael White, Vice President for Government Affairs for the Texas Contractors Association.

Responsible businesses are also burdened by increased unemployment insurance tax rates, caused by the recession, when others fail to make their required payments.

Misclassified employees, cheated out of pay, also have less money to purchase goods and services, so the state loses out on sales tax revenue—creating another burden on an already cash-strapped state. Texas has no income tax.

Lost unemployment taxes due to this kind of payroll fraud total around $54.5 million a year—meaning that much less money for unemployment benefits for those who need them.

And workers misclassified as independent contractors get neither health insurance nor worker’s comp. When they are injured on the job, or when they or a family member are sick, they must rely on the charity of public hospitals, driving up the costs of health care for all.

Widening Investigation After gathering information for several weeks, in November last year Local 520 filed complaints on behalf of the workers with the U.S. Department of Labor Wage & Hour Division, the Texas Workforce Commission (for failure to pay unemployment taxes), and the IRS.

The wheels of justice move incredibly slowly and quietly in these cases, and as a third party complainant, Local 520 gets very little information on their progress.

We have heard nothing from the IRS.

The most encouraging correspondence has come from the Department of Labor. A representative called Local 520 in May and said that, since ESP and ES&R had kept such poor records, the DOL was expanding the complaint to include Power Design Inc. The DOL was opening an investigation into 147 Power Design projects all along the South from Texas to Florida.

Changing Texas Law While Texas has long been a business-friendly state, with elected officials loath to restrict enterprise, legitimate businesses have recently made a push to pass stiffer penalties for misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

Bills introduced in the Texas House of Representatives and Senate would increase the penalties for payroll fraud. Many legitimate subcontractors support such laws--though one group very much against stopping payroll fraud is the Homebuilders Association.

The City of Austin recently passed an ordinance to make it harder to misclassify electricians. Its language was developed by a coalition of union electricians, union and non-union electrical contractors, and the City of Austin Electrical Inspection Department.

The ordinance requires that electricians working as “independent contractors” have a Texas electrical contractor’s license.

Most of the workers being exploited have only an electrical apprentice license, which just requires paying a small fee to the state licensing department. The contractor’s license is, of course, much more difficult to obtain, with electrical experience and knowledge requirements involved.

The only way to stop the illegal practices of unscrupulous construction contractors is for organized labor and legitimate business owners to join forces, to work toward stiffer penalties and enforcement and to demand that the government entities charged with enforcing existing labor law do their jobs.

Chris Wagner is business manager of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520 in Austin, Texas.

- See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/2013/09/employee-or-independent-contractor-employer-fraud-costs-workers#sthash.8jLE1Cxr.dpuf

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April 07th, 2014

4/7/2014

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As I showed last blog on private sector pensions, most pension portfolios had pension investments in the bond market because previously the bond market was stable and a safe investment. You can see from this snippet from an article that a deliberate move of private sector pensions in this massive Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp happened as the stock markets crashed in 2008.

THIS WAS DELIBERATE AND PUBLIC MALFEASANCE WITH 1/2 OF PENSION VALUE LOST FROM THE FRAUD AND LOSS OF GAINS FROM THE BULL MARKET THAT FOLLOWED.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

'The PBGC regularly updates its investment strategy. In 2004, it chose to invest heavily in bonds.[6] Under new leadership, the agency in 2008 shifted a substantial portion of its assets into stocks.[7] Because of the market decline, PBGC's equity investments lost 23% during the year ending September 30, 2008.[8]'

Today we want to look at public pensions and know that the same thing happened at state and local level as these public pensions also were thrown into a crashing market in 2007. So, it was Bush/Obama who made sure Federal pensions were used as fodder and in Maryland it was Baltimore City and Maryland public agency heads that made sure they hit the stock market as the crash was occurring. THIS IS FACT. When we hear corporate NPR/APM tell us that all of American savings and retirements were lost and now they have nothing going into their old age and have to work until they drop-------THEY ARE LYING TO YOU.

DO YOU HEAR YOUR INCUMBENT SHOUTING TO BRING PENSION FRAUD BACK TO FEDERAL, STATE, AND LOCAL PUBLIC PENSION FUNDS? EVERYONE OF THEM KNOWS THIS HAPPENED!

As I have said before pensions were underfunded for decades with the idea that they would be eliminated. This move in 2007-2008 was designed to cripple pension funds and to buoy the Wall Street banks that were crashing. Throwing the American people's pensions into bank stocks allowed these investment firms to earn billions of dollars more. I want to emphasize that the same is about to happen this year as pensions are now being used in a sovereign/municipal bond fraud as this market is now ready to implode. EVERYONE KNOWS THIS!

It was not only the losses to these pensions at the time of the collapse, it involves all of the gains those pensions would have had in the following BULL market. You heard about Wall Street making great gains these few years----pension gains worked with 1/2 the value and they will again lose most value with this next collapse. The rich are moving their investments out of US stocks while pensions are used to buoy the economies overseas and state and city credit bond schemes.

YOUR UNION LEADERS AT STATE AND NATIONAL LEVEL SHOULD BE TAKING THIS TO COURTS AND IF WE HAD A FUNCTIONING PUBLIC JUSTICE ERIC HOLDER AND DOUG GANSLER WOULD BE FIGHTING FOR PENSION JUSTICE. THEY ONLY WORK FOR SHAREHOLDER LOSSES AND WE KNOW SHAREHOLDERS PROFIT ON PENSION LOSSES.

WHAT KIND OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION GOES BACK TO THE SAME PEOPLE WHO DEFRAUDED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO MANAGE RETIREMENT SAVINGS?

May 28 2013 | 12:10pm ET FIN Alternatives

A Maryland public pension fund has a new hedge fund consultant and a pair of new private equity managers.

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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE STATE RETIREMENT & PENSION SYSTEM

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Nancy K. Kopp, State Treasurer, Chair (chosen by Board in June, 1-year term)
Peter V. R. Franchot, Comptroller of Maryland, Vice-Chair (chosen by Board in June, 1-year term)
Appointed by Governor with Senate advice & consent to 4-year terms: Robert R. Hagans, Jr., 2015; Harold Zirkin, 2015; Thurman W. Zollicoffer, Jr., Esq., 2015; David S. Blitzstein, 2016; Linda A. Herman, 2017; F. Patrick Hughes, 2017.

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As we know Governor O'Malley was central in all public pension losses first at the level of city and then state. We know as well he is a great big Wall Street pol who based his entire political career moving the public's wealth to the top earners. While states handle these shortfalls in pensions victimized by massive fraud and corruption by cutting what the people receive.......O'Malley/Brown pulls their regular routine of saying one thing and doing another. Pension contributions were cut from what the article below suggests. Remember, this coming economic crash will gut all these pensions again especially how they are currently invested. Above you see the State of Maryland went immediately to the Wall Street investment firms who fleeced the public in 2007/2008 to hand our pensions for investment again. O'Malley/Brown doubled-down on Wall Street financial instruments right after this crash from massive Wall Street fraud acting as nothing had happened. SEE WHY BROWN IS THE DARLING OF MARYLAND 1%?

The LIBOR frauds, stock transaction frauds, and illegal stock management fees all took lots of money from the people's pensions, both public and private and has yet to get justice. A governor would be shouting this if he/she worked for the public and not wealth and profit.

