Judy Johnson, whom California governor Jerry Brown recently appointed to a judgeship in the Contra Costa County Superior Court, served as the Executive Director of the State Bar of California.
She also secretly headed a dubious entity known as California Consumer Protection Foundation (“CCPF”) for the past 8-9 years.
During this period, she used her “clout” as the head of the State Bar to arrange for “cy pres” from class action settlements, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the CPUC on utility companies, totaling close to $30 million to be funneled to CCPF, which then forwarded those funds to various other non-profits, and mostly questionable ACORN-like entities located in South Los Angeles — Gwen Moore’s territory.
In 2010 Johnson left the State Bar of California in disgrace after a prolonged embezzlement of close to $800,000 by employee Sharon Pearl was discovered, and after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed State Bar related legislation as a result.
Johnson was recently also the subject of a complaint to the IRS for alleged noncompliance with various laws and regulations. The complaint alleges CCPF and Johnson defrauded and mislead the public by intentionally omitting various data from CCPF’s web-site. Specifically, data concerting financial transactions between CCPF and an entity known as Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (“CARS”). In addition, the complaint also point to various alleged inconsistencies in the reporting of grants from CCPF to CARS.
Ms. Judy Johnson, who after 2 Governors’ vetoes and endless scandals (including financials) was ousted as executive-director of the State Bar of California. Johnson was part of sham entity CaliforniaALL and also secretly headed CCPF for the past 8-9 years. During this period, she used her “clout” as the head of the agency to arrange for “cy pres” from class action settlements, as well as fines and settlements imposed by the CPUC on utility companies, totaling close to $30 million to be funneled to CCPF, which then forwarded those funds to various other non-profits, and mostly questionable ACORN-like entities located in South Los Angeles. As mentioned previously, vexatious and strange movements of money from CCPF to Michael Shames’ UCAN — entity presently subject of grand-jury investigation in San Diego. See complaint against CCPF to IRS HERE
CARS is a non-profit entity located in Sacramento, California. It was established and is headed by Rosemary Shahan. In addition to heading her own non-profit entity (CARS), Shahan also serves as an “adviser” to CCPF. See http://consumerfdn.org/advisors.php
According to sources familiar with the situation, CCPF professes and declares that it lists on its website all the grants it has issued and all the corresponding grantees going back to 2001. When visiting CCPF’s website, one is given the option to search by year or the name of the grantee. A search for grants funneled to CARS yields only 2 results – a grant in 2006 in the amount of $60,000, and another in 2009 in the amount of $7,400.
One can also visit http://consumerfdn.org/granteesList.php for a list of all the grantees. (See also here.)
Each of the above search options yields the same result – to wit, only 2 grants are listed that were made to CARS. Unfortunately, however, this allegedly is not the case, as CCPF’s own tax returns provide otherwise. For example, page 28 of CCPF’s IRS Form 990 for 2004 lists a $60,000 grant.
This misrepresentation is allegedly the fruit of an unlawful conspiracy between Judy Johnson and Rosemary Shahan, and is very troubling on its face. This is particularly true given that Ms. Shahan, who serves as an adviser to CCPF, and presumably is familiar with the content of the website, should have alerted CCPF that the information presented is inaccurate and false, by omission and otherwise.
In addition, sources allege that various inconsistencies were discovered in connection with two types of grants from CCPF to CARS: the first is the Consumer Auto Advertising Fund (“CAAF”) grant and the second is the Bank of America (“BA1″) grant.
In 2004, CARS reported to the IRS revenues from all sources in the amount of $91,009. (See page 28 of CARS 2004 IRS 990 return.) By comparison, CCPF reported that it had funneled to CARS $60,000 from the CAAF grant, and $61,215 from the BA1 grant.
Also in 2004, CCPF reported a leftover “payable” of $61,212 from the BA1 grant which it holds in reserve for future payment to CARS.
In 2005, CARS reported to the IRS revenues from ALL SOURCES in the amount of only $58,212. (See CARS 2005 IRS 990 returns.)
By comparison, in 2005 CCPF reported funneling $60,000 to CARS out of the CAAF grant. This, according to the sources, already raises a red flag as it shows that CARS under-reported its revenues for 2005 by the difference of $1,788. (See here on page 22.)
Most importantly, however, in 2005 CCPF also reported an additional $48,970 distributed to CARS from the BA1 fund, leaving only $12,242 in reserve as “payable.” (See entry on page 22.)
