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Showing posts with label Barnes and Thornburg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Barnes and Thornburg. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

IBM Ordered to Pay $78 Million to the State Ending Decade Long Lawsuit

Good afternoon friends! Well it appears that the decade long shit show IBM-FSSA lawsuit has come to an end. IBM has been ordered by the Indiana Supreme Court to pay $78 Million to the state over the bungled welfare privatization performed during Mitch Daniels “reign of error” as Governor. Olivia Covington over at The Indiana Lawyer gives the lowdown on this case:

In its second opinion issued in the years-long dispute between Indiana and IBM Corp. over the failed contract to create a new Hoosier welfare system, the Indiana Supreme Court has allowed IBM to collect post-judgment interest on its $49.5 million damages award. However, that interest will date back only to a 2017 judgment on remand, not the original judgment entered in the company’s favor in 2012, and only serves as an offset to the greater sum IBM owes the state.

Justice Steven David wrote for the court in the Wednesday opinion in International Business Machines Corporation v. State of Indiana, acting on behalf of the Indiana Family & Social Services Administration19S-PL-19. The justices, excluding Justice Mark Massa, heard their second round of arguments in the case in February.

At issue in the litigation is a contract between IBM and the state requiring IBM to develop a new welfare system that utilized a centralized call center to handle customer requests. The new system, colloquially known as “modernization,” was meant to be a shift away from the prior welfare system that emphasized face-to-face contact with customers.

But the state terminated the IBM contract in 2009 after modernization began experiencing problems. Instead, the state created its own welfare system, known as “hybrid,” that combined the call center with the former face-to-face model.

Both parties filed breach complaints, and the Marion Superior Court initially determined modernization’s failure was not a breach of IBM’s contract. Instead, the state was ordered in 2012 to pay IBM $49.5 million for the costs of equipment and assignment fees.

Barnes & Thornburg attorneys John Maley and Peter Rusthoven, counsel for the state in the IBM litigation, released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying they are pleased with the court’s ruling.

“Hoosiers will finally benefit from IBM’s multi-million-dollar payment of this judgment,” the statement said, referring to the $78 million owed to the state.

The article does mention the ruiling was 3-1 in favor of the state. Justice Mark Massa did not participate in the ruling since he worked as General Counsel for Governor Mitch Daniels who had ordered the IBM contract canceled. We have blogged previously on this issue once or twice before. Personally we feel that IBM was royally shafted by the state and should have not been forced to pay the state anything. On the other hand though IBM should have realized that doing business with the state was a bad idea. Especially since after IBM was given the heave ho, Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS) was put in to do the work. This was a big problem because then FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob had previously worked for ACS. Why this matter was never investigated by the US Attorneys Office in Indianapolis is a mystery to this day. Barnes and Thornburg’s role in representing the state is particularly troubling because as Paul Ogden pointed out back in 2012 that Barnes and Thornburg had lobbied the state to get ACS put in charge of the states welfare privatization project. Paul Ogden said at the time:

According to Judge Dreyer, the services provided by ACS were the major source of the complaints, Nonetheless, IBM ended up being discharged from the while ACS remained on as part of a "hybrid system."  Conveniently for ACS, a former executive theirs, Mitch Roob, headed FSSA, when IBM-ACS won the original privatization contract and yet another ACS executive, Mike Gargano, headed FSSA during the litigation over IBM's discharge.

The State, i.e. FSSA, ended up suing IBM to recover under the contract.  IBM countersued, claiming that the State breached the contact through its termination.  But who does the Daniels' administration insist the State hire to represent the State?  None other than Barnes & Thornburg the very law firm that represented ACS in lobbying to get the contract and still represents ACS to this day.  

Let me summarize what appears to have happened. ACS lobbies state officials to oust IBM so ACS can have the lucrative Medicaid privatization contract to itself.  ACS eventually succeeds.  The State sues IBM, perhaps to counter the inevitable breach of suit IBM was about to file.  After, IBM sues, the State hires Barnes & Thornburg, ACS's attorney to represent the state.

