declaration of kimmett ca no. 4:cv-08-1496 - pennsylvania corbett case fraud waste wrongdoing
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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE MIDDLE DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
THOMAS D. KIMMETT
Plaintiff,
v.
THE PENNSYLVANIA OFFICEOF THE ATTORNEY GENERALET AL.
Defendants.
Civil Action No. 4:CV-08-1496
(Judge Jones)
(Magistrate Judge Blewitt)
DECLARATION OF THOMAS D. KIMMETT IN SUPPORT OF
PLAINTIFFS MOTION FOR PARTIAL SUMMARY JUDGMENT
I, Thomas D. Kimmett, hereby declare as follows:
1. From September 2006 through November 21, 2008, I was employedas a Senior Deputy Attorney General in the Administrative Collections Unit
(Collections unit) of the Financial Enforcement Section (FES) of the
Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General (OAG).
2. FES is responsible for collecting all the debts from all the variousCommonwealth agencies, boards, commissions, colleges and universities. At any
given time, there were approximately 40,000 cases with debts totaling $400-500
million and millions of dollars being paid to private collection agencies (PCAs)
at rates as high 30% (40% previously), which were five to six times the rate paid
by some other nearby states.
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3. The Collections unit handles a web of fund flows, which includes (a)payments made by debtors to FES in response to FESs collection efforts; (b)
money collected by PCAs from debtors that the PCAs remit to FES; (c)
commission payments made by FES to PCAs; (d) payment by FES of debts it
collects to the state agencies where the debt originated; and (e) payments from the
state agencies to FES to reimburse FES for commissions FES paid to the PCAs for
the PCAs collection of the agencies debt. Millions of dollars pass through FES
every year.
4. During the time I was employed at FES, I learned of and discoveredwaste, wrongdoing, and gross mismanagement that had been occurring in FES and
in the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue (DOR). I believed that some of the
wrongdoing that I had found amounted to fraud. It was my opinion that an
independent investigation of FES was warranted, either by OAGs Internal Affairs
unit, the Office of the Auditor General, or by some other law enforcement agency.
I expressed this opinion to many other people, within OAG and elsewhere.
5. After discovering what I believed to be the numerous instances ofwrongdoing and a massive amount of waste and mismanagement, I reported this to
my superiors within my chain of command at OAG, including FES Chief Stephen
Brandwene, FES Chief Michael Roman, and Division Director Louis Rovelli. I
also reported this to the Comptroller, Edward Bianco, and the Assistant
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Comptroller, Doug Ottenberg. I also reported my findings and concerns to persons
outside my chain of command, including the Attorney Generals Chief of Staff
Brian Nutt and First Deputy William Ryan.
6. I reported examples of the gross mismanagement and wrongdoing topersons who worked at independent Commonwealth Agencies, including but not
limited to DOR, the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles, the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation, state colleges and universities, and a number of
other Commonwealth agencies.
7. James Furlong, DORs liaison to OAG, reported to me manyexamples of gross mismanagement and wrongdoing that had been occurring in
FES prior to my employment. I followed up on those examples and I also
discovered many other problems in FES beyond what Mr. Furlong had described.
I kept Mr. Furlong regularly informed of the waste and wrongdoing I was
discovering within FES, even though many of those examples did not relate
directly to work FES was performing on DORs accounts.
8. I also reported my findings of gross mismanagement and wrongdoingto Richard Hudic, the Executive Director of Team PA, who had direct contact to
Brian Nutt and Tom Corbett. Mr. Hudic and I worked on projects together during
my prior employment at DOR. I had multiple communications with Mr. Hudic
about the problems I had discovered in FES and DOR. In December 2006, I met
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with Mr. Hudic for approximately ninety minutes at his office to detail the
problems at FES. During that meeting, I went through specific examples with him.
9. On a number of other occasions in 2007 I communicated with Mr.Hudic about the problems I was discovering and about the resistance I was
encountering from others in my direct chain of command. Because of that
resistance, I asked Mr. Hudic to help me find new employment.
10. Because I reported the waste, gross mismanagement, and wrongdoingthat I discovered to those in my chain of command as well as those outside of it,
and because I continued to find and report on additional examples of such
problems, I was subjected to retaliation by others in FES, including but not limited
to Mr. Rovelli, Mr. Brandwene, Mr. Roman, and Ms. Keiser.
11. After I first began reporting on the waste, gross mismanagement, andwrongdoing in FES in late 2006, Stephen Brandwene, then the Chief of FES (my
boss), ceased nearly all communications with me.
