Media Coverage of Starnet Raid - August 20,
1999
Kristine 'Con Air' Marcy's place-based public
management
National Academy of Public Administration -
FORUM ON PLACE-BASED PUBLIC MANAGEMENT
Surveillance video of Ottawa shooting Surveillance
video of Ottawa shooting
McConnell alleges that his sister Kristine 'Con Air' Marcy and Serco PFI* project manager Bob Coulling developed place-based public perception management systems in the ‘90s for crime scenes such as the Starnet offices (interactive child porn) at 425 Carrall Street Vancouver and the Pickton pig farm in Port Coquitlam (cannibal raves), when Bob Paulson was in charge of the RCMP's southwest district major-crime section and the missing women investigation in B.C.
PFI = Private Finance Inititaive launched in 1992 by David Cameron at Treasury
McConnell suggests that crime-scene investigators check his sister Marcy's and Bob Paulson's roles in the Starnet raids and their apparent confiscation of child pornography for use by blackmailers and Serco's Bob Coulling who appears to have the tradecraft skills needed to pull off place-based public management crimes in the areas of electronic warfare, tagging, asset recovery (extortion) and Childbase paedophile image analysis for MOD, GCHQ, CESG, Police, Home Office, Serious Organised Crime Agency, Ministry of Justice and Customs and Revenue and Immigration Service.
Prequel 1: #2152 Marine Links Serco Red Switch Overrides to Harper-Cake Boy Telecon Bug, Ad Hoc Shooter on Parliament Hill
Prequel 2: #1601: Marine Links Paulson Starnet Pig-Farm Betting Key to Lac-Megantic Up-Down Body Count RCMP
"Kevin Michael Vickers (born September 29, 1956)[1] is the ninth and current[2] Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons of Canada. The Sergeant-at-Arms is responsible for the safety and security of the Parliament buildings and occupants, and ensuring and controlling access to the House of Commons. The position includes the ceremonial function of carrying the ceremonial gold mace into the House of Commons before every sitting. He received significant media attention following the October 22, 2014 incident, when he killed a suspect who was carrying a rifle or shotgun and who had entered the Parliament buildings after allegedly murdering Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a ceremonial guard, at the CanadianNational War Memorial.[3]
…
Vickers served in
the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police for
29 years, attaining the rank of Chief Superintendent and was the incident
commander during the 1999–2000 Burnt Church
Crisis.[5][6] He spent ten years stationed inAlberta and ten
years stationed in the Northwest
Territories,[7] and subsequently was the director-general of the RCMP’s
aboriginal police services branch.[8] In 2003, he became Director General of the National Contract
Policing Branch for Canada, managing nine separate branches of law enforcement.[7] In 2005, he joined the House of Commons as Director of Security
Operation.
...
...
He was appointed Sergeant-at-Arms for the Canadian House of Commons on August 24, 2006, and began serving on September 1, 2006.[9][10]
On October 22, 2014, during the Parliament Hill attack, Vickers was credited with the fatal shooting of the gunman in the Parliament Buildings, according to MPs and other witnesses.[11][12] According to information gathered by CTV's Craig Oliver the gunman entered the Centre Block under the Peace Tower, shooting a Commons Security Guard in the leg, exchanging gunfire, before running down the Hall of Honour to an alcove by the entrance of the Library, which is beside Vickers' office. Vickers pulled a 9mm handgun from a lockbox and entered the hall. He threw himself on the ground to lessen himself as a target and fired three shots that killed the gunman. A niece told the Calgary Sun,
"This is the
first time in his career that he's shot anyone.""
"Gaming firm Starnet battles legal problems
David Baines Vancouver Sun
Starnet Communications Int`l: RCMP investigation casts shadows on share price
Ellis
It has been 11 months since RCMP raided the Downtown Eastside office of Starnet Communications International Inc., a Vancouver purveyor of Internet porn and gaming, but prosecutors still haven't reached the point where they are even considering charges.
"The investigation continues to be actively pursued," Insp. Michael Ryan, in charge of the proceeds of crime section of the Organized Crime Agency of B.C., said in an interview this week. "We are in the process of preparing a report for Crown counsel."
The raid last Aug. 20 prompted front-page headlines, a massive sell-off of Starnet stock, a slew of shareholder class action suits and -- because of a tenuous relationship between one of Starnet`s shareholders and former premier Glen Clark -- fodder for a growing coterie of political conspiracy theorists.
It also prompted Starnet to move its head office to the more hospitable clime of Antigua, undergo a wholesale change of management and divest itself of its porn business.
The company also took a new strategic direction, concentrating on building the quality, rather than the quantity, of its gaming licensees to enhance long-term royalty income.
