The Toxic effects of corruption in Massachusetts
My career and my future were destroyed because of government corruption, and thousands of people were indirectly hurt because of what happened to me. I have contacted every government agency that has jurisdiction, my elected officials and private lawyers, and it seems that nobody wants to correct the problems. I have given up hope that my future can be salvaged and write this essay as a warning to other businessmen and citizens in the hope that changes can be made or others can avoid the pitfalls into which I fell. I have tried to state only facts without opinion, and everything that I say can be backed up by documents except telephone and face-to-face conversations. This is a long paper because I want to be as complete and accurate as possible. Please take the time to read it.
I owned a small company that made special radios so that blind people could listen to the daily newspapers. There are services all over the country that provide this programming for the blind. Other engineers had tried to make these radios, but they did not work well; they were noisy with poor fidelity. So I worked hard and used all of my talent to make a superior product. They were, literally, the best radios ever made for this purpose. Although my radios were expensive, they were well worth the money and the listeners appreciated my efforts. It brought me so much satisfaction that my talents made a positive difference in people’s lives.
We also made equipment for emergency alerting such as AMBER alerts. We even sold special radios to the United States Army. My employees and I were proud of our company. Occasionally we were contacted by brokers who wanted to arrange the sale of the company to a large company, but I had no interest in giving up my work.
My problems started in September 2001 when a part supplier for my company failed to provide a mission-critical part within a just-in-time agreement. A replacement part would not be available for three months. Frequently, I received prepaid orders from services that receive donations from various civic organizations, but because of the aftereffects of the 9/11 attack, nothing came in. I used all of my credit to keep production going and worked around the missing part. I was unable to pay my quarterly withholding taxes.
As I tried to recover, I made payments to the IRS as often as I could. Fortunately, in 2002, I got a major design contract. I also sold my house to pay off my home equity loan and make a large payment to the IRS. By February 2003, I had finished a major part of the contract and was expecting payment within weeks. The IRS agent assigned to my business demanded that I appear in her office to discuss the amount that I owed from 2001.
She made her contact with me personal instead of professional. She berated me from the minute I walked into her office, calling me a liar, a tax cheat, and other derogatory terms. When I explained that I was catching up and would be able to pay the back taxes within a month, she said that I was lying. She demanded to know if I had any money in my account and I told her that I had money for that week’s payroll. She demanded that I give the funds intended for my employees to the IRS. She told me that I could go to any bank and get a loan to pay the taxes. She demanded the balance of money within two weeks.
I went to the bank and asked for a loan to cover two weeks, so that I could meet the deadline set by the agent. I could repay the loan when I was paid for the contract that had just been completed. Instead of a loan, the bank referred me to a “non-traditional lender” who might be able to help. The lender referred me to his lawyers.
I hired the lawyers for the sole purpose of negotiating with the IRS for an extra two weeks when I would be paid by my client. I signed a power-of-attorney to authorize the lawyers to contact the IRS on my behalf. I expected them to fulfill my request.
The next week, I received a payment of $20,000 which was sufficient to pay the IRS in full. I notified the lawyers and asked them to contact the agent and advise that payment would be made within days. I thought that all was well and started negotiations of other contracts.
A few weeks later, the lawyers told me that the agent refused my payment because I had failed to meet her arbitrary deadline by three days. They said that the IRS would seize my business the following morning. The lawyers told me that I could get protection from the bankruptcy court, but I had to sign the papers immediately, so that they could be filed before the court closed that afternoon. The lawyers had no time to look at the company books or discuss bankruptcy with me. The only reason that I filed for bankruptcy was to prevent IRS seizure; it had nothing to do with the financial conditions of the company.
Once the company was in bankruptcy, I had to hire a member of the lawyer’s staff to assist me in meeting the legal obligations of a “debtor in possession.” The payment to the staff member was more than all of my employees combined. By order of the court, I had to refrain from paying any bills and I had to close my checking accounts. I was prohibited even from paying my personal debt. The bankruptcy lawyer told me to make an inventory of company assets. In following his instructions, many assets were not included and those that were reported were grossly undervalued. I later learned that the lawyer falsely stated to the court that my company was insolvent and unable to pay its bills. When I made sworn testimony to the US Trustee, I made a point of saying that the assets statement understated the value of the company and everybody in the room laughed!
