Description

Transcript of Nov. 16, 2001 sealed bankruptcy court wiretap hearing. At the hearing, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Bureau of Prisons object to the phone surveillance, ostensibly by Alan Goldberg, as in violation of Title III (the "Wiretap Act") and other laws and regulations. The Berger Singerman attorneys (James Fierberg, Paul Avron, Paul Singerman) DID NOT inform the USAO that Bear Stearns or Juval Aviv were to be recipients of the law enforcement tapes and other protected information. Goldberg (a private bankruptcy trustee) was ruled to be a part of the Department of Justice (and therefore entitled to conduct Title III surveillance and obtain access to protected law enforcement documents). However, no such ruling was ever made for Juval Aviv or Bear Stearns' senior management and attorneys Mark E. Lehman (special advisor to the Bear Stearns Chairman) or Daniel Taub. And their connections to the surveillance was concealed. The Government, at page 6 lines 13-15, states "the Trustee [Goldberg] is on nothing more than a fishing expedition." So, even "probable cause" was missing. The protections of Title III and other laws were thereby circumvented and Bear Stearns was able to defraud the Government into conducting illegal surveillence for them and into providing protected law enforcement information illegally received and used by Bear Stearns for private debt collection purposes and for use in ongoing Florida state court proceedings. The existence of this hearing and its transcript was only first disclosed, after previous denials, in late 2005 at which time it was then first transcribed.