Barra Partners llc

This website chronicles the history of Barra Partners, LLC (“Barra”), a merchant banking firm, the assets of which were stolen by two of the firm’s partners, Michael Bock and Seamus Hatch with material assistance from corporate lawyer, Marcia Ann Bruggeman who, although he was married, began dating Seamus Hatch during the late Spring of 2003– possibly earlier.

Contents

• The Perpetrators
• Money Laundering by California Lawyers
• Former Assistant United States Attorney Miles F. Ehrlich
• The Non-prosecution of Githaiga Daniel Ramsey
• United States Senator Barbara Boxer
• United States Attorney Melinda Haag
• Orrick, Haag and Heller Ehrman
• Folger Levin Kahn LLP
• Above the Law
• Political Contributions
• Contact; Further Information

During 2003, Bruggeman was an “Associate” with the Venture Law Group (“VLG”) based in Menlo Park, California– in the heart of Silicon Valley– where she had designs on becoming a Partner. Encouraged by Hatch, but in contravention with prevailing law because she was having sex with him, Bruggeman began aggressively soliciting Barra Partners‘ legal business which, given the firm’s growing portfolio of businesses, was becoming significant.

With funds provided primarily by Barra’s lead founding partner, Jon Goodwin, Barra had acquired a company in India with a long-term license to operate a cargo terminal in the Port of Chennai. The firm was bidding for additional licenses in the Ports of Chennai and Shanghai and pursuing growth opportunities in India, China, Ukraine, etc most of which were brought to the firm via Goodwin’s significant contact network. In order to harness these opportunities, Barra would require capital beyond that which Goodwin could provide. As an enticement to Barra retaining her as its legal counsel, Bruggeman and Hatch proposed to Goodwin and ostensibly Bock, that she arrange an investment in the firm by a friend of her’s, a purported narcotics trafficker operating in the San Francisco Bay Area.

One witness– not Goodwin– to Bruggeman’s overture to launder the illicit cash of her friend, recounted the pitch to Goodwin as follows:

“I recall being at a social gathering [redacted] at the home of Marcia [Bruggeman]. Marcia and Seamus Hatch were discussing, and informing me, about a potential investor in Barra Partners, LLC. The subject of their discussion was a longtime associate of Marcia’s. He was described as a small, academically proficient Jewish man who had formed strong associations during college with large black athletes living nearby. He had been accepted into their social circles first as a friend and then as a business partner in illegal activities. The business relationship was ongoing. He was said to have a very large stockpile of cash, and a considerable and persistent personal cash flow, for which he had few legitimate means of investing due to it being unreported income.”

See also: “Witness Recalls Marcia Hatch’s Conspiracy to Launder Money.”

Goodwin informed them he had no interest in becoming involved with “Scotty,” that Barra could raise money from institutional investors and he preferred that avenue. Despite this, they persisted. Goodwin attempted to leave Bruggeman’s flat just before sunset and prior to Scotty’s arrival. She begged him to stay stating that she had just spoken to him on the telephone, that he was playing basketball nearby and would be at the party within one-half hour. Reluctantly, Goodwin stayed. Scotty eventually arrived.. [more to come]

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The Perpetrators

When Goodwin refused to take part in his partners’ and Marcia Hatch’s illegal schemes they conceived and executed a fraudulent plan to disenfranchise him from Barra and illegally convert the firm’s assets, personal assets of Goodwin’s along with intellectual property of another victim into the assets of Aran Strategic Finance, LLC. In addition to the foregoing, the conspirators have variously engaged in a wide range of illicit activity including identity theft (see Identity Theft by Seamus Hatch and Michael Bock), mail theft, bribery of judicial officials, theft of intellectual property, fraud, theft of electronic information, etc.

Marcia Bruggeman‘s employer, the Venture Law Group was acquired by Heller Ehrman LLP in September, 2003. In November, 2003 Bruggeman and Hatch moved into a flat together at: 200 Townsend Street, Unit 5, San Francisco, California 94107-1722. Sometime thereafter, they were married and unfortunately, according to a witness, have procreated. Heller Ehrman LLP declared bankruptcy in the Fall of 2008 at which time Marcia Bruggeman Hatch (hereinafter referred to as Marcia Hatch) joined Gunderson Dettmer, as a partner, with Sharon Hendricks, an attorney she’s known since at least the time she joined the Venture Law Group.

The Hatches and Bock have directly threatened Goodwin in person and via telephone. In written communications they have implied taking unspecified actions which actions they made clear in unrecorded verbal communications. The purpose of these communications has been to variously extort waivers and financial settlements from Goodwin, disuade him from reporting them to authorities and stop him from continuing to publish accounts of their misdeeds.