Shortly after filing for bankruptcy, the IRS agent demanded that I come to her office. This time, I had a lawyer with me. She asked why I did not pay the IRS when I received payment. The question stunned me and before I could answer, the lawyer told her that I had other bills to pay. The lawyer told me to make a sworn statement to that effect. I assumed that the lawyer was afraid to antagonize the agent.
Since virtually all of the company income was going to pay the member of the lawyer’s staff, I could not afford to buy parts. Without credit, my suppliers stopped shipping and I had to close the company. As the months passed, I had to refuse large orders and contracts that probably would have paid off much of the debt.
In order to raise the funds needed to pay the lawyers and to emerge from bankruptcy, I sold the building that housed the company and I closed the company permanently. I had knowhow and contacts, so it seemed possible that I could eventually restart the business. But, after the bankruptcy, some of the creditors filed lawsuits against me for the money that they lost. I asked the bankruptcy lawyer for help and he told me that if a creditor sues the company, he is responsible, but if the creditor sues me, it is not his problem. The lawyers for the creditors were unethical. They harassed my eighty years old parents and filed multiple lawsuits for the same account and a non-existent account against them and me. One lawyer went so far as to send a batch of statements to me that showed other people’s names, addresses, and social security numbers. According to the judge, such tactics are perfectly legal!
My health degraded as the threats and harassment continued. I had to cancel my health insurance when I closed the company, so I could not go to a doctor. I lost a lot of weight and I think that I came close to death.
I was contacted by a company in Spain that wanted to buy the remains of my company. The exact amount was not negotiated, but it was in the six digits. After some long-distance negotiation, he made plans to come to Westford for final talks. His lawyer decided that the bankruptcy was of questionable legality and the offer was withdrawn. I never heard from the individual again.
When my health improved, I contacted the Inspector General for Tax Administration, (IGTA) and filed a complaint against the agent who refused my payment and planned to seize my business. After a short investigation, IGTA determined that the agent had never refused my payment and had not authorized seizure of the business. The IGTA recommended that I file a complaint with the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers (BBO).
At this point, I had no doubt that the lawyer lied to me about the IRS. I learned during the bankruptcy that when I hired him, I was his only client and his law firm went out-of-business during the bankruptcy. I suspected that he felt that he needed the money more than the IRS and used the bankruptcy as a means of getting the money.
I contacted the US Trustee and was told that they only investigate bankruptcies that are in the millions of dollars. I visited the FBI and talked to an agent. The agent told me that the FBI has no jurisdiction to investigate lawyers who commit federal crimes; the only agency with jurisdiction is the BBO. I contacted the Massachusetts Attorney General and was told to hire a lawyer; I had no money to hire a lawyer. I sent documents to the New Hampshire Attorney General, since part of the bankruptcy took place in New Hampshire. They actually read the documents and told me that the only agency with jurisdiction is the FBI.
The FBI would not have referred me to the BBO if they had not had total confidence in their ability to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation into the bankruptcy and the lawyer. Even though I did not trust the BBO, I sent a complaint to them. I charged the lawyer with fraud, tax fraud, embezzlement and perjury.
In my complaint to the BBO, I used the correspondence with General Electric to prove perjury and embezzlement. I showed a letter from the lawyer representing General Electric which claimed never to have received payment, and the financial report from the bankruptcy showing that General Electric was paid and the debt discharged. I gave a copy of the complaint which I filed with the BBO to the law firm representing General Electric, so that they would be aware that there was fraud related to this account. The law firm representing General Electric dropped the lawsuit against me and I presume that they sent the aforementioned documents to General Electric.
After sending my complaint to the BBO, I received a telephone call from a BBO agent. She told me that I had to conduct an interrogation of the lawyer before they would investigate. I indicated that I had no experience in conducting criminal investigations. At her request, I sent a copy of the report from the Taxpayer Advocate, which probably should have been included in my original complaint.
