11-02-24 Ronald Reagan: Unionizing - a God Given Right! // Ronald Reagan: Sindicación - un derecho dado por Dios! // 罗纳德里根：Unionizing-上帝赋予的权利！

TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

"One of the most elemental human rights [is] the right to belong to a free trade union." -Ronald Reagan
Question?
In this Ronald Reagan presidential address on October 19, 1982, is President Reagan rebuking the Soviet government of Poland or Scott Walker? Read it and honestly decide if Republican "Saint" Reagan's condemning words equally apply to Walker. They do:

Yesterday the Polish Government, a military dictatorship, took another far-reaching step in their persecution of their own people. They declared Solidarity, the organization of the working men and women of Poland, their free union, illegal.
Yes, I know Poland is a faraway country in Eastern Europe. Still, this action is a matter of profound concern to all the American people and to the free world.
Ever since martial law was brutally imposed last December, Polish authorities have been assuring the world that they're interested in a genuine reconciliation with the Polish people. But the Polish regime's action yesterday reveals the hollowness of its promises. By outlawing Solidarity, a free trade organization to which an overwhelming majority of Polish workers and farmers belong, they have made it clear that they never had any intention of restoring one of the most elemental human rights - the right to belong to a free trade union.
The so-called new trade union legislation under which this contrary and backward step has been taken claims to substitute a structure and framework for the establishment of free trade unions in Poland. But the free world can see this is only a sham. It is clear that such unions, if formed, will be mere extensions of the Polish Communist Party.

BuzzFlash repeats: this is from a Reagan presidential address, the transcript of which you can read here. BuzzFlash repeats this statement from Reagan's address (emphasis added): "They [the Soviet Polish government] have made it clear that they never had any intention of restoring one of the most elemental human rights - the right to belong to a free trade union."
In suppressing trade unionism and collective bargaining, threatening to use the national guard to suppress the tens of thousands trade union protesters in Wisconsin, in sending out the state police to pursue Democrats who are standing up for Regan's words in defense of trade unionism and threatening to fire workers if the unions don't agree to give up collective bargaining - among other betrayals to Reagan's words - Walker is committing the No. 1 unforgivable Republican crime: He's defiling the legacy of Reagan.
In fact, in this 1981 television presidential address (which begins with some warm and fuzzy words about Christmas), Reagan championed the Solidarity trade union and its rights in the most vigorous of words.
In fact, in his 1982 statement, Reagan even discussed how the Solidarity Union sought God-given rights.
So, is Walker not only throwing mud at Reagan, but also defying God?
If you don't think so, don't take it up with BuzzFlash at Truthout. Take it up with Reagan, because he's the one who said it.
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

11-02-22 Wisconsin Capitol Shuts Off Comment Line. Is This Libya or America? // Capitolio de Wisconsin Apaga Comentar línea. Este es Libia o Estados Unidos? // 威斯康星州的国会会自动关闭注释行。这是利比亚还是美国？

Wisconsin Legislature Shuts Down Comment Line After Too Many Complaints

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 21, 2011, 5:18PM

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Demonstrators inside the Wisconsin state Capitol, February 16, 2011.

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Wisconsin Protests

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The protesters amassed outside the state capitol in Madison, WI and their supporters across the country have succeeded in getting state Republicans to back down on at least one front: the toll-free Legislative Hotline that the legislature has kept open 24 hours a day for more than 20 years.

After a flood of calls that legislative staff tell TPM came from "unions and other non-profits," the legislature's Sergeant at Arms ordered the number disconnected Friday, a move that according to sources could save the state quite a bit of money as the protests against Gov. Scott Walker's (R) union-busting budget plan rage.

One union source said he didn't know about the call flooding, but he said that Republicans have another think coming if they believe taking down a phone number will silence the frustrated union supporters with their eyes on Madison this week.

During business hours, the Legislative Hotline is answered by a real person, a longtime staffer in the Sergeant at Arms office told me. Normally, people call to ask who their legislator is and how to contact him or her -- usually so the caller can complain about something the state government's up to.

