TV MEDIA REPORTS


See the TV News Reports at the top of the Sidebar below to the right, just below this links section....and click on the photos!

LEGAL CASES

  • John Fox & Clemon Williams vs. Kern High School District, Whistleblowing to the FBI Re: Garland Purchase Orders, Bakersfield, California, 2013
  • GSA vs. Tremco, Qui Tam Suit, 2013
  • Los Angeles vs. Garland, Re: Bid Collusion, Racketeering, etc., Los Angeles, California, About 1997
  • Quality Tile Roofing vs. Tremco Roofing, Re: False Fraud Charges leveled at Tremco Certified Contractor for not bidding Tremco products at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Boise, Idaho, About 1997

Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Fox Is In The Henhouse: RPM/Tremco Places a 20-Year Veteran of the US Attorney General's Offices on Their Board of Directors



Folks - you thought for the first time in years there just might be - might be - a chance Tremco and their ways would be caught and prosecuted, now that the GSA is after them.

Not so.

It seems they have just put on the board of RPM a former 20-year employee of the US Attorney General's Offices to be on their staff.  He actually served as an acting US Deputy Attorney General.

Do you think in your wildest dreams any of the Madoff-like scammers will EVER be prosecuted now?

Clearly, RPM and Tremco are afraid of prosecutions.  They must have a good reason to be......

Here's the story - and for what happened in my case and since with the FBI....read on.  Agents in New Jersey have apparently told one source there they have been told not to investigate School Boards - the very persons paid off or suspected to be to allow illegally sole-sourced roofing contracts in School work, etc.  It's ingrown, it's redneck - and how many thousands is it affecting?

Way too many.  Time for the industry to go after it...individuals alone cannot.

The corruption is massive and huge.  And it's not just with the one the GSA caught....this time.

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RPM Appoints Craig S. Morford to Board of Directors; William A. Papenbrock Retiring in October

"MEDINA, Ohio, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- RPM International Inc. (NYSE: RPM) announced today that it has appointed Craig S. Morford to its board of directors in anticipation of the retirement of William A. Papenbrock. Papenbrock will retire at the company's upcoming annual meeting on October 10, 2013, after 41 years of service to the company.

Morford was appointed as a Class I member of the RPM board and will serve on the governance and nominating committee. His term will expire on October 10, 2013, at which time he will stand for re-election to the board in Class I by RPM's stockholders.
Morford is the chief legal and compliance officer of Cardinal Health, a $108 billion health care services company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Among his responsibilities are legal affairs, regulatory compliance, corporate governance, environmental health and safety compliance, corporate ethics and enterprise risk management. Before joining Cardinal Health, he spent 20 years with the U.S. Department of Justice, which included an appointment by President George W. Bush as acting U.S. deputy attorney general. In this role, he oversaw 100,000 employees at 93 U.S. Attorney offices, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Morford is a member of The Association of General Counsel and serves on its executive committee. He also serves on the audit and compliance committee of the Ohio State University board of trustees. Morford earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Hope College and a juris doctorate from Valparaiso University."
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Let's just hope the new FBI Director this Fall does not do what Robert Mueller did - ignore the problem - or help get the right Director in at the job:

Why is it important the US Attorney General prosecute when people come forward with information?

Because the FBI's hands have been tied behind their back and they have been thrown to the wolves, and us with them.

Did you know that because they aren't allowed to wiretap, hundreds of millions - now billions - in California School Bond funds have been stolen from and way more lost coast-to-coast in schools, not to mention Canada and the UK and beyond?

The only way to catch the kickbacks and more is to have "someone that heard or saw someone giving a bribe or the person that gave or got it come forward to the FBI.''

Are you kidding? All that massive disruption of businesses, lives, careers, and schools for what!?  Political power???

What are you willing to do to help stop the scams?

Everyone - everyone working together - can get it done.

Exposure is the KEY.

We need a US Attorney willing to prosecute, the FBI Director not hamstringing investigations, and the FBI allowed to wiretap and more.  

We need papers not involved in covering up rabidly going after the scams - just as rabid or more than the scammers are at purporting the scams.

And those in the roofing industry who know of kickbacks and not just in the US - to come forward to investigators everywhere.
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Here's what happened in my case and what roofing industry people keep saying coast-to-coast:

In 1997, the FBI in San Francisco "strongly recommended prosecutions" of my bosses at the University of California, San Francisco for letting out construction bid specifications illegally sole-sourced to one manufacturer. I was their Senior Architect on staff.