After nine months, the BBO concluded their investigation and completely exonerated the lawyer of all charges. The BBO determined that the IRS agent was going to seize the business without cause. According to the BBO, the justification for seizure was that I failed to pay my employees after the IRS demanded those funds intended for payroll. The other reason was that I was behind paying other creditors. That was largely false because having good credit is essential in manufacturing and I made sure that my creditors were satisfied. Even if her statements had been true, it is no business of the IRS and had the agent accepted my payment, then the IRS would have had no justification for any action against me. Although not explicit, the BBO implied that both the IGTA and the Taxpayer Advocate lied, presumably to protect the agent.
The BBO did not address the issue of General Electric, but simply exonerated the lawyer of all charges. The BBO did not provide any proof to support their conclusions and exoneration. I requested to have the matter brought before the full Board and they refused. After the investigation was permanently closed, the BBO sent a copy of the reply from the lawyers, which contained many false statements. The BBO did not show any evidence to support their conclusion of the lawyer’s innocence. To my knowledge, the BBO never notified any law enforcement or regulatory agency of their findings.
About two years later, General Electric demanded that I pay the full amount owed. I asked for an accounting of payments received and my request was ignored. Since the account was discharged by the bankruptcy court, General Electric could not sue me or sell the account, but instead should have contacted the US Trustee or the FBI. When I did not, and could not, make payment, they “sold” the account to a “straw man” in Las Vegas. He hired a Massachusetts lawyer to get the money that he was “owed.” I sent a letter to him along with the sworn statement by the bankruptcy court indicating that General Electric had been paid and the debt was discharged. I also sent a copy of the ethics rules for lawyers in Massachusetts, which states that any lawyer discovering misconduct by another lawyer must report the misconduct to the BBO. His response was a lawsuit against me.
Once I was served papers, I filed a “request for documents” with the BBO. Under court rules, a party in a lawsuit is permitted to request documents from a non-party. I requested proof that the lawyer had actually paid General Electric, since they had exonerated him on my charges of embezzlement and perjury. I also requested proof that the IRS was actually going to seize the business as stated by the lawyers and subsequently denied by IGTA. The BBO refused my request. I made a written motion to the judge to compel discovery and he ignored my motion. I was denied discovery.
The lawyer for General Electric demanded summary judgment. I presented a sworn statement from the bankruptcy lawyer, and submitted to the bankruptcy court, claiming that General Electric had been paid, along with the report from the BBO. I also presented a sworn statement from General Electric claiming that no funds had ever been received. The judge had proof of perjury and embezzlement. He ruled that I was legally responsible for paying General Electric. To my knowledge, nobody reported these crimes to any law enforcement agency. It is a crime called ‘misprision of a felony’ to fail to report a crime and obstruction of justice. Had the judge been convicted, he could have gone to prison. He may also have conspired with the General Electric lawyer, but I have no evidence of that.
I wrote a letter to the US Attorney to notify them that there was perjury and embezzlement in this case. I never received a reply, but a few months later, some sheriff’s deputies conducted a warrantless search of my eighty-year-old parent’s property looking for something to seize for General Electric. I consider this witness intimidation. I do not know who has the authority to tell law enforcement officers to conduct an illegal search.
I tried to file a complaint with the Westford Police, but they refused to take a complaint. Nearly a year later and before Town Meeting, I sent a message to the Chief that I would bring this matter up when he was discussing the budget. A captain and a patrolman took my complaint against the sheriff department. They assured me that an investigation would be forthcoming.
About eight months later, I saw in the newspaper that the sheriff committed suicide while visiting Wells, ME with some friends. Months later, I actually read the article. According to the Boston Globe, the police detective said that nobody heard the gunshot because the sheriff used a pillow as a silencer. Also, his friends noticed nothing unusual about him only hours before his death. I suspected that he may have been investigating my complaint and discovered organized crime. It was not until years later that I discovered that General Electric was negotiating with Massachusetts a multimillion dollar deal to put its headquarters in Boston. The deal would have fallen apart if it was known that General Electric was involved in fraud.
