SENIOR COMMERCE DEPT. OFFICIALS ARE INVESTED IN FACEBOOK "DARK POOLS"

OBama's Billionaire Commerce Secretary conceals bogus intellectual property claims by Organizing for Action & HealthCare.gov websites; fails to disclose her Facebook "dark pool" holdings

Contributing Writers | OPINION | AMERICANS FOR INNOVATION  | Updated Mar. 17, 2013 post-Scribd censorship | PDF

Fig. 1—Penny S. pritsker, billionaire heiress, was appointed Secretary of the Department of Commerce by President Obama on Jun. 26, 2013. Pritzker disclosed that she holds 30 Facebook interests valued at up to $23.4 million. Despite this massive conflict of interest by Pritzker and other senior Commerce staff, they are attempting to disrupt Columbus innovator Leader Technologies’ relationship to a key supplier using regulatory threats and harassment. Pritzker's ethics pledge dictates that even holdings of one share in a party coming before her regulatory body is enough to disqualify her, her officials or her administrative judges, like patent judge Stephen C. Siu. Photo: Stand Up America.

(Dec. 30, 2013)—The Department of Commerce, led by Hyatt Hotel billionaire heiress, Penny S. Pritsker, is violating her code of ethics by involving the Commerce Department in any matter related to Leader Technologies. She holds up to $23.4 million Facebook interests (likely more in numerous trusts) held through Wall Street insider "dark pools." She led Obama’s 2008 campaign where the Obama For America (OFA, aka Organizing for Action) social website made the difference, and to which Obama posts more than one a day.

OFA & HealthCare.gov websites

Both of the Obama administration's main websites, Organizing for Action (formerly Obama for America) and HealthCare.gov, claim the social software systems running those sites are "open source." These sites deeply embed Facebook links. However, Facebook is guilty on 11 of 11 claims of infringing the patent of Columbus innovator, Leader Technologies, Inc. The fact is, the Obama administration's fantasy is to believe the software is open source, when it is not. The true inventors have gone uncompensated, meaning OFA and HealthCare.gov are operating on confiscated property.

Commerce Department Click to enlarge
Facebook "Dark Pool" Investments

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Commerce Department officials have not responded to our inquiries. Individuals close to the In re. Facebook class action lawsuit over the NASDAQ system meltdown in the Facebook IPO confirm that unregulated "dark pools" could create uncertainty and cause the system to be unresponsive under high volume. A Leader Technologies official said "nothing surprises us any more about this widespread corruption."

Commerce's Facebook Dark Pools

Fig. 2—Rebecca M. Blank, former Commerce Secretary, Pritzker's predecessor, has 40 Facebook "dark pool" interests, yet took no steps to disclose her conflicts of interests in matters related to Leader Technologies and Facebook. Photo: Commerce Dept.

Dark pools were recently discovered as the likely source of the Obama administration's inordinate influence over politicians, bureaucrats, donors, judges, Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the media. Dark pools have also been discovered as the likely source of the NASDAQ "glitch" during the Facebook IPO. NASDAQ could not manage trading volumes from sources for which NASDAQ systems could not adequately provide and account for during extremely heavy volume.

Pritzker's personal bankers were manipulating the Facebook IPO stock

Facebook IPO stock was being sold in both the front room (NASDAQ) and back room ("dark pools") simultaneously. Pritzker's fund managers Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan were manipulating these sales since they controlled them both. Morgan Stanley allowed Facebook insiders to sell over $13 billion in holdings on the third day of trading. Such sales are wholly improper. Remember Jim Cramer's "epic rant" over Peter Thiel's Facebook insider stock dump? See "Cramer: Thiel’s Sale of Facebook Stock ‘Tawdry’" by Jim Cramer, CNBC, Aug. 21, 2012.

Facebook "dark pools" web of conflicts

Insiders traditionally must wait three to six months before selling their stock, and sell in small quantities. In stark contrast to the accepted norm, Facebook's Chairman, James W. Breyer, Accel Partners, sold over $6.5 billion of his shares on Day 3. Breyer appears to have been funding his father, John P. Breyer's, Chinese fund, IDG-Accel-China with these proceeds (John P. Breyer and George Soros are Hungarian émigré contemporaries).

Fig. 3—David J. Kappos, former Director of the Patent Office, has 14 Facebook "dark pool" interests, yet involved himself, his judges and staff in egregious Patent Office proceedings involving Facebook and Leader Technologies. Kappos made all of his Facebook "dark pool" investments on Oct. 27, 2009 just eight weeks after his surprise recess confirmation. Photo: Faces of the Facebook Corruption.

Such conduct is an obscene abuse of the public trust and rendered the offering a mammoth scam. Another dark pools holder is Ann H. Lamont who is a board member of Obama's HealthCare.gov and White House chief technology officer, Todd Y. Park. Her company, Meritech Management, sold $263 million on Day 3. Goldman Sachs sold almost $1 billion. Russian oligarch Yuri Milner sold a whopping $3.79 billion (Goldman Sachs' Moscow partner). Peter Thiel dumped $633 million. Microsoft dumped $243 million. The web of conflicts is stifling. [They all sold on May 22, 2012, while the market was reeling from the NASDAQ glitch.)