The State appears to be nothing more than a proxy for ACS. This case is essentially ACS v. IBM, yet we taxpayers are on the hook to pay Barnes & Thornburg, ACS' attorneys, $9.6 million.  That is uttterly outrageous.

Given that federal money here is involved, I too wonder why there has not been a federal investigation opened up by the FBI into this matter.  There certainly should be now that the facts here expose troubling, if not illegal, conduct by government officials and private lobbyists.

Between attorneys fees and the cost of the original contract with IBM. We estimate that the state has easily put us taxpayers on the hook for well over $500 Million. This whole mess could have been avoided if the Daniels administration had just listened to what some of his own people told him and given FSSA caseworkers new computers. Instead “Little Man” Mitch was determined to privatize food stamp delivery no matter what. Daniels and his bagman Governor “High Tax” Holcomb seem content knowing they slit the wrists of us taxpayers to feed the vampire looters and moochers who have helped through their demonic means to advance their political careers. 

Some of INDY REPUBLICANS allies in the cultural war against President Trump. Have tried to assuage our concerns about Holcomb by saying he is not on the side of Trumpian tribalism and authoritarianism. Don’t be fooled. Former Governor Mitch Daniels his boss whose legacy Holcomb carries out. Mitch Daniels created the tribalism, authoritarianism, and waste and theft of taxpayers money that would have been an embarrassment even in Tsarist Russia. We the men and women of truth, the guardians of freedom and justice for all will continue to fight until the Daniels-Holcomb Syndicate is a distant memory. 

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Oops! Mike Pence Did It As Well! The Day Mike Pence Became Hillary Clinton!

Image result for mike pence is hillary clinton meme
MIKE PENCE AS HILLARY CLINTON



Greetings Brother and Sister rabble rousers! As we have previously pointed out on this blog. The late great Gary Welsh compared Mike Pence with Rod Blagojevich. A belief we all share here at IR. But we never thought that we would ever be lumping Mike Pence in with Hillary Clinton but we believe that is a fair and accurate assessment of Pence given his ongoing email scandal and the fact that he used a private AOL email account to conduct state business on. We can all recall how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton email scandal during her time running the State Department. Mike Pence's email scandal is a long and sordid tale, but it is one that must be told.  Miss Hussein is one of the only great reporters  remaining at the Langley controlled "Pravda Indianapolis"  Indianapolis Star. As some of you are aware Mike Pence has been fighting since last year to keep many of his emails he sent while he was governor a secret from we the people. Starting with Fatima Hussein's February 27th, 2016 article Ms. Hussein writes:




Vice President Mike Pence continued to fight to keep secret a political white paper emailed to him while he was Indiana governor, petitioning the Indiana Supreme Court not to review a public records denial for the controversial papers.
If opened, the communications could reveal a slew of Republican political strategies that Pence and dozens of other U.S. governors devised to fight former President Barack Obama and an executive order of his concerning immigration.
If the justices take the case, the court also could redefine the bounds of open, public communication for Indiana's executive office.





The case stems from a public records request made in December 2014 by Indianapolis attorney William Groth, a Democrat, who was gathering information about the former Republican governor's use of outside counsel for the immigration litigation and its cost to Indiana taxpayers.
Pence produced the requested emails “but those documents included substantial redaction,” including a white paper the governor failed to produce, according to court records.


The white paper in question contains legal theories used by many governors in their decision to join State of Texas et al v. United States of America, which challenged the Obama administration's executive order regarding immigration.
After Groth filed suit in Marion County Superior Court, a judge ruled in favor of Pence, saying the redactions the administration made to the public record were "proper."


This January, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled that Groth does not have the right to view the political white paper, but disagreed with the governor's contention that it would violate the separation of powers doctrine for the judiciary to second guess the redactions.