I called the FBI and talked to an agent. The agent told me that these are all civil offenses and threatened me never to call the FBI again. I called the Massachusetts Attorney General and was told that they have limited resources and refer all such cases to the Lawyer Referral Service (LRS).
Since I had no money to hire an LRS lawyer, I contacted the office of Senator Kerry. His aid asked me to send the report from the BBO to Senator Kerry’s office. I included some important papers from the lawsuit filed by General Electric. Senator Kerry forwarded those documents to the BBO and asked them to take a second look. This would verify that they actually investigated my original complaint. The BBO confirmed their original conclusion that the bankruptcy lawyer did nothing wrong, and by default that the IRS acted improperly and General Electric was responsible for the missing funds.
When I finally had sufficient funds to hire the LRS to investigate the matter, I contacted them and requested a lawyer. To save time, I put the relevant documents on the internet. After they gave me the name of the first lawyer, I reviewed his background and discovered that he was a former ADA. I contacted him and gave him the address of the documents. He declined to take the case. The second lawyer was also a former ADA, and he too declined. The third, and last lawyer, had no prosecutorial experience, but the LRS will only recommend three lawyers. The third lawyer wanted me to pay him $25 to read through the documents. Once he read through the documents, he accepted the case and requested a retainer.
He just pushed around papers that seemed to accomplish nothing. Finally, after a year, he wrote to the BBO and asked for the proof regarding General Electric. The BBO refused. Shortly thereafter, most of the statutes of limitations expired; he quit and returned some of his retainer. He had done nothing, except allow the statutes of limitations to expire, and waste my money. He had in his possession the documents proving that the judge knew of perjury and embezzlement. His failure to prosecute the judge and allow the statute of limitations to expire constitutes obstruction of justice, perhaps not technically, but ethically. Either he was incompetent or somebody got to him. Since the judgments against me were never vacated, I cannot move on with my life and I never will.
A couple of years later, Maura Healey was elected Attorney General. I had hoped that she would put more emphasis on crime and corruption than her predecessor. I wrote a letter addressed to her and included the same documents that I had sent to the BBO through Senator Kerry’s office. To my disappointment, I received an unsigned letter from Attorney General Healey stating that since the case was already investigated by the LRS, they will not reinvestigate and referred me back to the LRS. I am sure that she is aware that the lawyers in the LRS are not skilled criminal investigators.
The bankruptcy will dominate my life for as long as I live because of the loss of my career and wellbeing. General Electric can make me miserable for the rest of my life. Furthermore, the IRS never forgives a debt. A couple of years ago, I learned about a program in Massachusetts called the Circuitbreaker which grants up to a thousand dollars to seniors whose property taxes exceed a certain portion of their income. I applied for the benefit and was refused because the IRS was never paid. After paying my property taxes, I do not even have enough money to heat my house in the winter.
Thousands and possibly even tens of thousands have been harmed by this bankruptcy, not only in the United States, but around the world. I would like to show how much damage was done by one IRS agent and a corrupt system.
I was most severely hurt. I had put my whole life into this business, including every cent that I had. At the time that the business had closed, I had had the business for over thirty years. I had a good reputation with my creditors and my customers. Now, I feel great shame that people who trusted me lost money. I had wanted to restart my business, but I have no money, no credit and my reputation is so bad that many people will not even return my calls.
I am deeply depressed and have tried to remedy my depression with creative tasks. I have taken thousands of wildlife and scenic photos of Westford. Then I studied Native American artifacts found right in my own back yard. Next, I wrote a couple of novels about how honest people live their lives. Nothing helps and I do not expect that I will ever find happiness and peace.
For years, it had been my intention to build up my business and then sell it. I was contacted periodically by brokers who expressed interest. With the money from the sale, I could tinker with devices that would help the blind and handicapped. I lost the last twenty years of my life because of corruption and I have no hope of ever recovering. Now all is lost. I have no purpose in life and no reason for living except to take care of my 96 year-old mother. (Since writing this essay, my 96 year-old mother passed away, so I have no reason for living. I have lost my business and my life savings; my career is destroyed; my reputation is ruined; my self-esteem is greatly diminished; my health has declined; and General Electric can persecute me for the rest of my life because nobody will stand up to this evil company, not even the Attorney General. I do not know how to fight pure evil, but I will keep fighting. Since they can no longer hurt my mother and I have no reason to live, I will fight General Electric until I die!)