Pritzker’s Patent Office is already mired in related conflicts of interest regarding the unprecedented 3rd patent re-exam of Leader's patent ordered by the Patent Office Director David J. Kappos, a former employee of Facebook stakeholder IBM. Patent judge, David C. Siu, a former employee of Facebook stakeholder Microsoft, is also directly involved.

Leader Technologies proved that Facebook is guilty of infringing their social networking patent on 11 of 11 counts. However, despite this, the federal courts ruled against Leader anyway, citing an obscure law called on-sale bar for which Facebook had no evidence. The appeals court judges, all Facebook "dark pool" interest holders as well, turned a blind eye and favored their financial holdings over of the U.S. Constitution and Leader's private property rights. So much for new definition of "blind justice." The Patent Office even asserted presidential privilege to conceal the White House interference in this matter.

Obama's 47 million OFA "likes" need Pritzker's protection; so does his crippled ObamaCare website

The Leader v. Facebook case was irreparably prejudiced by the Obama administration after President Obama grew his Facebook political website—Obama for America (a.k.a. Organizing for Action)—to 47 million “likes.” Even Patent Office Director David J. Kappos, part of the Commerce Department, used Facebook for his newsletter to over 10,000 employees.

Fig. 4—Cameron F. Kerry, Commerce General Counsel, has 23 Facebook "dark pool" interests, yet is involving the Department in conflicts of interests related to harassment of Leader Technologies. Photo: Commerce Dept.

Pritsker and other senior Commerce officials are part of a massive pre-IPO Facebook “dark pools” investing scheme

Neither the "dark pool" prospectus nor the Facebook S-1 made a single mention of investors risks associated with Leader v. Facebook—the only case against Facebook to go to the Supreme Court; and despite the devastating ruling of literal infringement against Facebook on 11 of 11 claims.

NASDAQ did not report the dark pools held by federal judges, senior S.E.C. and Commerce Dept. officials and Russian oligarchs, among others

Fig. 5—Robert M. Groves, Commerce Director, has 19 Facebook "dark pool" interests, yet is involving the department in conflicts of interest related to Leader Technologies. Photo: Northwestern Univ.

The dark pools scheme solicited agreement from selected insider fund managers to purchase private Facebook shares more than four years in advance of the Facebook IPO. These funds then likely tipped off selected fund managers, judges, politicians and bureaucrats to this plan and invited them to invest four years early.

The ethics rules are clear. Public employees are required to avoid even the appearance of impropriety. At minimum, the Department of Commerce conduct reeks of impropriety.

Bottom line, hundreds of Obama administration political appointees and select federal judges were invited into this Facebook investing club. See summary of Obama appointees and judicial holdings.

It is difficult to fathom the extent of negative impact of these hidden agendas on the operations of government.

Commerce Dept. is duty bound to recuse itself from all matters related to Leader Technologies

The Department of Commerce must recuse itself from any and all matters related to Leader Technologies. Penny S. Pritzker has 30 investments in Facebook interests totaling up to $23.4 million. See below.

Pritzker’s predecessor at Commerce, Rebbeca M. Blank, has 40 investments in Facebook interests (TIAA-CREF, Fidelity and Vanguard).

Pritsker’s staff is part of the Facebook Club too

Fig. 6—Kathryn W. Siehndel, Patent Office FOIA Officer (Freedom of Information Act). She has been stonewalling numerous requests for information about Leader v. Facebook while failing to disclose that she was formerly employed by Facebook's attorney White & Case LLP. Shockingly, the Commerce Department Inspector General said recently that this conflict of interest was acceptable, but somehow failed to apply the "appearance of impropriety" standard. Perhaps he needs an ethics refresher. Photo: Faces of the Facebook Corruption.

• Commerce General Counsel, Cameron F. Kerry, has 23 investments in Facebook interests;

• Commerce Director, Robert M. Groves, 19 investments in Facebook interests;

• Commerce Patent Office Director, David J. Kappos, has 14 investments in Facebook interests. In addition, David J. Kappos was the former chief counsel at IBM, a major Facebook stakeholder;

• Patent Office FOIA officer, Kathryn W. Siehndel, who is currently stonewalling FOIA requests, was employed by Facebook’s law firm, White & Case LLP; and

• Administrative judge in Leader v. Facebook, Stephen C. Siu, was employed at Microsoft, another major Facebook stakeholder.

Penny S. Pritzker is more than $23.4 million conflicted re. Leader Technologies

The following summary was extracted from Pritzker’s 251-page disclosure. It includes a 67 page amendment after she “forgot to disclose” $80 million in trusts. Unfortunately, the trust disclosures are a sham since none of them disclose the holdings of these trusts.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD: Penny S. Pritzker, OGE Form 278 Financial Disclosure, May 8, 2013

Fig. 7—Penny S. Pritzker's 2013 Office of Government Ethics Form 278 Financial Disclosure. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Act Now! File complaints online to the Commerce Department Inspector General, and with your Congresspersons and Senators

Fig. 8—Stephen C. Siu, Patent Office Administrative Judge. Siu was assigned by Director David J. Kappos to the unprecedented 3rd Leader patent reexamination requested by Facebook. However, Siu failed to disclose that he worked formerly for Microsoft, a huge Facebook stakeholder and beneficiary in the Facebook IPO. Siu's duty was to recuse himself. Instead, he is making rulings as if he is unbiased. Photo: Faces of the Facebook Corruption.