The results have been impressive: Revenues are booming, and profits are within grasp. But nearly $7 million US of the company's money remains frozen in a Vancouver bank by court order, and the stock continues to sag under the ignominy and uncertainty of the RCMP investigation.
Starnet president Meldon Ellis, a Vancouver lawyer who was hired after the raid to dig the company out of the mud, denies he is frustrated by the pace of the police probe.
"Frustration is probably too strong a word. We understand the complexity of the investigation. Obviously many of our stakeholders are frustrated with the time it has taken. The general perception is that this is a cloud over the company that prevents it from realizing its full potential."
Although the search warrant information disclosed that police were probing allegations of illegal gaming and pornography, Ellis says the focus is clearly on gaming.
"I`d be surprised if the RCMP would say otherwise. Clearly in terms of the work that`s been done, the focus has overwhelmingly been on gaming operations."
Ellis also said there was never any substance to reports that Starnet was harbouring or distributing child pornography. "I don`t want to see those two words in a Starnet story again," he said.
Starnet, listed on the OTC Bulletin Board in the U.S., started business in 1996 as a provider of Internet porn. It broadcast live sex performances from its Carrall Street offices and the No. 5 Orange strip club on Powell Street.
Originally there were about 20 million shares outstanding. Half were owned by Murray Partners (BVI) Inc., a British Virgin Islands company composed of several discretionary trusts, some of which were beneficially owned by Starnet's officers and directors. The company refused to say who owned the rest, sparking rumours they belonged to unsavory characters.
Fuelling the rumours was the fact that an another early shareholder was Ken Lelek, who runs a stripper booking agency and is a former associate of Lloyd Robinson, a high-ranking Hells Angel.
Although Lelek is neither an officer or director of Starnet, the RCMP search-warrant information suggested he was still closely associated with the company at the time of the raid.
In 1997, Starnet branched into gaming and, through its software development subsidiary, Softec Systems Caribbean Inc., developed what is generally recognized as leading gaming technology.
It obtained a gaming licence from Antigua and operated its own gaming sites through another subsidiary, World Gaming Services Inc., but quickly realized it could make more money licensing its gaming technology than running its own Web sites.
It started selling turn-key gaming systems for up-front fees of $100,000 each and royalties ranging from 10 to 40 per cent of gross revenues (wagers less payouts).
In rapid-fire succession, it registered nearly 50 licensees. Although Starnet refused to accept wagers from Canadian and U.S. residents due to uncertainty over gaming laws in those countries, there was nothing to stop its licensees from doing so.
By July 1999, investors had visions of an endless stream of royalty income pouring into Starnet's coffers. They bid the stock price to $26 US, giving the company a market value of about $750 million.
"There was a lot of excitement with dot-com and Internet companies, and Starnet obviously enjoyed the short-lived fruits of the excitement around those kinds of stocks," says Ellis.
Within days, the company became embroiled in a dispute with its largest licensee, Claude Levy of Las Vegas Casino Inc., who claimed Starnet's technology didn't perform as advertised. The stock slumped to $13, prompting Starnet to sue Levy for libel. Levy responded with a lawsuit claiming breach of contract.
In August, RCMP officers, after satisfying themselves that they could place bets from Canada with Starnet licensees, stormed the company's office and simultaneously raided the homes of six senior officers and directors.
Adding to the media excitement was the fact one of Starnet`s original shareholders, Steve Ng, was a co-applicant with Dimitrios Pilarinos for a casino licence at the North Burnaby Inn.
Pilarinos was a neighbour and friend of then-Premier Glen Clark`s and did renovation work on Clark`s house, apparently without charging for his labour.
Pilarinos and Ng subsequently received B.C. government approval for a gaming licence at the North Burnaby Inn, even though their application scored less than several competitors, suggesting Clark had intervened on behalf of his friend.
Although this had no material impact on the company's operations, it ensured the boldest possible headlines. The stock plunged to $4, prompting a half dozen class-action lawsuits from shareholders claiming they had not been adequately warned of the risk of running a gaming operation from Canada.
Meanwhile, a Starnet official walked into the main office of CIBC in Vancouver and asked to transfer $6.9 million US in two company accounts to Antigua. The bank refused to release the funds, and Crown prosecutors subsequently obtained an order freezing the accounts pending completion of the investigation.
In October, Ellis -- Starnet`s in-house corporate counsel -- was appointed president and CEO, replacing Mark Dohlen. It was one of several changes that would lead to a complete change in management. Several key developments followed:
l Starnet sold its on-line adult entertainment business to Kiama Ltd., a company domiciled in the tax and secrecy haven of the Jersey, Channel Islands. Purchase price was $2.3 million US ($460,000 up front and the balance over three years).