Read the full story:

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/wisconsin-legislature-shuts-down-comment-line-after-too-many-complaints.php

11-02-22 Wisconsin: Best Protest signs // Wisconsin: Las mejores señales de protesta //威斯康星：最佳抗议的迹象

View the complete list at:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-protest-signs-at-the-wisconsin-capitol

11-02-22 Welcome Senegal - Last New Visitor! // Bienvenido Senegal - Visitante Mas Reciente! // 欢迎塞内加尔- 最后的新访问者！

Last New Visitor Senegal Visited February 22, 2011

11-02-21 Welcome Singapore - Last New Visitor! // Bienvenido Singapore - Visitante Mas Reciente! // 欢迎新加坡- 最后的新访问者！

Last New Visitor Singapore Visited February 21, 2011

11-02-20 Welcome China - Last New Visitor ! // Bienvenido China - Visitante Mas Reciente! // 欢迎中国- 最后的新访问者！

Last New Visitor China Visited February 20, 2011

11-02-20 Billboards in Pennsylvania // Vallas publicitarias en Pennsylvania // 在宾夕法尼亚州的广告牌

Billboard on Route 15 southbound near Dillsburg in York County, Pa.

Elkton, Md., billboard

Billboard at Liberty Hill along Route 183 in Austin

Birth certification question hits Buda, Texas, on billboard owned by CBS competitor

Billboard along I-35 near the Highway 59 exit near Ottawa, Kan.

Billboard near Cabela's in Hamburg, Pennsylvania

Billboard on Highway 93 near Kingman, Ariz.

Billboard on Long Beach Freeway near Firestone Blvd.

San Antonio billboard

Billboard in Nashville, Tenn.

Billboard near Panama City, Fla.

Billboard near Navarre, Fla.

Billboard near Talledega, Ala.

Billboard near Bethel, Pa.

Read more:Billboard question returns to Pennsylvaniahttp://www.wnd.com/?pageId=265285#ixzz1EWS4kw4Y

11-02-20 Exoneration of Countrywide’s Angelo Mozilo Signals Ongoing Integrity Crisis of the US Justice System // A gran escala contra el Fraude bancario en los Estados Unidos // 大型银行诈骗在美国

       

Countrywide's        US Attorney General     Bank of America's  
Angelo Mozilo;          Eric Holder                     Brian Moynihan

Exoneration of Countrywide's Angelo Mozilo Signals Ongoing Integrity Crisis of the US Justice System

Unless conduct of the US justice system is addressed, it is unlikely that socio-economic development and civil society conditions in the United States will improve anytime soon.

Los Angeles, February 20 -  News media have reported this week that US prosecutors dropped the criminal investigation of Angelo Mozilo, former Chairman of Countrywide Financial Corporation. [[i]]

In response, Dr Zernik of Human Rights Alert (NGO) issued a statement calling the decision "A clear signal of ongoing integrity crisis of the US justice system, and ongoing dysfunctional banking regulation in the United States."

Dr Zernik added: "Like the Great Depression a century ago, the current financial/economic crisis in its core is an integrity crisis of the US justice system. Unless conduct of the US justice system is addressed, it is unlikely that socio-economic development and civil society conditions in the United States will improve anytime soon."

Starting January 2007 Dr Zernik filed complaints with FBI, Office of Thrift Regulation, and Federal Trade Commission and SEC.  The complaints documented fraud in Countrywide operations as early as 2004:

• Fraud in Countrywide's underwriting monitoring system (EDGE), which enabled underwriting sub-prime loans with no underwriting at all.
• Fraud in fax transmission operations in Countrywide, which bypassed Countrywide's fax server system, and enabled the falsification of loan application (1003s) files.
• Dismantling of internal and external audit systems.
• Direct involvement of ANGELO MOZILO (then Chairman) and SANDOR SAMUELS (then Chief Legal Officer, today - Associate General Counsel of Bank of America) in such conduct.

The complaints alleged violations of banking regulations, wire fraud, large-scale financial institution fraud, and racketeering.  The complaints also projected liability to the US Treasury of hundreds of billions of US dollars through Countrywide's conduct.

US law enforcement and banking regulators refused to investigate the complaints.

Freedom of Information Act responses by SEC, Thrift Regulation, and Trade Commission later documented that the complaints were eliminated from US agencies records, although sufficient evidence was found in the responses that such complaints had existed.