AFI readers are encouraged to file complaints with Inspector General Todd J. Zinser. We suggest you  attach the PDF of this post and attach it to your complaint letter. There is no one right way to send in the complaint. Just write it in your own words the best you can.

It remains unclear whether Mr. Zinser is a member of the Facebook Club. So, in the meantime he will be given the benefit of the doubt.

Make the noise grow louder and louder

Be sure to send copies of your complaint to your elected Congressperson and Senators. Also, send a copy to the House Oversight Committee led by Representative Darrell Issa CA-49th), and Representative Jim Jordan (OH-4th)

If you have been sitting on the sidelines on these Leader matters, don’t any longer. These corrupt Washington officials believe no one will hold them accountable.

Let’s prove them wrong.

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SECURITIES CHAIR MARY L. SCHAPIRO KNEW FACEBOOK AND ITS IPO WERE FRAUDS

Schapiro sanctioned the 500-shareholder exemption so her 51 Facebook fund boats would all float in the IPO

Contributing Writers | OPINION | AMERICANS FOR INNOVATION  | Updated Mar. 10, 2014 11:43 a.m. | Updated PDF (post Scribd censorship)

Facebook IPO ''Dark Pools'' Uncovered

Update, Dec. 28, 2013—"Dark pools" discovered as the source of Washington's insider trading. Ever wondered how federal judges, politicians and senior bureaucrats get rich while they are in public service? This is the dirty little secret of Wall Street and S.E.C. insiders like Mary L. Schapiro.

Heads Up: The more regulators and Wall Street talk about "transparency," the more they appear to be ripping off the public behind closed doors.

Fig. 1—Mary L. Schapiro, Chair, U. S. Securities & Exchange Commission, at her official announcement, Jan. 27, 2009. Schapiro failed to disclose her holdings in 51 funds that were permitted to purchase pre-IPO Facebook insider stock via a critical exemption from the firmly established 500-shareholder rule. Like she did when whistle-blowers came to her about Bernie Madoff, she ignored clear warnings of the Facebook fraud in the run up to the Facebook IPO. The truth is, she already knew about the collusion, and had been a participant for many years through her personal investments in 51 of the secret accounts. In fact, she appears to have loaded up more than all her collaborators, seconded only by Commerce Secretary Rebecca M. Blank who has 40 secret accounts. Photo: Wall Street Journal.

Click here for a full list of Obama political appointees and Leader v. Facebook federal judges and their Facebook Basket Fund financial hodlings in 2008-2012.

Busy feathering her own nest

(Dec. 20, 2013)—New evidence shows that during the SEC’s so-called pre-IPO oversight of Facebook, Mary L. Schapiro, Chair of the SEC and her staff, were colluding with Facebook-friendly third party funds. They were using insider knowledge to position their personal holdings for big IPO paydays. Sadly, they collaborated in the theft of Facebook core technology from Ohio innovator Leader Technologies' investors to do it.

U.S. Law Optional

Readers should keep in mind that Schapiro is the same FINRA and SEC regulator who was never held accountable for missing Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme. She even admitted ethical shortcomings to Congress on Mar. 10, 2011 (New York Times) (PDF) promising to turn over a new leaf. However, conduct in the Facebook IPO disclosure is just more of the same nonsense, with sophistry like saying she must go "beyond what may be required in any given situation." She continued: “We will learn from this experience and will take all actions necessary to earn the trust that the public places in us.” Double take: She impled that following ethics laws was conditional, but that she was working to earn our trust nonetheless. Why didn't Congress impeach her on the spot? By this time, the Facebook Club boats were in full sail.

Fig. 2—Mary L. Schapiro, Chair, SEC, only pretended to regulate "dark pools" while participating personally in the Facebook dark pool run by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, at the direction of James W. Breyer, Accel Partners LLP, and Lawrence "Larry" Summers, we believe. Graphic: Themis Trading.

See Full Schapiro Senate Testimony, Mar. 10, 2011; see also Full Schapiro House Testimony, Sep. 22, 2011 following revelations that S.E.C. Chief Counsel David M. Becker had told Schapiro about Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme in 2009. Were Schapiro and Madoff Facebook "Friends" too?

Schapiro: Do as I say, not as I do – re. "Dark Pools"

• "Investor trust is the lifeblood of our financial markets." Mary L. Schapiro, CEO, FINRA, Dec. 18, 2008.

• "Good morning. Today we are tackling another item on our agenda to protect investors and bring greater transparency to our markets... Transparency is a cornerstone of the U.S. securities market... transparency plays a vital role in promoting public confidence in the honesty and integrity of financial markets" [speaking on "dark pool regulation;" pools in which she participated personally via Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley re. Facebook pre-IPO stock]." Mary L. Schapiro, Chairman, SEC, Oct. 21, 2009.

• Recusal is required when a regulator participates in recommendations from which he or she could benefit personally. Mary L. Schapiro did not recuse herself from Goldman Sachs' and Morgan Stanley's Facebook dark pool activities, yet she benefited personally. This renders the entire Facebook IPO a scam of the highest order. Schapiro told Congress on Sep. 22, 2011 (p. 31) that she agreed with this principle and regretted her failure to act. She admitted it was a mistake not to require the recusal of her Chief Counsel David M. Becker from policy making after the Madoff Scandal. Becker's late mother's estate (and therefore Becker) was a beneficiary in the Madoff settlement over which Becker was making policy.