DO YOU HEAR ANY OF THE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR SHOUTING AS CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND HAS FOR YEARS?

Governor Martin O'Malley Announces Plans to Put Pension System on Path to Sustainability

ANNAPOLIS, MD (January 21, 2010) – Governor Martin O’Malley outlined plans today to address Maryland’s unfunded pension and retirement liabilities and begin to put the public system on a path of sustainability. In introducing the FY 2012 budget proposal today, Governor O’Malley committed approximately $1.5 billion to the pension system next year, nearly $1 billion more than in FY 2003.

“Some of the toughest choices we face in this legislative session are the choices we make to fix our pension system,” said Governor O’Malley. “We owe it to our police officers, teachers and other hardworking state employees and we also owe it to our children and our taxpayers, to find a sustainable way forward that protects our commitments and maintains fiscal responsibility. This is a bill that we have to pay and all of us have a vested interest in finding the most fair and equitable way to keep our pension commitments.”

Governor O’Malley has outlined the basic principles on which pension reform is based:

Continue to maintain a public system as a critical component of recruiting and retaining the best teachers.
Improve the funding level in the State and Teacher retirement system.
Reduce the pension and retirement liability, and therefore, we must ask current and future members of the system to contribute more to strengthen the system and preserve benefits.
Identify certain milestones so as our economic circumstances change, we can revisit some of these reforms.

Find the Governor’s full pension reform presentation here.

In each of his first four years, Governor O’Malley has submitted budgets that fully funded the State’s required pension contribution. But despite rapid increases in this contribution, the funded status of the pension system has dropped from 95% ten years ago to a project 59% next year.

The Governor’s proposed reforms will allow the state to reinvest more than $1 billion into the retirement system over the next six years. These reforms will achieve 80% funding of the pension system by FY 2023 and require bi-annuals reports assessing the financial health of the pension system, including recommendation for adjustments to state funding and/or future benefits.

Current employees and retirees The Governor’s proposed pension reform has no impact on current retirees and no impact on benefits already earned by active or former employees and teachers.

For benefits earned for service in FY 2012 and future years, active employees and teachers are offered a one-time choice between:

Continue to pay 5% of salary towards retirement with adjusted benefit (1.5% benefit multiplier for each future year of service rather than current 1.8% benefit multiplier).
Increase contribution to retirement from 5% to 7% of pay and continue to earn benefits at the current level (1.8% benefit multiplier for each future year of service).

Future employees and teachers New employees will automatically be required to contribute 7% of salary and receive a 1.5% benefit multiplier. In addition, year of benefit vesting will move from the current five years of service to ten years. Early retirement age will increase from the current 55 to 60, and the benefit will be calculated on the highest five years of salary rather than the highest three years. Finally, cost of living adjustments will be based on investment benchmarks.

In addition, the Governor announced plans to direct the appropriate Compensation Commissions to review pensions for elected officials for sustainability and fairness.

Health benefits Almost half of the unfunded liability associated with retiree health benefits relates to Maryland’s prescription drug benefit. For current retirees, the proposes reform plan establishes a state-run Medicare Part D-like plan that mirrors the federal program but fills the current coverage gap. In 2020, the plan transitions these retirees to Medicare Part D coverage in 2020 when the coverage gap is phased out.

For active employees, the proposed plan aligns co-pays with national trends and raises out-of-pocket caps from $700 to $1,000 for individuals and $1,500 for couples.

The current unfunded liability of retiree health insurance stands at $16 billion. After the proposed reforms, that figure drops by almost 50%.

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The articles below show that states actually having public justice and unions working for their membership are exposing massive statewide fraud and demanding justice. The same conditions here in Maryland have silence from both politicians and union leaders.

I bet if a governor was elected who shouted out for justice-----labor and justice would shout as well.

STOP ALLOWING SYSTEMIC FRAUD AND CORRUPTION END DEMOCRACY IN MARYLAND AND AMERICA!
Take a look below at the other raging Wall Street pol thinking of running for President in 2016 with O'Malley. Now, the State of New York Attorney General was the one responsible for holding Wall Street banks accountable and as we all know------CUOMO LET THEM ALL KEEP THE LOOT.

Below you see Cuomo feeling the pain of the people he was elected to protect but didn't. WHAT, FRAUD IN THE PUBLIC PENSION SYSTEM?
Cuomo declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for New York State Attorney General in 2006
He won the general election against the Republican nominee, former Westchester District attorney, Jeanine Pirro on November 7, 2006, winning 58% of the vote.

NEEDLESS TO SAY ALL OF THE BRAVADO IN THE ARTICLE BELOW USED TO GET HIM ELECTED GOVERNOR NEVER MATERIALIZED IN CONVICTIONS OR RECOVERING FRAUD. IT WAS AN ELECTION YEAR SCAM JUST AS THE CONGRESSIONAL FINANCIAL REFORM BILL HAS TURNED OUT TO BE.

Hedge Fund Donor List Raises Question: Is Cuomo "Governor 1% ...www.wnyc.org/blogs/empire/2012 Between June 1, 2007 and December 21, 2011, hedge fund employees, founders and their families have given Cuomo more than ...

WHY DO YOU NOT HEAR ABOUT MARYLAND'S PENSION FRAUD THAT WERE AS BAD AS NEW YORK AND CALIFORNIA? DOES MARYLAND HAVE A PUBLIC MEDIA? NO!

Systemic Fraud at Public Pension Funds?

New York's Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said on Friday that his office was issuing more than 100 new subpoenas to investment firms and intermediaries who brokered deals with public pension funds, in the latest expansion of his corruption investigation:

Mr. Cuomo said a preliminary review by his office found that as many as half of the intermediaries in pension fund transactions in New York State and New York City were not properly licensed and registered with a broker-dealer, as required by federal securities laws. Failing to register could violate both federal securities laws and the Martin Act, a sweeping state securities law.

“The troubling pattern of unlicensed agents highlights yet another systemic weakness in New York’s pension fund, creating a situation which is fraught with peril and prone to abuse,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement.

He also conferred with the offices of 35 other attorneys general Friday afternoon by teleconference. The pension corruption inquiry has raised questions about public investment practices in other states, in particular New Mexico and California.

Afterward, Mr. Cuomo said the group had “decided to create a multistate task force to explore pension fund abuse.”

Mr. Cuomo’s office has been working with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is conducting a parallel investigation. Federal investigators are also reviewing public investment transactions in New Mexico, and the S.E.C. is reviewing pension transactions in California.

Among the firms being scrutinized in the latest round of Mr. Cuomo’s inquiry is Wetherly Capital Group, according to people with knowledge of the inquiry. Investigators are scrutinizing whether employees of Wetherly and other firms were properly licensed when they arranged deals with pension funds in New York.

Wetherly is a Los Angeles-based placement agent firm run by Dan Weinstein, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser. In a statement, Wetherly said it was fully registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the S.E.C.

Wetherly has come under scrutiny in California for paying a firm affiliated with Hank Morris, a top aide to Alan G. Hevesi, the former New York State comptroller, as part of an investment deal it brokered for Calpers, the giant California pension fund.