• In January 2008 Countrywide collapsed, and the losses to the US Treasury were materialized.
• In early 2008 complaints were filed with FBI Director and US Attorney General, which documented tight links between Countrywide, and later, Bank of America and its President Brian Moynihan and corruption in the Los Angeles Superior Court, led by California Judge JACQUELINE CONNOR (best known for derailing the First Rampart Trial in 2000).
• In 2008, Fraud Expert, and FBI veteran JAMES WEDICK, who was decorated by US Congress, US Attorney General, and FBI Director, opined real estate fraud, perpetrated by Attorney DAVID PASTERNAK (former President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association), on behalf of Countrywide/Bank of America and the Los Angeles Superior Court. [[ii]]
• In 2008, the Fraud Expert also documented his discussion with FBI on the matter.  The Fraud Expert indicated that while FBI agreed with Dr Zernik's claims, FBI was not going to provide equal protection, since it would require exposing the widespread corruption of the Los Angeles Superior Court. [[iii]]
• In 2008, Congressional Inquiries were filed by Senator DIANNE FEINSTEIN and Congresswoman DIANE WATSON on FBI and US Attorney General: why US law enforcement would not investigate the complaints and the request for equal protection of the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County against alleged racketeering by judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
• In 2009, complaint was filed with the office of Inspector General of the US Department of Justice GLENN FINE, claiming fraud by senior US Department of Justice Officers on the US Congress.  The complaint pertained to responses of FBI Assistant Director KENNETH KAISER and then Director of US Attorneys Office KENNETH MELSON to the US Congress Inquiries in 2008.
• The office of US Department of Justice Inspector General refuses to investigate the complain to this date.
• In 2010 complaints were filed with Office of the US Controller of the Currency and SEC, documenting fraud by senior management in Bank of America corporation, including direct involvement of BRIAN MOYNIHAN. [[iv],[v],[vi]]  The US Controller of the Currency and SEC refuse to investigate the complaints to this date.
• In 2010, the civil litigation of SEC v Bank of America Corporation in the US District Court in New York, which was hailed by media as the hallmark of US banking regulation, was opined as fraud on the court by US Judge JED RAKOFF and Clerk RUBY KRAJICK. [[vii],[viii],[ix],[x],[xi]]

During the same period, senior US Department of Justice and banking regulation officers repeatedly provided testimonies before the US Congress, stating that there was no way to predict the sub-prime crisis, that no criminality was found in investigations of sub-prime lenders, and that US banking regulation was "shored up".

Such statements are claimed as fraud on the US Congress and on the people of the United States.

Conduct of the US government is also alleged as serious violation of the Human Rights and of the US government's duties and obligations as a good faith party to the international Basel Accords on banking regulation.

In 2010 Human Rights Alert's submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), as part of the first ever, 2010 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the United States.  The report documented a pattern of housing fraud by large financial institutions in collusion with judges of the Los Angeles Superior Court and large law firms, and the refusal of US Department of Justice to provide equal protection. 

The submission was later incorporated into the official Staff Report of the HRC, with reference to "Corruption of the courts and the legal profession and discrimination by law enforcement in California". [[xii]]

News reports during the current financial crisis documented similar conduct throughout the United States.

LINKS:
[i] 11-02-18 US Drops Criminal Probe of Former Country Wide Chief Angelo Mozilo - LATimes
http://www.scribd.com/doc/49151334/
[ii] 07-12-17 Samaan v Zernik (SC087400) David Pasternak: Grant Deeds in re: 320 South Peck Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, opined as fraud by James Wedick
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24991238/
[iii] 08-08-21 Samaan v Zernik (SC087400) Email letter by highly decorated FBI veteran James Wedick regarding  FBI's refusal to provide Dr Zernik equal protection
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29713733/
[iv] 10-05-05 Countrywide Bank of America NYSE BAC and its President Brian Moynihan Compilation of Records Evidence of Racketeering
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30975368/
[v] 10-05-05 Chairs of US Congress Committees of the Judiciary and Banking Are Requested to Join Senator Feinstein's Inquiries on Comptroller of the Currency
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30979882/
[vi] 10-07-06 Complaint Filed with US Attorney Office Los Angeles Against Moynihan Bank of America [NYSE:BAC] Bryan Cave LLP Alleging Racketeering
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33971099/
[vii] Zernik, Joseph: Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation - Pretense Litigation and Pretense Banking Regulation in the United States (filed in support of Request No 1 for impeachment of US Judge JED RAKOFF and Clerk RUBY KRAJICK, US District Court, Southern District of New York)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44663232/  
[viii] 10-12-08 RE: Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation(1:09-cv-06829) - Request No 1 for Investigation, Impeachment of RUBY KRAJICK, Clerk of the Court, US District Court, Southern District of New York
http://www.scribd.com/doc/44908376/
[ix] 10-12-19 RE: Securities and Exchange Commission v Bank of America Corporation (1:09-cv-06829) - Addendum to Request No 1 for Investigation-impeachment of Judge Rakoff and Clerk Krajick
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45644678/
[x] 11-01-10 Request No 1 for investigation/impeachment proceedings, in re: US Judge JED RAKOFF and Clerk RUBY KRAJICK, US District Court, Southern District of New York, Conduct of Securities and Exchange Committee v Bank of America Corporation (1:09-cv-06829)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46616530/
[xi] 11-02-05 Request No 2 for Impeachment of Judge JED RAKOFF Clerk RUBY KRAJICK, US District Court, Southern District of New York, in Re Conduct of Lindner v Amex (1:10-cv-02228) s
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48244479/
[xii] 10-04-19 Human Rights Alert (NG0) submission to the  United Nations Human Rights Council  for the 2010 Review (UPR) of Human Rights in the United States as incorporated into the UPR staff report:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38566837/

