According to my new acquaint/journalist at Reuters - Goldman Sachs purportedly has "FINALLY" settled the decade plus case of eToys.com (renamed ebc1 when Bain Capital stole the domain name) versus Goldman Sachs - for Breach of Fiduciary Duty.
OOPs! The title by Reuters ain't exactly correct; - finality takes two.
I'm in the debt of Delaware Valley reporter Tom Hals and his prior Reuters/Westlaw article titled "
U.S. Objects to secret settlement in eToys bankruptcy". Unfortunately that story is upon a paid for subscription so the mean germane excerpts are supplied below. Meanwhile, though Tom Hals has excited me with his "getting it" on the true issues, Tom doesn't control the presses. Therefore I assume it is his editor who gets it wrong with the new story errant in title of; "
Goldman Sachs finally ends litigation over 1999 eToys IPO".
Reuters Editor Leslie Adler and journalist Tom Hals are kind enough to permit my critique of their story to remain for the weekend in the comment section. It might possibly get censored come Monday; but for now it stands.
eToys battles with Goldman Sachs has just begun!
Goldman Sachs Can NOT settle with Goldman Sachs
What is at issue here, has yet to be reported. There are major conflict of interest issues ("Conflicts"); and germane to the purported "Settlement" is the fact that Goldman Sachs is settling with Goldman Sachs;
and that's "Horse[c]hit"!
As the chart denotes above the Morris Nichols Arsht & Tunnel ("MNAT") law firm represents Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital in Delaware. Hence MNAT is forbidden by Conflicts and as a matter of Bankruptcy Law, to represent eToys. But MNAT committed Perjury over 14 times, to conceal the Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs Conflicts.
MNAT confessed it lied about Goldman Sachs in 2005.
You can see the Deposition admittance of MNAT attorneys on February 9, 2005 (here) and read the October 4, 2005 - Opinion of the same judge Mary F Walrath in eToys punishing MNAT for failure to disclose Conflicts of interest concerning Goldman Sachs (here).
Why it took 6 whole months for the Judge's opine is a whole other story.
It is a sacrosanct premise of Bankruptcy Code & Rules of Law that "any" Conflict of interest issues that were Not disclosed by an attorney at law; MUST result in disqualification (I'm going to do a D on this to help educate the readers - because we have naysays who try to babble B.S. to the contrary). You can read about cases and the "sine qua non" issues of Conflicts of interest by Morgan Lewis (here). {NOTE: It is "quaint" that Morgan Lewis teaches Conflicts issues}.
Also, here's a "redline" version of the American Bankruptcy Institute explain to counsels why their Malpractice insurance is going up concerning Conflicts & other issues (here). Then there's Freivogel On Conflicts that mentions eToys (here) and discusses many cases on the fact that Bankruptcy Conflicts of interest issues are much more stringent than other federal proceedings.
Thus it is settled, as a matter of Law, specifically Bankruptcy Code & Rule of Law that Conflicts of interest are forbidden in bankruptcy cases. MNAT lying under oath to get permission to be eToys Debtor's counsel was an act of premeditated subterfuge to serve multiple evil masters. MNAT represents Goldman Sachs, who took eToys public and MNAT also (secretly) represents Bain Capital in the the Kay Bee Toys case (Bain Capital's Kay Bee bought eToys while Romney was still CEO). That is also a crime and yours truly informed the court presiding over KB (here).
But the Department of Justice Had MNAT Fraud Evidence Expunged. One needs to capitulate/admit that U.S. Trustee trial Attorney Mark Kenney is partially correct - it's Not the job of Laser Haas to point out the crimes of MNAT, Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs and Paul Traub - IT's the JOB of the United States Trustee's office to do so. But the Colm Connolly connection and the desire to protect POTUS wannabe Mitt Romney prevented the proper adjudication upon the merits of the eToys and Kay Bee cases.
And that ain't kosher!
Goldman Sachs Attorney MNAT Handpicked Prosecutor of Goldman Sachs
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In the same fashion that Capone would be forbidden to hand pick Frank Nitti to be the prosecutor over Al's organized crimes, MNAT (as Goldman Sachs attorney) is also forbidden to hand pick any prosecutor of Goldman Sachs. It is a massive Conflict of interest and everything thereof is the fruit of the poison tree (doctrine of "unclean hands").
Unfortunately, the yours truly, the eToys shareholders and the Delaware Bankruptcy Court were not aware that MNAT lied about Goldman Sachs until MNAT admitted such in January & February 2005. The pirates thus were successful in their schemes & artifices to defraud. Thus the Delaware Bankruptcy Court (
here) approved Paul Traub's firm handling the Goldman Sachs case.