Another California firm being scrutinized in the latest round of the investigation is Gold Bridge Capital, which has acted as a placement agent on at least one deal involving the New York State pension fund.

The inquiries by Mr. Cuomo and the S.E.C., under way for two years, have focused on the millions of dollars that friends, relatives and aides of Mr. Hevesi’s gained by selling access to the $122 billion New York State pension fund. Mr. Morris and David Loglisci, another former top aide to Mr. Hevesi, have been indicted on a variety of corruption-related fraud charges, and Raymond B. Harding, the former head of the state Liberal Party, has also been charged in the case. All three have pleaded not guilty. Mr. Hevesi has not been charged.

The inquiries took on more national relevance on Thursday when Mr. Cuomo charged a top consultant to pension funds around the country, Saul Meyer, with a fraud-related felony. Mr. Meyer and his firm, Aldus Equity, which is based in Dallas, were also charged in a civil complaint by the S.E.C. Both Mr. Meyer and Aldus denied wrongdoing.

The new phase of the inquiry focuses on lobbyists, political consultants and others who brokered deals between investment firms and the New York pension funds but were not properly registered to do so.

In a preliminary investigation, Mr. Cuomo’s office found that from 2003 to 2006 — the period when Mr. Hevesi was comptroller — 22 of the 45 intermediaries used in deals at the state pension fund were not registered. In the New York City pension funds, 17 of 41 intermediaries were unregistered in deals from 2003 to this year, a review found.

While acknowledging that there could be exceptions, Mr. Cuomo said during a separate teleconference with reporters on Friday, “If you’re brokering a security, you need to be regulated.”

Thomas P. DiNapoli, the New York State comptroller, and William C. Thompson Jr., the New York City comptroller, both said this week that they would move to ban placement agents from deals with their pension funds.

Mr. Cuomo also highlighted a shortcoming in state lobbying rules, which do not require lobbyists to register with the state’s Commission on Public Integrity when they appear before the state comptroller.

The increased scrutiny on placement agents in recent years has led to concerns that lobbyists and political consultants are trying to find ways to perform similar services without registering as placement agents.

In 2007, Mr. DiNapoli met with the chief partner of the private equity firm InterMedia Partners, Leo J. Hindery Jr., and Roberto Ramirez, a lobbyist and former colleague of Mr. DiNapoli’s from the Assembly. The goal for the meeting was to convince the state comptroller’s office to increase its investment with InterMedia, which it later did. A spokesman for Mr. Ramirez has said he was not paid by InterMedia and appeared only as a friend of Mr. Hindery’s.

Mr. Cuomo would not say which lobbyists or consultants were being scrutinized, but said the intersection of unregistered agents and the pension fund was potentially “the Wild West of government relations.”Mr. Cuomo also said that pension kickbacks are a national problem:

New York state's criminal probe of kickbacks paid by companies eager to manage its $122 billion state pension fund has exposed "a national network of actors" whose schemes are ongoing, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday. "This is all across the nation, and it's continuing today," the Democratic attorney general said on a conference call.

The probe, which began two years ago, has fixed the spotlight on the use of placement agents hired by investment firms to open the doors of the New York State Common Retirement Fund. Cuomo said he is also is scrutinizing lawyers and lobbyists.

The investigation is another effort to stamp out graft and the practice of "pay to play," which involves giving gifts or campaign donations to win public contracts. So far the probe has looked into the web of relationships and business contracts involving money managers, politicians and pension officials spanning the country from New York City and the state capital, Albany, to Texas, New Mexico and California.

On Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is working with Cuomo, charged that Dallas-based Aldus Equity Partners won New York pension business because of "its willingness to illegally line the pockets of others."

The state pension fund had aimed to hire more women and minority-owned investment firms and had begun talks with one. But Aldus was chosen, Cuomo said, when the minority-owned firm "allegedly refused to pay kickbacks to Morris and another associate."

Aldus, a private equity firm, says it manages over $5 billion, and the probe already has cost Aldus clients in New Mexico and New York. Cuomo said Aldus also is active in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, California, and New York City.

ANOTHER VIEW OF GIVE AND TAKE

Both Cuomo and the SEC charged that Saul Meyer, an Aldus founder, paid about $320,000 to a shell company owned by Henry Morris, a top fund-raiser for New York's former state comptroller. This led the New York state pension fund's then-chief investment officer, David Loglisci, to invest $375 million with Aldus from 2004 to 2006.

Demonstrating the power that Morris wielded over pension investments, Cuomo said Morris told a Meyer intermediary: "Tell that little peanut of a man that I can take business away as easily as I provided (it)."

Lawyers for Morris and Loglisci, who were indicted in March, say they are innocent.

On Thursday, Meyer was charged with a state securities felony and released on $200,000 bail. His lawyer Paul Shechtman said: "Time and evidence will show that Saul Meyer did nothing wrong."

Aldus knew that Morris was "working both sides of the deal," Cuomo said, by marketing funds for investments in the Aldus/NY Emerging Fund in which Morris had a 35 percent stake.

Aldus Equity lawyer Matthew Orwig faulted the SEC for acting before finishing its probe, calling the threatened legal action "appalling and careless with the law and with people's reputations." Aldus partners said they were disappointed by the "unexpected legal developments."

Aldus could face more legal peril. The New York state pension fund is weighing legal remedies against Aldus and Meyer after ending its investment with the firm. New York City pensions could cut ties with the firm, while New Mexico's governor called on the state Education Board to drop its contract with Aldus a day after ordering the state investment officer to do so.

Cuomo said that while Meyer was seeking more business with New York's pension fund, he helped Daniel Hevesi, a son of Alan Hevesi, the former state comptroller whose oversight of the state pension fund is being probed, earn a $250,000 fee on a New Mexico pension deal.

Alan Hevesi's lawyer Bradley Simon has said the former comptroller "has not been charged with any misconduct with respect to mismanagement of the New York state pension fund."

Bloomberg reports that L.A. pension is baffled by fees paid to firm in probe:

Los Angeles retirement plan managers say they’re baffled over fees paid by Quadrangle Group LLC to a key player named in New York’s pension fund kickback probe for helping the private equity firm land work in California. Quadrangle paid Searle & Co. $150,000 in connection with the Los Angeles Department of Fire and Police Pensions fund’s $10 million investment with the New York firm, which was co- founded by Steven Rattner before President Barack Obama appointed him to oversee the auto industry rescue.

Searle employed Hank Morris, a political adviser accused by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of using the Greenwich, Connecticut, brokerage to collect “sham” placement fees from firms that manage New York pension plan money.

After the SEC this month said Quadrangle paid Morris a “finders fee” related to a New York pension fund investment, Quadrangle told the Los Angeles fund that it also had paid placement fees to him for work there. The Los Angeles fund publicly disclosed the fee April 24.

“We don’t know how or why a placement fee related to our investment in Quadrangle was made,” Michael Perez, the general manager of the Los Angeles pension, said in written responses to questions from Bloomberg News.

‘Shocked’ at News

Perez said the fund’s investment in Quadrangle was arranged through Pension Consulting Alliance Inc., which evaluates investments on its behalf. Allan Emkin, that company’s founder and managing director of its Los Angeles office, said it didn’t have any contact with Searle or Morris and worked directly with Quadrangle. Emkin said he had been unaware that Searle was paid a fee in connection with the deal.

