Utter and complete indifference to the law of the land, and despite the clear mandate by the U.S. Department of Treasury's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has led to a complaint being filed against Henry Weinstein -- a UC Irvine School of Law professor and member of Voice of OC's Board of Directlors. Also names were Joe Dunn, John Cruz, and Jess Araujo.
The ethics complaint -- filed with the State Bar of California -- alleges Orange County's Nonprofit Investigative News Agency (DBA "Voice of OC) failed to comply with a September 1, 2011 request for production of IRS Form 990, Form 990 Schedule A, and Form 1023.
Professor Henry Weinstein, a former prize-winning legal affairs reporter with the Los Angeles Times, is now a professor at UCI law school teaching legal writing and developing clinical programs. As a journalist, Weinstein was known for his work on death penalty cases - freeing one man after 24 years in prison - as well as investigations into consumer fraud and white-collar crime. (photo:courtesy of literaryorange.org ; nerrative from Voice of OC)
Specifically, the request to produce Voice of OC's tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days. As such, the failure of respondents (who all serve on Voice of OC's Board of Directlors) to comply with the law, as well as the utter and complete indifference to the law of the land, mandates that discipline be imposed.
The fact that Senator Dunn is the Executive Director of the State Bar of California should only serve as a factor for enhanced discipline, as his conduct should be beyond reproach and he should fully comply with all laws and regulations. This is particularly true because those documents were sought as part of an inquiry into circumstances involving a charity known as CaliforniaALL, in the context of events surrounding Voice of OC.
The State Bar of California, which controls and operates the California Bar Foundation, quietly transferred $780,000 to CaliforniaALL, a charitable entity created by former BOG member Ruthe Catolico Ashley. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the approximate $780,000 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns.
Likewise, the Foundation never acknowledged this transfer to CaliforniaALL -- the largest grant it ever bestowed -- via publications issued by its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.
During its brief existence, CaliforniaALL obtained additional funding of close to $1.5 million from utility companies such as Verizon Wireless, Sempra, PG&E, and others. (My suspicion, thus far unconfirmed, is that Girardi, Dunn, and Brosnahan became closer with each other while involved in proceedings relating to a class action against Sempra, as well as proceedings involving Enron and El Paso.)
As the purpose of CaliforniaALL was to transfer those funds forward, it did so by awarding approximately $300,000 in grants to the UCI Foundation, where Senator Dunn serves as trustee and chair of the Audit Committee.
In September 2009, Ruthe Ashley abruptly exited CaliforniaALL. That month, Senator Dunn publicly launched his online publication, " Voice of OC." Public sources have stated that the Voice of OC was financed by various foundations, unions, and the like.
Events surrounding the State Bar of California, California Bar Foundation, CPUC, Geoffrey Brown, CaliforniaALL, Voice of OC, and UCI Foundation, as well as the fact that those who were involved (directly or indirectly, such as by arranging to funnel money ) with CaliforniaALL (i.e. Morrison & Foerster's Susan Mac Cormac and Girardi & Keese's Howard Miller in his capacity as BOD member of Cal Bar Foundation, as well as BOG members who voted to endorse CaliforniaALL and consider it to have been a partner of the State Bar of California) were also involved with the creation of Voice of OC (Morrison &Foerster's James Brosnahan and Girardi & Keese's Thomas Girardi ) created the appearance of suspicious activities that funds were misappropriated by Voice of OC, vis-a-vis CaliforniaALL.
The appearance of suspicious activities is heightened given the proximity in time of various events. As noted above, Ruthe Catolico Ashley abruptly left CaliforniaALL in the same month Senator Dunn (aided by Brosnahan and Girardi) launched "Voice of OC," as though her mission had been completed. Moreover, the recent abrupt departure of Thomas Girardi and James Brosnahan from "Voice of OC" (as though they were fleeing the scene with guilty consciences) and CaliforniaALL's pre-selection of the UCI Foundation as a recipient of funds only reinforces this belief.
This is heightened by Mr. Thomas Girardi's utter lack of credibility (per findings by the Ninth Circuit in the matter of In Re Girardi), as well as the scheme to appoint as special prosecutor on behalf of the State Bar an attorney from a law firm of which Girardi & Keese is a client. (Jerome falk of Howard Rice)
As such, the State Bar of California was urged to investigate this matter to determine whether any of the attorneys from Voice of OC who ignored the request to produce said tax returns violated California Rules of Professional Conduct and/or the State Bar Act.