Unfortunately, the sources maintain, no corresponding reference to the $48,970 was found on CARS’ 2005 tax returns.
CaliforniaALL
During the period that Douglas Winthrop, Holly Fujie of Buchalter Nemer, Annette Carnegie of Morrison & Foerster, and ex-CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown were serving as board members for the California Bar Foundation, a highly unusual financial transaction took place in which approximately $780,000 was quietly transferred, causing the California Bar Foundation to end the year in the red.
Upon further examination, it was discovered that the money had been transferred to a newly-created Section 501(c)(3) non-profit entity (headed by a friend of Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakayue — Ruthe Catolico Ashley) known as CaliforniaALL.
Mr. Geoffrey Brown, professor of law at JFK School of Law. Between 2001 to 2007 served as Commissioner with the CPUC. From 2006 to 2009 Brown serve as director with the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA “California Bar Foundation”). In 2008, California Bar Foundation quietly transferred $769,247.00 to sham entity CaliforniaALL — which also obtained additional 1.5 Million from utility companies. In reaction to complainant’s request for an inquiry to the State Bar of California Board of Governors, Brown immediately, as though bitten by a snake, threatened to file legal action even though the communication with the BOG was absolutely privileged and justified, and only made mention of Brown in passing. Brown is still under extreme scrutiny in matters relating Judy Johnson’s CCPF and the saga known as “Bribing Pat.” (image:courtesy photo)
Ruthe Catolico Ashley came up with the idea to create CaliforniaALL during a meeting with Sarah Redfield and Peter Arth, Jr. (the assistant to CPUC President Michael Peevey).
After CaliforniaALL came into existence, Ms. Ashley, after a simulated search, was selected to serve as CaliforniaALL’s executive director.
Redfield – a visiting professor at McGeorge School of Law and a member of the State Bar of California Committee of Access to Justice — was chosen to serve as the “interim executive director” for CaliforniaALL, and later also allegedly served as a consultant to CaliforniaALL. For her services, Ms. Redfield was paid for the year of 2008 close to $160,000 as an “independent contractor.” Even though CaliforniaALL was housed pro bono at the law offices of DLA Piper in Sacramento, there is an entry on CaliforniaALL’s tax return for close to $16,000 for “occupancy.”
Papers were filed with both state and federal agencies to allow CaliforniaALL to operate as a tax exempt entity. Victor Miramontes listed himself as Chairman of the Board. Serving as CaliforniaALL’s legal counsel was Susan Mac Cormac of Morrison & Foerster.
In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, donations to CaliforniaALL came primarily from utility companies (including AT&T, Sempra Energy, Verizon, and PG&E). In its brief existence from 2008 to 2010, CaliforniaALL collected close to $2 million, including an unlawful and unusually large sub rosa contribution of $780,000 from the State Bar of California Foundation (DBA California Bar Foundation) in 2008.
CaliforniaALL was abruptly dissolved in July 2010.
According to Redfield’s resume, between 2008 and 2009 she had “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. Instead, as most transactions involving CaliforniaALL, the California Bar Foundation and the State Bar of California, it is imbued with fraud and egregious acts dishonesty and deception as even documents obtained from the Santa Ana Unified School District make no mention of Sarah Redfield in connection with the Saturday Academy of Law at UC Irvine.
Redfield’s resume, below, alleges she had “launched” CaliforniaALL, participated in RFP, and “launched” the Saturday Academy of Law at U. C. Irvine.
Similarly, CaliforniaALL’s own publication indicates that with CaliforniaALL’s grant funds, U.C. Irvine developed and implemented the Saturday Academy of Law, and that by 2009 CaliforniaALL’s mission was visibly at work through the program. See below.
Specifically, the Saturday Academy of Law has been in existence for many years, and is part of the University of California Irvine’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CFEP), which has many programs to benefit the community, such as “UCI Saturdays with Sciences,” “Saturday Academy in Mathematics,” and the like.
For example, as part of a field trip to law firms, the photo below was taken in 2005 when the UCISAL group visited the law offices of Sheppard Mullin.
In 2007, UCISAL paid a visit to Allen Matkins. (See below.) We have intentionally blurred the photo to maintain the students’ privacy. Seated on the right is Robert Hamilton. On the far right is Karina Hamilton, a former Allen Matkins associate, wife of Robert Hamilton, and Director of UCISAL.