“We were shocked when we heard about it,” Emkin said in a telephone interview.

Morris, who faces a civil SEC complaint and criminal charges by Cuomo, has denied wrongdoing. Quadrangle and Rattner haven’t been charged. Adam Miller, a spokesman for Quadrangle, declined to comment. Searle referred calls to Peter Anderson, an attorney, who didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The SEC has asked the Los Angeles fund and two of its board members for information about investment decisions and firms tied to the New York probe.

Cuomo said today that New York was formalizing agreements to coordinate its investigation with authorities in California, as well as with Connecticut, Illinois and New Mexico.

Los Angeles Connection

“We are disclosing a national network of actors, who often acted in concert,” Cuomo said. “They collaborated, they often partnered and victimized states and taxpayers all across the country.”

The SEC and Cuomo today charged Saul Meyer, the managing partner of one of the firms in the New York probe, Aldus Equity Partners, with paying Morris to secure investment business with New York. Aldus has served for more than a year as a private equity consultant to the Los Angeles pension fund. Meyer met with the fund’s board at least once, city records show.

Morris, the one-time chief fundraiser and political adviser to former New York City Comptroller Alan Hevesi, has been charged by the SEC with collecting $15 million in kickbacks from money managers doing business with New York’s pension fund. The SEC says the kickbacks were masked as placement fees and that he “rarely, if ever” provided legitimate services.

Quadrangle hired Morris as a placement agent before winning a $100 million investment from New York, the SEC said in an April 15 complaint. The firm paid Searle $1.125 million, and 95 percent of that went to Morris, the SEC said.

The Los Angeles pension approved investments in 10 private equity funds linked to the New York investigation, according to an April 2 memo to the board. Two of the investments were later canceled. Aldus Equity Partners, which was drawn into the New York probe, also advised the fund on private equity investments.

I have already written about the Mother of all stealth scams. Nothing like a huge financial crisis to bring out all the cockroaches. This hardly surprises me and remember my dire warning: Madoff was the tip of the iceberg. There will be many more fraudsters that will get nabbed in the next few years.

Just how systemic is fraud in the financial industry and at public pension funds? We don't know, but when you mix greedy placement agents with public pension fund managers who control billions, the potential for kickbacks is huge.

What can pension funds do to stop abuse before it happens? First, they should segregate duties so the person(s) making the investment has to pass through several checks, including an internal auditor, before the decision is cleared. Importantly, there should also be clear segregation of duties between those making the investment decisions and the finance professionals valuing them.

Second, pension funds need to beef their whistleblower policies so people are encouraged to report abuse. This is one of the most effective ways to stop fraud. Maybe there should be a direct link between public pension fund employees and the state's Attorney General's office or the provincial or federal Auditor General's office.

Third, have your fraud procedures verified by a certified fraud examiner (read more on CFEs by clicking here). This should include someone who scrutinizes travel/meal/entertainment expenses to make sure there is no abuse going on when some hedge fund or private equity manager is trying to woo a pension fund manager to invest with them.

Fourth, there should be tight rules governing the relationships between investment managers and the funds they invest with. If you are investing billions with Fund Z, then you should not be allowed to go work for them for a period of five years after you leave a public pension fund. This is just common sense, but you'd be surprised how common sense often falls by the wayside.

Fifth, all board decisions should be made public so they are open to scrutiny. Several of the large U.S. state plans already do this. For example, Alaska's Permanent Fund publishes its board schedule, their minutes and their consultants on their website.

Finally, on the legal front, I would ban all placement agents and place tight rules on pension consultants who recommend funds to pension funds. Do not underestimate the abusive practices of pension consultants and the potential for fraud with them. They are the gatekeepers at most U.S. pension plans.

It truly is the Wild West out there, but I am glad to see the Attorney General of New York is pursuing the pension probe and trying to clean up public pension funds.

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Corrupting public officials is a crime so as the public officials who we know were involved in these frauds are exposed we know these investment firms buying favor committed these crimes too. You have yet to hear of these private equity people charged and prosecuted because that takes public justice. Whether it is blowing up the Federal Housing Agency with fraud, the Federal Student Loan Agency with fraud----we are being told by Moody's and S and P -----the rating agencies that were ground zero for all of this fraud-----that public and private pensions are just not viable anymore.

OH REALLY????????

If your incumbent politician goes after the people's pensions as the problem------if your incumbent is silent about all of this, they are neo-liberals working for wealth and profit. These pensions are not a burden on the public-----all fraud recovery comes from these corporations.

I listened to a Governor's Forum on Education (to which I was not invited obviously) where Heather Mizeur says that the way to fund school building in Maryland is to have public employees give back some of their pensions. THIS IS THE PHONY PROGRESSIVE IN THIS GOVERNOR'S RACE!

Monday, March 14, 2011

Corruption at CalPERS?

Marc Lifsher and Stuart Pfeifer of the Los Angeles Times report,

Scathing report alleges corruption at CalPERS:
In a scathing report, a former chief executive of the California public employee pension fund was accused of pressuring subordinates to invest billions of dollars of pension money with politically connected firms.

A 17-month investigation also found that Federico Buenrostro Jr. — along with former pension fund board members Charles Valdes and Kurato Shimada — strong-armed a benefits firm to pay more than $4 million in fees to consultant Alfred J.R. Villalobos, who later hired Buenrostro.

The report, prepared for the California Public Employees' Retirement System by Washington law firm Steptoe & Johnson, comes amid widening attacks on public employee pension funds in California, Wisconsin, Iowa and other states for providing lavish benefits that cash-strapped governments can no longer afford.

The findings of insider dealings at CalPERS could provide fresh ammunition to Republican lawmakers here who want Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown to convert traditional pensions with guaranteed payments for life into 401(k)-type plans that rely heavily on employees' own contributions.

"Fixing California's pension problem is difficult enough without the stench of corruption and collusion that saps public confidence and gives taxpayers a reason to withhold support," said Dan Pellissier, president of Californians for Pension Reform, a group that is pushing a 2012 ballot initiative that would diminish state employee pension benefits.

Shimada, Buenrostro, Valdes and Villalobos either declined to comment or did not return calls.

Buenrostro served as CalPERS chief executive for six years, leaving in August 2008. The day after quitting, he went to work for Villalobos — a former CalPERS board member and deputy Los Angeles mayor who acted as an agent for investment firms seeking CalPERS money. The report said Villalobos hired Buenrostro with a $300,000 annual salary and gave him a Lake Tahoe condominium.

While at CalPERS, Buenrostro repeatedly "inserted himself in the investment process in a manner inconsistent with prior practice at CalPERS, pressing its investment staff to pursue particular investments without evident regard for their financial merits," the report said.

It said Buenrostro intervened with staff on behalf of Aurora Capital Group of Los Angeles to obtain investment money. Buenrostro told subordinates that Aurora was politically powerful, and that Aurora principal Gerald Parsky served on a state commission dealing with public employee benefits, the report said.

Aurora was a Villalobos client, and Buenrostro told CalPERS staffers that he would represent it once he went to work with Villalobos, the report said.