Other victims of this legal mess were my employees. Most of my employees had been with me for thirteen years. I was not able to pay them well, but I made up for it in other ways. They would have stayed with me for years more. They lost their jobs because of the bankruptcy. Some of them never went back to work.
The most people damaged by this legal mess were the blind people whom I served with my superior quality radios. Not only will I never make the radios again, but I cannot service the radios that fail because they are dropped or a part fails. Instead of buying my radios, the services for the blind must buy cheap Chinese radios that work poorly and fail all too soon. Most of the radios which were made over twenty years ago are still in service.
Furthermore, if I were still working, I would be making other products to help the blind and handicapped. I can only imagine how many people whom I could have helped.
Many others have been hurt. Most of the financial losses were in the banks that trusted me with their money. But my suppliers and contractors lost money and they lost my patronage. Some of them went out of business and their workers lost jobs.
The federal and state governments across the country lost money because of this IRS agent and what followed. The federal government lost the $20,000 that the agent purportedly refused. They also lost the taxes that my employees would pay. The state had to pay unemployment claims to my former employees. Unseen was the money that the federal and state governments provided for the purchase of radios for the blind. Instead of purchasing high quality radios that would last for decades, the money went for cheap radios that would last only a few years. It was a loss for everybody.
The biggest loser may be the sheriff. I cannot be sure how or why he died. Maybe he did commit suicide as reported. Or maybe he was murdered for reasons that had nothing to do with General Electric. But maybe he was murdered because General Electric used the bankruptcy to further their scam. Since the evidence was probably destroyed by the Commonwealth, we may never know.
The people who benefited were the US Trustee and the bankruptcy judge. The needless and destructive bankruptcy justified their exorbitant salaries.
The biggest beneficiaries were the lawyers and their staff. I paid them nearly $60,000 to resolve a $20,000 IRS debt and I lost my company, my career and my future, and the IRS still wants their money. The BBO decided that they did nothing wrong, but I will always suspect that they acted in their own interest.
Finally, there is the issue of Constitutional Rights. When the agent purportedly refused my payment for being three days late and then forced my company into bankruptcy, then that was a violation of my Eighth Amendment Right. When I was ignored by every law-enforcement agency, then that was a violation of my Fourteenth Amendment Right. When General Electric sued me and I was denied documents by the BBO, then that was a violation of my Fifth Amendment Right. When the judge made his ruling without a jury, then that was a violation of my Seventh Amendment Right. When the sheriff’s deputies made a warrantless search of my elderly parent’s property, then that was a violation of their Fourth Amendment Right. Finally, when the district court ruled that the bankruptcy did not discharge the debt, then that was a violation of Article I Section 8 which states: “The Congress shall have Power … To establish … uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;” Throughout this matter, there has been a disregard for the Constitution.
The Massachusetts Attorney General is only concerned with LGBT, people-of-color and Muslims. The USDOJ is only concerned with people-of-color. Since I have no money to afford a civil-rights lawyer, in essence, I have no Constitutional Rights. I am a Vietnam veteran. I did not serve because I wanted adventure. I did not serve because I had great love for the Vietnamese people. I served because I love the Constitution. Unlike those special people who are served by the “Justice Departments,” I did not inherit my Rights; I earned them by risking my life in service to our country. I deserve to have my Rights respected.
One final word: Bullies, like this IRS agent, cause great pain. After my business was destroyed and I was persecuted by the creditors, I felt hopeless and I knew that my future was gone. I gave serious thought to suicide. The only reason that I am still alive is because my elderly parents needed me in their old age. I knew that they would be persecuted by these bank lawyers after I was gone. Since then, I have read about IRS abuse. A number of people in this country have committed suicide because of IRS harassment. In many cases, it was discovered after their death that the IRS had made a mistake. Others suffered health problems that killed them because of IRS persecution.
