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23
MAY 2003 - Washington D.C.
Freedom
N.Y. Wins at the
U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
Ripple
Effect Of Contract Racial Discrimination Will Now Receive Primary
Focus
On
the legal front:
23
MAY 2003 - Washington D.C.
U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirmed the Finding of
Facts of the 3 Judges at the Armed Services Board of Contract
Appeals, that Freedom “had done nothing wrong” during its
contract period and further confirmed the ASBCA Judges’ findings
that the Department of Defense had materially breached Freedom’s
MRE Prime contract, from 1984 to 1987, at least 26 different times.
These
court decisions support Freedom’s claim that it had been
economically lynched and its business destroyed for trying to
participate as a prime contractor in the MRE Planned Producer
Program. Freedom
invested over $14.5 million to participate as one of three prime
contractors to respond in the event of war in D+90 days.
Freedom’s
plant located in the South Bronx, N.Y., employed over 442 employees
in 1985. Instead of
being allowed an equal opportunity to produce and participate in MRE
program, Freedom was given a “Rodney King style administrative
contract beating” at the hands of low level contract
administrators of the Department of Defense, and then they were
allowed to cover up their mistakes and mismanagement by wrongfully
throwing Freedom into the military contract legal system.
For over 17 years Freedom fought to unbury itself and to
reveal the real facts that took place during the contract period.
The recent court findings, ruling and decisions have
confirmed what Freedom said happened over 17 years ago.
See attached ASBCA decision #43965 dated 28 August 2001.
The
lower court, ASBCA Judges got it almost right when they awarded
Freedom over $10 million in past costs and interest.
Their calculation on the amount of the massive damages and
business destruction was left out of the award.
Freedom appealed to the United Stated Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit, who finally got it right on some major issues
but still wrong on other issues. See
attached USCA - Rumsfeld v. Freedom NY, Inc., Nos. 02-1105 &
02-1130 (Fed. Cir. May 22, 2003).
Freedom’s
Washington D.C attorneys are being dispatched back to the Court of
Appeals to have the full court correct its 3 Judge panel and then to
further correct the lower court at the ASBCA on the correct method
of calculating damages as a result of the Department of Defense’s
breaches and destruction of Freedom as a Prime Contractor to produce
military essential war items of MREs.
On
the other new legal front:
Ripple
Effect Of Contract Racial Discrimination Will Now Receive
Freedom’s Primary Focus
Freedom
has charged the Department of Defense with economically lynching a
Black Prime Contractor to create a segregated all white MRE prime
contractor industrial base. In
a recent communication to Command Flag Officers, Freedom has stated
“we are charging the Department of Defense with using
economic contract discrimination and contract fraud to get rid of a
Black Prime Contractor to create a segregated, all white,
MRE/Industrial Preparedness Program”.
Freedom
will shortly file in the Federal District Court in Washington D.C.,
a racial discrimination lawsuit for over $1 billion in economic
damages and business destruction claims and over $150 million in
lost profits because for over 20 years, “Freedom has been denied
an equal opportunity to perform and participate in Federal Programs
which uses Federal Funds”.
Stay
tuned for more events………….
26 June 2003 - New York, N.Y.
Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing en Banc
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit - Under
the Spotlight.
Henry
Thomas, President of Freedom, N.Y., Inc. says all legal eyes should
be focused on its Petition for Panel Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc
before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The
critical issue raised will be the serious legal mistakes made by the
3 Judge Panel. Freedom’s petition will show that strong precedents
exist supporting Freedom’s claim for damages, on account of its
illegal removal from the MRE IPP program, and the diversion of its
share of MRE production to a contractor who had been disqualified by
the Secretary of Labor.
If the panel fails to correct itself or the full
court sitting En Banc fails to correct the panels’ decision, Freedom
will charge the Court with racial discrimination for using double
standards in its decisions.. Freedom will show that the Court is
unwilling to award substantial damages to a black contractor while
at the same time it freely awards to white contractors, i.e., that,
while the Court has found that removal and diversion for majority
contractors amounts to a compensable breach, for minority Freedom,
forced to endure the same circumstances, the Court will make no such
finding or awards..
Freedom will take its discrimination and double
standards case to the United States Supreme Court. Freedom will seek
relief for breach of contract damages relating to the loss of its
planned producer status as well as for violation of the civil rights
of an American citizen, guaranteed under the Constitution of the
United States of America, to equal treatment under the law.
The
New York City impact
Freedom
N.Y., Inc.’s victory at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal
Circuit, proved that former NYC Mayor Ed Koch lined up on the wrong
side of New York City’s economic development effort in 1984, which
has now cost the City of New York over $1.4 billion in military
contract revenues and over 850 jobs that were targeted for the Hunts
Point section of the South Bronx, N.Y.
In
1984, Mayor Koch fought in the Bronx courts against Bronx Republican
Power House, Senator John D. Calandra, Esq. who represented Freedom
Industries, Inc. Mayor Koch chose to back the Wedtech Bronx
Political Machine over Freedom and the Pentagon in Wash. D.C.
Bronx politicians had learned through Mayor Koch, that
Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger had named Freedom Industries
as a Major MRE Prime Contractor to receive M+90 day mobilization
contracts in the interest of national defense. The Pentagon was
going to keep Freedom in business and available in the event of war
or national emergency to produce MRE combat rations for our nations
front line combat troops. Vivid and detailed stories of the court
battle were carried weekly in the Amsterdam News and the VILLAGE
VOICE. The heated court battle also landed front page in the New
York Law Journal with Koch being accused of meddling in the Bronx
Court legal system.