Goodwin recently learned from a witness that Marcia Hatch, was inside his San Francisco residence while he was out of town attending to Barra’s business. This occurred while she was dating Hatch. Although Hatch had a key and was authorized to enter Goodwin’s residence under certain circumstances, Goodwin never gave Marcia Hatch permission to enter his residence. Based on threats Goodwin received from Bock and the Hatches, he believes the purpose of her visit with Hatch to his residence was to assist him to manufacture evidence as a pretext to their disenfranchisement actions.

Goodwin has also received a continuing stream of threats from various provocateurs, attorneys and even law enforcement officials employed or provoked by the Hatches and Bock into attempting to intimidate him. These threats have been made via telephone calls and in voice mail and email messages.

Seamus Hatch, Michael Bock and Marcia Hatch’s employers including: Venture Law Group, Heller Ehrman and more recently Gunderson Dettmer have retained criminal law firms Folger Levin & Kahn LLP, Ramsey-Ehrlich and others to execute, conceal and cover-up their fraudulent plans and insulate them from civil and criminal liability.

Several individuals, including one person brandishing a gun, followed Goodwin and stalked him at his residence. Various individuals have stalked Goodwin’s family members and friends and communicated threats in attempts to intimidate him from continuing to pursue criminal charges against individuals mentioned herein, the recovery of his property and restitution on behalf of other victims.

Based on circumstantial evidence, Goodwin is certain, they hired hackers and other data networking experts to carry out DNS attacks against various websites and hosting companies in order to frustrate Internet infrastructure owners into removing websites exposing their illegal activities. From evidence gathered by Goodwin it appears that a brother-in-law of Seamus Hatch, Richard S. Warley, Esq may have misused his position at Internet infrastructure company Savvis (acquired by CenturyLink, Inc.– Public, NYSE: CTL) to facilitate the execution of at least one such attack on document hosting website Scribd.com. Warley, an attorney, left his job with Savvis and moved his family back to the United Kingdom, shortly after an article exposing evidence pointing to Savvis’ possible involvement was published. Coincidence?

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Money Laundering by California Lawyers

Unlike bankers, lawyers have no obligation under U.S. law to establish anti-money laundering programs, know their customers, or evaluate the source of funds transferred to them. And, lawyers are specifically exempted from reporting requirements under the USA Patriot Act.

A February 4, 2010 report issued by the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations chaired by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) found:

“[c]orrupt foreign officials and their relatives have used gaps in U.S. law and the assistance of U.S. professionals to funnel millions of dollars in illicit money into the United States..”

See United States Senate; Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations; “Keeping Foreign Corruption Out of the Untied States: Four Case Histories.”

California’s attorney-client confidences laws are much stricter than any other state, see “California Legal Ethics: Rule 1.6 Confidentiality of Information” making it fertile territory for lawyers to engage in money laundering. Attorney-client privilege is the client’s right to waive. California attorneys must not disclose their client’s confidences and secrets unless specifically authorized to do so. As a consequence, California lawyers must even protect the identity of the sources of client funds held in their trust accounts. Funds transferred in or out of their trust accounts to non-private accounts would of course be traceable but it would be very difficult for law enforcement to identify the source or beneficial owners of cash and private offshore accounts.

By virtue of the foregoing, California lawyers can essentially provide the same services to their clients that “offshore” private banks provide tax evaders, narcotics traffickers, arms dealers, human traffickers, etc. without fear of being caught because of conflicting laws. Moreover, California attorneys who engage in money laundering can disguise transactions in a manner that enable them and their clients to evade taxes, not only on the proceeds of criminal activity, but also on profits from legitimate commercial activity.  In fact, attorneys can easily create “charitable” organizations funded with illicit cash to “shelter” as much as fifty-percent of their income from taxes.

Senators Levin’s and Coburn’s investigation found that two California lawyers, Michael Jay Berger and George Irvin Nagler, helped the son of the President of an African country:

“circumvent U.S. anti-money laundering controls at U.S. financial institutions by allowing him to use attorney-client, law office, and shell company accounts as conduits for his funds and without alerting the bank to his use of those accounts. If a bank later uncovered the diplomats use of an account and closed it, the lawyers helped him open another.”

Called to testify before the US Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Attorney Michael Berger gave the following statement:

“On advice of counsel, I must respectfully decline to answer your question based on my Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.”

Attorney George Nagler of course gave a similar statement.

To our knowledge, neither Nagler or Berger have been indicted or have faced sanctions from the State Bar of California for their roles in facilitating the alleged illegal transactions of their client. Both have apparently not engaged in predicate criminal acts and therefore we must conclude that law enforcement officials are generally unwilling to attempt to prosecute money laundering cases involving California attorneys.

To our knowledge, neither the United States Congress or the California State Assembly have taken action to plug the “gaping holes” in US and California laws that allow attorneys to essentially act as private bankers, facilitate the laundering of the proceeds of criminal activity and likely evade billions of state and federal taxes on the profits of their illicit enterprises.

