Capitol Hill's Criminal Underground

Richard Lawless

Description

Richard Lawless's Capitol Hill's Criminal Underground: The Most Thorough Exploration of Government Corruption Ever Put in Writing is a no-holds-barred tell-all about the bad guys of Capital Hill and Wall Street, including the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. After Lawless became a victim of these crimes, he used his decades as a senior and executive banker, backed by an MBA with a focus on finance and law, to break down the evidence in Capitol Hill's Criminal Underground. No names have been changed to protect the innocent because there are no innocent-except for the tens of millions of Americans who, like Lawless, had massive amounts of money stolen from them. Capitol Hill's Criminal Underground is a story about one of the longest-running government-protected criminal enterprises in the history of the United States country. This is Lawless's attempt find justice for what happened to him-and to many readers as well.

Sujets

• American Government
• Political Science

Informations

• Publié par: Outskirts Press
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781977211446
• Langue: English

Extrait

All companies, municipalities, government agencies and individuals
discussed or named in this book should be consider innocent of all
wrongdoing until such time a court of law determines otherwise.


Capitol Hill’s Criminal Underground
The Most Thorough Exploration of Government Corruption Ever Put in Writing
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2019 Richard Lawless
v3.0

The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.

This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Medlaw Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-9772-1144-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018913040

Cover Photo © 2019 www.gettyimages.com . All rights reserved - used with permission.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


This story is about the Capitol Hill’s Criminal Underground: a loose association of bad actors that call Wall Street and Capitol Hill their home. What you are about to read is a true story. No names have been changed and those involved have been identified.
This is a story about one of the longest running government protected, criminal enterprises in the history of our country. It is a story about the successful efforts of a few hucksters to transfer massive amounts of wealth from the hands of tens of millions of innocent Americans into the hands of a few thousand powerful people.
Unlike most books you may read, Capitol Hill’s Criminal Underground will focus on real events while unmasking those who thrive in the dark corners of the Department of Justice and their “Political Overseers” who use their power and influence to usurp our legal protections.
By reading this book to the end, you will fully understand the roles within this criminal organization and the cooperation between municipal executives, credit rating executives, bankers, government employees and politicians that make it all possible.
There is enough evidence in this book to investigate and prosecute over one thousand high ranking government employees, bankers and politicians.

Preface
It was never the intent of our founders to have career politicians in office. In fact, it was quite the opposite. There was a pervasive fear of falling into the trap of another monarchy or some other form of leadership that was not decided on by the citizens. It was supposed to be “a government by the people and for the people”.
A hundred years ago, the average senator served five years; today the average is thirteen years. Congressmen now serve an average of nine years and four months. More disturbing is the growing number of politicians who serve for decades and are often content to hold the reins of power until they die in office. The numbers of senators and congressmen serving twenty, thirty or forty years has been growing since the inception of this country.
When one takes a look at the average age of our senators, it is clear that this is a group of people determined not to give up the power and control accumulated over many decades.
You hear all the time that Congress is a mess and they should all be voted out of office. Approval ratings for our Congress and the Senate can’t get much lower. This book will blow away the common misconception that many voters believe: “their guy” is okay; it is all the “other people” in government that are the problem.
This investigation will show the readers that it is in fact “their guy” that is the problem. The American people are voting for the very type of government that our founders feared.
It appears these career politicians appoint individuals into powerful positions within government agencies like the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission with the implicit understanding that some things are not to be questioned.
This unfortunate journey of discovery has shown that the level of arrogance and contempt our political leaders hold for the American people is boundless. The more we looked, the more evidence of serious criminal activity we found. And why not? The politicians control all the levers of power; their people in the Department of Justice will make sure there are no investigations or prosecutions. Their constituents will vote them back into office with almost absolute certainty.
It is my hope that this story will help change the way people look at our government and more importantly, change the way American’s vote.

Table of Contents
Chapter One: How in the World Did This Happen to Us?
Chapter Two: Our Journey of Discovery Now Begins.
Chapter Three: The Deep Dive
Chapter Four: Puerto Rico is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Chapter Five: Our Political Godfathers
Chapter Six: The Grand Distraction
Chapter Seven: How Many Others Knew and Did Nothing?
Chapter Eight: Look at the Damage These Bastards Did!
Chapter Nine: Now What?
Chapter Ten: The Evidence
Notes


Chapter One
How in the World Did This Happen to Us?
It was 2008, and the United States was in the midst of a financial meltdown. This crisis impacted tens of millions of Americans, and I was one of those indirectly affected.
I was a banker, and it was a tough time for banks in general. After twenty-five years in the industry, this crisis presented an opportunity for me to move on. Banks were in trouble. Commercial real estate values had plummeted, and many of the loans that banks had made now exceeded the value of the properties. All lending activity was likely to slow or stop until the economy turned around. It was the perfect time to retire from banking and move on to a new chapter of my life.
I have always dreamt about starting my own company and building something I could hand off to my family. Like most entrepreneurs, I would need to be willing to risk everything. Everything I built over a lifetime, to make this dream a reality. But right now, it was time to focus on my family. Tragically, this was about the same time that we found out that my wife Karyn had stage four cancer. At age fifty-two, with two daughters still in high school, it was not something we thought was possible.
My wife and I sought out the best treatments possible, but the cancer kept progressing. Out of desperation, we even spent a month in Mexico seeking alternative treatments when the conventional treatments failed. The cancer was unstoppable. The pain increased so much that even heavy doses of morphine had little effect. I can’t put into words what it was like to be up night after night with my wife, screaming in pain, begging me to do something to stop it. Finally, the cancer ran its course and my wife passed away. It was a blessing to see her at peace.
My daughters and I were angry and devastated. Many months went by as our family struggled to find a new balance, a new normal. As things slowly improved, we all learned how to move forward. I decided it was time for me to move on as well. Starting a new company would be a welcome distraction and help put all this pain behind us.
In early 2009, I sought out other like-minded individuals and formed a Renewal Energy Development Company. The company would seek out opportunities to develop and build large renewable energy power plants for major electric utility companies. Our specialty would be solar energy, but we would also engage in wind and other forms of renewable energy.
Like most new companies, our team put in a lot of sweat equity and personal resources. The first few years, we perfected our skills and started to build a nice reputation for the company. The projects we worked on for the utilities were twenty to forty megawatts. These projects would span two-hundred to four-hundred acres and could cost anywhere from sixty to two-hundred million dollars. The typical project would take from twelve to eighteen months to complete.
When dealing with projects of this size and cost, the first thing we would do when examining a project opportunity was to check the credit rating of the utility company. Because of the immense cost of developing and building these power plants, it was critical that our lenders were confident that the utility company could pay for the electricity. The credit rating was the largest factor in building our lenders confidence.
In the fourth quarter of 2010, our company attended one of the major renewable energy conferences that are held throughout the year. We use those events to learn about the latest technology, engineering and equipment. We also networked for business opportunities with the vendors at the conferences. As was always the case, we were presented with a number of potential projects; one in particular was a contract to build a two-hundred-acre, twenty- megawatt solar power plant for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA).
When we returned from the conference, we began our due diligence on all the new projects. The PREPA opportunity was ideal for us and fit perfectly into our skill sets. We first checked the rating on the utility with Moody’s, Fitch and S&P, all of which gave the utility an equivalent rating of BBB+. BBB+ is a very good rating for a major utility company. We forwarded the contract to our law firms for review and started to research the utility company. To my surprise, PREPA was the one of the largest government-owned electric utilities in our database. PREPA had a monopoly on electricity in Puerto Rico. The company produced almost 95% of its electricity from oil and was looking to diversify into renewable en