The report also noted that Buenrostro often intervened on behalf of favored private equity funds that staff called "friends of Fred."

Staffers ultimately complained about Buenrostro to the board, and those complaints "became a basis for the board's efforts to replace him as CEO," the report said.

CalPERS is the nation's largest public pension fund, with $228 billion in assets, providing benefits to about 1.6 million state and local government employees, retirees, spouses, children and other beneficiaries.

In May 2010, the California attorney general sued Villalobos and Buenrostro, accusing them of scheming to enrich themselves through self-dealing and other misconduct in seeking CalPERS investment money on behalf of clients.

According to the report, one of those investment funds — Apollo Global Management — asked Buenrostro to sign documents acknowledging that CalPERS was aware of so-called placement agent fees it was paying to Villalobos.

Several CalPERS investment officers refused to sign the disclosures, the report said — but Buenrostro did, using pasted-on letterhead to make them look more official.

Buenrostro made "representations regarding placement agent fees and related deal documents that are either demonstrably false or sufficiently suspect," the report said.

The report, citing Buenrostro's ex-wife and an unnamed girlfriend, described Buenrostro as "a puppet" of Villalobos, who the report said earned more than $50million in placement agent fees.

During his six years as head of CalPERS, Buenrostro received many valuable gifts from people and firms with financial interests in doing business with CalPERS, the report said.

When he was married in 2004, he allowed Villalobos to host the wedding at his Zephyr Cove, Nev., home. Buenrostro also traveled with Villalobos and Valdes to the Middle East and Asia — with Villalobos picking up much of the costs, the report said.

"Buenrostro does not appear to have ever disclosed these gifts or recused himself from any CalPERS matters based on any of these apparent relationships," the report said.

Valdes also pressured CalPERS investment staff to do business with Villalobos' firm, Arvco Capital Research, the report said.

In September 2000, Valdes was close to being ruled out of order for raising his voice in support of a Los Angeles real estate investment firm, CIM Group, the report said. CalPERS staff had recommended a smaller investment than originally proposed. Arvco and Villalobos received a $9-million commission on the investment transaction.

CIM also provided Academy Awards tickets to Valdes and other CalPERS people, the report said. Valdes attended in 2005 and 2006 but did not report the gifts on state financial disclosure documents.

The report also provided new details about CalPERS dealings with Medco Health Solutions Inc. before the firm was awarded a $26-million contract to provide drug benefits to members.

In May 2004, Villalobos hosted a meeting at his Lake Tahoe home with Medco CEO David Snow. Buenrostro attended.

"Soon after the May 2004 meeting at the Villalobos home, Medco agreed to retain Villalobos as a consultant and pay him $4 million," the report said.

Villalobos received a final check for $1 million immediately after the CalPERS board approved the contract, according to the report, and also received a $20,000-a-month retainer until sometime in 2009.

Last year Villalobos filed for personal bankruptcy protection, citing nearly $5million in debts to Nevada casinos. It was his second personal bankruptcy.

The report recommended that CalPERS improve accountability and reduce the risk of future abuses, including providing additional training to board members so that board business is not conducted in clandestine meetings with managers, and prohibiting the release of sensitive CalPERS information outside the organization.

This is a perfect example of serious governance gaps leaving a fund vulnerable to fraud. There is absolutely no accountability when this type of abuse goes on at the highest level. And trust me, it's not hard for a couple of guys at the top to collude and award sweet contracts to some consultant, hedge fund manager or private equity manager in return for "future favors". When you're in charge of billions, power gets to your head and you start thinking you're invincible.

This type of fraud makes me sick to my stomach. It's not common but it's going on a lot more often than people want to admit. How do I know? Let's just say I've seen things that made my skin crawl. It doesn't matter whether the investment officer has a CFA, FRM, PhD, etc., if they're crooked, they're crooked and they'll do whatever it takes to profit by abusing the power they have within a pension fund. And it's not just the large funds; in fact, some of the worst abuses happen in dinky city pension plans where corruption is rampant.

That's why I believe you have to properly compensate senior pension officers to deter this type of corruption. But that's not enough because some people are so sleazy, so greedy, they'll look to game the system and will stop at nothing to profit by abusing their power. One of the best ways to root out corruption is simply to segregate duties and implement iron clad whistleblower policies where employees can anonymously inform board members or better yet, the FBI or RCMP. That should make these idiots think twice before they abuse their power at a public pension fund.

Finally, this is a particular case that in no way reflects what's going on at CalPERS now. I think it's disgusting that some would use this report as "ammunition" to break up CalPERS or to dissolve other public pension funds. Get the governance right and you can root out corruption at most public and private pension funds.

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April 05th, 2014

4/5/2014

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PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT IS BEING DONE WITH PENSIONS AND RETIREMENT TO KNOW MUCH OF IT INVOLVES FRAUD AND CORRUPTION THAT CAN BE REVERSED WITH RULE OF LAW. WE SIMPLY NEED TO HAVE PEOPLE IN OFFICE THAT WANT TO WORK FOR PUBLIC JUSTICE TO RESTORE MUCH OF PENSIONS AND RETIREMENTS LOST!

ALL OF MARYLAND CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR EXCEPT CINDY WALSH WILL WORK FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT!

Are your labor leaders shouting about this?

Below you'll see what looks pretty boring but please glance at all the articles. What I am showing is how private pensions shed decades ago should now be receiving lots of money from these corporations that are now earning billions of dollars each year. The bankruptcy laws placed most of private sector pensions into the Federal Agency below with the requirements that the corporation do its due diligence and the Federal government work in the public interest. What we see is public malfeasance by the government and a failure to collect needed revenue for these pension funds. Without justice, all of this is being left to implode with debt just as we see happening with public pensions.

I want to look at what has been allowed to happen these several years of Obama and neo-liberal control of government....it is worse than with George W Bush. These mergers

DO NOT MEET ANTITRUST LAW AND ARE ILLEGAL AND CAN BE MADE NULL AND VOID. MERGERS MUST BE APPROVED ACCORDING TO PUBLIC INTEREST.

So, as much as Obama and his administration simply want to say all of these global market deals are in the public interest----they are not. The same is happening in Maryland with O'Malley and Maryland Assembly saying all of these state contracts are creating jobs and revenue.....when they are not.

WE CAN REVERSE THESE POLICIES BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT LEGITIMATE. IF YOU KEEP ALLOWING YOUR POLS TO ACT ILLEGALLY AS IF THE US CONSTITUTION DOES NOT EXIST----IT WILL NOT EXIST AND YOU WILL NOT BE A CITIZEN.

Republicans are doing the same so the answer is not to vote for another party-----the answer is to shake these neo-liberals out of the people's democratic party!

Today, I look at private pensions lost during the corporate bankruptcy years that started with Reagan/Clinton as a way to eliminate all labor gains.
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Regarding merger and acquisitions creating global corporations in the US:

THIS IS ONE EXAMPLE OF AN INDUSTRY AND HOW NEO-LIBERALS ARE ALLOWING RULE OF LAW TO BE IGNORED AT CONSUMER/CITIZEN EXPENSE:

I am listening to corporate NPR/APM explain the latest merger this time with airlines Delta and UK's Virgin. At the same time NPR/APM tells us that this merger is being passed by US antitrust laws and it is proper because it enhances quality and service for US consumers and it increases competition. OH, REALLY???????

