FBI questions witness about sale of CopSync stock to Robertson County officials, and Hearne audit to be released this evening

Yesterday one of my sources informed me that an FBI agent interviewed him on January 19, 2017 about allegations that CopSync, Inc. offered an insider stock deal to Robertson County commissioners shortly before those commissioners voted on a contract with the company. My source, a local law enforcement officer who previously worked in Robertson County, is the same person who brought the CopSync transaction to my attention.

I emailed CopSync officials yesterday evening to ask whether they were aware of an FBI investigation, but thus far no one from the company has responded. As I reported yesterday, the non-employee directors of CopSync hired an outside law firm to investigate the same transaction.

In other Booger County news, a forensic audit of the City of Hearne’s finances is scheduled to be released at a city council meeting this evening.  Hearne citizens originally circulated an initiative petition to force an audit of city finances after learning that city officials used taxpayer funds to purchase football tickets and flat-screen televisions.

The Booger County Mafia representatives on the city council, including Mayor Ruben Gomez and Councilman Emmett Aguirre, voted to sue their own constituents in order to keep the referendum off the ballot, and then-City Attorney Bryan F. “Rusty” Russ, Jr. even hid some of the petition signatures in an effort to keep it off the ballot.  Fortunately, the voters tossed some of the Mafia representatives from the council last May, and the new council members approved the audit.

Last April, I filed suit against Mr. Russ on behalf of former mayor Milton Johnson for tampering with the petition signatures. On January 10, 2017, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman denied Mr. Russ’s motion to dismiss the case, and I am planning to take Mr. Russ’s deposition in late February. I wonder how many times he will plead the Fifth.

Special counsel investigating alleged stock deal with Robertson County officials

Earlier this month, I reported allegations that CopSync, Inc. offered an insider stock deal to Robertson County officials shortly before commissioners voted on doing business with the company, and this afternoon I learned that the Dallas-based company hired a Florida law firm to investigate those allegations.

Michael D. Harris, a former lawyer for the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, wrote in an email this afternoon that his firm would be investigating on behalf of the non-employee directors of the company. Mr. Harris wrote that his investigation likely would be completed late next week “unless we find other areas of inquiry.” CopSync has contracts with hundreds of local law enforcement agencies around the U.S., and as I noted in my earlier post, a December 23, 2016 letter from the CopSync CEO infers that the private offerings may have been common practice.

After my last post, Robertson County Judge Charles Ellis indicated that he was unaware of a private stock offering, but other county officials have remained silent (DA Coty Siegert previously indicated that he was unaware of the private stock sale). Meanwhile, one of the non-employee directors of CopSync, Joel Hochberg, resigned from the board on January 16, 2016, i.e., ten days after my blog post about the suspicious stock offerings to government officials.

Mr. Hochberg was a business partner with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and both men are major investors in CopSync. Their relationship appears to have soured, however, because Mr. Hochberg is one of the two victims in the criminal fraud case pending against Mr. Paxton in Collin County.

The CopSync board appointed Larry Schafran to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Hochberg’s resignation, according to a January 20, 2017 report that the company filed with the SEC. The report noted that Mr. Schafran, a New York investor, was also being appointed to the company’s audit committee. Mr. Schafran has served on numerous boards and appears to have a lot of investing experience, so I have to wonder if Mr. Hochberg resigned in order to bring Mr. Schafran on board and protect his investment.

 

Were Robertson County Commissioners bribed by a company with ties to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton?

It looks like two of my story lines have crossed. According to one of my law enforcement sources, county commissioners in Robertson County, Texas (a.k.a. “Booger County”) were allowed to purchase stock in CopSync, Inc. at a private sale shortly before they voted on a contract with the company. And one of the major investors in that company is none other than Texas Attorney General Kenneth “Righteous Ken” Paxton.

Righteous Ken, meet the Booger County Mafia.

On its website, CopSync claims that it contracts with more than 500 local law enforcement agencies to help them integrate information among themselves and outside agencies. A letter that I received from the company suggests that private stock offerings to government decision makers may have been a common practice. If so, a lot of people could be in a lot of trouble.

Here’s the original email that I received from my source, a former law enforcement officer in Robertson County:

I’m not sure if you heard this before but I was told today by an elected official (buddy) that there were several elected officials in the basement of the Robertson County Courthouse for a meeting just prior to Robertson County purchasing the Copsync equipment. The meeting included all Commissioners, Constables, and the Treasurer and her husband (maybe more elected but I didn’t pry). All were offered stock in the company in which all did purchase (including Constable Angele and his mother in law (she was not present)). I was told Jan Roe had her own private meeting later to purchase at a different time in private. The stock was offered for $.10 a share. (my source stated it was worth more at the time). I’m not familiar with the stock market or any rules however it sounds pretty fishy to me?

Let me know if this helps or if I need to dig further for information.

For the record, my source did purchase stock that day and is a Constable.Read more

While Dallas cops were being murdered in the streets, state liquor agents were told to stand down and go home

According to heavily redacted text messages, a regional commander ordered state liquor agents to stand down and go home on July 7, 2016 while five Dallas cops were being murdered on the streets.

A little more than an hour after learning that Micah Xavier Johnson was randomly targeting white police officers at a Black Lives Matter protest, and while Johnson was still at large, Major Victor Kuykendoll of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage ordered his agents to avoid the area of the shootings and go home.

The following day, after Johnson was killed by a Dallas PD tactical robot, TABC brass nonetheless canceled operations and ordered agents to stay in their offices and avoid areas where “anti-police” activities might be going on. You can read all the text messages by clicking here.

Nearly two weeks after the shootings, on July 20, 2016, the major sent a long CYA email to various agents defending the stand-down order. Here’s an excerpt:

…I did not convey this out to everyone at the time, but we did reach out to Dallas Police Chief Brown following the attack on his officers to offer our assistance with whatever he or his officers needed and offered our condolences for the officers injured and killed along with their families and co-workers. I understand that times were very busy for him and his staff and we did not receive a response to our offer. Had we been requested, I would have expected each of you to perform whatever task(s) that they needed with the pride and professionalism you show every day. In the future, I would rather us send a delegate, preferably a supervisor, to whatever command post exists at the time and offer our assistance in person with the folks that are coordinating these efforts on the ground.

It sounds to me as if nobody from TABC offered to help until Johnson was dead and the bullets had stopped flying. And what’s this about “Had we been requested…”? As an ex-cop, I find it hard to fathom that any cop would think that he needed to wait for a request for help. No instinct or duty should be more fundamental to a cop than protecting the innocent, even when it puts the cop’s life in danger. So when a heavily-armed murderer is roaming the streets and a massive manhunt is under way, you don’t wait for someone to ask you to intervene, you just do it. … Read more