August 30, 2010
Thank you for giving the general public the opportunity to influence the upcoming decisions of this formidable body. Two points of interest that I would encourage further development and clarification by the Commission members:
1.Corporate Whistleblowers (Case #2007-SOX-35 ALJ 05/09/08, Jefferis v. Goodrich Corp.)
2.Exemption from Freedom of Information Act Compliance
As a corporate whistle blower who actively provided significant, material, well documented information to the Securities Exchange Commission as well as the SEC Office of Inspector General over the past few years, I am extremely disturbed at Congress and President Obama for having decided to permit wholesale oppression of information from the SEC to the general public. The SECs FOIA exemption specifically prevents me from personally exposing the SECs inaction and complicity in various financial and criminal activities. The FOIA exemption ensures denying the public from freely reviewing my voluminous submissions, the SECs responses, as well as the SECs internal notes and SECs internal communications related to my allegations.
My allegations of insider trading, accounting irregularities, harassment, discrimination, and other possible international criminal activity (export non-compliance) were first reported while I was employed at a publicly owned and NYSE listed global aerospace company as a Sarbanes-Oxley Risk and Control Specialist. Initially, Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) assumed responsibility for investigating my Sarbanes-Oxley complaint of egregious violations. This resulted in a quick and bizarre blanket unsubstantiated dismissal within just days from my unlawful termination of employment. The OSHA ruling was immediately appealed in August 2007.
I filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the U.S. Department of Labor in September 2007 to obtain the OSHA investigative notes and to recycle the thousands of pages of evidence which I provided the OSHA investigator. This information was forwarded to the SEC Enforcement Attorney I had been communicating with about my disturbing allegations beginning in 2007. I filed a request for expedited treatment of my FOIA request (OSHA FOIA Request #07031) in February 2008 which was denied because my request for expedited treatment failed to explain precisely WHAT I was going to say and HOW I was going to say it. The US Department of Labor was also concerned that I was using my FOIA request for expedited treatment to obtain information outside the normal attorney fee laden and delay prone discovery process. Rather than helping a corporate whistle blower, the United States government began a campaign of truth obstruction and oppression of information.
This campaign of obstruction was recently codified into law. Exempting the Securities Exchange Commission from satisfying Freedom of Information Act requests signifies and symbolizes the end of trust between the general public and the United States Federal government.
The United States government apparently does not want my story, and probably many others, to see the disinfectant of USA daylight. This letter today is the closest I can come to making a public statement about my painful experience and let me share with the public my utter and complete lack of faith or trust I have for the Securities Exchange Commission and the United States Department of Justice. Obviously, Congress and the President of the United States are culpable for signing into law this travesty. I will try to be brief.
The outcome of my appeal is immortalized in the recently published book: Whistleblowing:The Law of Retaliatory Discharge, Second Edition, 2008 Cumulative Supplement (current through July 15, 2008) by Daniel P Westman and Nancy M. Modesitt (published by BNA Books ISBN 978-1-57018-719-3). Insider trading can form the basis for a reasonable belief about a violation of the enumerated categories of protected activity.
However, if the SEC and Justice Department fail to investigate, press charges, or hold criminal executives accountable under the law, what good are protections? Who are they protecting? What are they hiding? In the days just prior to the Administrative Law Judges decision to dismiss my case, the CEO of the global aerospace company sold thousands and thousands of shares of common stock in unplanned sales. The companys Audit Committee was also informed, aware, and complicit. The companys external Audit firm was also informed, aware, and complicit. The global accounting firm cited a non existent accountant-client privilege when asked to help expose the accounting fraud.
For your information, the Goodrich insiders unloaded another batch of stock earlier this month.
The information provided to the Securities Exchange Commission was recently forwarded to the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission for further review and examination. Hopefully, Congress and the President will not, or did not, exempt the FCIC from accountability to the public or exempting them from satisfying Freedom of Information Act requests. I am determined to let the general public, a jury of my peers, make the final assessment of the facts and circumstances and not let the SEC or DOJ obstruct Justice and oppress Truth.
Was the recent settlement with the former SEC Enforcement employee, Mr. Gary Aguirre, the motivation to exempt the SEC from openness in government? Is the legal settlement with former SEC Enforcement employee turned SEC whistleblower, Mr. Gary Aguirre, the motivation to legislate SEC secrecy? Will this newly enacted exemption make it virtually impossible for other would-be whistle blowers working within the SEC to seek Justice? I see no available alternatives for me and other would-be whistle blowers to combat injustice when the government participates in protecting criminals and undermining the credibility of whistle blowers.
Ms. Shapiro and the other Commission members are encouraged to review my Pickens Plan Forum posting from just prior to the collapse of oil prices in July 2008. It would appear that MTM forces of oil commodity prices may have been impacted by the "insider" or invisible-to-the-public alternative fuel patent information. The Goodrich executive had predicted a financial crisis if I ever made public the "secret" patent information.
http://push.pickensplan.com/forum/topics/2187034:Topic:17420
We did not have a financial crisis in the USA until the MTM collapse of oil commodity prices. Oil prices did not collapse until after the PickensPlan forum posting and my reporting of insider trading related to the sensitive and controversial patent information. The SEC, Congress and the President do not want you to know that they missed opportunity after opportunity to prevent the man created disaster we refer to as the financial crisis of 2008.
In September 2006 the US Department of Energy wrote about the insider information represented by the patents issued by the US Patent Office We have reviewed the patents and concur that the technologies described may be of value for the production and use of hydrogen lending tremendous credibility to the water as a fuel controversy and debate. Why does the SEC believe it is taboo to openly discuss these patents in the context of a global warming crisis, Ponzi schemes, and other damaging financial hoaxes?
Please consider the academic work of the James Baker Institute for Public Policy - Who Is in the Oil Futures Market and How Has It Changed?
(http://www.bakerinstitute.org/publications/EF-pub-MedlockJaffeOilFuturesMarket-082609.pdf)
Secrecy damages the credibility of the Securities Exchange Commission. Secrecy undermines the legitimacy of the entire USA Federal Government. We are oppressed. As my story makes its way into the public knowledge base, you can expect the public to have questions for the Securities Exchange Commission. I beg the SEC to provide actual answers to these questions. I beg the Department of Justice to enforce existing laws and prosecute criminals.
This Commission should dis-associate themselves from this SECrecy law, dis-associate from this Secrecy Congress, and dis-associate from this SECrecy President as they overtly attempt to cover up financial crimes against the USA public.
Regardless of the new SECrecy law, the people involved at the Securities Exchange Commission will be accountable to the public. The USA public is still able to speak freely and this relevant information will be circulated.
Congress and the President have made it perfectly clear to the ordinary American we are being intentionally lied to and mislead everyday. We are being oppressed from the Truth by the people entrusted to protect and uphold existing Sarbanes-Oxley laws.
We cannot sit idle and let the over two hundred year old experiment in democracy end this way. The people will not tolerate it.
Sincerely,
Joe Jefferis
CPA (inactive)
CTP (inactive)
Dayton, OH