12. Jill Keiser, whom I was supposed to have replaced as the Supervisorof the Collections unit, refused to interact with me, take supervision from me, or
assist me with day-to-day work in the Collections unit. Ms. Keiser would even
refuse to submit leave for vacation time she would take, and would not inform me
of such absences beforehand.
13. Although I had assumed the position of Collections unit supervisor,
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Ms. Keiser continued to act as though she was in charge of the section. This was
problematic because Keiser would meet with representatives of PCAs, with which
FES had contracted to collect commonwealth debts, to discuss matters relating to
the work in the Collections unit that I was attempting to supervise and manage.
14. When Steve Brandwene retired from FES, I was denied a promotionto Chief of FES. Approximately one week before Brandwene resigned, Division
Chief Louis Rovelli met with me to discuss his decision not to promote me to
Chief. Rovelli said he had no complaint with the quality of my work; however, he
explained that I did not understand OAGs culture. Rovelli made clear that this
was because I had reported the mismanagement, wrongdoing, and potential fraud
in FES. Rovelli specifically cited an example of illegal activity that had been
discovered to have been occurring by investigators in the Philadelphia area and the
fact that no one within the office would report on it. Rovelli stated that even
though the Office knew they had engaged in illegal activity they were still
employed in the Office. Rovelli then discussed my concerns that Jill Keiser had
been involved in wrongdoing, and possibly fraud. He said that I needed to ignore
the wrongdoing and would be required to work with Keiser moving forward. What
happens in OAG, legal or not, does not get reported.
15. At that meeting, Rovelli also explained that he had held his position asthe Director of the Civil Law Division in OAG during the terms of every elected
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Attorney General, and that he was close, personal friends with the current AG,
Thomas Corbett, as well as with former AGs Leroy Zimmerman and Michael
Fisher. It was clear to me that I was intended to take from these statements that
Mr. Rovelli was a very powerful figure within OAG and not one to be crossed.
16. From the point when Michael Roman assumed the position of Chiefof FES, he avoided communications with me to the extent possible. I attempted to
engage Mr. Roman and to keep him informed of the problems I discovered within
FES and DOR. Mr. Roman expressed no interest in following up on or discussing
my many reports and memoranda detailing waste, wrongdoing, and gross
mismanagement.
17. At one point, I had been requested by the Comptroller Bianco to signan unqualified representation relating to a Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation audit of FES. I met with Mr. Bianco and his assistant Mr.
Ottenberg on numerous occasions to explain my position that I could not sign such
a representation. Both Ottenberg and Bianci were well aware that I believed that
gross mismanagement and fraud had occurred in FES, and they shared many of my
beliefs. I also sent a memorandum to Mr. Bianco and Mr. Roman detailing my
concerns and outlining the improprieties that had occurred in FES before, during,
and after the audit period at issue. When I raised my concerns to Mr. Roman, he
got very upset with me and said that I had to get past the fraud issue. I outlined
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my discussions with Mr. Ottenberg, Mr. Roman, and Mr. Bianco on this issue in a
memo to file on June 20, 2007. Ultimately, I signed the representation letter as
requested because, after my discussion with Mr. Roman, I understood that I could
lose my job if I refused to do so.
18. Both Mr. Brandwene and Mr. Roman made it clear to others in FES,including many of my subordinates, that he did not like me. Roman would
encourage employees who disagreed with my assignments to them to complain to
him, and he would routinely question my assignment of tasks to Collections unit
employees.
19. Mr. Roman would hold meetings with one of my subordinates, MarkSantanna, without allowing me to participate, despite my requests to be involved.
This obstructed my ability to supervise Santannas work.
20. When employees left the Collections unit, I was not provided the
opportunity to hire replacements. This resulted in a reduction of the Collections
unit staff by attrition, despite the fact that I had identified a significant amount of
work that needed to be done to get current on cases that had been ignored during
prior years of gross mismanagement, waste, and wrongdoing.
21. I was informed by Mr. Furlong, Mr. Ottenberg, and Mr. Bianco on
numerous occasions that I would be fired for finding, reporting, and attempting to
address the waste, mismanagement, and wrongdoing I had discovered.
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22. During my time at FES, I discovered wrongdoing by DOR.
Specifically, I learned from DOR employees that DOR was failing to collect from
debtors Act 40 fees, despite a legal obligation to do so. This failure was costing
the Commonwealth money. I reported my concerns on this issue to Mr. Furlong. I
discussed this concern with others both within and outside of government when
communicating about the waste, gross mismanagement, and wrongdoing I had
discovered.