CONSOLIDATION AND BECOMING A GLOBAL FORCE IS GOOD FOR THE CONSUMER? YOUR TAX MONEY IS GOING FOR THIS KIND OF PROGRAMMING.

We all know consolidation has been joined with price-fixing giving US consumers no choice but to pay whatever the market will bear. That is Wall Street for SOAKING CONSUMERS FOR ALL THEIR WORTH. This has nothing to do with antitrust.....free markets....are competition to lower prices. Instead, airlines have reconfigured their cabins so that coach passengers look like sardines paying unnecessary fees, no food and lots of delays and time schedule problems----you know----like Maryland Transit Authority. They do this because Americans have no choices and this shows that all of these mergers and acquisitions break US Commerce law protecting the public. Below you see these laws state these consolidations are limited as to whether they BENEFIT THE CONSUMER. These deals are illegal. Obama and your neo-liberal pols ran in 2008 on the platform of holding corporations accountable and stopping the merger and acquisitions and then they ignored this.

THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY, IT IS NOT LEGAL, AND YOUR INCUMBENT IN MARYLAND IS PART OF THIS BECAUSE IT INVOLVES ALL OF MARYLAND'S ECONOMY.

I want to make another point with this Delta/UK Virgin merger deal. Delta, as with all US airlines all went through bankruptcy just to shed labor union contracts and wages and benefits. All have come out of these bankruptcies earning billions of dollars in profit while labor benefits sit in a Federal agency created just to hold these legally binding contracts. Health care benefits that include strong quality care are now being handled in this Federal agency as though these plans were the equivalent of Medicaid. Taxpayers are footing the costs of these corporation's health care contracts while they grow to earn billions in profits. This is good they say because shareholder wealth is soaring.

The answer to all of these legal labor contracts being shed and creating cost for the taxpayers is to provide the lowest quality and access of health care to these millions of US citizens.

THE REAL COST BELONGS BACK WITH THESE CORPORATIONS THAT CAN NOW EASILY MAKE THEIR CONTRACT COMMITMENTS.

Antitrust law in America:

United States antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws, which regulates the conduct and organization of business corporations, generally to promote fair competition for the benefit of consumers. The main statutes are the Sherman Act 1890, the Clayton Act 1914 and the Federal Trade Commission Act 1914. These Acts, first, restrict the formation of cartels and prohibit other collusive practices regarded as being in restraint of trade. Second, they restrict the mergers and acquisitions of organizations which could substantially lessen competition. Third, they prohibit the creation of a monopoly and the abuse of monopoly power.

The Federal Trade Commission, the US Department of Justice, state governments and private parties who are sufficiently affected may all bring actions in the courts to enforce the antitrust laws. The scope of antitrust laws, and the degree they should interfere in business freedom, or protect smaller businesses, communities and consumers, are strongly debated. One view, mostly closely associated with the "Chicago School of economics" suggests that antitrust laws should focus solely on the benefits to consumers and overall efficiency, while a broad range of legal and economic theory sees the role of antitrust laws as also controlling economic power in the public interest.[1]

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Now, all of the soaring fuel costs were created by Wall Street market manipulation and if we had Rule of Law reinstated all of these gains would have been stopped and no soaring fuel prices would have occurred. Remember, Wall Street used market manipulation of fuel on and off for a decade having the US consumer as an ATM machine anytime oil corporations around the world had market slowdowns. This is not free market and it is illegal. Who owns all these oil corporations? Bush/Cheney and it is these same people who are the shareholders of these now global corporations. So, you gut the profits of a healthy corporation to restructure it for maximized profit----the Bains Capital approach.

Labor contracts are just like any business contract. Every time your neo-liberal says the state or city must honor its contracts it signs with businesses-----this is what makes Rule of Law and Equal Protection. It is also what makes antitrust laws work as it makes no sense to have businesses able to gut another simply to eliminate a competitor. So, Bush/Cheney wanted to consolidate the airline industry into global corporations and they allowed their oil corporations to manipulate the markets to create the environment to do this.

THIS IS ALL ILLEGAL AS IT FAILS IN ALL ASPECTS OF RULE OF LAW, EQUAL PROTECTION, AND ANTITRUST.

When your neo-liberal says -----the people in power make the laws-----that does not allow them to decide the US Constitution and Rule of Law is NULL AND VOID. They cannot selectively enforce the laws they want.

STOP ALLOWING NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS TO OPENLY SUSPEND RULE OF LAW AND IGNORE THE US CONSTITUTION. LABOR UNIONS SHOULD BE TAKING ALL OF THIS TO COURT.

We do not say-----well, the courts are fixed because we want all of this on record for when they are not fixed. Remember,

WHEN A GOVERNMENT SUSPENDS RULE OF LAW IT SUSPENDS STATUTES OF LIMITATION!

Below, you see Delta was competing with smaller airlines and the economy was running as it should. Costs were contained by competition and lots of businesses were in the mix. Then, the illegal activity of the fuel market took down the smaller businesses, allowed larger businesses to use fuel costs as an excuse to enter bankruptcy to shed labor contracts and amazingly using fuel as hostile takeover is now past.

Delta Air Lines files for bankruptcy

No. 3 airline hit by fuel costs, low-fare competitors; No. 4 Northwest follows it into bankruptcy.

September 15, 2005: 9:55 AM EDT
By Chris Isidore, CNN/Money senior writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Delta Air Lines filed for bankruptcy, making it one of two major carriers to seek protection from creditors Wednesday.

Delta (Research), the nation's third-biggest airline, has been hurt by the recent spike in jet fuel prices and growing competition from lower-cost, low-fare carriers. Less than half an hour after Delta's filing, Northwest Airlines also filed for protection from creditors.

Delta and Northwest followed United Airlines (Research) and US Airways (Research) into bankruptcy. United, the No. 2 airline, has been in bankruptcy court for almost three years. US Airways has been in bankruptcy court twice since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that shook the airline industry.

With those four major airlines and some smaller ones already in bankruptcy, nearly half of the industry's capacity is on carriers operating under bankruptcy court oversight.

Delta said it expects to keep flying while it seeks to cut costs and reorganize, so the immediate impact on flyers should be minimal. It is also expected to keep its frequent flyer program intact. But some smaller cities now served exclusively or primarily by Delta could be hurt as the airline trims its operations going forward.

The Atlanta-based airline, which has not had a profitable quarter since 2000, filed under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy laws. In Chapter 11, a company is protected from creditors while it tries to reorganize.

Analysts said this year's spike in jet fuel prices forced Delta's bankruptcy filing.

"Hurricane Katrina was probably the last straw," Ray Neidl, analyst with Calyon Securities, said shortly before the widely expected bankruptcy filing. "Nobody could have predicted $60-, $70-a-barrel oil. Things just developed that were uncontrollable factors."

But Delta's problems predate not only the hurricane, but the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The company has lost some $6.1 billion since the start of 2001 from its airline operations, according to First Call, which tracks corporate earnings.

Some analysts said that Delta waited longer than some of its rivals to trim costs. It did not win cost concessions from its pilots union until last October, after paying them the highest wages in the industry under a contract reached months before the Sept. 11 attacks.