11-02-20 Continued Integrity Crisis of the US Justice System // Continúa la crisis de la integridad de los EE.UU. Sistema de Justicia // 正直，持续危机的美国司法系统

From: Charles Heckman
Subject: RE: [AMOJ_MAIN] Fwd: TIME CHANGE for Government Corruption Crisis Conference and 1,000,000 People Plan

 

   In an ongoing discrimination lawsuit involving government fraud, I had an exchange of e-mails with the U.S. Attorney representing delinquent agencies yesterday.  He wanted me to agree to give him an extra 30 days to file dispositive motions.  I told him I would agree only if he would guarantee that I received all of the discovery documents he has been promising me since last September.  He promised them for March 4, but there were no enforcement provisions for his agreement.  I said that I would agree if he would sign a formal agreement that any civil servant who refused to release a document that should be released would be prosecuted by the Department of Justice for obstruction of justice.  He said that I should make a "reasonable" proposal.
   I think that says it all.  It is now considered unreasonable for a civil servant to be prosecuted if he or she commits a felony.  This is the current mindset of our government lawyers.  Some people are just above all laws.
Charles Heckman

---

11-02-19 Welcome Cameroon - Newest County! // Bienvenido Camerún - Nuevos Condado! // 欢迎喀麦隆- 最新县！

     
  

Newest Country Cameroon Last Visited February 19, 2011

11-01-19 Wanted! One Honest US Government Official! // ¡Se buscan! Un funcionario de EE.UU. Gobierno honesto! // 通缉！美国政府官员一句实话！

From: "William M. Windsor - LawlessAmerica.com"
To:
Subject: Windsor Government and Judicial  Corruption Update and a Special PhotoDate: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:33:11 -0500

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Attached is a photo of the mobile billboard that will be driving all around Capitol Hill, the Mall, the White House, all government agencies, and the DC media’s headquarters on Tuesday, February 22.  I don’t expect many calls because I don’t believe there are many, if any, honest government officials.  I hope the mainstream media will pick this up.  If you have a website, please consider adding this.  My news release will simply say that a group of citizens are searching for one honest government official.  They haven’t been able to find one through regular channels, so they have purchased a mobile billboard that will drive throughout Washington, DC advertising for one to call.  The billboard simply says: “Wanted – 1 Honest Government Official” with a toll-free number and the website www.lawlessAmerica.com.

I spent several days trying to identify every leading website addressing judicial and government corruption.  I have over 500 so far.  I am writing to the owners of the websites and the bloggers offering to help them in any way that I can in this fight we are in, and I am inviting them to participate in the Government Corruption Crisis Online Video Conference on Sunday, February 27, 2011 from 5 to 7 pm. 
Complete details are here --
http://www.lawlessamerica.com/index.php/news/blog-of-william-m-windsor/146-government-corruption-crisis-conference

I have a plan for all of the websites and bloggers to join together to actually make something meaningful happen.   The plan includes specific ways to help each website be even better and reach far more people.  The plan includes a way for us to combine our efforts so we can become a significant media force.  The plan is directed at getting 1 to 5 million people committed to honesty in government and the rights we were all promised in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

11-02-19 China: Corruption Scandal // China: escándalo de corrupción // 中国：腐败丑闻

Judging by media reporting on government corruption (including judicial corruption), China may be found to have freer press than the US... not to mention the stiff penalties meted out for corruption, compared to the slaps on the wrist, if any, in the United States...
____

Portrait of a femme fatale who brought down China's elite

By Clifford Coonan In Beijing

Saturday, 19 February 2011


Li Wei's story of seducing businessmen is detailed in 'Caijing' magazine

A respected magazine has provided the most detailed picture yet of the complex life of a billionaire businesswoman responsible for the downfall of some China's most powerful figures in a sex-and-corruption saga that has gripped the nation.

