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KBR & Halliburton Accused in Class Action
Law Firm News |
2009/01/28 17:12
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KBR, Kellogg Brown & Root and Halliburton knowingly exposed U.S. troops to water contaminated by sewage and made soldiers sick by burning toxic waste unsafely, a class action claims in Montgomery County Court. The class claims that when KBR found it was giving troops contaminated water, it told its water quality specialist "to concern himself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel."
The class claims KBR earned $4.8 billion in Iraq in 2006 - 45% of the company's revenue that year - and that the defendants "acted egregiously merely to make more money for themselves."
The complaint cites a 2008 report from the Defense Department's Inspector General that confirmed that KBR supplied unsafe water to U.S. troops. It cites a 2006 report from KBR itself that found KBR's failure to disinfect water "caused an unknown population to be exposed to potentially harmful water for an undetermined period of time," and that "the deficiencies of the camp where the event occurred is not exclusive to that camp, meaning that countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted."
They claim KBR's report admitted that the company kept little or no documentation on its water safety, standards or procedures.
The complaint states: "Former KBT employees and water quality specialist Ben Carter and Ken May told Halliburton Watch that KBR knowingly exposed troops and civilians to contaminated water from the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Ben Carter, a water quality specialist who worked for KBR at Junction city, testified that he tested water and found it was polluted with sewage and other contamination and that it was not being chlorinated. He then treated the tanks for the KBR employees and told company managers the military should be alerted so they could treat their tanks as well. Carter told the media that he was ordered by his KBR supervisor to concern himself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel. KBR was supposed to test the water three times daily to confirm safety but, according to Carter, such testing never occurred."
The class seeks medical monitoring and punitive damages for negligence, breach of duty, willful and wanton conduct, and other charges. They are represented by William O'Neil with Burke O'Neil of Washington, D.C. |
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Testing firm sues NYC to lift license suspensions
Law Firm News |
2009/01/27 23:15
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| A company accused of faking tests on concrete and steel at the new Yankee Stadium, the Freedom Tower and over 100 other projects is suing New York City to lift suspensions of their licenses. Testwell Inc. asserts in state Supreme Court papers that the city suspended its licenses "unlawfully" in October after the company was indicted on enterprise corruption charges. Testwell says the charges have not been proven. Testwell says an administrative law judge recommended lifting the suspensions but last week the city rejected that recommendation. The city Law Department says it is reviewing Testwell's court papers. The city has been attempting to retest concrete and steel handled by Testwell on some buildings, although prosecutors say no weaknesses have been found. |
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John Q. Kelly on Natalee Holloway Case - Fox News
Law Firm News |
2009/01/05 22:18
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Natalie Holloway Attorney John Q. Kelly
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And, finally, the Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos, responds. John Q. Kelly, the Holloway family attorney, has been trying to get Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos on the phone. Mos did leave him a rather nasty voicemail the other day. But now Hans Mos has responded to a letter from Kelly.
So what did Mos say in this response? John Q. Kelly joins us. John, what did he say?
JOHN Q. KELLY, HOLLOWAY FAMILY ATTORNEY: It's basically two-fold. One is that Joran [van der Sloot] has given different versions of the same event, so they can't be bothered with it.
And, two, they have no interest in any evidence or information that might assist him at this point.
VAN SUSTEREN: That is cute. The key is if you want to commit a crime, go to Aruba and tell three stories, because they will not investigate you and they won't look to corroborate. That's lesson number one. That's good advice.
You ask to have him arrested. What happens about that?
KELLY: He said we have no basis for it. This is the first time we have had any information that has been corroborated. He says he father was engaged in a cover-up, and it turns out that the chief of police and Paulus [van der Sloot], it has been confirmed that they hindered the prosecution. We have taped conversations that confirmed the boys talking about hoping that Natalee, or fearing that she may be alive. There are cell phone pings as to locations of Joran down by the fisherman's hut. There are all kinds of things independently that confirm what Joran is saying now, and they just won't listen.
VAN SUSTEREN: I know that he doesn't like us here at "On the Record." And I will make this promise tonight-we will stop being the monkey on his back if he does any investigation at all.
But I can tell you one thing. We have learned new information that a member of the Dutch parliament, Hero Brinkman, he is about to raise holy hell on Hans Mos. He is going down to Aruba in early January.
And if Hans Mos does not like us, wait until he gets a hold of this member of parliament, because he says that Aruba is "corrupt as hell" I think were his words, not mine.
KELLY: Greta, can I take you to the woodshed on one thing? I think people have to understand that even thought it was five months before your aired your interview with Joran that Hans Mos was made aware of it and the substance of it in great detail almost immediately, and he had no interest in following.
Read the entire interview at Fox News - Click Here |
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Corruption crisis creates confusion in Illinois
Law Firm News |
2008/12/29 17:12
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| Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has made a point of regularly going to work at his office in Chicago. He has signed legislation and issued pardons. He has sent out press releases about predatory lending and fighting poverty. But his arrest on federal corruption charges has clearly complicated his work as the state's chief executive and already cost the state some $20 million. The state is facing a potential $2.5 billion budget deficit and the governor doesn't have the same horsepower — or clout — to address the problem that he had just a month ago. No one in the state capital trusts Blagojevich enough to give him authority to trim the budget on his own, as he requested in November. Any other idea he advances would probably be rejected out of hand. Yet no other official can take the lead. "Everything just comes to a halt. You have complete paralysis," said House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego. Blagojevich, a second-term Democrat, was arrested Dec. 9 on charges accusing him of scheming to swap President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for profit, shaking down a hospital executive for campaign donations and other wrongdoing. The governor has defiantly insisted he's done nothing wrong and that he will not resign. His aides say he is going about business as usual. |
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