Boston Globe May 2001: FBI is stung again
Reeling from troubles in Boston and US, FBI chagrined by missing McVeigh evidence
By Boston.com Staff
and Karen Gullo, Associated Press, 05/11/01
WASHINGTON – For an agency still reeling from the discovery of an alleged spy in its ranks, the last thing the FBI needed was the disclosure that it withheld evidence from lawyers representing the man convicted of the worst act of domestic terrorism.
May 2001: Freeh admits ‘serious mistakes’
FBI chief tells Congress more McVeigh evidence withheld
ABC News 2001: Panel Examines Salvati Case
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The committee, presided over by Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., hopes to improve guidelines for the handling of informants and find ways to prevent other cases like Salvati’s. As the hearings began, Burton apologized to Salvati and said he was disturbed by both the case and a letter he received from FBI director Louis Freeh.
In the letter, which Burton read aloud, Freeh said Barboza told Rico that he would never provide information that “would allow Vincent Flemmi to fry.”
Flemmi was described by a still-unnamed informant in the reports as Barboza’s partner. The informant said Barboza and Flemmi witnessed Deegan’s slaying and claimed Flemmi told him that he wanted to take out Deegan, but was given other orders the night of the slaying.
F. Lee Bailey, who briefly represented Barboza in 1970, told the panel that he believes the FBI coached his former client.
“He told me he had quite a bit of help,” Bailey said. “I believe the testimony was furnished.”
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Penn State leaders don’t endorse Sandusky coverup findings
A year after a scathing report criticized Penn State University’s initial handling of child sexual abuse claims leveled against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, school leaders said Tuesday that they do not endorse key findings that coach Joe Paterno and three other university officials actively concealed information about Sandusky’s behavior.
Keith Masser, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, told USA TODAY’s Editorial Board that conclusions about the motivations of Paterno, former university President Graham Spanier, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Vice President Gary Schultz detailed in a report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh amounted to “speculation.”
Masser said that the board has embraced recommendations for improving operations that were contained in that same report, including establishing more rigorous institutional controls. The school has implemented 115 of the report’s 119 recommendations. But Masser said he would let “the courts decide on the coverup.”
Although the report was commissioned by the university, Keith Eckel, another university trustee, said he was “surprised that…Freeh came to conclusions as far as responsibility.”
(Cont.)
Graham Spanier sues Louis Freeh
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Penn State’s former president Graham Spanier initiated a libel and defamation case Thursday against Louis Freeh, the former FBI director who a year ago produced a report for the school that was highly critical of Spanier’s role in the child sex abuse scandal involving longtime assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
Paperwork filed in Centre County, where the school is located, disclosed little about the nature of his claims but checked off a box on a court system form that described the case as “slander/libel/defamation.”
(Cont.)
Corzine seeks to dismiss trustee’s lawsuit over MF Global collapse
By Nick Brown
Tue Jul 23, 2013 2:40pm EDT
(Reuters) – Jon Corzine and two of his top executives at defunct commodities brokerage MF Global sought Monday to have dismissed a lawsuit accusing them of hastening the firm’s 2011 collapse.
In court papers filed on Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, lawyers for Corzine, former Chief Operating Officer Bradley Abelow and former Chief Financial Officer Henri Steenkamp lambasted allegations that they acted with gross negligence as the company teetered on the brink.
Louis Freeh, the trustee that wound down MF Global’s bankrupt parent, filed the lawsuit in April, accusing Corzine of pursuing a high-risk business strategy that culminated in the brokerage’s destruction.
“Each of the defendants is protected by the business judgment rule, which serves to bar claims based precisely on the kind of Monday morning quarterbacking in which the trustee is now engaged,” the defendants said in Monday’s filing.
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Corzine Asks MF Global Judge to Dismiss Trustee Freeh’s Suit
Jon Corzine, the former head of MF Global Holdings Ltd., said a lawsuit brought by the firm’s trustee should be dismissed because he can’t be sued for what turned out to be a failed business strategy.
The trustee, Louis Freeh, sued Corzine and senior executives Bradley Abelow and Henri Steenkamp in April, accusing them of failing to oversee the futures broker, leading to its bankruptcy. Lawyers for the defendants countered in court papers filed yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that they “were at all times working to transform MF Global into a profitable business.”
The Freeh lawsuit is based on hindsight and can’t overcome the presumption that corporate officers in making business decisions act on an informed basis and in good faith, the defendants said in their court filing.
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Fact Freeh 