War Profiteering: Dead Soldiers’ Parents Sue Insurers Over Military Benefits

Prudential War Profiteers under US Government Program

The parents of six deceased U.S. soldiers are suing Prudential Financial, saying it paid paltry interest on military life insurance benefits while keeping more generous interest earnings for itself.

Five plaintiffs joined the original plaintiff Monday in the lawsuit, which was filed in July in U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mass. It accuses Prudential of profiting from the dead soldiers’ policies with bookkeeping maneuvers and misrepresenting the way the beneficiaries could collect lump-sum payouts.

Their attorneys are seeking class-action status.

If granted, it could affect tens of thousands of beneficiaries who received payments under group life insurance policies for military members and veterans created by Congress and administered by Prudential.

A spokesman for the Newark, N.J.-based financial giant said Monday that while company officials cannot address the pending litigation, they strongly defend their handling of the money as responsible and deferential to the beneficiaries’ grief and needs.

The debate centers on Prudential’s use of what it calls Alliance Accounts. The accounts are similar to checking accounts and come with a booklet of drafts. Beneficiaries can write drafts to themselves up to the payout’s full amount, an option they can pick in lieu of 36 equal monthly installments.

Interest paid to beneficiaries who parked their money in Alliance Accounts in the last several years has ranged from 0.5 to 1.5 percent, according to the lawsuit.

But the plaintiffs say the checks are equivalent to an IOU, and that the money doesn’t actually sit in those accounts as of the time of the soldier’s death.

They allege Prudential holds the money in its $200 billion general account and earns 5 to 6 percent interest; moves it into an Alliance Account only when the beneficiary requests it; pays out at the lower interest rate; then keeps the difference.

Federal Judge Denies Defendants ArmorGroup’s and Wackenhut’s Motions to Dismiss False Claims Act Whistleblower Lawsuit Involving Fraudulent Practices at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul

According to Debra S. Katz, counsel for Mr. Gordon, “this is an important victory for conscientious employees, like Mr. Gordon, who blow the whistle on fraudulent practices by defense contractors and wind up then paying the ultimate price.  The court’s decision today makes clear that such employees can bring federal claims under the False Claims Act to obtain redress.”

Debra S. Katz and Lisa Banks, attorneys at Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP, along with Janet Goldstein and Robert Vogel at Vogel, Slade & Goldstein, LLP, represent James Gordon.

Judge Cacheris’ opinion is available at http://www.kmblegal.com/2010/08/27/court-denies-summary-judgment-in-false-claims-act-whistleblower-retaliation-suit-by-kmb-client-james-gordon-against-afghanistan-defense-contractor-armorgroup/.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ – Judge James Cacheris of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has denied Defendants ArmorGroup North America (“AGNA”), ArmorGroup International, Wackenhut Services, Inc., and Cornelius Medley’s motions to dismiss whistleblower James Gordon’s lawsuit brought under the False Claims Act.

On September 9, 2009, Mr. Gordon, former Director of Operations of AGNA, filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit under the False Claims Act in United States District Court for the District of Columbia, charging that ArmorGroup management retaliated against him for whistleblowing, internally and to the United States Department of State (“DoS”), about illegalities committed by ArmorGroup in the performance of AGNA’s contracts with the United States to provide security services at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan and at the U.S. Naval base in Bahrain.

The Complaint charges that during Mr. Gordon’s seven-month tenure as Director of Operations, he investigated, attempted to stop, and reported to DoS a myriad of serious violations committed by ArmorGroup, including:

• Severely understaffing the guard force necessary to protect the U.S. Embassy;
• Allowing AGNA managers and employees to frequent brothels notorious for housing trafficked women in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act;
• Endangering the safety of the guard force during transport to and from the Embassy by attempting to substitute company-owned subpar, refurbished vehicles from Iraq rather than purchasing armored escort vehicles as promised to DoS;
• Knowingly using funds to procure cheap counterfeit goods from a company in Lebanon owned by the wife of AGNA’s Logistics Manager; and
• Engaging in practices to maximize profit from the contract with reckless disregard for the safety and security of the guard force, the U.S. Embassy, and its personnel

In his Memorandum Opinion (August 27, 2010), Judge Cacheris noted that “Plaintiff alleges and Defendants offer no facts to dispute that Defendants … began to try to constructively discharge [Mr. Gordon] by ‘making [his] working conditions intolerable.’”  Judge Cacheris further noted that “Plaintiff alleges, and Defendants have not offered any evidence refuting the fact, that [Defendant] Medley excluded Plaintiff from management meetings, shunned him, and relegated him to a position of persona non grata in the office” and that “Medley made clear to Plaintiff by his behavior, and to other staff members by his direct boasts, that his priority was to force Gordon to quit.”  In denying Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment, Judge Cacheris concluded that “there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding the continued nature and duration of the allegedly illegal acts Plaintiff was requested and required to participate in.”  The parties will now proceed into the discovery phase of the litigation.