• "We have proposed rules that would strengthen our regulation of dark pools of liquidity." Mary L. Schapiro, Chairman, SEC, Jan. 20, 2010.

• "the American people... need to believe and understand that there is a watchdog who is watching out for their interests." Mary L. Schapiro, Senate Hearing, p. 13, para. 1, Mar. 10, 2011.

Fig. 3—James "Jamie" Brigagliano resigned from the S.E.C three days before Mary L. Schapiro's Sep. 22, 2011 House testimony. He had been with the S.E.C. for 25 years. He was one of the lead rule makers for "dark pools." What did he know and when? Photo: Sidley Austin.

• "Ms. Schapiro: Congressman, if I could just add, I think one of the important things we can do, and it goes back to the comment about setting the [ethics] tone at the top, is really heightening our employees' — all of our employees' — awareness to the impropriety or the appearance issues generally . . . I feel confident that we have in place the processes and the procedures that will help us prevent something like this [ignoring S.E.C. staff conflicts of interest] from happening again." House Hearing, pp. 17, 31, para. 3, Sep. 22, 2011.

• Here is what one FINRA industry watchdog said about Schapiro's self-described "vigorous rulemaking agenda" (p. 7, para. 2) at the time of her Sep. 22, 2011 House testimony. Her chief lieutenant, James "Jamie" Brigagliano, had just resigned three days before her testimony, after 25 years at the SEC: "Is it a sad testimony that such a large cottage industry has been created, in which complex rules are crafted, which may or [may] not help the market and its structure, which then require navigating by the very insiders that helped craft those rules?" Themis Trading, para. 2, Sep. 20, 2011.

Fig. 4—David S. Shillman, Associate Director of the Division of Trading & Markets, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), provided policy recommendations to Mary L. Schapiro regarding regulation of "dark pools," working side by side with James A. Brigagliano and Thomas J. Kim of Facebook 500-shareholder exemption fame. Photo: WatersTechnology.

• Sidley Austin LLP appears to be the SEC public comment "straight man" for the Facebook Club—when they need to make their manipulation of the SEC appear transparent. For example, they sponsored "SEC Speaks" on Feb. 5, 2010 in Washington D.C. where many of the Facebook Club actors were present, including opening remarks by Mary L. Schapiro, and also including James A. Brigagliano (who later went to work for Sidley), David S. Shillman, and Thomas J. Kim (who just went to work for Sidley in August). On Oct. 14, 2008, Kim, as Chief Counsel, had approved the unprecedented Facebook's 500-shareholder exemption.

In this Sidley meeting, Kim was pressing the Facebook Club agenda by proposing that underwriters could pre-sell offerings before they were registered, which is exactly what Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley did in the three-year run-up to the Facebook IPO. This proposal violates every common sense rule in the book regarding full disclosure. The fact that he even proposed it should have gotten him fired. (Reminder: like Barack Obama, Thomas J. Kim was an editor of the Harvard Law Review just after Obama.)

(On Aug. 8, 2013, Thomas J. Kim left the S.E.C. and joined Brigagliano at ... Sidley Austin LLP. [The duplicity of these actors is becoming predictable.] In 2008, Kim failed to disclose that he was formerly employed by Latham & Watkins LLP, attorney to James W. Breyer, Accel Partners LLP, Facebook's financier and second largest shareholder. Such a conflict dictated recusal. Instead, he issued the unprecedented exemption to Facebook that opened the pre-IPO "dark pool" trading by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan. This trading included $2-4 billion (or more, no one knows the full extent of the "dark pool" since disclosure was selective) in dubious Russian oligarch investing that pumped the Facebook valuation artificially. According to investors interviewed by AFI who received the Goldman dark pool prospectus, there was no mention of the Leader v. Facebook patent infringement case that was then pending at the Federal Circuit. Subsequently, it was learned that all three judges had holdings in the Facebook dark pool, sometimes called the Facebook Club Basket of Funds.)

• S.E.C. Public Comment Charade: On Mar. 4, 2010, a month later, the SEC's James A. Brigagliano and David S. Shillman, continued their "public comment" charade by hosting Morgan Stanley executives, who proposed enough "dark pool" gobbledygook to make a process engineer cough a hairball, and to certainly throw off even the most seasoned corruption watcher. Morgan's proposal was a total mess, but was largely adopted as policy. The evident strategy was to conceal the Facebook IPO agenda of their task masters at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Fenwick & West LLP, Accel Partners LLP, and Sidley Austin LLP.

[A common denominator here is that ALL of these individuals are attorneys with no moral backbone. The more they talk about "concern for the trust of the American investor," the deeper they are in the Facebook "dark pool."]

Schaprio's Facebook stock scheme was in full sail by 2008 . . . Motto: If we're going to be corrupt, then let's go all the way!

Too corrupt to fail?

Photo: The Florida Keys and Key West

Also keep in mind as you read Schapiro's testimony that she is personally holding shares, at that moment, in 51 Facebook basket fund boats that will all be floated by the coming Facebook IPO. She cries wolf in her attempts to be given more funds to catch more bad guys. But the bad guys are really her and her staff, most notably Chief Counsel Thomas J. Kim, who signed the Oct. 14, 2008 Facebook exemption.)

Schapiro's comments to Congress may have been Freudian, since she and her Facebook Club collaborators were, indeed, "looking around the next corner, looking beyond the horizon, and thinking above and beyond what may be appropriate advice from ethics counsel." [Wow. The smoke from this gun is noxious.]

