TPMmuckraker | Talking Points Memo | WSJ: Nev Gov under Investigation

WSJ: Nev Gov under Investigation

By Paul Kiel - February 15, 2007, 4:05PM

Bear with me here, because it's a tangled web.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that TPMmuckraker favorite Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) is under federal investigation over whether he "accepted unreported gifts or payments from a company that was awarded secret military contracts when Mr. Gibbons served in Congress." The feds, concentrating on Gibbon's relationship wtih Nevada software entrepreneur Warren Trepp (the Zelig of scandals), are also probing whether any of those gifts were bribes, John Wilke reports.

The Journal first reported on the two's closeness back in November. But since then, more revealing evidence has come out:

On March 22, 2005, days before Mr. Trepp and his wife embarked on the Caribbean cruise with the congressman and his family, Jalé Trepp sent a reminder to her husband. "Please don't forget to bring the money you promised Jim and Dawn," referring to Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons.
Minutes later, Mr. Trepp responds, "Don't you ever send this kind of message to me! Erase this message from your computer right now!"

But that's not even the most interesting part of the case.

The allegations against Trepp and Gibbons were originally aired by Dennis Montgomery, Trepp's former business partner, who "designed the software on which [Trepp's company] eTreppid was founded in 1998." Montgomery and Trepp have been fighting it out in court for more than a year, and that's where Montgomery alleged that "Trepp gave at least $100,000 in cash and casino chips to Mr. Gibbons," an allegation that eventually led to the Journal's story in November.

But according to Montgomery, Trepp relied on some powerful friends to hit back:

Mr. Montgomery has accused Messrs. Trepp and Gibbons of using their political clout to get local FBI agents to raid his home and investigate him [last March]. In December, a federal magistrate found flagrant constitutional violations in the FBI raid, according to people briefed on her ruling, which remains under seal. The court found that the local FBI and U.S. attorney's office had effectively acted as armed enforcers for eTreppid's wealthy owner in a private business dispute with a former partner.

Now, the U.S. Attorney for Nevada is Daniel Bogden, who is one of the seven federal prosecutors forced out in December (his last day is February 28th). So around the same time that he was asked to leave, a federal magistrate found that his office was basically acting as Trepp's hired goon.

Curiouser and curiouser...

Comments (347)

skaren wrote on February 15, 2007 4:24 PM:

For Christ sake the number of scandles just keeps going up and up. Maybe it is my imagination but have there ever been this many in the past?

Congratulation to organizations like TPM that bring light to the dark corners of government.

dqueue wrote on February 15, 2007 4:36 PM:

And Laura Rozen hears that "Jim Gibbons' staffer on the House intel committee was Brent "Nine Fingers" Bassett, one of the Gosslings in the mix along with recently indicted former CIA executive director Dusty Foggo of the Cunningham affair."

www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/005661.html

Richard L. Adlof wrote on February 15, 2007 4:51 PM:

We all gotta remember that this stuff is backed up for six years . . . The strange part is the Whore-for-hay-ian criminals have chosen to stick around after their larceny. I find it amazing that more of these jackholes haven't fled to Europe and various island nations for extended vacations.

AND yes it has been this bad before . . . Ron-dog Reagan's Cabinet had a revolving door cuz folk were tainted with looming scandals. The period of the Robber Barrons in the late 1800's was also a treasure-trove o' villiany.

I find the fun part of this article to be that it appears that Ms Jalé hates her hubby . . . Disclosure as intervention . . . Or was it sunlight as disinfectant . . . Oh for the love of a good woman.

melior wrote on February 15, 2007 4:57 PM:

It occurs to me that having the local FBI and US attorney as your armed enforcers could make it a little trickier for someone (say, a cocktail waitress for example) to get a fair investigation of something like a drunken assault accusation against you. In theory, any way.

NWdoc wrote on February 15, 2007 5:18 PM:

I think that's what Gov. Jim Gibbon's friends were trying to communicate to the cocktail waitress. I think that's also why his buddy the local sheriff delayed the investigation long enough to make it a farce. I think that if we don't wake up to the corruption in our government, we will all find it very tricky to know the truth and remain free. I think that's why the FBI needs to put this guy and Trepp in jail and not cave to pressure from George Bush's White House.

