Tag: Attorney General Tim Fox

Montana Department of Justice. Attorney General Tim Fox’s 5 Million Dollar IT Consultants With Ties To Iranian Money Laundering and E-mail Hacks

The mission of the Department of Justice is protecting and promoting public safety and the rule of law. DOJ has nearly 800 people in eight divisions. According to Governor Steve Bullock’s Executive Budget, fiscal years 2018-2019, IT is critical to every aspect of the Department of Justice mission. The IT mission is to deliver, maintain, and protect IT solutions, collaboratively with customers, which are cost-effective, timely, innovative, integrated, and secure and meet or exceed customer needs. The majority of DOJ IT systems contain very sensitive information, support continuous law enforcement operations, and interface with the FBI, and therefore they have very stringent security and uptime requirements. 

In fiscal years 2016 through 2018, The Department of Justice, under Attorney General Tim Fox, spent $5,000,000.00 for Information Technology Consulting.  25% of this $5,000,000.00 was paid to a consulting firm  Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited commonly referred to as Deloitte.  Deloitte has quite a checkered reputation.  Let's take a look at how Deloitte protects and promotes public safety and the rule of law, as declared to be the mission of the Montana Department of Justice

Deloitte operates across the world in more than 100 locations including Hong Kong, China and India. In the late 1990’s, Deloitte commenced operations in India. In India, ICAI regulations do not permit foreign firms to carry out audits in India. Hence Deloitte carries out audits in India under the name of C.C.Chokshi & Co., an existing auditing firm that it arranged an agreement with. After India was forced to liberalise under one of the conditions of the world bank and IMF sponsored bail out, Deloitte was granted a license to operate in India. It subsequently purchased C.C.Chokshi & Co and now conducts audits in India under the name of this firm.

In August 2012, Deloitte, as the official internal auditors for Standard Chartered, helped the bank cover up money laundering operations related to Iran which were earning the bank significant profits by “intentionally omitting critical information”. Deloitte paid the state of New York a $10 million settlement, was required not to take on new business for one year from designated New York banks, and was required to implement reforms in order to prevent similar problems in the future. 

In September 2017, Deloitte suffered a cyber attack that breached the confidentiality of its clients and 244,000 staff, allowing the attackers to access “usernames, passwords, IP addresses, architectural diagrams for businesses and health information”. Reportedly, Deloitte had stored the affected data in Microsoft’s Azure cloud hosting service, without two-step verification. The attackers were thought to possibly have had access from as early as October 2016. The breach affected all of Deloitte’s email and administrative user accounts. As of October 2017, the New York attorney general’s office was investigating the hack. The New York Attorney General is investigating the hack, not the Montana Attorney General, a probable victim of the attack.

The mission of the Montana Department of Justice is to protect and promote public safety and the rule of law. Deloitte, an Information Technology Consulting firm, has ties to a bank that laundered money to Iran, paid a $10 million dollar settlement and was restrained from doing business in New York. This while being paid $1,272,000.00 from the Montana Department of Justice.

The mission of the Montana Department of Justice is to protect and promote public safety and the rule of law. This is their mission while paying over 1 million dollars to Deloitte after Deloitte was hacked because they negligently stored sensitive information using a cloud hosting service. Information Technology is critical to every aspect of the Department of Justice mission. The New York Attorney General investigates, not the Montana Attorney General who was a probable victim of the attack. The Montana Department of Justice has information on almost every Montanan, whether it be a driver’s license, vehicle plates, fingerprints for background checks, driver-history records, vehicle titling and criminal justice records. All this information was comprised by the IT firm hired by Attorney General Tim Fox. Did you know? The breach affected all of Deloitte’s email and administrative user accounts.

The Montana Department of Justice, under the leadership of Attorney General Tim Fox, is making a mockery of justice. Iranian money laundering, fraudulent companies in India, Information Technology standards that don’t conform to industry standards. The probable release of sensitive information of almost every adult in Montana. Did you know? Now you do. Your tax money is paying for this mockery of justice.

Reform Law Enforcement and Prosecutors to Reduce Prison Overcrowding

To address the challenges of prison overcrowding, Chief Justice Mike McGrath, Attorney General Tim Fox (Montana's top cop), Montana Department of Corrections Director Mike Batista and others requested technical assistance from the Council of State Government Justice Center to use some abstract, collective behavior approach that was developed within a certain social group that will last a finite period of time. In other words, this too will pass. 

If Montana is really interested in reducing the number of criminal convictions we must diligently pursue the tactics used to convict defendants. One such tactic allows investigators to lie to the accused about the evidence against the accused. The concept of the lawful use of deception should not be a Montana value. Do we really want convictions based on lies and deception on the part of law enforcement? 

A person can be charged with a felony for lying to law enforcement yet we consistently allow law enforcement to lie to a defendant and their attorney. The idea that sometimes you have to resort to trickery to get a confession is paramount to saying the state has no case against the accused. If there is no case against the accused we should not be convicting them. You can try to justify this approach however being a good liar should not be a job requirement for law enforcement. Lying is a slippery slope. Where does the lying stop or does it stop? 

The second reform Montana needs is to adopt the current federal standard for Daubert, the standard set forth for expert witness testimony. Federal Rule 702 is as follows: 

RULE 702. TESTIMONY BY EXPERT WITNESSES A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise if: 
(a) The expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will help the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue; 
(b) The testimony is based on sufficient facts or data; 
(c) The testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and
(d) The expert has reliably applied the principles and methods to the facts of the case. 

In Montana Rule 702 reads as follows: 

Rule 702. Testimony by experts.  If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise. 

Montana does not require expert witnesses to use reliable principles and methods in conducting their examinations which brings us to expert witnesses such as the infamous and beleaguered James Blanco, a handwriting expert from California that purports to do work for the Montana Department of Justice on his curriculum vitae. In a deposition in a case, Blanco stated that one could hire an expert to "testify to the exact contrary" to another expert, because one "can pretty much get experts to say anything." See Southwell Decl. Ex. G. In yet another deposition, Blanco stated his findings would be different if he was working for the opposing side. See Edens vs Kennedy. The American Board of Forensic Document Examiners, the Southwest Association of Forensic Documents Examiners and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences determined that James Blanco had diminished confidence in forensic scientists and their disciplines. He is no longer allowed membership in their organizations, yet Montana allows his testimony because Montana does not require experts to use reliable methods. In other words, in Montana an expert can make any finding as requested by the Montana Department of Justice whether or not the finding is reliable. Whatever finding the Montana Department of Justice wants, Blanco will give it to them as will other experts hired by the Department of Justice. 

Chief Justice (former prosecutor for Lewis and Clark County and former Montana Attorney General) Mike McGrath knows this. Mike McGrath has hired James Blanco. Attorney General Tim Fox, Montana's top cop, knows Montana courts do not require reliable expert testimony. Montana Department of Corrections (former head of Montana Department of Justice Criminal Investigations) Mike Batista knows Montana does not require reliable expert witness testimony. Mike Batista has also hired James Blanco. 

I wonder why Mike McGrath, Tim Fox and Mike Batista, with the knowledge they have, don't start reforming laws pertaining to the concept of the lawful use of deception and Rule 702 that allows unreliable expert testimony? Oh wait, I know...they have all used these techniques and at least two of them have hired unreliable expert testimony in the form of James Blanco. 

Montana needs to decide which reform is better: (1) passing a bunch of bills based on some abstract, collective behavior approach that was developed within a certain social group that will last a finite period of time. Or (2) reforming the laws that convict Montana citizens by lies, treachery and subterfuge and hiring unreliable expert testimony.

Contact your legislator when you have made your decision.