As
Freedom refused to give in to the Bronx Political Machine’s
demands for stock in the company, Mayor Koch evicted Freedom for not
having a signed lease knowing that the Biaggi Law Firm was handling
the lease signing for Freedom. The Bronx Political Machine was
holding the lease at 600 Food Center Drive Hunts Point plant as a
hostage through the Bronx Borough President, to gain the stock in
Freedom. Mayor Koch was
supporting the Bronx Political Machine when U.S. Attorney Rudolph
Guiliani started his investigation into the Bronx leaders who were
trying to shake down Freedom for stock ownership in exchange for a
long term building lease, political favors, protection, and special
governmental treatment. Freedom notified Koch of the shakedown while
the Pentagon notified NYC of imminent contract award upon signing
the lease. When Freedom
refused to turn over the stock, the Bronx Political Machine had
Mayor Koch evict Freedom from the 200,000 sq. ft. NYC owned building
at 600 Food Center Drive Hunts Point Bronx N.Y., on trumped up
charges, after Freedom had been allowed to invest over 2 million
dollars in start-up leasehold improvements in return for promised
NYC rent credits.
Freedom
then moved to a larger 400,000 square foot building in the Bronxdale
Ave area, leaving over $2 million in the Hunts Point facility.
The Pentagon then awarded Freedom a startup $17 million MRE
Prime contract to create over 440 jobs, and to train employees to
produce and ship out over 6 million MRE combat food rations to the
Department of Defense. The Bronx Political Machine was not yet
through with Freedom and set up administrative roadblocks with the
N.Y. Office of the SBA and setup payment problems with the local New
York Defense Contract Administrative payment offices. As a result,
Freedom, as a business, was destroyed by the ways in which its
contract was administered and paid by low level contracting officers
being influenced by Major General Bernard Ehrlich, a two star
national guard General and partner in the Biaggi Law Firm who had
demanded Freedoms stock. Freedom
then sued the Department of Defense for breach of contract, a
lawsuit that has lasted over 17 years.
Later
in 1988, U.S. Attorney Rudy Guiliani convicted the Bronx Politicians
and sent Bronx Borough President, Stanley Simon to jail along with
Congressmen, Mario Biaggi and the Head of the N.Y. Region of the
S.B.A, for actually shaking down Wedtech.
“It
has taken Freedom over 17 years in the military administrative
contract legal system to prove in court that the local N.Y. Office
of the Defense Contract Management Agency acted improper under the
contract and caused the destruction of Freedom and the loss of over
442 jobs in the South Bronx”, says Cicero Wilson, of Atlanta GA, and former Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise
Institute, in Wash. D.C.
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has upheld the lower
court’s 3 judges ruling at the Armed Services Board of Contracts
Appeals that, “they could not find anything which Freedom
did wrong during the contract period” and that it was the
government itself that “breached Freedom’s contract over
26 different times”. said
Frank Francois a retired US Army Colonel and a former Chief, War
Plans and Forces on the Army Staff and a Division Chief, Logistics
Division in the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon.
He is also a Senior VP in Freedom N.Y., Inc. and Head of Freedom N.Y.'s
Washington D.C. office.
“These
court decisions will now lead to the correct amount of monies due to
Freedom,” says Jordan Fishbane, an Army Audit Agency, CPA who
served as an expert witness on accounting systems in the lower court
case.
Freedom’s
accountants estimate its military contract revenue losses, over the
last 17 years, at over $1.4 billion dollars and over $150 million
dollars in profits. “The
impact and economic ripple effect to NYC’s local economy is eight
times that loss,” says Linda Jones
Freedom
N.Y., Inc. is now in high-level negotiations with the Department of
Defense to restart its operations in the South Bronx, N.Y.
……………………………………..
Wedtech
The
name Wedtech has become synonymous with corporate corruption and
political sleaze.
Three
books have been written on the Wedtech scandal in the Bronx over the
years:.
Feeding
the Beast:
By
Marilyn W. Thompson
This
is a well-written account of the Bronx political / business scandal.
Too
Good to Be True:
The Outlandish Story of Wedtech
By James Traub
Traub,
a freelance N.Y. journalist, skillfully explains why in this sordid
tale of white-collar crime. He shows how a machine shop engaged in
``nickel and dime'' work in a South Bronx slum was transformed
through massive deceit, bribery and influence peddling by people in
high places into a $100-million defense contractor whose founder, an
uneducated Puerto Rican, was lauded by President Reagan as a ``hero
for the 80s.'' Traub tells how John Mariotta, with his business
partners and political allies--only one of them a fellow
Hispanic--exploited a government program setting aside Pentagon
contracts for minority-run businesses. After defrauding both its
stockholders and the government, the company declared bankruptcy in
1986, but by that time, federal investigators were dissecting its
affairs. After six trials, the company's top executives and their
outside conspirators--including two Bronx Congressmen, the Bronx
borough president and a New York National Guard general--were
convicted of charges ranging from extortion to fraud and were
jailed.
Feeding
Frenzy
Is
the other book about Wedtech, written by, William Sternberg and
Matthew C. Harrison Jr.
April 2002 Richard Thomas (right below) became a New York University
student Senator in his sophomore year.
28 AUGUST 2001 - Mount Vernon N.Y.
Richard
W. Thomas
smiles as the news of the Armed Services Board of
Contract Appeals
Award reaches his ears. (see story below) Richard (left)
is an Economics
& Finance Major at NYU. |
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