Affinity Scams, Part 3

"It is all right to rat, but you can't re-rat. "
Winston Churchill

"We are much harder on people who betray us in small ways than on people who betray others in great ones. "
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"There are three signs of a hypocrite:
when he speaks he speaks lies,
when he makes a promise he breaks it,
and when he is trusted he betrays his trust."
Muhammad

It is expected that the number of plaintiffs in the Mini-sota Madoff-like scandal will continue to increase; the possibility of a class action is still in play. It is also anticipated that the number of defendants may increase.

According to the most recent Browning article this week, at www.startribune.com/local/59341017.html two of the defendants, Kiley and Cook, are the subject of a Grand Jury Investigation in court filings last Friday, released Monday, by Assistant US Attorney Joe Dixon. I have not been able to confirm the rumor that Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank McGill has been assigned to this case. McGill became prominent in Minnesota when he was named the acting US Attorney for Minnesota in the wake of the disgraced departure of US Attorney Paulose under Alberto Gonzales. Current sitting US Senator Amy Klobuchar was an attorney in that office during that interval, and has spoken glowingly of McGill's abilities. Directly prosecuting the case or perhaps supervising it, McGill knows his way around white collar crime in Minnesota.

When Madoff was sentenced, he received what amounted to a life sentence without parole. Most of these defendants are younger than Madoff, although Kiley appears to be the closest to him in age. Like Madoff, these defendants are looking at potential life sentences if convicted, because like Madoff, even if the number of years attached to each count is relatively short, there are many, many alleged victims involved. Given that the risk to the defendants is life in prison without parole, I would expect that there is a very good chance that one or other, maybe all of them, will begin throwing each other under the metaphorical bus in an attempt to negotiate the best possible deal. The other usual bargaining chip available to defendants to negotiate is to return as much of the money as possible.

Now that we have had a week of the Grand Jury presumably in action, we may be seeing bodies flying under buses momentarily. I look forward to seeing what the weekend and coming week brings in the facet of the local radio programming that has been host to both defendants Pettengill and Durand. Apparently something new is in the wind.

I have been told by a source for the alleged victims who are not currently represented that there are also mail fraud complaints that have not been previously reported on in the media as part of the mix of investigations and allegations. Through the efforts of the members of Congress for those victims, those mail fraud complaints have been brought directly to the attention of the Post Office Inspector General. There are also plans for complaints to be made (or by now they may have been made to) the FCC and to the FTC, as well as to the various entities which have provided air waves for the broadcasting not only by Kiley, but also Pettengill, and Durand, and possibly a complaint about another individual who has found their niche on right wing talk radio, and who at one time appears to have been a close colleague of Kiley's, Robert Chapman.