Betancourt's personnel records: Wael Al-Mazeedi and BTU scream conspiracy to the courts. US Federal and Massachusetts courts don't agree with Wael. Betancourt's records document Wael's personal knowledge regarding Betancourt's activities. No surprise, the records reveal why the "information" in them were never used in support of Al-Mazeedi's litigation.

BACKGROUND

• ANY documents regarding BTU's, Wael's, and Mitsue's decisions regarding Betancourt (prior to the termination of his employment on January 15, 2009) HAD to be provided to Betancourt according to Massachusetts Law.
• Other than information contained in Betancourt's personnel records, Mr. James Commodore's affidavit in support of BTU's litigation, Wael Al-Mazeedi and BTU had no other legally relevant source of information in their hands prior to January 14, 2009 (date of filing of lawsuit against Mr. Betancourt).  Obviously Mr. Commodore's and Mr. Richard Johnston's supporting filing (discussed at the end of this post) were absolutely critical with regards to the litigation against Mr. Betancourt.

We mentioned in an earlier post that Mr. Betancourt had provided us with a copy of his "BTU" personnel records.  He can do as he pleases with these records since they are his private property.  We are going to cover the specifics of Betancourt's request as well as BTU's response across several posts in order to provide a coherent narrative and analysis.  We'll cover Betancourt's request first.

Expected Content of Records

One would expect to find a treasure trove of documents in his personnel files attesting to Mr. Betancourt's "nefarious" activities.  After all, even Richard Johnston, one of the most senior partners at WilmerHale's Boston office, was willing to declare, based on his personal knowledge (i.e. "under oath" - any time you give a personal declaration to the court it is under oath) that:

"...given Betancourt's history of insubordination and personal antagonism toward Ventures' chairman and senior management. He has openly disparaged Ventures' chairman in conversations with other employees. He has attempted to enlist other Ventures employees to follow his leadership. He has declared to other employees that the investors would prefer to see Betancourt himself as the leader of Ventures and its affiliated companies. He has stated that his alternative goal was to extract from the Company a significant payment to desist from his activities. On two separate occasions he has boasted to certain fellow employees that as many as three "cruise missiles" had been "launched" against the Company and its affiliates and could be expected to land soon." 

Richard Johnston's (WilmerHale) filing, ostensibly based upon his knowledge, in support of Al-Mazeedi

Richard Johnston, submitted a document titled "COUNSEL'S CERTIFICATION OF REASONS WHY NOTICE TO DEFENDANT OF PLAINTIFFS' MOTION FOR TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER SHOULD NOT BE REQUIRED"

"In support of this certification and based upon my knowledge of the underlying facts of this matter, I state as follows:"

"The investigation further reveals that Betancourt, long after he was relieved of responsibility for negotiations with investors, continued to maintain unauthorized personal communication with at least one of the key investors involved in the Company's current restructuring negotiations and also has communicated with an employee of a bank [Note: Johnston is referring to Marubeni, the joint-owner together with BTU Power Company of Carthage Power Company.  Anybody with the most basic knowledge of the power industry would know that Marubeni is NOT a bank.] participating in a consortium that is bidding against Ventures and its affiliates for the aforementioned $1.4 billion power project."

[Note: Johnston and WilmerHale did get one thing right.  Johnston states that:

"In his capacity as senior vice president, Betancourt was engaged in many significant aspects of Ventures' business and has extensive knowledge concerning the business affairs of Ventures and its affiliated companies, which hold investments in power generation projects throughout Asia, North Africa and the Middle East."

We can see in Betancourt's affidavit, if even just in summary form, what kind of knowledge Betancourt had regarding Wael Al-Mazeedi and BTU's business practices.  Obviously the kind of knowledge that would cause Wael Al-Mazeedi to want to have the affidavit sealed for over 2 years (until it was unsealed in support of  Wael's failed motion to convince US Federal Court that there are conspiracies against him everywhere)]
 
[Note: This document helped achieve what Wael and WilmerHale wanted to achieve.  However, after everything that is now known about Wael, Mitsue, BTU, QGEN, etc... it is obvious that Richard A. Johnston, Esq. "a senior partner with the law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP..." did not know what the hell he was talking about regarding Wael's "business empire"... We will show this with a few cross-references to the Betancourt personnel files.  Nevertheless, as long as the checks were still clearing, Richard Johnston was willing to place his reputation of 25+ yrs as an attorney, on the "line" for Dear Wael.]

OBSERVATION

As you will note from Betancourt's request letter below, Massachusetts law places stringent and comprehensive requirements on employers with regards to their management of personnel records.  This is particularly true when those same records are used to make material decisions about an employee (either for the benefit or detriment of the employee).

INTERIM CONCLUSION

We believe the personnel records requested by Mr.Betancourt after he was no longer working for BTU are important because, after all, they should contain ALL the EVIDENCE in the possession of BTU and Wael Al-Mazeedi at the time they prepared and filed litigation against Mr. Betancourt. 