My life is over; I will never recover from the damage done by this agent and the legal system. As long as General Electric has a judgment against me, they can persecute me and make my life miserable and no lawyer that I can find has the courage to challenge them and the corrupt court, not even the Attorney General.
To the best of my knowledge, the IRS agent is still turning corporate issues into personal issues so as to be a bully.
To the best of my knowledge, the lawyer whom I hired is still seeking the priciest solutions to his clients’ problems.
To the best of my knowledge, the BBO is still following the motto of “Anything goes!” and allowing lawyers to rape their clients.
To the best of my knowledge, the district court judge is still ignoring crime in his courtroom and not ruling based upon the facts. And he is probably not the only one!
To the best of my knowledge, the Attorney General is still ignoring major crime and corruption because of “lack of resources.”
And, General Electric can persecute me for the rest of my life because I cannot find anybody who will stand up to them!
I hope that I have made it clear that there is corruption throughout the system and the average person has no place to get justice. I urge the legislature of Massachusetts to create an office of Victim Assistance where people can get help when they become crime victims. The office should assist victims in finding competent affordable prosecutors. There should also be counseling to help victims resolve the psychological harm done by crime.
And there should also be an agency that respects Constitutional Rights and fights to uphold them.
Just remember that you or your employer may be the next victim of crime and corruption and you could loose your job or your life savings.
Frank Karkota
fkarkota@compolinc.com
***
A copy of this paper was sent to Attorney General Maura Healey on October 14. I received no response.
***
18 U.S.C.
United States Code, 2011 Edition
Title 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 4 - Misprision of felony
From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov
Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 684; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, §330016(1)(G), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)
Based on title 18, U.S.C. 1940 ed., §251 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §146, 35 Stat. 1114).
Changes in phraseology only.
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $500”.
***
The following document was submitted to the
court. I handed the document to the clerk who immediately handed it to the
judge. I also handed a copy to the General Electric lawyer. The judge glanced at
it then resumed talking. It shows beyond doubt that perjury was committed to
conceal embezzlement. Neither
reported the crimes to any law-enforcement agency. This document was sent
to Attorney General Maura Healey.
Objection.pdf
During discovery, I requested documents from the BBO regarding their
investigation of the bankruptcy lawyer. Under rule 52 (c), it is not necessary that the
party. from which the documents are requested. be a party in the lawsuit, but the BBO refused to provide those documents. Failure to provide these documents
is a violation of my Fifth Amendment Rights.
Discovery.pdf
I wrote a number of letters to my legislators in a hope that they would call for
an investigation, but most legislators ignored my letters and did not even
acknowledge receipt of my letters. Below are copies of those letters.
LettersToLegislators.pdf
Below are the documents that I sent through Senator Kerry's office to the BBO. As
noted, I was concerned that the BBO had never actually read my complaint. Also
included are some of the documents from the General Electric lawsuit. There can
be no doubt that the BBO was aware of crime and corruption in the court, but
they chose to ignore it. In this document, the BBO accuses the IRS of
major corruption and General Electric of embezzlement and fraud, but they refuse
to provide any proof. To my knowledge, they never reported their findings
to any agency. Whom were they protecting?
These documents were sent to Maura Healey, but she
took no action. The BBO file is very large and complicated.
BBO.zip
When the LRS lawyer requested documents proving that General Electric was paid, this was the response from the BBO:
There is a culture of corruption that permeates this state. It exists in the courts, including the BBO. It exists in the office of the Attorney General, including Martha Coakley and Maura Healey. The state legislature is also corrupt because it could write laws, such as a misprision of a felony law, but does not; the legislature also controls the money. And last, the Lawyer Referral Service assigns lawyers who will not prosecute judges or fellow lawyers.
While I searched for a lawyer who would vacate the judgment against me, I kept my assets with my mother where General Electric could not seize them. She recently died and now I will lose a beautiful piece of land and my beloved jeep because I was unable to transfer them to my name. General Electric has ruined my life!
***
Throughout this paper, I have
tried to be dispassionate about the effect of this mess upon my life. In these
last paragraphs, I will go into detail. When the hate-filled IRS agent forced my
company into bankruptcy, one of the creditors was General Electric. In the
bankruptcy, I lost my business, my life savings and ultimately my career.