23. I discovered that DOR was entering into What-If settlements with
taxpayers whose appeal rights had long since expired and that DOR was
attempting to keep that fact quiet. I believed that DORs What-If settlements
created a dangerous precedent and that DORs instruction to keep their existence
quiet to be inappropriate. I detailed my concerns on this issue in a memorandum to
Mr. Roman. I also discussed this concern with others both within and outside of
government when communicating about the waste, gross mismanagement, and
wrongdoing I had discovered.
24. I formed a team to review compromises, including compromises of
debts owed to DOR. My team and I found that many of the proposed compromises
of Revenue debts were not supported by any documentation or were otherwise
unjustified. In many cases, compromises that would have paid the PCAs
thousands of dollars in fees never even existed in the PCAs records. Because my
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team and I would not approve such compromises until (and if) the required
documentation was obtained, DOR and a representative of the Linebarger PCA
complained. I addressed the compromise issue in a detailed memorandum to Mr.
Roman. I discussed the recurring problems relating to proposed compromises with
others both within and outside of government when communicating about the
waste, gross mismanagement, and wrongdoing I had discovered.
25. When Mr. Furlong learned that I had heard about various problems at
DOR from my discussions with DOR employees, he instructed DOR employees to
cease communicating with me. I learned of this instruction directly from those
DOR employees. Mr. Furlong also informed the DOR employees that, to the
extent I expressed valid concerns about particular cases or issues, he could get me
overruled by going to Mr. Roman. Mr. Furlong also told me to have no further
communications with any DOR employees except through him.
26. Other employees at FES, including Diane Burman and Sherri
Bellaman, also recognized and reported to me that Mr. Furlong would play with
the accounts by lowering the dollar amount that had previously been established
with the debtor, collection agency, and OAG in a compromise offer.
27. In the spring of 2008, I again discussed with Mr. Hudic examples of
waste, gross mismanagement, and wrongdoing that I had discovered, including the
various new issues that had arisen since our last communication. I also informed
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him of the stiff resistance I was encountering from my direct chain of command
and Mr. Furlong.
28. Mr. Hudic said he intended to speak with Mr. Nutt or Mr. Corbett
about my concerns. My hope was that Mr. Nutt or Mr. Corbett, upon learning of
the gross mismanagement and wrongdoing, would initiate an investigation.
29. In May 2008 I spoke again with Mr. Kane about the gross
mismanagement and wrongdoing that I was continuing to discover in FES and
DOR. At that point, Mr. Kane arranged for me to talk to Bruce Brandler, an
Assistant United States Attorney. Mr. Kane informed Mr. Brandler that I would be
calling and gave me Mr. Brandlers phone number.
30. I called Mr. Brandler and spoke with him for approximately thirty
minutes. During that time, I described the activities in FES and DOR that I felt
amounted to wrongdoing. Mr. Brandler explained that the FBI conducts
investigations on behalf of the United States Attorneys Office, and he wanted to
put me in touch with the FBI.
31. After talking with Mr. Brandler, I decided to meet with an attorney. I
was concerned that Mr. Rovelli and Mr. Roman would terminate my employment
if they learned that I was communicating with the U.S. Attorneys Office and the
FBI. My attorney had subsequent communications with the U.S. Attorneys office.
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32. I have met with an FBI agent to discuss the wrongdoing and fraud that
I discovered in FES and DOR. My most recent meeting with the FBI occurred at
the FBIs request in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area on May 19, 2010.
Subsequent to that, the FBI agent requested a meeting with my attorney, and my
understanding is that that meeting took place in Washington, D.C. on July 6, 2010.
33. After filing suit, most everyone I encountered at OAG would not talk
to me. Mr. Rovelli would have no direct conversations with me until the day
approximately three months later when he terminated my employment.
34. Shortly after I filed suit, Defendant Keiser threatened Sherry
Bellaman, one of my subordinates who had worked closely with me in (among
other things) attempting to rectify the effects of past mismanagement and
wrongdoing. I was informed that Ms. Keiser handed Ms. Bellaman a copy of my
lawsuit, asked Ms. Bellaman what she thought of the suit, and then told Ms.
Bellaman to watch herself. In that conversation, Ms. Keiser also made a number
of disparaging remarks about me.
35. Given the large amount of money handled by and through FES, this
massive amount of mismanagement, wrongdoing, and fraud I discovered must
have cost the Commonwealth millions of dollars over the years.
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