Ellis insists he does not know the identity of the purchasers, other than they "have had experience in adult entertainment industry" and are arm's-length to anyone at Starnet.
l Starnet separated its software design and development function from its gaming operations. Now operating under the name Inphinity Interactive Inc., it has moved from its Carrall Street location to premises at 1401 West Eighth Avenue, where it employs about 100 people.
l A subsidiary, Starnet Systems Inc. (formerly Softec Systems Caribbean), was established to acquire the intellectual property developed by Inphinity and license it to gaming operators. It is located in Antigua, where Ellis also maintains his permanent address.
l World Gaming, also located in Antigua, now acts as a division of Starnet and operates gaming sites mainly to test new marketing strategies and products.
Ellis said moving from Carrall Street, where the adult porn business is still being conducted, helps remove any perception that Starnet still has ties to that business, and moving all gaming operations offshore renders moot any suggestion that Starnet is still conducting illegal gaming (or any gaming, for that matter) in Canada.
Meanwhile, the company has been dealing with its legal problems:
l With regard to Starnet's defamation suit against Levy, Ellis said a Belgian court entered default judgment against Levy and ordered him to cease making defamatory statements.
l Ellis also says B.C. Supreme Court ruled Levy would need to take his allegations that Starnet provided a defective gaming service to arbitration, as stipulated in his contract with Starnet. He says the claim has no substance.
l The U.S. class-action suits, which claim Starnet did not adequately advise shareholders of the legal risks of conducting an Internet gaming operation in Canada, have been consolidated under one of the plaintiffs' counsels. Ellis says Starnet will now begin settlement talks.
"These are normal-course class-action suits driven by law firms rather than the shareholders," says Ellis. "The significant thing is that hundreds of shareholders have come forward to say they fully understood the nature of the [legal] uncertainty and the inherent risk of operating in this business sector."
l The company settled a wrongful dismissal suit by former president Jason Bolduc by paying him $75,000 US. Bolduc continues to serve as a director.
In other developments, Murray Partners, the BVI company which owns the control block of shares, was disbanded. Ellis says it removes the mystery and makes the company's ownership more transparent. The largest shareholder is now Bolduc with 1.4 million shares, or just over four per cent.
Meanwhile, the company's focus on good quality licensees appears to be bearing fruit.
Total revenue for the nine months ending March 31 was $12.3 million, nearly triple the same period a year earlier. Of this amount, $2.9 million was gleaned from up-front fees and $9.4 million from royalties and fees.
After provision for bad debts of $1.4 million (to reflect the poor quality of some of its licensees) and legal expenses of $1.9 million (to handle the myriad legal problems), the company lost $3.7 million on gaming operations, compared with a profit of $419,000 the previous period.
"If we took all the adjustments out, we would have run at about a wash," said Ellis.
He said that, despite the company's problems, revenues are growing at about 100 per cent per year.
"We have developed top-rate team in Vancouver, totalling 100 high-tech professionals. The company is transforming itself into a high-quality, well-run Internet enterprise. Over time, that will be the story that emerges from all this."
On Tuesday, Starnet's share price jumped by $1.31 to $3.94 US on heavy volume of 1.5 million shares after announcing it will introduce a new line of online lottery, bingo and casino games in August. With 32 million shares outstanding, the company`s total stock market value is about $125 million, or roughly 16 per cent of its former value.
dbaines@pacpress.southam.ca"
"Straight.com RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson got a free pass from missing women's inquiry, say lawyers … Oppal inquiry didn’t call Bob Paulson, even though his name was in the documents.
by CARLITO PABLO on AUG 22,
2012 at 3:07 PM
HIS NAME
STANDS out among witnesses who weren’t called by the Missing Women
Commission of Inquiry.
At the time when police forces were fumbling the hunt for the person preying on women working Vancouver's Downtown Eastside strolls, he was the non-commissioned officer in charge of the RCMP’s southwest district major-crime section.
Then a sergeant, Bob Paulson is now the RCMP commissioner, and lawyers representing the families of these women wanted him on the witness stand. But the commission chaired by former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal refused to summon Canada’s top Mountie.
In their final submission to the commission, lawyers Cameron Ward and Neil Chantler and researcher Robin Whitehead argue that the inquiry is incomplete because witnesses like Paulson weren't summoned.
According to their filing, Paulson was "extensively involved in the missing women’s investigations".
"His name appears hundreds of times in the documents disclosed to the Commission," the submission states.