Please double-click on the photo for full view.
In fact, UCI’s own literature gives no credit to CaliforniaALL. (See below.)
Additionally, claims by Sarah E. Redfield to the effect that she was part of both the CURRICULUM COMMITTEE and OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE are also false, fraudulent, and were otherwise spun from whole cloth.
While Professor Redfield was part of the Oversight Committee, she was not part of the Curriculum Committee. In fact, the sources maintain that close examination of SAL Curriculum shows that it was similar to the curriculum in the years before CaliforniaALL was even established, with emphasis on exceptions to the First Amendment such as time, place, and manner.
See below, misleading claims by Professor Sarah E. Redfield, which falsely mention Curriculum Committee :
State Bar of California Board of Governors member Gwen Moore of GEM Communications. Both Moore and her mentor — Kamala Harris’ former paramour Willie Brown — were the target of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Bribery and Special Interest (BRISPEC) sting operation known as Shrimpscam. On the right is Willie Brown’s “Mentee” Derek Anthony West (AKA Tony West) Previously of Morrison & Foerster. Presently Acting Associate Attorney General, the third highest official at the United States Department of Justice. West’s sister-in-law — Willie Brown’s former paramour — is California attorney general who was also part of CaliforniaALL. As previously reported, Morrison & Foerster partners Voice of OC’s James Brosnahan (who represented El Paso Corp during California Energy Crisis), Susan Mac Cormac, Raj Chatterjee, as well as former partners Tony West, Annette Carnegie, Lori Schechter and Dian Grueneich are all under extreme scrutiny by TLR/YR with respect to the unsettling events surrounding CaliforniaALL in connection with former CPUC Commissioner Geoffrey Brown of California Bar Foundation, State Bar of California Executive Director – Voice of OC’s Joe Dunn – who investigated the California Energy Crisis, Voice of OC’s Martha Escutia who also investigated the California Energy Crisis, and Voice of OC’s Thomas Girardi / Pierce O’Donnell who litigated matters relating to the California Energy Crisis opposing James Brosnahan (Image: courtesy photos)
To date, data collected shows that CaliforniaALL (which was supposed to forward most of those funds) transferred between $300,000 to $400,000 to the UCI Foundation (where Joe Dunn serves as trustee), spent an unknown amount to honor Gwen Moore at a lavish dinner held at a luxury hotel in Sacramento, paid for other incidental expenses such as salaries, and subsequent to moving out from the offices of DLA Piper to a more modest location , paid for a UPS Store mail box slot in Citrus Heights.
Between 2001 and 2007, Geoffrey Brown served as a Commissioner with the CPUC. From 2006 to 2009, Brown served as a director of the State Bar of California Foundation. In 2008, California Bar Foundation quietly transferred $769,247.00 to CaliforniaALL. CaliforniaALL never acknowledged receipt of the $769,247.00 from the Cal Bar Foundation in any of its publications, although it did acknowledge the transfer on its IRS tax returns. Likewise, California Bar Foundation never acknowledged the largest grant it ever bestowed in its newsroom, the California Bar Journal, or similar publications; it did, however, recognize the transfer on its IRS returns, and in a 2 by 2 inch blurb in its annual report.
See below Cal Bar Foundation newsroom which makes no mention of the subrosa transfer of funds.
In 2008, serving as President of the Foundation was Mario Camara. A joint letter published and signed by Camara and Hatamiya also made no mention of the hush-hush transfer. Wasn’t Mr. Camara proud of it, just like he was proud of other money which went to support “pipelines?” After all, CaliforniaALL was also intended to support “pipelines”. See below:
Below an image taken from CaliforniaALL own newsletter which alludes to the fact that the State Bar of California is a “Founding Partner” of CaliforniaALL. Stingy with credit and despite the transfer of close to $780,000 from the California Bar Foundation to CaliforniaALL, only utility companies are listed as “Founding Funders.” See below:
Serving on the board of directors of CaliforniaALL (which was in a partnership relationship with the State Bar of California) were State Bar employee Patricia Lee, Kamala Harris, CPUC Commissioner Timothy Simon, as well as Judy Johnson, whom California Governor Jerry Brown — cousin of Geoffrey Brown — appointed to a judgeship in the Contra Costa County Superior Court. See below:
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