Sam Thornton wrote on February 15, 2007 5:56 PM:

Wonder how the WH is going to work the Pardon Mill? No way they're going to leave all these loose strings laying around when they scuttle out of town.

Dennis wrote on February 15, 2007 6:42 PM:

Posted by: skaren
Date: February 15, 2007 04:24 PM
"For Christ sake the number of scandles just keeps going up and up. Maybe it is my imagination but have there ever been this many in the past?"

Yes!, Oh, yes! Just not so exposed and out in the open!

Some Americans are just beginning to wake up to how their goverment really works; and it ain't to serve the public good.

But hopefully, this is just the beginning, not just another crack to soon be closed and Americans fall back to sleep again.

William Casey, once director of the CIA and "One of the most disreputable characters in American Government", said, "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American people believe is false."

Hopefully, that will never happen.

You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

What?! wrote on February 15, 2007 6:59 PM:

SHOW ME THE TAX RETURN ON GOVERNOR GIBBONS AND ALL THESE OTHER PEOPLE!!! Are they reporting the "income"?! Did Gibbons report the Caribbean trip on his income statement for 2005?

Richard L. Adlof wrote on February 15, 2007 9:50 PM:

Hey! Does anyone know the name of the company that makes the orange jumpsuits for Club Fed?

I think I smell a potential investment oppurtunity brewing . . .

More info at 11 wrote on February 15, 2007 10:34 PM:

Interesting that:

1. The original judge and former AG, Sandoval, had to recuse himself
2. Bogden seemed to be a little too good at busting CERTAIN types of political corruption, no doubt meriting his dismissal by Gonzales, but just not this particular kind:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2007/Feb-15-Thu-2007/news/12609001.html

More now wrote on February 15, 2007 10:35 PM:

Don't forget the Nov 17 pdf filing on the RGJ homepage:

http://news.rgj.com/assets/pdf/J761970215.PDF

Citizen92 wrote on February 15, 2007 11:16 PM:

Is it any coincedence, then that Gibbons' friend Trepp is tied to convicted coin fraudster, Bush Pioneer and Ohio felon Tom Noe?

No coincedence, the two are connected...

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070111/SRRARECOINS/301110001

"...After a 52-week high of $35, the stock hovered around $4 yesterday in over-the-counter trading, a relatively unstructured process similar to how Noe acquired a 4.3 percent stake in Escala on behalf of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Noe bought the shares off-market from Warren Trepp, a former bond trader now living in Nevada, at a 36 percent discount on Jan. 14, 2002. The purchase generated a $2.73 million return as the stock climbed because of an acquisition of 70 percent of its shares by Afinsa Bienes Tangibles, a Madrid-based auction house.

In addition to the stock purchase, internal e-mails and financial records show that Noe gave more than $4 million in loans to the company and $6.5 million to form a subsidiary, the Spectrum Fund..."

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on February 16, 2007 11:22 AM:

$14 million in contracts awarded to eTreppid Technologies LLC listed at FedSpending.org were not competed based on "national security". From what I've read, eTreppid's software expertise is video compression. What's so secret about that?

In 2005, Warren Trepp registered "Back In Business, LLC". Back in what business?

Agent5202 wrote on February 16, 2007 11:33 AM:

Rose Law Firm, Tyson Foods, Jim Guy Tucker, Webster Hubbell, McDougalls, dead troopers and other "Arkacide".

bob wrote on February 16, 2007 2:51 PM:

Well FINALLY, someone is reporting on this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070216/ap_on_re_us/nevada_governor_fbi

Craigers wrote on February 16, 2007 5:14 PM:

Someone asked above, in relation to "Back In Business, LLC"... "what business?"

How about securities fraud?

See this SEC decision from 1997.

Craigers wrote on February 16, 2007 5:16 PM:

Whoops... here's the relevant link:

http://www.sec.gov/litigation/aljdec/id115cff.htm

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