General Electric lost a few thousand dollars. These evil sociopaths decided that
they would make me suffer for their losses and inflict as much pain as possible
upon me and my family. Ever since the sheriff threatened my parents, I have
feared that they would hurt my elderly mother. Furthermore, I feared that at any
time, they could just swoop in and take whatever I owned simply because they had
a judgment against me.
I have been consumed by anger, fear, hopelessness and frustration ever since
filing for bankruptcy nineteen years ago. I have not known happiness or peace
during those years, and it will be years more before the judgment against me
expires. This has had a toll upon my mental and physical health. I do not
expect, or care, to live much longer. Below is a link to my obituary which needs
only the date of my death and my age at time of death.
Obituary.pdf
I have two goals left in life: to expose the corruption in the courts and to get
my house ready for the civic organization which I have bequeathed in my will.
The management of General Electric is pure evil and the stockholders are
profiting from the misery of others!
***
Since the lawyer assigned by the Lawyer Referral Service allowed the statute of limitations expire without taking any action on any of the parties, there were no prosecutions or civil actions against any participants. I believe that the judge in the General Electric case acted illegally, but there is no legal action that can be taken to remove him. In the event that he is nominated to a higher court, then that is an administrative matter that has no statute of limitations. Therefore, I have filed a paper showing his misconduct that will be sent to the governor of Massachusetts just as soon as it is notarized.
The document can be found here: http://www.compolinc.com/JudgeCunis.pdf
There are three questions that should be asked:
1. Why did the judge ignore the perjury and embezzlement that was perpetrated in this case? Considering the small amount of money involved and the exorbitant salary paid to judges, it could not have been a bribe. Why would a judge risk being removed from the bench and possibly facing prison to help General Electric?
2. Why did the deputy sheriffs go to the home of my elderly parents? They committed an illegal search and seizure, witness tampering, and trespassing. They, too, could have lost their jobs or even been sentences to prison. Why would they risk it?
3. Was the death of the sheriff the result of my complaint. To my knowledge there was only a superficial investigation of his death. If there had been a thorough investigation, the misconduct of the deputies would also have been investigated.
Something is very wrong here!
***
I hope that somebody who can bring about change to our system and our state reads this article.
***
My work was appreciated by my customers and their blind clients. Below is a testimonial to my work.
I want people to know who I am!
I sent the above article to my elected officials. Instead of finding ways to help me or prevent others from suffering a similar fate, one of them called the police and said that I was going to commit suicide. I made a statement that I had no reason to live. That was inaccurate: I live to prevent hate-filled IRS agents from destroying a person’s business and livelihood. I live to prevent a large corporation like General Electric from destroying a man’s career out of petty vengeance. I live to see the Bankruptcy Court reformed so that it serves the people, and not lawyers and judges who make their money from the misery of others. I live to see Constitutional Rights protected from those who are motivated by greed and power. I live to see justice!
I have lost twenty years of my life because of the bankruptcy and the vindictive lawsuit against me by General Electric. These years have cost a toll not only of joy of life and service to others, but also my health. I have only one goal and that is to right all of the wrongs that have ruined my business and my career. I am experiencing a cognitive decline which means that I can never return to my career and my previous life, even in the unlikely case that these legal matters are resolved.
In the final paragraphs, I want to tell the reader about my fight with depression over the past twenty years and how I have been fighting to keep my spirits high.
These past years have been the roughest of my life. When I was a young man in the Army, I was stationed in Vietnam. Although my assignment was much better than many men who were there, it was still a war zone. At any time, I could have been shot or blown up by a mortar. But, I could fight back and the men with whom I served watched each other’s back. And I knew that if I made it home, I had my whole life ahead of me.
But, I do not know how to fight back against these evil banks, lawyers, and judges and I am alone with nobody watching my back. And I do not feel that I have a future. My youth is gone, my business is gone, my career is gone, my reputation is destroyed, and I face persecution by General Electric and others who care only about money and vengeance. I did not inherit my Constitutional rights, I earned them. I feel that the actions by the government in this matter are a repudiation of my sacrifice and service to our country.