Li Wei slept with up to 15 top business and party figures before turning on some of them in a series of corruption cases to save herself from a long prison sentence, according to Caijing business magazine. Her contacts book contained some of the most powerful men in the land, as she used her beauty to break into the secretive bastion of powerful men that tightly control China, according to the magazine.

Ms Li was jailed on tax fraud charges in 2006 but was released early this year and now lives in Hong Kong. The magazine alleges that she was released early because her diary contains fresh allegations of "immoral relationships" with "high-ranking officials", which is code for officials at the most senior levels in the land.

Ms Li reportedly created a vast network of protection and favour in the provinces in Yunnan, Guangdong, Beijing and Qingdao to build a multibillion-pound business empire in return for sexual favours. As her corrupt protectors went to jail, she turned herself in and was given a lenient jail term.

"You cannot invest all your resources and opportunities into one person, you have to construct a huge relationship net, like an umbrella," Ms Li was quoted as saying by Chinese media. Her empire at its peak consisted of more than 20 companies in Beijing, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and overseas, in industries including tobacco, real estate and advertising. She owned 183 petrol stations in Beijing.

A great friend of Wang Yi, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, her shares and bonds did very well. Her assets were at one point worth about �1bn.

Born in Vietnam in 1963 of mixed French-Vietnamese parentage, she moved at the age of seven with her father to Yunnan province in search of a better life. She sold tobacco as a youngster, but her ability to manipulate the arcane system of building connections, combined with her considerable allure, transformed her into a formidable power broker.

Zheng Shaodong, the former chief investigations officer at the Ministry of Public Security in Guangdong province, got her a residence permit. After earning legitimate resident status, she married a top official at the local tobacco bureau.

Through her husband, Ms Li managed to gain access to former Yunnan governor Li Jiating, who became her lover. She helped him get resident status for his son in Hong Kong in exchange for tobacco export quotas. The governor narrowly escaped the death sentence in 2003 for taking more than �19m in bribes.

Ms Li became involved with Du Shicheng, the former party secretary of the rich city of Qingdao in Shandong province. Through her relationship with Mr Du, she secured top-notch real estate in Qingdao, a coastal city that was once a German protectorate, and soon became one of the city's biggest property developers.

Mr Du introduced her to his good friend, Chen Tonghai, the chairman of Sinopec, China's oil and gas giant. He too became Ms Li's lover, and he gave her gifts of millions of shares in companies owned by Sinopec.

Mr Du's revelations about his friend's corrupt activities precipitated Mr Chen's downfall. He was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Ms Li's testimony was central to the conviction of many of the officials she entertained in her boudoir.

Some of her former lovers are serving time in Beijing's Qincheng high-security prison, which primarily houses political prisoners but has been used for corrupt cadres.

Aware that corruption could undermine the rule of the Communist Party, the leadership has organised several high-profile campaigns in the last few years to try to stamp out graft.

According to a survey by state prosecutors, more than 90 per cent of the country's senior officials punished on serious graft charges in the past five years have kept mistresses.

The victims

*Chen Tonghai

Ex-chairman of China's second-largest oil company, Sinopec, given a suspended death penalty in 2009 for taking 196m yuan (�17.5m) in bribes.

*Li Jiating

Ex-governor of Yunnan province, sentenced to death for corruption in 2003. Thought to be in Qincheng Prison, Beijing.

*Liu Zhihua

The ex-vice-mayor of Beijing, who supervised preparations for the 2008 Olympics, was sentenced to death in 2008 for taking $1.45m in bribes. His sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment.

*Zheng Shaodong

Ex-head of China's Economic Criminal Investigation Bureau received a suspended death sentence for corruption.

*Huang Songyou

The ex-deputy head of the Supreme Court is currently serving a life sentence for embezzlement and receiving bribes worth �500,000.

11-02-18 Kids for Cash in Pennsylvania // Niños de efectivo en Pennsylvania // 孩子们在宾夕法尼亚州的现金

Pennsylvania Judge Guilty Of Racketeering In Kickback Case

by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

text size A A A

February 18, 2011

A former Pennsylvania juvenile court judge was convicted Friday of racketeering in a case that accused him of sending youth offenders to for-profit detention centers in exchange for millions of dollars in illicit payments from the builder and owner of the lockups.