That was an important finding to advocates of government transparency, who feared a Pence victory in the suit could set a broader precedent that would embolden future governors to refuse to disclose or heavily redact public documents with no court oversight.
Earlier this month, Groth petitioned the Indiana Supreme Court to take up the case.
Indianapolis attorney Greg Bowes filed the 19-page petition on behalf of Groth claiming the appeals court erred in determining that the white paper did not have to be released because it was "deliberative material" for the purpose of preparing for litigation.
Groth is arguing the Court of Appeals improperly applied the attorney-client relationship doctrine because the white paper was emailed to a wide range of people outside of the attorney-client relationship. He is also asking the court whether the court of appeals improperly created a "deliberative materials exception" to state public records.


Calling Groth's lawsuit "unfounded" in court documents, Joseph Chapelle, Pence's attorney from Indianapolis law firm Barnes & Thornburg, last week filed the 30-page response.


Chapelle told IndyStar that the appellate court majority’s decision should stand and that if the Supreme Court takes on the case, "it will be an opportunity for the court to clarify the separation of powers doctrine."
In the latest court documents, Chapelle maintains that Pence will use executive privilege as a defense in the future. "There are policy reasons for executive privilege," Chapelle said.
Groth told IndyStar Sunday that he wants to see transparency in government.
"Hoosiers are entitled to and should continue to demand more, rather than less, openness from all governmental officials, but especially from their governor," he said


The fact that Pence has an attorney from Barnes and Thornburg handling this situation is enough to make us think Pence is terrified of these emails being publicly released. Longtime readers of Advance Indiana and Ogden on Politics will recognize the name Barnes and Thornburg. They are the law firm that has represented the state in the FSSA Privatization debacle, also they fought like hell trying to save former US Senator Dick Lugar's butt! Word is that they went so far as to get WXIN the Fox affiliate in Indianapolis to spike a story about Lugar's residency issue that the station had planned to air in 2011 click here to read Paul Ogden's recounting of that incident. Other nefarious individuals associated with B&T over the years have included: Former Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman and Democratic State Rep. Ed "Why Did I meet with some mysterious person in a Parking Lot" Delaney.  We are especially curious as to what Mr. Chapelle's reasoning is behind his claim that "There are policy reasons for executive privilege." That Pence is claiming as to why these emails shouldn't be released. For what policy is Chapelle referring to? And what policy could possible trump our right to know what Mike Pence was doing with the taxpayers money? This sounds a little to much like Nixon's bullshit claim of executive privilege during the Watergate Scandal!


Ms. Hussein wrote in her November 21, 2016 "Pence's legal team argues to keep emails secret":


"The statute (Indiana Access to Public Records Act) itself cannot get into the governor's personal papers," said Joseph Chappelle, Pence's attorney, from the Indiana law firm Barnes & Thornburg, referring to the legal bounds of the Indiana Access to Public Records Act.
Legally, the burden is on the governor to prove the documents are protected from public purview.


What we are curious about is if these were Mike Pence's "personal papers" as his lawyer says they are then why did he email them to 30 or so different people in several different states? Since it is Pence's job to show why these documents in question should be shielded from public purview it is reasonable to assume that he would not have sent such sensitive information to over two dozens parties! So either he believed they were sensitive at the time and chose to brazenly send them out to 30 people. Or more likely in as we believe he only adopted the stance that these emails should be kept secret when Mr. Groth asked for them. It is true that Pence's office had large amounts of his AOL emails that he sent out turned over to now Governor Eric Holcomb's office recently after he was called out on the carpet. But Pence's continued pursuit of keeping some of his official emails secret inspires no confidence in him. Pence might as well put on a blonde wig and a blue woman's business suit. Based off of his lack of transparency with his official emails the verdict is in. Mike Pence is now Hillary Clinton.



Update: WISH-TV has a story about Mike Pence defending his use of a private email account for state business. As usual his Propaganda Minister Spokesman Marc Lotter talks about how great his boss Mike Pence is. Click here and here for our past posts about Lying Marc Lotter.