Schapiro's ethical lapses are lucrative. When she left FINRA to head the SEC, having conpletely missed the $64 billion Madoff Ponzi scheme, she was paid a $9 million bonus nonetheless, although the number could have been as high as $25 million, according to her 2009 financial disclosure. Such industry duplicity is mindboggling.

The duplicity of Mary L. Schapiro

In what appears now to be a carefully timed scheme, Schapiro was appointed to her post by President Obama on Jan. 20, 2009. Just three months earlier, on Oct. 14, 2008, SEC Chief Counsel Thomas J. Kim, a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, same as Barack Obama, had issued to Facebook an unprecedented exemption from the sacrosanct 500-shareholder rule. See previous post. On May 26, 2009, Goldman Sachs' Russian oligarch partner, Yuri Milner, spearheaded the first $200 million of what would become billions of dollars of private investing in pre-IPO Facebook stock.

This unprecedented pre-IPO activity pumped the valuation. Mary L. Schaprio only closed her eyes, covered her mouth and plugged her ears. Even the normally Facebook-friendly Techcrunch took note that Milner's association with the Russian Bank Menatep was conspicuously missing from his bio. The bank was caught diverting $4.8 billion in IMF funds. Strangely, Techcrunch didn't mention another Bank Menatep charge: laundering $10 billion in Russian Mafia funds. Did Schaprio investigate to protect Americans from this evident fraud? Apparently she was too busy "looking around the next corner" ... to her Facebook IPO winnings.

Fig. 5—Michael McKibben, Chairman & Founder, Leader Technologies speaking at Pärnu Conferences, Pärnu Estonia on Oct. 10, 2013.

Photo: Eesti Päevaleht (Estonia Daily), Urmas Kamdro.

Fenwick & West LLP, who were also the former attorneys for Columbus inventor Leader Technologies—the true inventors of social networking—filed for the exemption on Facebook’s behalf.

Fenwick & West did not disclose this astounding lawyer conflict of interest, in violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

Thomas J. Kim failed to disclose that he was formerly employed by Latham & Watkins LLP, attorney to Facebook’s then chairman and second largest shareholder, James W. Breyer.

Thomas J. Kim’s silence violated his signed ethics commitment under the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, 5 C.F.R. Part 2635.

Schapiro allowed Goldman Sachs to make an unregulated market in private Facebook stock to James W. Breyer’s friends, incl. T.Rowe PRice, FidelitY, Vanguard & TIAA-CREF

This unprecedented Thomas J. Kim S.E.C. exemption for Facebook was used by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley to make a private, unregulated market in billions of dollars in Facebook insider stock. Then, when questions were asked about whether or not these transactions violated U.S. securities laws (see May 2, 2012 whistle blower complaint, p. 9), Goldman slammed the door on their U.S. clients (PDF). They brokered the sale of Facebook insider stock to third parties, including their Russian oligarch partner, Alisher Usmanov. At the same time, James W. Breyer’s secret club of funds invested, including Fidelity, T.RowePrice, Vanguard, TIAA-CREF and Blackrock (the “Facebook Club”). Of course, Schapiro in her duplicity, declined to investigate these transactions that make Bernie Madoff look like a school yard prankster.

Mark Zuckerberg’s former speech writer, Katherine Losse, said in her book The Boy Kings that Facebook employees were essentially ordered to sell their shares and ask no questions.

T.Rowe Price bought 5.2% of Facebook’s pre-IPO shares

On Feb. 1, 2012, Facebook S-1 Registration disclosed on page 127 (on the May 16, 2012 Facebook S-1 Amendment No. 8 the disclosure is on page 145):

“T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., 6,033,630 Class A shares, 5.2% and 12,158,743 Class B shares”

The footnote on p. 128 states that the Class A shares are held by 81 T.RowePrice funds, and the Class B shares by 77 T.RowePrice funds.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD: Mary L. Schapiro, OGE Form 278 Financial Disclosure, 2008, submitted Jan. 12, 2009


On Apr. 16, 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal, "T. Rowe declined to comment on how the Facebook shares were purchased (PDF). A Facebook spokesman declined to comment." Zuckerberg's former speech writer, Katherine Losse, said in her book The Boy Kings that Facebook employees were essentially ordered to sell their shares, and ask no questions. Evidently the Facebook 20-somethings had not developed a moral backbone, or had no concept of their ethical duty to blow the whistle on this corruption. Thank you James W. Breyer and Co. for corrupting an otherwise promising generation of young people.

Schapiro ignored whistle blower warnings—she was too busy feathering her OWN nest

AFI has obtained whistle blower reports warning the SEC of the Facebook pre-IPO fraud in its failure to disclose Leader v. Facebook. This fraud is in addition to the fraud complaint in the class action suit over Facebook’s concealment of mobile advertising assessments. See latest ORDER: In Re Facebook Inc., IPO Securities and Derivative Litigation, Case 1:13-cv-04016-RWS (S.D.N.Y.), Dec. 12, 2013.

Fig. 7—Mary L. Schapiro, Chair, Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), breakdown of holdings in the Facebook Club of funds established by James W. Breyer, Managing Partner, Accel Partners LLP, along with his fellow directors at the National Venture Capital Association (NCVA), Robert C. Ketterson (Fidelity), Anne Rockhold (Vanguard) and Ann H. Lamont (Meritech, Oak Investments, Castlight Health, Athenahealth (ObamaCare/HealthCare.gov). See previous posts.

