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Gold9472
06-17-2006, 06:50 AM
U.S. halted plans to prosecute huge theft of 9-11 relief

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/14842536.htm

By MARGARET EBRAHIM and PAT MILTON
The Associated Press
6/17/2006

NEW YORK - A disaster relief company that took supplies meant for 9-11 rescuers at the World Trade Center escaped punishment after the government discovered that its own employees had stolen artifacts from ground zero, once-secret federal documents show.

Kieger Enterprises of Lino Lakes, Minn., managed a Long Island warehouse for the government that was filled with supplies donated by Americans for the rescue workers.

The FBI developed evidence from whistle-blowers that the company had dispatched trucks to the warehouse and loaded hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of donated bottled water, clothes, tools and generators to be moved to Minnesota in a plot to sell some for profit, the records show.

Dan L'Allier, a Kieger supervisor at the time, told The Associated Press that he witnessed 45 tons of the New York loot being unloaded at his company's headquarters in Minnesota. He and a colleague, Chris Christopherson, complained to a company executive but were ordered to keep quiet.

They went instead to the FBI. The two whistle-blowers eventually lost their jobs, received death threats and were blackballed in the disaster relief industry. But they remained convinced that their sacrifice was worth it to make sure justice was done.

They were wrong.

Federal prosecutors eventually charged Kieger and some executives with fraud for overbilling the government in several disasters but excluded the 9-11 thefts. The company has gone out of business.

As a result, most Americans were kept in the dark for years about the fate of their donated goods, even as new requests for charity went out for disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

Kieger had worked for years for the government, providing disaster relief services during tornadoes, floods and other catastrophes. It was chosen to manage the New York warehouse for the government's main 9-11 relief contractor.

Thomas Heffelfinger, the former U.S. attorney in Minnesota who prosecuted Kieger, said he never intended to charge the company with the ground zero theft, and instead referred that part of the case to prosecutors in New York.

"At the heart of the KEI case was financial fraud," Heffelfinger said. "It was so bad we didn't need the theft."

Heather Tasker, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in New York, declined to discuss the Kieger case. The whistle-blowers said they've never been contacted by New York prosecutors.

But FBI documents show the government was preparing to charge Kieger with the ground zero thefts.

A March 2002 entry in the FBI's "prosecutive status" report states the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota intended "to prosecute individuals who were alleged to be involved in the transportation of stolen goods from New York City after the terrorist attack." A follow-up entry from Sept. 6, 2002, lists the specific evidence supporting such a charge.

The lead investigators for the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency told the AP that the plan to prosecute Kieger for those thefts stopped as soon as it became clear in late summer 2002 that an FBI agent in Minnesota had stolen a crystal globe from ground zero.

Ultimately, 16 government employees, including a top FBI executive and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were found to have such artifacts from New York or the Pentagon.

"How could you secure an indictment?" FEMA investigator Kirk Beauchamp asked. "It would be a conflict."

Nick Gess, a former federal prosecutor, said the FBI agents' taking of artifacts shouldn't have kept the government from prosecuting the company for stealing relief supplies.

"It strikes me as a nonissue in terms of prosecution," Gess said. "DEA agents have been found to smoke pot occasionally. That doesn't mean they [the Drug Enforcement Administration] can't still work on drug cases."

Sen. Charles Schumer. D-N.Y., agreed. "Taking a desk globe or a trinket is one thing, but stealing thousands of dollars' worth of donated supplies is a completely different offense," he said. "These people should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

The government also didn't prosecute employees for taking souvenirs, saying it lacked a policy prohibiting such thefts.

The FBI donated the stolen goods found at Kieger's warehouse to the Salvation Army.

YouCrazyDiamond
06-19-2006, 03:59 AM
U.S. halted plans to prosecute huge theft of 9-11 relief

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/14842536.htm

By MARGARET EBRAHIM and PAT MILTON
The Associated Press
6/17/2006


Ultimately, 16 government employees, including a top FBI executive and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, were found to have such artifacts from New York or the Pentagon.

...

The government also didn't prosecute employees for taking souvenirs, saying it lacked a policy prohibiting such thefts.




The sh^t written in that article really burns me up. I'm sure there is going to be an excellent blog rant in the next day or two.

Just for starters, "souviners," huh?

More like tampering with evidence from a crime scene.

F^cking ghouls!