Not only did Paul Traub get to prosecute Goldman Sachs and now seeks to settle Goldman Sachs for pennies on the dollar. Where eToys was defrauded of hundreds of millions of dollars; and the purported settlement (to be UN-Sealed) states it is only $7 million (which Traub and his co-counsels want to take 1/2 of the money from). But MNAT represents Bain Capital in the $83 million that Kay Bee CEO Michael Glazer paid Bain after Glazer paid himself $18 million; before filing bankruptcy of Kay Bee (see Traub's Motion to be prosecutor HERE).
Goldman Sachs sued Goldman Sachs.
Bain Capital sues Bain Capital.
Their attorneys MNAT & Traub get rich.
Romney runs for POTUS and seeks "friendly" USAG.
OOPs
Wonder if they got the Memo tht Romney didn't make it!
MNAT Obstructs Justice & Destroys Evidence to Benefit Goldman Sachs
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There are 3 levels/standards of evidence in federal cases, "preponderance of the evidence", "clear and convincing" and "beyond all reasonable doubt". Though one could argue that the evidence in our case is from court docket records, plus the confessions, makes a good foundation for "beyond all reasonable doubt" - the fact of the matter is both the eToys bankruptcy case and the New York Supreme Court case of eToys (ebc1) v Goldman Sachs (case #601805/2002) - are "Civil" cases.
Thus we only need meet "preponderance of the evidence" standard!
Regardless of the banter by those commenters who are out to destroy the message (for whatever their motivation may be) and beyond the fact that most of the naysays fail to inform readers that they are in the legal profession (circling the wagons in a "blue wall of silence" fashion) - the fact of the matter is, MNAT has confessed to supplication of erroneous affidavits and withholding the fact that Goldman Sachs is an MNAT client. By law MNAT is supposed to be disqualified; but the DE Bankruptcy Court said the case is now over - hence no need for disqualification.
OOPs (again) - that remark was in the Opinion of 2005 (pg 29 Remedy - here).
Goldman Sachs and MNAT are not only GUILTY of massive deception in Federal courts and the New York Supreme Court, they are extensively heinous and egregious in their actions. MNAT conspired with Paul Traub to usurp yours truly from his court appointed chair and sneaked in Barry Gold as President/ CEO of eToys - who is Paul Traub's partner (see Wall Street Journal story July 2005 - HERE). Judge Walrath knows MNAT, Paul Traub and Barry Gold are supposed to be "DISQUALIFIED" from the eToys case; because of the wrongs they have already confessed. Instead, as noted at the link above, on page 29, under Section of REMEDY - Her Honor makes an erroneous finding of fact and conclusion of law with the following remark;
Because the case is now over,
disqualification of MNAT as counsel to the Debtors is not practical.
One of "the" most extensively heinous and egregious acts of Goldman Sachs law firm MNAT, is the fact the firm has intimidation and retaliated against victim/witnesses. MNAT has also betrayed its court approved client, for the sake of the secret clients Goldman Sachs and Bain Capital. That is a Breach of Fiduciary Duty; and is exactly the same thing Goldman Sachs is being sued by eToys about. MNAT can't sign a settlement of fees with Goldman Sachs, it is forbidden to do so by Law. Though a bankruptcy judge has discretion on how much money it can FINE (sanction) MNAT; the court has NO discretion - WhatSoEver - about reporting MNAT's crimes to the Department of Justice (as per 18 U.S.C 3057(a)).
This holds even more true concerning the purported "settlement" that Barry Gold (Paul Traub's partner) is trying to approve with MNAT's signature. (See Objection to Paul Traub's fee request by Barry Gold signed by MNAT - HERE).
Now here's the huge issue even more relevant than all others above. While MNAT was benefiting Goldman Sachs via many acts of Perjury, in order to become eToys Debtors counsel unlawfully; MNAT also made sure the evidence was Destroyed. With Barry Gold and Paul Traub failing to Object (as they should have to protect their clients) -
MNAT asked for/ rec' okay to DESTROY eToys books & records HERE).
That's Obstruction of Justice - Destruction of Evidence!
Al Capone can't nominate Frank Nitti to be the one to prosecute Capone or his friends. Nor can Nitti approve of Capone & Gangs "settling" on how much they will give back of what they stole; and how much they'll pay each other as "success" fees for getting off 'Scot Free' with their crimes.
If there's any justice in the world, this crap will stop REAL Soon!
Judge Denied Motion to SEAL the DEAL with Goldman Sachs
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In what appears to be the first act of decency by Her Honor, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court justice presiding over the eToys case (Mary F Walrath) ruled to DENY the wishes of Traub, MNAT, Barry Gold and Goldman Sachs to SEAL the "settlement" Deal. This is a good thing (see judge's order -
HERE).
Both the Kay Bee Toys and eToys case have been in bankruptcy multiple times. Speciously, the wound right back up at Bain Capital under its Toys R Us name; where Toys R Us remains in possession of the stolen goods of the federal estates of Kay Bee, FAO Schwartz and eToys, all being handled by Paul Traub.
And Bain Capital always getting the sweet crooked deal!