It turned out to be a massive scam from three manufacturers in Ohio, one of them targeting school bond funds in a number of countries since the 1930's. That would be the one in the story above....

Instead, the US Attorney General's offices in San Francisco refused to prosecute. The US Attorney General was Robert Mueller.

The ensuing devastation and anger in many quarters in at least three countries - including a lot of Canadian roofers and roof consultants trying to stop the waste, fraud and abuse in Canadian schools and public works projects - is quite something.

This scam has affected many tens of thousands.

Robert Mueller helped continue the fraud, waste and abuse. Clearly, he had to be a little too friendly with the Administration (Office of the President) at the University of California, the Chairman of the Board of which was Senator Dianne Feinstein's husband - Dick Blum - since.  Dick Blum owned and may still have involvement at URS - a construction company that gets billions in government contracts....headquartered out of San Francisco.    (For more stories on the Dianne Feinstein connection to government contracts, you can see that here:  http://www.peterbyrne.info/feinstein_files/ .  The reporter is a self-described leftist, but he's more independent thinking than he seems to know.  And right on target.)

It really, truly is a bad-good-old-boys'-and'-girls'-club destroying so many.  Monopolistic Thieves in Do-Gooder's Clothes, at least in San Francisco where it's that special kind of blindness is so well practiced.  And maybe in your community, too.  Look around.  It's usually the most "prominent..."....or at least so self-promoting individuals, involved somehow.

Had Robert Mueller prosecuted - California alone would have saved over $500 million a year in overcharges and fraudulently installed roofs in schools and public work.  For the past 16 years.  But nooooooo, they didn't want fannies exposed.  Image is absolutely everything to thieves.

And that's not to mention all the other savings in products illegally sole-sourced and redone way too soon.

What!!!  you say....oh yes.

Massive amounts of bundling of mechanical equipment, ten times the price for air control valves that leaked when the ones they supplanted at much lower costs did not (and in hospitals - hmmm, alll those rising infection rates due to such?), hardware sole-sourced and changed over to a manufacturer that regularly charges double for that "No Bid" construction contracts, carpets similarly overcharged, windows, fencing, etc....all throughout schools and public work.

A real pig's trough.

 
To the initiate or self-righteous, aggrandizing - some we have seen braggadicio - sales personnel of these companies:  the sole sourced contracts are not legal. 

Witness what the California Supreme Court Justice who stood up at the beginning of my Oral Hearings in my whistleblowing case did.

The California Supreme Court Justice stood and screamed while wagging his finger up and down at the University of California Attorney, "You tell your clients these were criminal acts!!! You tell your clients these were criminal acts!!!" For about 7 or 8 minutes.

The University of California attorneys  were also Johns Manville attorneys.

J-M openly private labels for the scammers I caught onto, Tremco.

Did the taxpayers win?

Of course not.

More white-horse guys rode in - to no avail.  A couple of years previously, the California Bureau of State Audits tore apart the University of California, San Francisco for the same bid specs used regularly for over 20 years on 110+ buildings, including more than several major hospitals...in an investigative report.

Why is all this going on besides greed on the parts of Administrators and politicians dealing with construction contracts?

Kickbacks from such contracts are dirtying whole school boards and councils are used to do it - and to see who can be controlled and "moved up" in the political world.

Everyone involved seem to be in positions to cover up.

That's the bottom line - it was who threatened me that told that story.  Think investigators don't get it-all over?

Think again, RPM/Tremco and Garland.

But today? FBI Agents in other states have told colleagues that they are not being allowed to investigate school boards when approached with this scam.

That's what we keep hearing.

So thanks to Robert Mueller in 1997 and since, massive theft of the taxpayer dollar, school roofs in snow country drying out way too soon and water destroying the structure from "shorting" asphalts between the plies (endangering kids), many in the roofing industry who do it right are run out of business and whole families and extended families ruined - not to mention all the architects and engineers taking kickbacks to do the specs or going along to get along - unethical and criminal acts performed have occurred & much more.

At a massive, huge expense to everyone.



Monday, April 15, 2013

The GSA's Office of Inspector General finds irregularities in Chicago's Federal Building Roof Replacement Project

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the General Services Administration (GSA) in Chicago issued a memo October 13, 2011 criticizing the award and administration of the Chicago Federal Building Roof Replacement bid - awarded to Tremco.