"They are another example of a company that started out in a relatively stronger financial position than their peers, and they felt they were in better position to survive a shakeout," said Philip Baggaley, Standard & Poor's senior airline credit analyst. "They didn't pursue cost-cutting as aggressively as they would have if they were heading toward bankruptcy early in the (industry's) downturn."

The airline has nearly 60,000 employees and flies about 340,000 people daily in its mainline operations, which includes Delta, the Delta Shuttle and Song, its attempt to compete in the growing low-fare market.

Another problem for Delta is that it has less international traffic than the nation's other big carriers. That means it faces competition on more routes from low-fare carriers such as AirTran, JetBlue and Southwest than some of its rivals.
Scramble to cut costs

Delta had been scrambling through the strong summer travel season to cut costs and raise cash.

Last week it completed the sale one of its feeder airlines, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, for $425 million. It also announced it was cutting flight capacity at its Cincinnati hub by 26 percent.

But these and other cost-cutting moves made over the last year could not stem losses, which are forecast by analysts to extend into 2007. The company has not reported a quarterly profit, excluding special items, since 2000.

Delta flirted with a bankruptcy filing in October 2004, before getting the Air Line Pilots Association to agree to cut wages by about a third � a move that saved about $1 billion a year. The airline also cut some 5,000 jobs in the year ending in June, aside from the sale of Atlantic Southeast.

Its second quarter payroll costs were 18 percent below a year earlier, as the company spent nearly $300 million less on salary and benefits.

But soaring fuel costs caused ongoing losses. Delta's cost per gallon soared 50 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, and has kept climbing.

The increased costs came as Delta and other carriers found it difficult to win higher fares from passengers, who have more options with the growth of low-fare rivals.

The average fare Delta received from passengers fell 1 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, even as the proportion of empty seats on Delta jets fell.

The final cash crisis came when the bank that was processing the airline's Visa and MasterCard ticket purchases started holding back money as protection in case of a bankruptcy filing. The airline warned in August that such a move by the bank could cost $650 million by the end of October, straining its already thin cash reserves.

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Why did a US airline and US regulators allow a merger that gave a majority ownership to another country? 49% for Delta to Virgin's 51%? Because that takes this US airline out of US corporate oversight and on to UK corporate oversight and the UK has complete deregulation and corporate tax protection. So, a major US business was handed to a global corporation that will not follow US laws. Is that consumer friendly and does that meet US labor protections?

NOT AT ALL. SO, THIS MERGER SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED.

The reasoning is that the London-New York commuters will see a benefit while the rest of the US will not. Remember, the Federal government cannot simply ignore Rule of Law and allow all of this and neither can the courts. It doesn't matter who is in charge-----EQUAL PROTECTION AND RULE OF LAW DOES NOT CHANGE. This means all of this can be reversed when Rule of Law is reinstated.

All Things Travel: Delta-Virgin Atlantic Merger Could Mean Changes For Boston Flights

By Bob Weiss, CBSBoston.com Travel Contributor July 8, 2013 5:29 PM

BOSTON (CBS) — Sir Richard Branson, the world’s best-known man in aviation, now has a new partner.

Delta Air Lines now owns 49 percent of Virgin Atlantic Airways and that means more changes will most likely happen on Boston’s number one international route.

British Airways, Delta and Virgin offer six daily flights from Logan to London’s Heathrow Airport this summer.

British Airways flies more than 50-percent of passengers flying to the UK. The flights are important for both business and leisure travelers. Great Britain also sends more visitors to New England than any other European country.

Under the new arrangement, the new code-sharing agreement will allow Delta to sell seats on Virgin flights by the end of the year. Virgin passengers will be able to connect to Delta flights in the U.S.

Delta passengers will be able to earn miles on Virgin Atlantic flights.

Delta operates in Terminal A at Logan Airport while Virgin uses Terminal E. Whether Virgin will transfer its operations to Terminal A remains to be seen. Delta is a member of The Sky Team Alliance.

The agreement gives Delta the chance to expand at Heathrow Airport where more gates will now be available. That is especially important for its New York operations; Delta is also a partner with Air France and their flights to Paris.

Next year the merger between American and US Airways should be completed. At that time, US Airways will move from the Star Alliance to the Oneworld Alliance that includes British Airways. This summer American dropped their flights to London and BA increased its service.

Alliances and code-sharing agreements are important for frequent business travelers that like to accrue mileage points for family leisure travel.

Virgin America, which is a separate company, will continue to fly routes from Boston to the West Coast. The airline was the first to offer Wifi on its flights.

Delta has been upgrading its Business Class service that now includes flat beds. Virgin features an Upper Class product. Both airlines have been increasing their on-board entertainment options.

Virgin Atlantic has its U.S. headquarters in Norwalk Connecticut.

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Virgin America is simply a global airline corporations taking spaces at all airports that the smaller airlines used to have. This is what antitrust laws are supposed to stop. This consolidation is leading to less choice which allows price-fixing and is all anti-consumer no matter how many times corporate NPR/APM tells you this is all about the US consumer.

ALL IT TAKES IS A PRESIDENT WHO REINSTATES RULE OF LAW AND APPOINTS A HEAD OF THE TRADE COMMISSION. HILLARY, BIDEN, CUOMO, AND O'MALLEY ARE READY TO KEEP THE GLOBAL GRAVY TRAIN RUNNING. MAYBE BERNIE SANDERS WILL NOT.

I KNOW CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND WILL BE TAKING THESE ISSUES TO COURT! DO YOU HEAR YOUR LABOR LEADERS TAKING THIS TO COURT?

Why the American Merger Deal Could Make Virgin America a Big Winner

BY Ted Reed | 03/05/14 - 10:35 AM EST

DALLAS (TheStreet) -- Six-year-old Virgin America saw a big opportunity when the Justice Department required divestitures from American (AAL_) and US Airways in return for allowing them to merge.

Virgin America already has won the right to operate six daily round trips at New York's LaGuardia Airport and four at Washington Reagan National, using slots that American and US Airways were required to divest.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco-based carrier said it will seek two gates at Dallas Love Field that American was required to divest. Delta (DAL_) and Southwest (LUV_) are also seeking the two Love Field gates. Southwest already occupies 16 of the 20 Love Field gates.

Virgin America said that if it is awarded the gates, it would begin new service from Dallas to LaGuardia and National. Arguably, that represents a convincing case to the Justice Department that consumers would derive maximum benefit from the merger.

In particular, Love Field-National service by a new low-fare entrant would provide an alternative to American service on what became hub-to-hub flying in the merger, when Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Washington National became hubs for the same airline. Hub-to-hub flying is typically an area where ticket prices are high.

Like LaGuardia and National, Love Field is a desirable and constricted close-in airport. It is just six miles from downtown Dallas. In October, flight restrictions imposed in 1979 will be lifted. Southwest has already said it would add flights to LaGuardia and National. Delta has said it will add LaGuardia and LAX if it gets the two gates.

Some observers questioned whether the Justice Department got all it could when it challenged the American/US Airways merger in August. The settlement was announced in November, two weeks before the parties were scheduled to go to trial.