Michael Bradley, Civilian Contractor, Dead in Dubai

A Man is Found Dead in His Hotel Room KATV

55-year-old Michael Bradley was found dead in his hotel room in Dubai on Monday, after he failed to report to work at the Military Contractor Recon International.

According to Bradley’s wife, Debbie, the cause of death hasn’t been determined, and is awaiting an autopsy.

Bradley was retired from the U.S. army and had begun working for the Recon in  Afghanistan a year ago. He had recently returned home before leaving for a week to Dubai.



State Department Says no more TCN PSD’s

ALCON,

·         The ADPM announced today that the DoS has finalized their decision to remove TCNs from PSD positions due to the requirement for secret clearances.

·         There will be a transition plan to replace TCN personnel with US as they arrive starting with the next PSS course graduation in November.

·         He will be talking with PMO to see if there are other positions elsewhere within the company.

·         If personnel have other opportunities and want to depart sooner, he will look into pro-rating bonuses.

John O’Ryan, PMP

Deputy PSD Commander

DynCorp International CIVPOL-Iraq

U.S. Department Of State

International Narcotics And Law Enforcement

LSA Butler, Bagdad, Iraq

Eysselinck vs Ronco Consulting: PTSD Injustice prevails

Eysselinck vs. Ronco Consulting/CNA at the DBA X Files

Texas Court Rules Iraq not Life Threatening

Eysslinck  Fifth Circuit Court Appeal  August 16, 2010

Guest Post by Marcie Hascall Clark

This case was apparently lost based on the opinion of an elderly retired psychiatrist paid for by CNA, the testimony of two Ronco Employee’s, Mike Hartling and Brandt Marshall (how’d that work out for you Brandt ?), who were coached on what to say before their depositions and told the same lies we were all told after his death, and a failure on the part of the claimants original counsel to properly represent the claim.  The Judge would not consider the testimony of Will Haynes as he found it to be unbelievable.  So who is believing you now Will ?

Tim Eysselinck worked for the same company as my husband, had the same job title, only he was deployed to Iraq following my husbands  repatriation via  Landstuhl and Walter Reed.   Certainly the job was dangerous as that is how my husband was so critically injured  ???

Iraq was extremely dangerous before Tim arrived.  Just Iraq, just being there.

In the weeks and days leading up to my husbands injuries  in July of 2003 he was shot at by the US Army, rescued by the Marines, woke up to bullet holes in his tents and vehicles,  and traveled roads where soldiers had been abducted and killed.  The only reason they were working the day he was injured is that he was told to work anyway  It was more important for them to work without security than to have it appear that the mission may not have been accomplished.

The world,  except possibly Judge Clement Kennington,  et al,  watched the safety and security in Iraq deteriorate before their eyes on television over the next six months that Tim worked there.   The Unclassified Safety and Security Reports available even before the Wiki Leaks spoke to the daily life threatening security situations.

In January of 2004, just a few months before Tim’s death,  he attended a conference  in Florida with fellow Ronco employees.  Some of these Ronco employees came to our home  following this conference to spend time with my husband who was still recovering.  While here they were discussing how odd Tim was acting and how he over reacted  to some of the conference topics was absurd.  I was later told by others who were in country with Tim that he was behaving strangely while still in Iraq.

Had there been any screening or concerns for mental health, or awareness of PTSD back then Tim’s behavior might have been recognized as  symptomatic of the life threatening condition that it turned out to be.  And today I doubt that anyone involved in this case from Kennington, to the three judges that just shot this appeal down, doubt that Tim was suffering from a mental condition brought on by his time in Iraq.

Once I learned that his widow had filed for death benefits based on PTSD I thought that this information might be important to her claim.  I emailed her attorney that I thought I had information important to her claim and would like to talk with him but he failed to respond.  I thought maybe I was too late but I was not.  I still have the email.