The areas of concern were:
1.  "The project should not have been awarded under a Multiple 
      Award Schedule (MAS) given the non routine aspects of
      the project."

2.  "Public Buildings Service (PBS) personnel did not resolve
      the significant difference between bids and the 
      Independent Government Estimate (IGE) prior to award."

3.  "Several months after award, PBS issued a modification 
     for over $1 million, which could not be verified to the MAS 
     price list."

4.  "Five subcontractors did not provide certified payroll records."


"On July 24, 2009, the Great Lakes Region’s PBS awarded a $2,461,717 task order (GSP0509SI0362) to Tremco, Inc., of Beachwood, Ohio."

 "On July 16, 2009, the estimator sent the contracting officer an email with an IGE, totaling $4,038,177, for this project. Four vendors submitted bids, three of which ranged from 20 to 39 percent below the original IGE amount.

PBS awarded the task order toTremco, the low bidder, for $2,461,717, 39 percent below the IGE."

"On December 15, 2009, PBS issued modification PC02,  for $1,045,194.  The modification raised the total value of the order to $3,506,91."

The project was funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  

See:   http://www.recovery.gov/Accountability/inspectors/Documents/GSA%20OIG%20Recovery%20Act%20Memo-Clark%20Roof%20FINAL.pdf#page=1&zoom=auto,0,800


Saturday, April 6, 2013

U.S. Probe of Roofing Contracts Hands RPM a Potential $68.8 million Fine


Update:

From The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio

 "Analyst Ivan Marcuse, a vice president of KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc. in Cleveland, said that...the Department of Justice inquiry [ into Tremco Roofing ] was something to keep an eye on, but that it's hard to know if it will be a "one-and-done type of thing," or an ongoing issue, because RPM's management can't divulge details until it's settled."

For those in the Roofing Industry in the know about their practices, the US Attorney General's Offices and the GSA need to hear from you.

See:
http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2013/04/rpm_reports_424_million_loss_in_3rd_quarter_as_major_charges_continue_to_batter_fiscal_2013_earnings.html


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It has been announced that the GSA and Department of Justice has been investigating roofing, cool roofing and other building envelope materials contracts from RPM companies - Tremco, Dryvit, DPA, WTI and Can Am - for the years 2002 to 2008.  

"RPM said the loss [Feb. 28 end of quarter earnings losses] mainly was due to an estimated loss contingency of $68.8 million associated with an investigation of roofing contracts between the company's Building Solutions Group and the GSA."

From:
http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20130404/FREE/130409882/0/SEARCH
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"DOJ and GSA Investigation

RPM Building Solutions Group is involved in discussions with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and US General Services Administration (GSA) aimed at resolving an investigation into the firm's practices.  

The investigation involves its compliance with certain pricing terms and conditions of GSA contracts under which the company sold products and services to the federal government. 

The company expects a loss of nearly $69 million from this ordeal. However, as the loss remains subject to approval from the DOJ, it could vary from this figure."

From:  
http://www.equities.com/news/materials/2013-04-04/1247812/rpm-down-on-toxic-earnings-guidance.story

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U.S. Probe Hands RPM a $42M 

Loss in Q3

 "
Roofing Products Investigation

RPM’s biggest loss involves a $68.8 million contingency associated with the company’s anticipated settlement of an investigation of roofing contracts between its Building Solutions Group and the General Services Administration.

The Building Solutions group includes the Tremco, Dryvit, DPA, WTI and CanAm brands for cool roofs, deck coatings and membranes, air barriers, sealants and waterproofing, and other building envelope applications.

Building Solutions is part of RPM’s industrial segment, which makes up 67 percent of the company’s net sales.

RPM said Thursday that it was in settlement talks with the Justice Department and GSA “aimed at resolving the investigation.”

“The company is cooperating with the investigation, which involves compliance with certain pricing terms and conditions of GSA contracts under which RPM's Building Solutions Group roofing division sold products and services to the federal government,” RPM said.

Most of the contingency relates to products and services sold between 2002 and 2008. The final settlement may vary from the contingency, RPM noted.

The company also noted other weakness in its North American roofing market.

From:
http://www.paintsquare.com/news/?fuseaction=view&ID=9420
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