Launched in 2007, Virgin America has built a niche as a hip, technologically advanced West Coast carrier. After moving last year to slow growth, it has started to show profits: In the third quarter, it produced net income of $37.5 million and an operating margin of 11.5%. It is said to be preparing for a public offering.

Virgin said Wednesday that if it wins the gates it would serve Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco as well as LaGuardia and National. It already serves Los Angeles and San Francisco from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, but that service would end in October and Virgin would limit its Dallas operations to Love Field.

In a press release that seemed to summarize the case it will make to the Justice Department, Virgin America said it "would be the only carrier at Love Field to offer guests three classes of service, Wi-Fi, in-seat power outlets and touch-screen seatback entertainment (including live TV) on every flight." It said it "operates a new fleet of Airbus A320-Family aircraft, which are significantly quieter than the commercial aircraft currently in use at Love Field."

Also, Virgin said it "would provide vigorous competition in a market where at present one carrier controls 80% of the gates."

As part of the press release, Virgin CEO David Cush declared: "As the last major airline launched in the U.S., we've seen firsthand what happens when new entrant airlines have a chance to come into markets where a few big airlines dominate -- service improves and fares drop.

"The opening of access to these slot-constrained and gate-constrained airports is an infrequent occurrence at best, and we hope to have the opportunity to expand our network and continue doing what we do best: deliver the best product in the domestic skies, and inject sorely needed fare competition in business markets where it is currently lacking," Cush said.

When Virgin America entered the San Francisco-Chicago market in 2011 and the San Francisco-Dallas market in 2010, fares dropped in each market at the time by more than 30%, the carrier said. After Virgin America entered Newark Liberty International Airport in April 2013, fares to San Francisco and Los Angeles dropped by more than a third, the carrier said. Newark, San Francisco and Los Angeles are all United (UAL_) hubs.

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Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

Eastern to let federal agency pay out retirement benefits

September 19, 1990|By New York Times News Service

Eastern Airlines cleared a critical hurdle yesterday in its attempt to reorganize under bankruptcy laws by reaching an agreement to have Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency that oversees pension plans, take over the payment of the retirement benefits of Eastern employees.

But to satisfy the agency's concerns, Continental Holdings Inc., the parent of Eastern Airlines, must secure the payments with its assets -- a liability that some officials said could total more than $500 million-plus interest because of a shortage in the financing of the pension plan.

This could strain Continental's finances when the carrier is making progress toward building itself into one of the nation's leading carriers.

Continental's liability could beless, however, depending upon how much the assets in the pension fund earn from interest on investments.

Martin R. Shugrue Jr., Eastern's court-appointed trustee, called the settlement yesterday a "major milestone on the way to the reorganization of Eastern under Chapter 11."

Since he took over the airline in April, Mr. Shugrue has struggled to win back customers by offering low fares and promotions to stem the carrier's losses.

The agreement is good news for the 51,000 former and current Eastern workers, whose pensions are now guaranteed in full.

James B. Lockhart, the executive director of the federal pension agency, said yesterday that the settlement would "protect retirees and the insurance program from one of the largest potential losses we faced -- almost three-quarters of a billion dollars before today's agreement."

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As you see below this Federal agency that supposedly works in the interests of American citizens really has allowed these pensioners to lose all of the value of their pensions. I read a few years ago that individuals having their pensions in this agency were receiving Medicaid-level care. We see as well, as with public sector pensions.....these funds were shifted into the Wall Street stock market just at the time the market crashed. Now, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has almost $300 billion in pension liabilities and has been imploded with debt just as public pensions and 401Ks were.

None of this meets the terms of labor contracts, terms of these bankruptcy agreements, and we can be sure that corporate contributions from airlines in this case are not happening.

ALL OF THIS IS ILLEGAL!

The Affordable Care Act is designed to send all of these plans to private state health systems where all Federal responsibility for public health, from this pension benefit guaranty corporation to Medicare will end and all of what was strong, well-funded health plans will become Medicaid for All. The coming economic crash will make the level of debt for these pensions unsustainable----WHICH IS THE POINT.

ALL POLITICIANS/LABOR AND JUSTICE LEADERS KNOW THIS AND ALL MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT. THEY ARE PROMOTING THESE CONDITIONS. STOP ALLOWING A NEO-LIBERAL DNC CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES. RUN LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

'The PBGC regularly updates its investment strategy. In 2004, it chose to invest heavily in bonds.[6] Under new leadership, the agency in 2008 shifted a substantial portion of its assets into stocks.[7] Because of the market decline, PBGC's equity investments lost 23% during the year ending September 30, 2008.[8]'

According to commentator Nicholas Brannick, "Despite the appearance of protection for the PBGC's interest in the event of termination, the Bankruptcy Code frequently strips the PBGC of the protection provided under ERISA. Under ERISA, termination liability may arise on the date of termination, but the lien that protects the PBGC's interest in that liability must be perfected [to be protected in bankruptcy]". Nicholas Brannick, Note: At the Crossroads of Three Codes: How Employers Are Using ERISA, the Tax Code, and Bankruptcy to Evade Their Pension Obligations, 65 Ohio St. L.J. 1577, 1606 (2004). The retention of title as a security interest, the creation of lien, or any other direct or indirect mode of disposing of or parting with property or an interest in property is a "transfer" for purposes of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code (see 11 U.S.C. § 101(54)). Some transfers may be avoidable by the bankruptcy trustee under various Code provisions. Further, under ordinary principles of bankruptcy law, a lien or other security interest that is unperfected (i.e., a lien that is not valid against parties other than the debtor) at the time of case commencement is generally unenforceable against a bankruptcy trustee. Once the bankruptcy case has commenced, the law generally stays any act to attempt to perfect a lien that was not perfected prior to case commencement (see 11 U.S.C. § 362(a)(4)). Thus, the PBGC with a lien that has not yet been perfected at the time of case commencement may find itself in the same position as the general unsecured creditors.

No insurance for defined contribution plans

One reason Congress enacted ERISA was "to prevent the 'great personal tragedy' suffered by employees whose vested benefits are not paid when pension plans are terminated."[19] When a defined benefit plan is properly funded by its sponsor, its assets should be approximately equal to its liability, and any shortfall (including benefit improvements) should be amortized in a relatively short period of time. Before ERISA, employers and willing unions could agree to increase benefits with little thought to how to pay for them. A classic case of the unfortunate consequences of an underfunded pension plan is the 1963 shutdown of Studebaker automobile operations in South Bend, Indiana, in which 4,500 workers lost 85% of their vested benefits.[19] One of ERISA's stated intentions was to minimize underfunding in defined benefit plans.

Defined contribution plans — by contrast and by definition — are always "fully funded." Thus Congress saw no need to provide insurance protection for participants in defined contribution plans. The Enron scandal in 2001 demonstrated one potential problem with defined contribution plans: the company had strongly encouraged its workers to invest their 401(k) plans in their employer itself, violating primary investment guidelines about diversification. When Enron went bankrupt, many workers lost not just their jobs but also most of the value of their retirement savings. Congress inserted trust law fiduciary liability upon employers who did not prudently diversify plan assets to avoid the chance of large losses inside Section 404 of ERISA, but it is unclear whether such fiduciary liability applies to trustees of plans in which participants direct the investment of their own accounts.

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