So while Judge Kennington, the BRB’s, and the Fifth Circuit in Texas found that working in Iraq for the last half of 2003 was not life threatening and that Tim Eysselinck’s widow and children do not deserve DBA death benefits because her first attorney did not file a claim based on Depression, which is a symptom of PTSD, rather than PTSD, they did choose to highlight the fact that he had two glasses of wine with dinner that evening.

Watch out for that second glass of wine guys it may just cause you to have an uncontrollable urge to put a gun to your head and pull the trigger.

Maybe they should put a warning on the bottles.

I hope that everyone realizes by now that if this claim were allowed to be started over again with all the available facts, the lies allowed to be fully countered, that Tim’s widow and his children would be receiving the benefits that Congress intended and the taxpayer paid for them to have.

We’d still recommend staying away from the Covington Cabal and the Fifth Circuit at all cost.  Move if you have to.  Certainly never allow your attorney to move your claim there because he lives there.  Your choice of attorney is extremely important as well.   If you lose your claim due to a lack of evidence you will never be allowed to present it.

Even if the whole world recognizes it as fact.

Thank you Birgit Eysselinck for your years of fighting this wretched biased system for all of us, for not accepting  pay offs from CNA to shut you up.

I apologize to you for the way my country has treated you, your children, and your husbands good name.

And that after his many years of service.  We should all be ashamed.

Up to 50 Afghan Security Guards Killed a Month

Afghan security firms denounce Karzai’s ban

KABUL — The Watan Group’s trained fighting force of 2,000 men, armed with rifles and rockets, battles daily to secure the most dangerous roads in Afghanistan so that critical supply convoys can reach U.S. and NATO troops across the country.

Up to 50 guards, paid about $600 monthly, are killed in Taliban ambushes each month, during fighting so fierce that the Afghan army and police often refuse to help, said brothers Ahmad and Rashid Popal, who own the company.

Now, Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to do away with Watan Group and 51 similar firms, both foreign and domestic, which employ more than 30,000 guards working mostly for Western entities. Karzai, who calls the independent fighting forces “thieves by day, terrorists by night,” has set a four-month deadline to dissolve the companies and bring their work portfolio under his government’s control.

What will happen if Karzai gets his way? Transit routes will be impassable, foreign companies will leave Afghanistan, the economy will suffer, and — perhaps most ominously — the unemployed security guards will turn to the insurgency, the Popal brothers predicted.

“If you get rid of the guards, 60 to 65 percent of them will join the Taliban,” said Rashid Popal, Watan’s deputy chairman. “They won’t join the government [forces]. If you go and die for the government, they don’t take care of your family like we do. Their only alternative is the Taliban.”

KBR convoy lead Kenneth “Taz” Lewis to be remembered

From MsSparky

In a recent email sent out by  KBR’s Employee Assistance Program:

We at the Employee Assistance Program would like to offer our condolences to the family, friends and co-workers of Kenneth Lewis Jr., the Convoy Lead known as “Taz” who passed away at COB Adder, on August 13, 2010.

Taz joined the KBR mission here in Iraq, early on – back in December of 2003 – and he will be deeply missed by those of us who knew him among the military and civilians serving in theater.

There will be a Memorial Service held at the Camp Adder Post Chapel on Friday August 20th at 9:30 a.m. All are welcome to attend.  Cards for the family – as well as the American flag – will be available for signing after the service.

Intimidation Tactics by CNA Claims Adjusters and Third Party Medical Providers

Disclaimer:  This post is regards those injured contractors who were so badly mutilated and incapacitated that they required home health care services after leaving the hospital.  Also those injured contractors in UK, South  Africa, and Australia that CNA calls their Tacticor Dogs on.  These abusive tactics are not limited to CNA, but today, we aim directly at them.  May they get what is due them.

We’re betting that none of you injured contractors or your  family members ever dreamed that in the event you or you loved one was injured in Iraq or Afghanistan that the Cost Cutting Risk Managers at CNA were going to attempt to control your life and your health care.

We have thoroughly read through the LHWCA and DBA and nowhere does it say that DBA Insurance is a HMO or any other kind of managed medical plan.  Nor does it say they can make medical decisions for you.

But trust that as soon as CNA is notified that you are injured you now have double trouble.  CNA now has control of your health care, not to mention your finances, under the pretense of being qualified to determine what kind of medical care you require.  Never mind what the doctor ordered.

