L.A. County D.A. clarifies: ‘Fraud is not a crime,’ with CAFR ‘misrepresentation’

Los Angeles County District Attorney Dave Demerjian responded after my e-mail to him and article:

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 11:04 AM, David Demerjian <DDemerjian@da.lacounty.gov> wrote:

Mr. Herman:

“Fraud” is not a crime. In law, the term fraud is used to define an intent, or state of mind, required as an element to prove certain theft related crimes. You have not alleged that any public official stole public funds for their own use. What you describe as fraud appear to be allegations of misinformation. As to any unnamed state officials alleged to have provided misinformation, this office only has jurisdiction to prosecute crimes occurring within Los Angeles County. You may want to contact the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office.

This matter is closed.

Dave Demerjian
Head Deputy
Public Integrity Division

Dave: the evidence I provided show Governor Brown’s testimony that reduced funding to Los Angeles County (LACO) while saying we have “no options” and lying in omission of $600 billion in taxpayer assets. This lie caused damages in your jurisdiction: Los Angeles County courts face 56 closures, as you know. Perhaps you should research local officials also saying we have “no options” while LACO CAFR shows $66 billion in investments.

There are a lot of taxpayers in LACO, Dave. The bulk of taxpayer assets claimed to be for “pensions” don’t fund pensions beyond a token 4%. That’s like taking a million dollars of public money, giving $40,000 to pensions while keeping $960,000 for yourself, and calling it a “pension fund.” How could you be so confident such a lie isn’t connected to stealing or officials own use without investigating?

Your wording of “misinformation” has a connotation of “mistaken” rather than officials at some levels damn well knowing these hundreds of billions in taxpayer assets exist and intentionally disinforming the public.

My job as an LACO resident and econ journalist is to explain and document billions and trillions in public money buried in obfuscating annual financial reports that make claims of “budget deficits with no options” tragic-comic lies. My job is to ask law enforcement to defend the public when our own billions of dollars are never mentioned by officials and refute in “emperor has no clothes” fashion the endlessly repeated official claims causing our austerity.

There’s more if you’re interested in obvious solutions in my field that are also never mentioned by these officials.

Your job is the law, Dave. What you choose to tell the public is up to you about massive public damages caused by “misinformation” of literal trillions in collective taxpayer surpluses.

“Fraud is not a crime” you say? Ok, I find California’s Penal Code – Section 484 seems to disagree related to “fraudulently appropriate property which as been entrusted…” and other sections readers can consider.

I found Wikipedia helpful regarding CAFR fraud leading to public damages:

“Common law fraud has nine elements:[6][7]

1. a representation of an existing fact;
2. its materiality;
3. its falsity;
4. the speaker’s knowledge of its falsity;
5. the speaker’s intent that it shall be acted upon by the plaintiff;
6. plaintiff’s ignorance of its falsity;
7. plaintiff’s reliance on the truth of the representation;
8. plaintiff’s right to rely upon it; and
9. consequent damages suffered by plaintiff.”

I cannot believe that official behavior CAFR documents reveal as viciously damaging fraud is lawful. Moreover, your statement pretends this is somehow “my” issue (“You have not alleged,” “you describe,” “You may want to contact”) rather than it being sufficient to bring this objective data to the attention of law enforcement.

“This matter is closed” you say, Dave?

Although you decline at this time to take professional action for others you say have jurisdiction to receive this data, decline to act in defense of damages to LACO and their residents, and decline to even thank me for pointing out billions and trillions of public monies that seem to require some kind of legal action to be ethically disclosed to the taxpayers, I hope this matter is just opening for all our sakes.

If enough people choose to see nothing illegal or requiring action than to allow these billions and trillions to remain in “official” hands without taxpayer knowledge, then 56 LACO courts will be just the start of what’s closed, Dave.

If the official lies that cause laid-off workers doing necessary work, decay infrastructure, and increase despair and crime while the same officials sit on billions and trillions of our dollars somehow is reconsidered as not within the laws supporting public service, let me know if I can help.

Thank you for your thinking about this.

L.A. County D.A. clarifies: ‘Fraud is not a crime,’ with CAFR ‘misrepresentation’ was originally published on Washington's Blog

Source: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/07/l-a-county-d-a-clarifies-fraud-is-not-a-crime-with-cafr-misrepresentation.html

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