It also notes that in March 2000, then-sergeant Paulson and a staff sergeant approached then–chief superintendent Gary Bass of the
RCMP's E Division in B.C. "with a proposal to create a coordinated effort to review" unsolved homicides and the cases of the missing women. This was mentioned in a report for the Oppal commission by Deputy Chief Jennifer Evans of the Peel Regional Police.
Evans noted that the staff sergeant wrote a proposal that read in part that “at least 3 (three) serial killers are believed to be operating in BC at this time".
It took almost a year before a so-called "Joint Forces Operation" was launched in connection with investigating the disappearances of the missing women.
In a phone interview with the Georgia Straight on August 22, Chantler indicated that lawyers for the families hoped to ask Paulson about this March 2000 meeting.
"We would have wanted to probe the circumstances and find out exactly what they exactly said and what discussions were had, and why efforts weren't taken to form a JFO earlier in those circumstances," Chantler said.
Robert Pickton, a pig farmer from Port Coquitlam, was eventually arrested in 2002. He was convicted in 2007 for the deaths of six women whose remains were found on the farm. The Crown eventually stayed charges against him for the deaths of 20 other women.
Paulson was sergeant in charge of the RCMP's southwest district major-crime section from 1999 to 2001. B.C.'s southwest region includes the Lower Mainland. Paulson's office didn’t respond to a request for comment before deadline.
The final submission by the families' lawyers also identified 16 other witnesses who were not called by the commission.
One of these is David Pickton, who lived with his brother Robert and was "well known to police" for being associated with the Hells Angels. According to the submission, the Picktons’ properties in Port Coquitlam were "known by the police to be hives of illegal activity, including cockfighting, illicit alcohol and drug use, prostitution and petty theft".
The document states that "despite the RCMP's frequent attendances there, possibly as many as 49 murders were perpetrated".
Commission spokesperson Ruth Atherley told the Straight by phone that Oppal cannot comment because he's preparing his report.
In their final
submission, the lawyers for the families also note that there are “many
theories” about why Pickton wasn’t stopped early on. One is in connection with
the police investigation of the Hells Angels, whose members frequented the
Picktons’ Piggy Palace booze can.
According to the lawyers, this could have “in some way played a role in the police departments’ failure to intervene in Robert Pickton’s activities".
They also raise the possibility that “police knew more about the Picktons than they were willing to disclose publicly."
As well, the lawyers state, “many believe…that Robert Pickton did not act alone.""
"British Columbia's Prime B.C. program is the latest in a slew of laptop law enforcement initiatives being launched across the country. Prime B.C. aims to put RCMP and municipal police departments across the province on the same operational database and equip patrol cars with mobile workstations. The initiative comes in response to law enforcement agencies' belief that the best way to catch criminals is through an approach that allows for the "left hand knowing what the right hand is doing."
"Law enforcement has been looking at shared information for some time now," says Steve Ayliffe, superintendent of the RCMP's Richmond, B.C. detachment. "Particularly after instances such as the Bernardo event."
The bungling that ensued during the investigation into convicted murderer Paul Bernardo in Ontario is exactly what Prime B.C. is meant to prevent. "Shared information is powerful information, that's the bottom line," says Ayliffe. Prime B.C. will eventually work on three levels. First, the wide area radio systems used by law enforcement agencies will be replaced by one 800 megabyte system that can be shared among all jurisdictions in the lower mainland.
E-Com Corp., a legislated non-profit organization, is the vendor. Law enforcement agencies accessing the wide area radio system will pay a levy to use it. The most complex part of B.C. Prime is the creation of a centralized dispatching system, something police departments realized they needed following the Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver a few years ago, says Ayliffe. "Police forces in neighbouring jurisdictions involved in that just couldn't speak to one another," he says. "That was inappropriate under the circumstances." The single dispatch entity will serve fire and police departments and ambulatory services. The third piece of the puzzle, a new records management system where operational information will be shared, promises to tie everything together.
A contract with Richmond, B.C.-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates to implement the system was signed in early January, says Jim Chu, an inspector with the Vancouver Police Department, one of Prime B.C.'s municipal partners. MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates will be using database software from Ottawa's Versaterm Inc. "The system from Versaterm is also used in London, Ont., and Ottawa," says Chu. "It's pretty amazing in what it can do."
Yours sincerely,
Field McConnell, United States Naval Academy, 1971; Forensic Economist; 30 year airline and 22 year military pilot; 23,000 hours of safety; Tel: 715 307 8222
David Hawkins Tel: 604 542-0891 Forensic Economist; former leader of oil-well blow-out teams; now sponsors Grand Juries in CSI Crime and Safety Investigation
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.