If CNA is intimidating your wife and family by threatening to have you removed from your home because your family is questioning the health care and the third party medical provider about the services you are enduring

CALL AN ATTORNEY IMMEDIATELY

This is a standard intimidation tactic used by CNA

You do not have to allow them into your home, you do not have to allow them in the examining room at the doctors office.  You may choose your own doctor, not Tacticor’s, not CNA’s.

You did not become their property, do not have to put up with their intimidation tactics and harassment.

Video, record, and email, no telephone calls that cannot be documented.

Remember, if you are this badly injured your death benefits, if your family ever gets them, are worth much less than your long term care…….

Why does the question of whether DBA attorneys take kickbacks come up so often?

We’ll start this with our disclaimer:

We do not know if any Defense Base Act Plaintiff’s  attorneys  take financial kickbacks or any other possible kickback  from DBA insurance companies.  We just see the question come up often.

These are our own plaintiff’s attorneys that this question is being asked about.

Financial reward is likely the driving force behind the DBA insurance company defense attorney, though we suspect it is more a sport for a few of them.

But offering, or taking, a bribe to throw an injured contractor’s claim at a hearing or talk him into taking a much smaller settlement than he is entitled too,  would have disastrous legal implications for any attorney who were caught.  The insurance company would probably not miss a profit.

Never the less, this question remains a very hot topic.  One that many would be compelled to ask when researching the outcomes of claims of Injured War Zone Contractors and the Death Benefit Claims of those who did not survive.

If not for financial reward then what would drive an Attorney/Lawyer  to allow an insurance company to deny benefits to clearly maimed and/or mentally disabled persons without putting up the best fight possible utilizing every resource available to them?

The Reasonable costs of representing a claimant must also be paid by the insurance company and it is not the Insurance companies’ attorney who decides what legal costs will be paid, it is the Judge.

The lack of effort and resources put into most DBA Claimants cases saves the insurance companies billions of dollars without ever an outright exchange of dirty money necessary.

WAR HAZARD RECOVERY: The Top Secret Cost of the Iraq and Afghnanistan Wars

$8 Trillion for Iraq and Afghanistan Wars does not include Veterans or Contractors Care

Contractors currently outnumber troops on both fronts with more on the way.

Never does a cost estimate  include the huge

DIRTY TOP SECRET WAR HAZARDS RECOVERY

Cost’s of the War Hazards Act to the Defense Base Act Insurance Companies, AIG, CNA, ACE/ESIS, Zurich.

Nor do they include the additional burden placed on the  VA system by Disabled Contractors who are denied benefits by the insurers.  These insurers who are falling over each other to take the huge premiums.

Further many of these Disabled Contractors and their families land in our social services systems to  “survive”.

How will we figure the cost of ruined lives, ruined families?

Veterans for Common Sense

August 5, 2010 (Chicago Tribune) – It’s a shame to let accountants spoil the charming romance of war, but sometimes they insist. Recently the Congressional Research Service reported that our military undertakings in Iraq and Afghanistan have marked an important milestone. Together, they have cost more than a trillion dollars.

That doesn’t sound like much in the age of TARP, ObamaCare and LeBron James, but it is. Adjusted for inflation, we have spent more on Iraq and Afghanistan than on any war in our history except World War II. They have cost more in real dollars than the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.

But we can only wish we were getting off so lightly. Neither war is over, and neither is going to be soon. The House just approved $37 billion in extra funding to cover this year, and the administration wants another $159 billion for 2011. That won’t be the final request.

Worse, the CRS figure is only part of the bill so far. It noted the sum doesn’t include the “costs of veterans’ benefits, interest on war-related debt or assistance to allies.” All of those will go on after these wars are over, which someday they may be.

Scholars Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia and Linda Bilmes of Harvard published a book in 2008 called “The Three Trillion Dollar War,” which gives a more realistic estimate. But that, too, is an understatement. They figure that when all long-run costs are factored in, the tab will be at least $5 trillion and could reach $7 trillion, or nearly twice as much as this year’s entire federal budget.

And that was two years ago. I asked Bilmes for an update, and she said some obligations, like veterans’ medical and disability compensation costs, “have exceeded our earlier projections.” Do I hear $8 trillion?

The beauty of the current conflicts, however, is that we can pretend we don’t have to pay for them. Unlike past wars, when taxes were raised to defray the cost, these have been financed with the help of borrowed funds. But eventually the astronomical bill will have to be paid. Read the entire Column here