Inslaw is the name of a small computer programming company owned by William and Nancy Hamilton, that was subjected to criminal activities and a conspiracy by high Justice Department officials. By misusing the power of their office, these officials, including the three U.S. attorney generals in the 0 Reagan-Bush administrations, Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh, and William Barr, misappropriated, or aided and abetted, the theft of the software called PROMIS. The tactics used by the highest law-enforcement officers in the United States to steal the software forced the small company into Chapter 11, after which Justice Department officials misused the U.S. Trustee division of the Justice Department, and the federal courts, seeking to force the company into a Chapter 7 liquidation.
In 1982 the U.S. Department of Justice signed a $10 million contract with Inslaw to install an enhanced version of software known as PROMIS in 42 U.S. Attorney offices. The Inslaw company went heavily into debt, obtaining a loan, to complete the contract. After the software was installed, and found to be satisfactory, and its value recognized for an upcoming half-billion-dollar government contract, Justice Department officials refused to pay Inslaw, knowing that it would force them into bankruptcy. Once Inslaw filed for bankruptcy, Justice Department officials could force the company into a Chapter 7 liquidation through its U.S. Trustee division and control of the bankruptcy process.
As stated elsewhere in these pages, it is a standard practice for people in control of the CIA and other government agencies to target selected companies and force them into bankruptcy, and then have associates take over the assets.
A close friend of Attorney General Edwin Meese, Earl Brian, had a controlling interest in a software company seeking to obtain the government computer contract: Hadron Incorporated. The company was primarily owned by Earl Brian,(343) who served in the White House as chairman of a task force which reported to Attorney General Edwin Meese. Meese and his wife had a financial interest in Hadron.
Key Justice Department and White House people who were part of the conspiracy included the three U.S. attorney generals (starting with Edwin Meese), Earl Brian, Deputy Attorney General D. Lowell Jensen, among others. All were from California and, except for Brian, they were all California attorneys. Earl Brian and Edwin Meese were from California and in former Governor Ronald Reagan's administration. Brian wanted the Inslaw software, which would subsequently be sold to the Justice Department and other government agencies in a $500 million contract
Brian expected to obtain the contract through his influence with Meese whose wife had stock in Hadron. The value of that stock, and the company's profits, would soar into the tens of millions of dollars upon obtaining the rights to Inslaw's Enhanced PROMIS software and the government contract Earlier, the chairman of Hadron, Dominic Laiti, attempted to purchase the PROMIS software from Inslaw, but Inslaw refused to sell. Laiti warned Lee Hamilton that Hadron was politically connected to Attorney General Meese, and we have ways of making you sell." After this threat was made, Justice Department officials refused to pay for the PROMIS software, knowingly forcing the Hamiltons to seek refuge in Chapter 11. Deputy Attorney General Lowell Jensen, another former California attorney, was directly responsible for approving payment to Inslaw, and refused to pay for the installed software. Unable to pay their employees and the bank loan, the Hamiltons sought refuge in Chapter 11.
In what was probably a quid pro quo for his cooperation in the scheme against Inslaw, Meese recommended to President Reagan that Jensen be appointed to a U.S. District Judge in San Francisco. Jensen played key roles in the obstruction of justice when I sought to report the federal crimes to federal courts in the San Francisco area. He was one of several October Surprise and Inslaw participants who profited by their role in October Surprise, Inslaw, and other crimes against the United States.
Another federal official involved in the scheme against Inslaw was Edwin Thomas, Assistant Counsel to President Reagan, and a friend of Meese Thomas loaned Meese's wife, Ursula, $15,000, in early 1981, to buy stock in Infotech (then operating under the name of Biotech Capital Corporation) Thomas was working directly for Meese as Assistant Counsel to the President and earl Brian loaned him $100,000 in July 1981. Thomas, using his officiai White House position, made calls to the Small Business Administration to have the SBA approve a loan application to a Biotech subsidiary owned by Thomas which was involved in computer software. Biotech hoped to obtain Justice Department software contracts worth an estimated half billion dollars, using the stolen Inslaw software. The insiders to this scheme anticipated they would be multi-millionaires. But the scheme required that Infotech/Biotech/Hadron obtain the Enhanced PROMIS software from Inslaw, which the owners, Lee and Nancy Hamilton, refused to sell.
After Inslaw sought refuge in Chapter 11, Justice Department officials pressured the IRS to force Inslaw into a Chapter 7 liquidation, hoping to have Hadron acquire the PROMIS software, which would then be offered to the government for the estimated half billion dollars in contracts. In an unusual refusal to cooperate with Justice Department dirty tricks, Chapter 11 Judge George F. Bason blocked that attempt.
SELLING THE STOLEN SOFTWARE
After receiving the leased software from Inslaw, Justice Department officials gave the software to Earl Brian,(344) who then used CIA contract agent Michael Riconosciuto to alter the program at the Wackenhut-operated facilities on the Cabazon Indian Reservation near Indio, California.
The Hamiltons, who owned the Inslaw Company, discovered the unlawful sale of their software by Justice Department officials and Earl Brian to Canada when Canadian government personnel inadvertently contacted Inslaw for information on the software which had been sold to them. The Hamilton's visited the Canadian offices that had requested information, discovering that numerous Canadian offices were using it. After the Hamilton's reported that they had not sold the software to any Canadian offices, and that they were not authorized to use it, Canadian officials falsely claimed that none of their offices were using the software. Canadian authorities covered up for the theft and protected Justice Department officials. Brian and others who worked with him sole the stolen Inslaw software throughout the world for tens of millions of dollars. Crime does pay.
CIVIL SUIT AGAINST JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS
While in Chapter 11 proceedings, the Inslaw Company filed a civil action(345) against the U.S. Department of Justice and the officials who stole the PROMIS software. In court filings, Inslaw and its attorney, former U.S. Attorney General Elliott Richardson, claimed that Inslaw was a victim of a conspiracy by Meese and his friends, who capitalized on their government positions for the purpose of stealing the software and converting it into private use and personal gains.
Justice Department officials sought to block this lawsuit by misusing the power of the Justice Department. The first attorney representing Inslaw against the Justice Department was Leigh Ratiner in the Washington law firm...
344) The Financial Post August 19, 1991, issue linked Brian to covert operations with the United States and Israeli intelligence communities. Hewas reportedly involved inthe sale of weapons tolran inthe 1980s. He reportedly worked with the CIA. He was reportedly implicated in the many scandals involving Ed Meese.
345) Inslaw v. Thornburgh, Civ. 89-3443.