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Former Assistant United States Attorney Miles F. Ehrlich

On May 9, 2005, Goodwin lodged a complaint regarding the Hatches, Bock and Heller Ehrman with then Assistant United States Attorney (“ASUA”) Miles F. Ehrlich. At the time Ehrlich was heading up the white collar crime division of the U.S. Attorney’s Northern California Office in San Francisco. Ehrlich informed Goodwin he would speak with his “investigators” and get back to him. Thereafter Goodwin learned, by happenstance, that Ehrlich left his position as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, started a criminal defense private practice with former AUSA Ismail Jomo “Izzy” Ramsey, in Berkeley California, and was representing Marcia Hatch and / or her husband Seamus Hatch against his interests and the interests of Barra Partners. See California Bar Complaint Against Miles Ehrlich In Re: Marcia Hatch of Gunderson Dettmer.

Despite his making multiple complaints to the State Bar of California, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Inspector General of the DOJ, the California Attorney General as well as two US Senators regarding Ehrlich’s “side switching,” Ehrlich continues to practice law, his clients have not been prosecuted and Goodwin, Barra Partners and the other victims of Bock and the Hatches have not been able to recover their assets or receive restitution or protection from the continuing threats these people pose. In fact, Ehrlich and his clients have misused their relationships with law enforcement to undermine Goodwin’s communications with them. As a consequence, Goodwin has been unable to mitigate the threat of Marcia Hatch’s relationship with the head of a significant narcotics trafficking organization so that he can recover both personal and business assets stolen from him by Marcia Hatch’s husband and Michael Bock. It appears Ehrlich’s political and law enforcement connections have effectively placed him and Marcia and Seamus Hatch above the law.

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The Non-prosecution of Githaiga Daniel Ramsey

A Ramsey family related case sheds significant light on Ehrlich and his law partner’s influence. Jason Caffey, a professional basketball player who had significant dealings with Izzy Ramsey‘s brother, Githaiga “Daniel” Ramsey [California Bar #183386] also found himself on the “wrong side” of Northern California’s “legal” community.

Daniel Ramsey, a former San Francisco deputy district attorney, resigned from the State Bar of California with charges pending on August 14, 2005 (see case number: 05-Q-03038) after being accused, in 2003 in a Federal complaint under the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), of stealing more than $2 million from Caffey and after being found in contempt of court by a Federal judge for trying to sell a piece of property that was tied to an alleged Ponzi scheme that had been frozen by the court.

Githaiga was never prosecuted for any of the alleged wrongdoing see “The curious non-prosecution of Githaiga Ramsey” and “Deputy D.A. benched after being accused of bilking NBA star“– February 17th, 2003.  Ehrlich and Melinda Haag (see below) headed the white collar crime division at the US Attorney’s office during this period of time and had prosecutorial discretion regarding whether to prosecute their colleague’s and Ehrlich’s eventual law partner’s brother which of course they didn’t.

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United States Senator Barbara Boxer

Subsequent to the Department of Justice’s “Office of Professional Responsibility,” irrationally and nonsensically rejecting Goodwin’s complaint regarding Miles Ehrlich’s “side switching,” Goodwin contacted US Senator Barbara Boxer to request her assistance with getting the Department of Justice to review the matter see: November 1, 2007 Letter to Senator Barbara Boxer in Re: Miles Ehrlich. Boxer requested information which Goodwin promptly provided. She informed him she would try to assist but she never followed up.

Boxer’s failure to assist did not surprise Goodwin given that Ehrlich’s and his law partner’s ties to the Democratic party and the East San Francisco Bay legal community run very deep. Boxer’s husband, Stewart N. Boxer, is a partner with law firm Boxer Gerson LLP in Oakland.

Githaiga and Izzy Ramsey’s father is retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge, Henry Ramsey Jr. Their mother is Eleanor Mason Ramsey, President of Mason Tillman Associates, a government consultancy also located in Oakland. Judge Ramsey gives sparsely to politicians but has contributed to $250 to Barbara Boxer. Elanor Ramsey gave $2,300 to Barack Obama.

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United States Attorney Melinda Haag

Beyond their political and legal community ties to Senator Barbara Boxer, Miles Ehrlich and Izzy Ramsey worked with current United States Attorney for the Northern District of California Melinda Lee Haag at the US Attorney’s San Francisco office from approximately 1999 through 2003.

According to “Obama nominates new U.S. attorney,” Ehrlich worked directly for Haag while they were employed by the U.S. Attorney’s Northern California Office. When Haag left in 2003, Miles Ehrlich took over the White Collar Crime Division of the US Attorney’s Northern California Office.

Was Ehrlich’s appointment made based on Haag’s recommendation?