ADDITIONAL INTERIM CONCLUSION

1. If it is not already apparent by now, these next few posts will show that all that is required for Mr. Al-Mazeedi and BTU to "go after somebody" is the ready and willing cooperation of employees such as Mr. James Commodore and law firms such as WilmerHale, FoleyHoag, etc
2. Wael still has access to millions and millions of US $ of the Middle East investors money.  He has not sent ANY dividends back to these investors since 2005 or so (as documented in this blog).... Wael can continue to pay lawyers to achieve his DESIRES for a little while longer.  As also documented elsewhere in this blog, the Middle East investors have a legal right in a few months to kick his A*S out of BTU, QGEN, etc. or whatever new entity he's formed to hold the Carthage Power Company and Taweelah Asia Power Company investments and take over themselves.

CAUTIONARY TALE

Betancourt's experience with BTU's litigation machine (powered by the engines of WilmerHale, FoleyHoag, etc.) should give pause to current and former employees regarding Wael Al-Mazeedi's ability to manipulate the US Federal and Massachusetts State court systems.  Al-Mazeedi sued Mr. Murphy, a former employee who had submitted an affidavit in support of BTU's litigation.  If he sues people that agree with him, as well as people that disagree with him, he'll sue anybody.  Being in "Good Standing" with Wael means zero.  Wael has allegiance only to himself.

Martin A Betancourt

60 Dinsmore Ave #616

Framingham, MA 01702

December 29, 2008

Ms. Deborah Zaza

Manager, Human Resources

BTU Ventures

Bay Colony Corporate Center

1000 Winter St, Suite 4400

Waltham, MA 02451-1482

Dear Ms. Zaza:

I am writing this letter to request all personnel records related to my employment at BTU. The reference to BTU should be understood to cover all entities that may hold any relevant records. This request is being made pursuant to M.G.L. c. 149, § 52C. Although you may have ready access to it, I have attached a copy of the statute in Appendix A.

For the benefit of mutual clarity, I will elaborate at some length regarding the “employer” and “personnel record” as defined M.G.L. c. 149, § 52C). A fairly typical Massachusetts employment law advisory [1] elaborates on the nuances of the statute and notes that “Employers should be aware that personnel records are not limited to documents contained in official or formal personnel files maintained by their human resources department. Rather, the statutory definition also encompasses what individual managers and supervisors may view as their personal files or notes on employees under their supervision, if those documents are used or may be used to determine promotions, transfers, additional compensation or disciplinary action. Consequently, managers and supervisors should be made aware that affected employees may have access to such documents.”

With regards to the definition of “employer”, as you are probably aware by now, I was originally hired by BTU VENTURES INC. Furthermore, the latest correspondence I received regarding my employment (a letter from you [2] in your capacity as Human Resources Manager, dated December 12, 2008) came under BTU Ventures letterhead. Nevertheless, I have been receiving paychecks and expense reimbursements from BTU INDUSTRIES HOLDINGS USA INC since January 2008.

Additionally, in October 2008 a document titled BTU INDUSTRIES SECURITY POLICY was distributed to all personnel. The document itself established that “The scope of this BTU Industries Security Policy Manual covers every employee, contractor, and BTU Industries activity worldwide.” This policy included a signature page with a section header “Understanding and acknowledgment statement:” that included a blank signature space that read “I ____________________, as a BTU Industries employee, having read and gained a full understanding of the BTU Industries Security Policy, agree to, and abide by these policy mandates.”

I have also performed work on behalf of other entities such as: BTU POWER COMPANY, BTU POWER MANAGEMENT COMPANY, BTU INDUSTRIES LIMITED, BTU INDUSTRIES HOLDINGS, and other “interim” entities such as NEWCO and QGEN. I have made allocations in my time sheets to the business matters of the aforementioned companies.

The corollary to the three paragraphs immediately above is that I have worked for, or performed work on behalf of, several BTU-related entities and therefore request personnel records which may have been filed under any of the referenced entities.

I would also like to point out that since the departure (sometime in February 2008) of Ms. Margaret Yuen, VP – Human Resources, there has been no single, identifiable individual in charge of HR issues. Barry Sylvia, a recruiter focused on “talent acquisition” for the new business initiatives being pursued by Mr. Almazeedi, was intermittently involved in personnel-related matters. My understanding is that the Manager of the Chairman's Office was involved to a larger extent in these types of concerns.

Again, the corollary to the paragraph immediately above is that there are several individuals that ostensibly maintained various types of personnel records, again, all of which are covered under this request.

Sincerely,

Martin A. Betancourt

cc: Mr. Faisal Khan

Attachments: The General Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 149: Section 52C. Personnel records; review by employee; corrections; penalty

[1] Morse, Barnes-Brown & Pendleton, P.C. A publication titled “Employment Law Advisor”

[2] This letter requested that “If it is necessary to communicate with anyone here concerning.... any other matter pertaining to the Company, please direct your communications exclusively to Faisal Khan.” I will copy Mr. Khan on this letter, however, there are no statutory restrictions under Massachusetts law that preclude me from sending this letter directly to you.

link: Betancourt's request to BTU regarding his personnel records