Luzerne County ex-Judge Mark Ciavarella, 61, left the bench in disgrace two years ago after prosecutors charged him with engineering one of the biggest courtroom frauds in U.S. history by using juvenile delinquents as pawns in a plot to get rich.

Federal prosecutors accused Ciavarella and a second judge, Michael Conahan, of taking more than $2 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner. Ciavarella insisted the payments were legal and denied that he incarcerated youths for money.

A federal jury in Scranton returned a mixed verdict, convicting Ciavarella of 12 counts, including racketeering and conspiracy, and acquitting him of 27 counts, including extortion. The guilty verdicts related to nearly $1 million that the builder paid to the judges.

Ciavarella was expressionless as the verdicts were being read. Prosecutors called him a flight risk and asked that he be held pending sentencing, but he was allowed to remain free. He is likely to get a prison sentence of more than 12 years, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors alleged Ciavarella and Conahan plotted to shut down the dilapidated county-run juvenile detention center in 2002 and arrange for the construction of the PA Child Care facility outside Wilkes-Barre.

Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, sent youths to PA Child Care and later to its sister facility in western Pennsylvania while he was taking payments from Robert Mericle, a prominent builder and close friend of Ciavarella, and Robert Powell, a high-powered attorney who co-owned the youth lockups.

The judge, known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom demeanor, filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed thousands of juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, saying he ran his courtroom with "complete disregard for the constitutional rights of the juveniles," including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

His rough treatment of youths — whom he often had handcuffed and shackled — did not figure into his corruption trial, which focused on the payments from Mericle and Powell. But prosecutor Gordon Zubrod told jurors in his closing argument that Luzerne County's juveniles were indeed victimized by Ciavarella — that he had used them as "pawns in a scheme to enrich himself."

Ciavarella had leverage over Powell because Powell needed the judge to send youths to his heavily mortgaged detention centers, Zubrod said.

Taking the stand in his own defense, the former judge acknowledged to jurors that he failed to report the payments on his tax returns and hid them from the public, but he denied any plot to take kickbacks or extort money.

Ciavarella told jurors that he thought he was legally entitled to Mericle's money, calling it a "finder's fee" for introducing Mericle to Powell. He insisted he took no further steps to make sure that Mericle got the contract to build the detention centers, saying that Mericle was hired by Powell because he was the low bidder.

The former judge pointed to a 2008 conversation — secretly recorded by Powell while he was wearing a wire for the FBI — in which he told Powell and Conahan: "I had nothing to do with it, other than Rob Mericle coming to me and saying, 'I want to do this for you.' He came to me. I didn't go to him. ... Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that it was illegal."

Ciavarella also denied to the jury that he extorted Powell, who had testified for the prosecution that he was forced to pay the judges nearly $600,000 after they agreed to send juvenile delinquents to his new lockup. The payments were disguised as rent on a Florida condominium owned by the judges' wives.

Ciavarella testified that it was Conahan who made the arrangements with Powell. He said Conahan told him that Powell had agreed to pay them $15,000 a month for 60 months to lease the waterfront Florida property. Prosecutors scoffed at that explanation, questioning why Powell — a successful trial lawyer and businessman — would be so foolish as to pay nearly $1 million in rent on a condo he could have purchased outright for less than $800,000.

The defense also said that Ciavarella had no idea that Powell separately was sending cash stuffed in boxes to Conahan. There was "a back-room deal going on between Mike Conahan and Bob Powell, and Mark Ciavarella had no idea what was occurring," defense attorney Al Flora told the jury.

After the verdicts were announced, Ciavarella was ordered to forfeit $997,600 that Mericle had paid him.

Luzerne County paid Powell's company more than $30 million between 2003 and 2007 to house juveniles at PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care. The county could have built its own juvenile center for about $9 million.

Ciavarella and Conahan initially pleaded guilty in February 2009 to honest services fraud and tax evasion in a deal that called for a sentence of 87 months in prison. But their plea deals were rejected by Senior U.S. District Judge Edward M. Kosik, who ruled they had failed to accept responsibility for their actions.

For his convictions, Ciavarella faces a maximum of 157 years in prison — but the range under federal sentencing guidelines is about 12 1/2 years to about 15 1/2 years, prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury in Harrisburg subsequently indicted the judges on charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering, bribery, extortion and tax offenses. Conahan pleaded guilty to a single racketeering charge last year and awaits sentencing.