It should concern all of us that news of corruption in our once proud state of Delaware has again spread to the Spanish newspaper (see the translated story below)! We should all be embarrassed that Delaware has continuously attracted negative attention around the world. Read the shameful story below and let me know if you are as embarrassed as I am about this overseas coverage for Delaware.
Sincerely Yours,
JUDSON Bennett, Coastal Network
Corruption flies over the State of Delaware after the ‘TransPerfect case’
A series of suspicious and opaque practices overshadow the
integrity of its judicial institutions and have cost many criticisms and
complaints
The TransPerfect case, one of the largest shareholder conflicts in the history of the United States, put more than 5,000 jobs worldwide at risk , 500 of them in the offices of Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona.
The case has revealed the corruption that exists in the judicial institutions of the US State of Delaware, the original headquarters of TransPerfect until it had to flee to Nevada in search of a more fair treatment.
Suspicious practices
In recent years there has been a detailed follow-up of the
different tricks used by the Delaware State Chancellery , with Judge André
Bouchard in the lead, to favor the “Old Boys” of Delaware. Practices
that have made poor, opaque and manipulated management visible in favor of a
powerful circle of people.
It is important to highlight the origin of the TransPerfect
Case. This is the moment in which the judge decreed the forced sale of a
private company with benefits, the more than 250 million dollars spent on
lawyers and consultants at the request of Bouchard, the deliberate concealment
of the files of the case once resolved or the unbundled bills paid to law firms
related to the judge, which are still arriving five years later.
Bad criticism and citizen discontent
This battery of controversial actions has cost the State of
Delaware a multitude of criticisms and complaints from different strata of
American society. In recent years, Delaware has fallen from the first to the
eleventh position in the ranking prepared by the United States Chamber of
Commerce, which assesses the transparency and impartiality of states through
surveys of businessmen, lawyers and citizens.
In addition to having suspended the valuation of the United
States Public Integrity Center, the United States Department of Justice is
investigating the judicial team that managed the company’s sale process for
alleged discrimination during 2017, when the company was under its control.
Also, an opinion poll published in recent months by the Slingshot Strategies
agency has revealed widespread discontent on the part of the citizens of the
State of Delaware with the management of the current government.
Advertising pressure
Given this situation of alleged corruption and clear
government opacity, there are already thousands of voices that have spoken in
favor of a more transparent government, judicial institutions that represent
the population and not just the interests of a few.
Specifically, the Citizens for a Pro Business citizen
association, which has championed the citizen struggle to return Delaware to
the field of transparency and competitiveness, has activated a campaign in
which through irony it focuses on the Court Supreme and especially in André
Bouchard.
Citizen action
“If you bill millions as a business lawyer, you like
spending thousands of dollars on fancy dinners and you like driving cars that
cost five times more than the average Delaware citizen earns annually, it seems
you are the perfect candidate to become a Judge of the Delaware Supreme Court,
”they say, and concludes the video with a resounding“ our Supreme Court should
be representative of the people it serves ”
On the other hand, Shirley Shawe , a TransPerfect
shareholder and one of the most critical voices with the management of Judge
Bouchard, has also wanted to shed light on the situation and has funded a TV
advertising campaign in the States of Iowa and New Hampshire with the objective
of increasing the notoriety of the problem that plagues one of the most
powerful judicial courts in the country.
Serious deficiencies in the Supreme Court of Delaware
The advertising piece presents US Senator Joe Biden and
Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren in a 2005 parliamentary dispute. The piece,
edited, and with a voiceover that highlights the message, presents the
following dialogue:
“Are you suggesting that the Delaware Supreme Court is not a
competent or transparent court? Right, Joe Biden! That is why it has been
valued at position 48 of 50 by the Center for Public Integrity in fundamental
areas such as transparency and accounting ”.
The piece also highlights some of the shortcomings of the
Delaware Supreme Court such as having no cameras in courtrooms, not reporting
the earnings of judges, not having traceability of administrative documents and
not presenting restrictions on the incorporation of judges who come from from
the private sector.