I became deeply depressed. I had put my whole life into my business. Not only did I loose all my money and over thirty years of my life, but because of my business, I never married and never had children. I had lost everything important in life. My reputation had been so badly damaged, by the lawyer and the lawsuits, that nobody would do business with me. My career was destroyed by my poor health resulting from the stress of the lawsuits and the threats to my parents. And worst of all, I had been robbed of my future.
The most exciting part of my career was design and development because it was creative and in many ways artistic. I missed being creative; I missed being artistic! So, I bought a refurbished digital camera and started taking wildlife pictures. I especially enjoyed taking pictures of Canada geese and goslings. I envied the loving parents taking care of their young. I had always wanted children and I wished I could be like those geese raising their young. Taking pictures helped me to deal with my depression. Then, I started writing essays about my photographs. Next I started writing short stories. And then I wrote my first novel.
My first story was “Tales from a Haunted House.” It was based upon a story idea that I had had many years ago while driving home through a snow storm. It is about a house deep in the woods that was built by a man for his beloved. Because of that love, the house acquired a soul that gave to all good people within its walls that which they needed to find happiness and success. Writing the story was wonderful because I could literally drift into a fantasy world of my own creation. I created honest people who worked hard to achieve their goals. I enjoyed being with them and sharing their lives. The story has a ‘pay it forward’ theme which expresses the care and concern that I have for others. Since the day I lost my business, I have been very isolated, talking only to those people with whom I occasionally share the beauty of the woods. It was so nice being with these wonderful people whom I created in my story.
Then I wrote “The Last Summer” where I could express my regrets about my life and express the sadness that I felt about never marrying and having children. The story is about the writer of trashy romance novels who is told by his doctor that he will die in about six months. Upon reflection of his life, he realizes that he has never done anything of value that will last beyond his death, so he decides to write a great novel. During those last days, he meets the woman for whom he has been searching all of his life. They both enjoy hiking and mountain climbing and during the last summer of his life, he finds true happiness, and love.
The woman in the story suffers from chronic depression that lasted for most of her life, and prevented her from finding happiness and achieving something to last beyond her death. I show the reader how depression feeds upon itself. And Robert regrets that he never reached his full potential, writing only trashy novels. But he most regrets that he never married and had children. Each of them had wasted their lives, but yet still had a chance to do something of value, something to live beyond their deaths, during the last summer. Most of all “The Last Summer” is about hopelessness and how the two characters dealt with it. At the end of the story, the reader will realize that there is always hope and that each of us has a reason for living.
For me, writing these two novels has been an exciting experience. It has helped me to deal with my depression and it has given me the opportunity to say, “This is who I am!” It shows that I am more than just a victim of a dishonest lawyer and a corrupt legal system, but that I am an honest and caring person, like many of the characters in my stories. I am not the dishonest person portrayed by the bank lawyers. I was deeply hurt, and always will be, by their slanderous portrayals of me in court.
These stories were not written for others to enjoy, but so that I could say what I wanted and needed to say. The theme of “Tales from a Haunted House” is that honesty, hard work, perseverance, and charity is the way to find happiness and success. And for “The Last Summer” the theme is that we should never waste our lives. We should always strive for the best and never, never sell our souls. If others can gain inspiration and live a better life after reading my books, than that’s great.
I don’t believe that my books will achieve any level of popularity. I’ll be lucky if I make enough money from these books to pay my real-estate taxes. The only books that sell are full of sex and violence, books like “Fifty Shades of Grey.” My books are clean, rated PG. You don’t have to hide them from the kids! But maybe in the future, clean wholesome books with a message of morality will have a place in our culture and society. Maybe teachers will assign them to their classes. Maybe I will have left something of value behind. The opening quotation in “The Last Summer” is by Horace Mann. “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” I hope that people get inspiration and hope from my stories. I hope that the readers are entertained and inspired, and most of all, I hope that my books qualify as a victory for humanity.
The words of John Greenleaf Whittier echo through my mind: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"