After leaving her post with the US Attorney’s office in 2003, Haag joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (“Orrick“) as a partner in the firm’s “White Collar Criminal Defense and Corporate Investigations Group,” in San Francisco, where she practiced until rejoining the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California as U.S. Attorney in August, 2010 see: Melinda Haag’s Wikipedia Page.

As it happens, Senator Boxer headed the selection committee that identified Melinda Haag and proposed her nomination as U.S. Attorney to President Barack Obama. Ms. Haag was unanimously confirmed, without debate, by the U.S. Senate on August 5, 2010.

Since being sworn in as US Attorney, Haag has made it a priority for her office to enforce Federal controlled substance laws and has effectively declared war against California’s purveyors of “medical marijuana.”  Interestingly, she has not declared  war on California’s money laundering attorneys who of course benefit from the trafficking of illegal narcotics but not their legal distribution.

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Orrick, Haag and Heller Ehrman

Immediately after Heller Ehrman declared bankruptcy, in the Fall of 2008, Heller Ehrman’s former Chairman, and law partner of Marcia Hatch, Barry S. Levin moved his law practice to Orrick’s San Francisco Office along with twenty-six (26) other Heller Ehrman attorneys including: Annette Hurst, Beth Goldman, Christopher Grew, Daniel Dunne, David Goldstein,  David Klein, David Smutny, Douglas Lahnborg, Edward Hennenberry, George Greer, Jessica Pers, John Jurata, Joshua Rosenkrantz, Karen Dempsey, Larry Popofsky, Lori Philips, Mark Parris, Mark Plumer, Pat Gillette, Peri Mahaley, Richard DeNatale, Richard Goldstein, Richard Martin, Robert Rosenfield, Russell Cohen, Scott Westrich, Stephen Bomse and Warrington Parker, III to become law partners with, among others, MELINDA HAAG, ESQ.

“Coincidentally,” Goodwin had contacted Levin regarding Marcia Hatch’s activities on May 24, 2004. Levin forwarded Goodwin’s email to David M. Jargiello of Heller Ehrman who in turn responded. From Jargiello’s denials, it was obvious to Goodwin that Heller Ehrman‘s management was not interested in assisting their client, Barra Partners, to who they owe a fiduciary duty recover its assets. Nor were Jargiello, and presumably Levin, interested in halting the illegal activity being perpetrated by Marcia Hatch, who at the time was an “Associate Attorney” at the firm.

So why haven’t Melinda Haag or an AUSA in the US Attorney’s Northern California Office sought to investigate Marcia Hatch, Seamus Hatch, Michael Bock, Miles Ehrlich or Heller Ehrman regarding matters described herein?

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Folger Levin Kahn LLP

As mentioned above, criminal law firm Folger, Levin & Kahn LLP (defunct) was retained by a party undisclosed to Goodwin regarding this case. A lawyer from this firm, John Daniel Sharp, contacted Goodwin in an obvious attempt to intimidate him. Goodwin reported this contact to law enforcement. An open question is whether the “Levin” i.e., John Levin, Esq. in Folger, Levin & Kahn LLP is a relative of Barry S. Levin?

Folger as in Peter M. Folger, Esq .. Katherine Folger’s father? Or uncle? Mrs. Folger’s son? Very, very interesting.. stay tuned!

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Political Contributions

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Above the Law

The hypocrisy of the US Department of Justice, Congress– for exempting attorneys from the Patriot Act’s anti-money laundering requirements– and Haag’s war on California’s “legalized” marijuana distribution, but turning blind eyes to money laundering by attorneys and the interests of firm’s and individuals victimized by attorneys who engage in criminal activity, is stark.  Given Haag’s close associations with “former” colleagues– Miles Ehrlich and Izzy Ramsey and her “former” law partners’ Barry S. Levin, Esq. et al’s affiliation with Heller Ehrman and Miles Ehrlich’s client, Marcia Hatch as well as her relation to US Senator Barbara Boxer who was provided information regarding Ehrlich’s “side-switching” it is impossible to believe these individuals have not colluded to ensure the non-investigation and non-prosecutions of Ehrlich, Marcia Hatch, Michael Bock, Heller Ehrman, et al.

As this case elucidates, attorneys connected to law enforcement and corrupt politicians in Northern California are above the law. Anyone who becomes a victim of the individuals mentioned herein and their affiliate organizations such as Orrick or Gunderson Dettmer, and other powerful law firms do not have a chance. We will have more on this subject in coming weeks so please check back frequently.

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Contact; Further Information

We appreciate any tips regarding the activities and associations of the individuals mentioned on this site. Anyone with information regarding the activities of these individuals or the disposition of Barra Partners assets please contact us using the Contact Form.

If you have been victimized by Marcia Hatch, Seamus Hatch, Michael Bock or any other individual mentioned herein, please contact us. Upon confirmation of your identity and the substance of your allegations, we can provide you contacts within law enforcement who are familiar with the matters described herein.

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