It was just too ridiculous: "We have a formula for these cases." I bit my tongue hard when they said that because I had some choice commentary ready.
I have gotten virtually terrible advice from a large number of law firms - and I have spoken with dozens of them. I hate to say it but when my former counsel, very prominent, bailed out and breached our retainer agreement, they said: "When we leave, you'll find it very difficult to find any except a second-rate law firm to take your case." Prophetic words and I am not naive about their power. One firm, which knows them well, well their partner so-called considering representing me stated that my case "has problems" and I said OK if you're going to play Devil's Advocate I understand, please outline them. So he tells me that disgorgement is not available under RICO. I responded that oh yes it is in the Fifth Circuit and cited case law in support. Then he says OK but you don't have the evidence and I said you must be joking let's see here I filed more than 10,000 pages of evidence in EDVA, have a kickback contract, have Rea admitting it all in writing, and have some other things I'm not telling you until trust is established and that's going to take some doing after what has happened.
One lawyer I know and trust said maybe you should really consider going this alone right through trial, maybe with of counsel assistance if you need it, because no one knows this case like you do with all the time you put in (10,000+ hours now and counting).
You know, I've moved past corporations and am targeting the individuals, you obviously noticed that, which strike-suit firms are loathe to do, because that means much more work, and it also makes you a large number of personal enemies, going after individuals, but the fact is who is most responsible, not just legally, but morally? In my case, that's very clear: Berber, Moor and Rea, especially Berber and Moor. That's why this is culminating in their facing the bench to answer for what they did, no hiding behind anyone or any entity, I've already unraveled Berber's assets to a great extent and shortly will delve deeper into that aspect of this litigation, but if he tries to hightail it out of here back to Ireland I've got E.U. lawyers ready for that. Since 9/11 hiding assets through shell corp.'s has become much more difficult, and many of the Patriot Act laws go far beyond only terrorists, they apply to all sorts of crimes, including financial fraud. And Berber should know that my father, an international attorney, is on very good terms with quite a few of his World Bank and IMF colleagues, who are renowned experts on offshore banking law. Bad luck old boy :-).
I asked my former counsel to name some individuals and I practically had to pull teeth to get them to do it. It was just absurd: go and hit the corporations for huge damages when maybe it's not the corporation who should really be the final target, but the individuals. And I suspect now that Berber and Moor lied to a certain company's board of directors, including the former and present Secretaries of State, respectively George Schultz and Condoleeza Rice. No shame Berber has, you see, he'll abuse anyone to reap his illicit hoard. I am completely and absolutely certain that Mr. Schultz and Dr. Rice would have NEVER signed any sale agreements had they known what Berber had done. No way. This is how far his crime wave extended, abusing honest and honorable civil servants of this country.
Cancellation of shares. That's right. RICO is very broad, and in due course there is a good chance Berber and Moor are going to be without many friends at all, for RICO is a very broad statute, which can involve the complete dissolution of any enterprise, and disgorgement or forfeiture of all assets obtained as a result of RICO violations - whether or not the shareholders were even involved, all profits forfeit.
I've recently posted a couple of times on the XYBR board and also elsewhere about the class action sharks and their cookie cutter approach, designed to maximize hourly rate/actual work done. Settlement is usually at that point where that fraction is the highest. Look at the pleadings. Other than the few factual data paragraphs, it's all boilerplate. The rush to the courthouse is more important than the injury.
There are very few who will do shareholder derivative actions, avoid the cookie cutter approach and go after the ceo's and BOD that rape shareholders so often today. Going behind indemnity clauses and reaching D&O liability policies, as well as personal assets, disgorgement and cancellation of shares, etc., takes real work and you won't find much of that in the class action boilerplate. |