On Apr. 17, 2012 (SEC Whistle-blower Complaint, Ref. No. TCR1334705074400), Schapiro was warned about the likely collusion and insider trading activity among Facebook principals, lawyers and underwriters, including their failure to disclose in the S-1 the results of the Leader Technologies, Inc. v. Facebook, Inc. split verdict where Facebook was found guilty of literal infringement on 11 of 11 claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,139,761 (the highest form of infringement). This occurred despite the fact that Facebook concealed 28 hard drives of Zuckerberg evidence that they said was lost, which is now known to be a lie.

On May 2, 2012, (SEC Whistle-blower Complaint, Ref. No. TCR1335967891507, p. 104), Schapiro was provided a copy of this complaint previously sent to the Goldman Sachs’ compliance officer by a licensed broker dealer on the lack of disclosure of the intellectual property risks.

On May 3, 2012, (SEC Whistle-blower Complaint, Ref. No. TCR1336081478379), p. 119), Schapiro was provided an overview of the Business Judgment Rules that were likely being broken by the Facebook insiders.

On May 7, 2012, (SEC Whistle-blower Complaint, Ref. No. TCR1336411301942,, p. 133), Schapiro was provided proof of longstanding conflicts of interest among Facebook, a Russian oligarch, Lawrence “Larry” Summers, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan.

Despite these substantial warnings, neither Schapiro nor her staff responded to any of these complaints.

Now we know why, Schapiro was feathering her own investment nest by promoting the Facebook IPO, and protecting it from all assaults on its illegitimacy.

Schapiro failed to disclose her substantial Facebook Club stock holdings

Schapiro failed to disqualify herself, or divest herself, of her 51 holdings in T.RowePrice, Fidelity, Vanguard and TIAA-CREF funds that she valued at up to $4.4 million in 2008. Twenty-seven (27) of Schapiro’s holdings were in T.RowePrice, a 5.2% pre-IPO owner of Facebook.

Not so coincidentally, the Federal Circuit Chief Judge in Leader v. Facebook, Alan D. Lourie, holds 22 Facebook Club funds. District Court Judge Leonard P. Stark holds 9 Facebook Club funds. Chief Justice John G. Roberts holds 21 Facebook Club funds.

Sound ethical practices are a prerequisite for fixing a broken government

When will American law and business enforce conflict of interest laws? We have no hope of fixing our problems in Washington until we enforce sound ethical principles. One cannot build a solid house on a crumbling foundation.

Let's start with long time SEC Chair, Mary L. Schapiro. Her misconduct opened these floodgates of corruption.

The Facebook handlers have been buying off America's best and brightest for more than a decade in their quest to construct an empire founded on murder (U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry by Fast and Furious weapons), greed and corruption. Clearly, Mary L. Schapiro does not think anyone will hold her accountable. So far, she's right.

Let's change that.

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Comment

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FAST AND FURIOUS JUDGE TIED TO ASSAULT WEAPON SALES BY JPMORGAN CLIENT

D.C. Judge Amy B. Jackson is mired in conflicts of interest directed by the Facebook Deep State shadow government

Contributing Writers | OPINION | AMERICANS FOR INNOVATION  | Updated Mar. 17 | PDF

Fig. 1—D.C. District Judge Amy B. Jackson (maiden name: Amy Sauber Berman) holds stock in JPMorgan which benefited from AR-15 assault rifle sales in Operation Fast and Furious. She also holds 24 investments in funds under the direct influence of Facebook's largest shareholder, former director and evident strategist, James W. Breyer, Accel Partners LLP, Palo Alto CA. Breyer's father, John P. Breyer, is chairman of IDG-Accel-China. This places Judge Jackson's conflicts of interest under risk of foreign influence in U.S. elections, healthcare, financial transactions, communications and the judiciary.

Photo: Legal Times.

(Dec. 17, 2013)—Judge Amy B. Jackson, DC District Court, has stonewalled the House Oversight Committee's subpoena for documents related to the U.S. Justice Department's ill-fated Fast and Furious operation. She is yet another Harvard Law graduate in the ever-growing White House corruption scandal.

Tragically, U.S. border guard Brian Terry was killed in Peck Canyon, Arizona on Dec. 15, 2010 by an AR-15 assault rifle. This weapon was part of a cache of weapons trafficked to Mexican drug cartels under Fast and Furious. Mr. Terry's family has been stonewalled as well.

On Jun. 26, 2012 by House Resolution No. 706, Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents regarding Fast and Furious. Since then, Judge Jackson has stalled the Committee's efforts to get the documents through the courts.

Judge Jackson’s evident protection of the administration has led investigators to learn more about her.

Senate financial disclosures expose the corruption—follow the money

Judge Jackson’s 2009 Senate confirmation financial disclosure reveals a whopping 162 fund holdings that she valued up to $4.34 million. Similarly, and on an even greater scale, Eric Holder’s 2009 disclosure shows his ownership of 22 funds valued up to $22.4 million. How is it possible for licensed public servants to generate such holdings in their spare time? The recent movie Inside Job comes to mind. Insider trading is supposed to be illegal, except, it seems, for those assigned to investigate such unethical and illegal practices. (Jackson Funds XLS | Holder Funds XLS).

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD: Amy B. Jackson aka Amy Sauber Berman, Financial Disclosure Report for Calendar Year 2009, submitted Jun. 17, 2010

Fig. 2—D.C. District Court Judge Amy B. Jackson (maiden name: Amy Sauber Berman) Senate Financial Disclosure, 2009. Her holdings include the following Facebook Deep State Basket Funds: Blackrock, Fidelity (Robert C. Ketterson, former director of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), JPMorgan, Microsoft, T.RowePrice, Vanguard (Anne Rockhold, NCVA director). James W. Breyer, Accel Partners LLP, Managing Partner, former NCVA chairman is the ringleader, along with Lawrence "Larry" Summers, former director of Obama's National Economic Council, of the Facebook Deep State funds.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder's 2009 Financial Disclosure shows substantial holdings in Fidelity and T.RowePrice Facebook Deep State Basket Funds. (Jackson Funds XLS | Holder Funds XLS).

Fig. 3—District of Columbia Judge Amy B. Jackson's conflicts of interest re. Fast & Furious and other Obama administration matters. Padding of personal investments appear to be driving U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder and U.S. D.C. District Court Judge Amy B. Jackson, not justice for the late U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry. These lawyers do take care of themselves, at the expense of the American citizenry, sadly. These abuses must be stopped, systemically. Placing a majority of laypeople in charge of attorney disciplinary committees will be a good start. The DC Bar Association's attorney discipline inaction now makes them an accomplice in these illegalities. They "declined to investigate" the judicial misconduct in Leader v. Facebook.

Amy B. Jackson has 24 investments in the Facebook Deep State basket of funds, namely Fidelity, T.RowePrice, Blackrock, JP Morgan, Microsoft, IBM, TIAA-CREF and Vanguard. Eric H. Holder has 16. SEC Chair Mary L. Shapiro has 49. Commerce Secretary Rebecca M. Blank has 40. National Economic Council’s former chair Lawrence “Larry” Summers has 25. Federal Circuit Chief Judge Alan D. Lourie has 22. Chief Justice John G. Roberts has 17.

The correlation of Jackson’s and Holder’s holdings place them under the common influence of James W. Breyer, Accel Partners LLP, Facebook’s largest shareholder, former director and evident puppet master. This would explain why Attorney General Holder has systematically failed to investigate the judicial misconduct in Leader v. Facebook. It is because he holds investments in the same basket of Facebook Deep State funds as all the judges in that case, as well as many Obama political appointees (see recent posts), including many senior people involved with Obamacare.

Judge Jackson holds stock in JPMorgan—a beneficiary of Fast and Furious AR-15 weapon sales

Specific to Fast and Furious, Judge Jackson holds an investment in JPMorgan (No. 89, alpha; No. 56, original "JPM-Z"). She did not disclose the value of that holding. In fact, of the 162 funds disclosed, she failed to disclose the value of 49 funds or 30.3% of her holdings.

Eric Holder’s Justice Department recently settled with JPMorgan civilly over its inappropriate behavior in the 2008 bank bailout. Billions in that “settlement” are being doled out to political supporters of the Obama administration. One wonders if the JPMorgan shareholders approved of this private deal between Eric Holder and JPMorgan CEO, Jamie Dimon—two more Harvard alums. Judge Jackson is also a Harvard alum.

These overlapping conflicts demand recusal by both Jackson and Holder in the Fast and Furious matter.

Harvard alumni status should be a conflict of interest requiring automatic recusal

JPMorgan was one of the Facebook IPO underwriters, along with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (see Facebook S-1 SEC disclosure, Feb. 1, 2012, listing JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley). Goldman Sachs’ CEO is Lloyd Blankfein, another Harvard alum. So is former Goldman CEO Hank Paulson.

On Oct. 19, 2011, according to a JPMorgan press release, Judge Jackson's company was appointed exclusive fund manager to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., "one of the world’s leading private equity firms." Cerberus manufactures the AR-15 assault rifle.

Fig. 4—Judge Amy B. Jackson's JPMorgan investment benefits from Fast & Furious Mexican blood money, via JPMorgan's clients Cerberus Capital Management LP, Talecris Therapeutics and Facebook. Photo: Bloodbanker.com.

At the time of Agent Terry’s murder, Cerberus also owned Talecris Biotherapeutics (see Telacris S-1 SEC disclosure, Jul. 27, 2007, listing JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley). This company set up at least 15 blood harvesting “plasma centers” along the U.S./Mexico border in Arizona and Texas. We are not making this up.

Unconscionably, Talecris exploits poor Mexican migrant workers who sell their blood for $60 a week. The market value to Talecris is estimated at 10 times the purchase price in blood product derivatives.

Cerberus merged Talecris into Spain-based Grifols Inc. for over $3 billion in Jun. 2011.

Given the Justice Department’s efforts to hide the evidence, the mind wanders.

You've heard of illegal African blood diamonds—here we have Mexican blood (Jamie) Dimons

As grizzly as this correlation sounds, it would appear the shipment of Cerberus' AR-15 assualt rifles to Mexican drug cartels drove poor Mexican’s north of the border to escape the increasing violence. That increased the supply of blood for Talecris and boosted their pre-merger valuation. CEO Jamie Dimon's JPMorgan, as well as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, were Cerberus’ underwriters.

Fig. 5—Talecris and Facebook SEC S-1 Registrations Statements and JPMorgan's own press releases confirm that the common interests among these companies are JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. DC District Court Judge Amy B. Jackson (Amy Sauber Berman) is currently stonewalling the House Oversight Committee on Goverment Reform in their attempts (for over a year now) to determine the responsible persons in the U.S. Justice Department. Attorney General Eric H. Holder has pulled out every trick in the book in trying to prevent this information from being disclosed to Congress and the American people, even invoking Executive Privilege. How was President Obama involved? Facebook S-1 SEC disclosure | Telacris S-1 SEC disclosure | JPMorgan Cerberus press release.

Was Agent Terry merely corrupt-finance collateral damage?

Given the timing of the Talecris $3 billion merger—only 8 months after Border Agent Terry was murdered, was Agent Terry merely collateral damage for a high-finance valuation booster program gone bad?

Whether or not Cerberus conspired to sell AR-15s to Fast and Furious to boost Talecris pre-merger valuation or not, JPMorgan benefited nonetheless.

When JPMorgan benefits, Judge Amy B. Jackson benefits because of her investment holdings. The appearance of impropriety here is off the charts. Underwriters like JPMorgan are fiduciaries and beneficiaries in the companies they represent, like Cerberus. Judge Jackson knew or should have known that the AR-15s trafficked in Fast and Furious were manufactured by a JPMorgan client. Investigators found this information in just one hour of research. Judge Jackson cannot play dumb.

Even one share dictates disqualification

The U.S. Department of Justice Guide to Judiciary Policy, Vol. 2, Part B, p. 20-2 states that a judge must withdraw from a case if she holds even one share of a stock that might affect impartiality (“Ownership of even one share of stock by the judge’s spouse would require disqualification”).

Other requirements for disqualification include: (a) when a long-time friend or friend's law firm is counsel, (b) when the stockholdings of a family member are associated with a litigant, (c) stockholdings in parent and subsidiary companies, mutual or common investment funds, (d) where service on a bar association creates an appearance of impropriety, and (e) extrajudicial joining of organizations (like the Facebook Deep State, where the judge gets insider trading knowledge).

Judges are held to a high standard regarding conflicts of interest. The law says they must keep themselves apprised of their holdings, and recuse to avoid “even the appearance of impropriety.” The Marquette Law Review states: "The objective of the Code [of Judicial Conduct] is to maintain both the reality of judicial integrity and the appearance of that reality." Vol. 79, Issue 4, Summer 1996, p. 951.

Various arguments have been voiced to excuse judges from paying attention to their investments. The most common is that one cannot generally know the holdings inside one’s mutual fund. This is generally a self-serving argument by judges and their attorney accomplices with something to hide.

Judge Amy B. Jackson must recuse herself from Fast and Furious because of her (undisclosed $$$ amount) JPMorgan interest

Investment funds all publish their holdings in each fund. So the argument that the judge cannot know the stockholdings in those funds is a smokescreen. Second, while the Judicial Conference's general discussion on this subject gravitates, all things being equal, toward the idea that mutual funds are exempt when the judge does not control the choice of investments made within the fund, that opinion is tempered. It goes on to state that "in usual circumstances, recusal may be required under Canon 3C(1)(c) because the judge has an 'interest that could be affected substanitally by the outcome of the proceeding' . . . and the outcome of the litigation could substantially increase or decrease the value of the judge's investment in the fund." (pp. 106-2/3).

Judge Amy B. Jackson's Duplicity

Judge Jackson's holding of undisclosed amounts of JPMorgan stock, yet participating in a case involving Justice Department and JPMorgan duplicity in the murder of Agent Terry, as well as participating in holdings of Facebook interests (where JPMorgan is a ring leader and Attorney General Eric H. Holder is a beneficiary)—which were part of the largest tech IPO in American history—would certainly qualify as "unusual circumstances" requiring Judge Jackson's recusal.

The viability of the Facebook holdings in the Facebook Deep State basket of funds would certainly affect Judge Jackson's investments substanially.

Another argument tries to rewrite and discount the rule to the amount of accounting dollars materiality, as in “Oh well, it’s only a small holding.”

First, Judge Jackson failed to disclose the value of her JPMorgan holding, but that does not matter anyway since holding even one share dictates disqualification, according to her own Judicial Conference ethics rules.

In addition, her common investments with Eric Holder in the basket of Facebook Deep State funds make her conflicts of interest even more serious.

* * *

Footnotes:

Amy B. Jackson (Amy Sauber Berman) Confirmation Hearing Transcript: S. Hrg. 111-695, Part 7, Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments, Congressional Committee Materials, Committee on the Judiciary, 111th Congress, July 15, July 28 and September 15, 2010, Y 4.J 89/2, Confirmation Hearing for Amy Berman Jackson, Government Printing Office, pp. v, vi, 561, 562, 566, 567, 664, 707, 865, 867, 709-759, GPO ABSTRACT, Text (259 KB) | PDF (43 MB) | GPO Authentication <http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-111shrg66720/pdf/CHRG-111shrg66720.pdf>.

Notices: This post may contain opinion. As with all opinion, it should not be relied upon without independent verification. Think for yourself. Photos used are for educational purposes only and were obtained from public sources. No claims whatsoever are made to any photo.

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