Showing posts with label BTU Industries Holdings (USA). Show all posts
Showing posts with label BTU Industries Holdings (USA). Show all posts

Monday, May 23, 2011

Re: BTU Industries Holdings USA Inc. The most interesting visitor searching for information on BTU

As discussed several times before, Google Analytics provides us with "high-level" information regarding the visitors to this blog. The most "interesting" visitor so far is one based in the US.

Date: May 16, 2011.
City: Washington DC
Service Provider: fbi criminal justice information systems
Keywords: btu industries holdings usa inc

This blog has had thousands of visitors.  Just thought this particular one was interesting/noteworthy.

The only statement we can make based on empirical data is that someone in Washington DC was using the FBI's computer systems to research very specific information regarding one of Wael Al-Mazeedi's companies.

We don't know what this means. Whatever it is, we'll let it speak for itself. 

linkGoogle Analytics - custom report - May 16, 2011

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Why all the lawsuits by BTU Ventures, BTU Industries (Wael Al-Mazeedi) against former employees and contractors? The "other" side of the story.

Wael Al-Mazeedi has used a multitude of lawyers and probably spent significant amounts of money suing people that worked for "BTU." Since we've already established that Al-Mazeedi is in complete control of the "companies" mentioned above we'll just assume he is behind all the litigation against employees/contractors.

We get a more detailed discussion regarding Al-Mazeedi's motives from excerpts taken from Defendant, Martin Betancourt's Renewed Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Motion to Dismiss Counterclaims/Third Party Complaint.

[Note: as discussed elsewhere in this blog the trial court judge denied, in its entirety, BTU's motion to dismiss Betancourt's counterclaims/third party complaint.]

INTRODUCTION AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND
"In connection with the proceedings before this court, Betancourt filed an amended affidavit under seal."

[Note: Betancourt's amended affidavit was sealed as a result of BTU Ventures and BTU Industries Motion to Place Under Seal]

"...LITIGATION COMMENCED BY BTU WAS DONE SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF SILENCING BETANCOURT FROM EXPOSING POTENTIALLY CRIMINAL AND/OR FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY AS WELL AS AIDING IN ITS DEFENSE AGAINST LAWSUITS COMMENCED AGAINST IT"

BTU/Al Mazeedi knew that Betancourt was the source of BTU documents filed in the IFIC lawsuit in Middlesex County. As a result, BTU and Al Mazeedi, brought process, the instant lawsuit, for the ulterior and/or illegitimate purpose of
  1. punishing Betancourt for assisting IFIC challengers in exposing BTU and Al Mazeedi‟s potential fraud; 
  2. to gain a strategic advantage in the IFIC lawsuit; 
  3. and to discourage Betancourt from further exposure of their actions.
Time and time again, the plaintiffs have asserted that the purpose of the litigation against Betancourt was to 
“achieve judicial enforcement of Betancourt‟s obligations to Ventures not to disseminate Ventures' confidential and proprietary documents and information to third parties.”
 In its motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs claim that Betancourt sent proprietary documents to opposing counsel and characterized the fruits of the results of this preliminary injunction as follows:
“this Court allowed the Companies' motion for a preliminary injunction ....this Court's injunction has yielded hundreds of thousands of pages of the Companies' documents, in electronic and hard copy form, that Betancourt wrongfully and unlawfully had removed to his possession, custody or control. “
  • In reality, the actual number of documents “yielded” was 12,290, of which 6,321 were turned over to BTU as the others were covered by some privilege (e.g. 3rd party NDAs, medical records, etc.)
    • The 12,290 documents were “responsive” to approximately 300 keywords, many of them generic terms (e.g. solar, wind, fund, Italy, Germany, China, etc.).
    • If a document was responsive and not privileged it was turned over to BTU regardless whether it was a “BTU” document or not.
    • For example, about 3,300 documents were from the public domain and could be anything from the New York Times daily emails that Betancourt received to annual reports from PSEG. Another 700 or so documents were blank and contained only metadata and no legible text. 
  • The net result was approximately 500-600 pages of BTU related documents.
It is undisputed that Betancourt did not disclose any proprietary information to BTU to third parties, the sole disclosure was limited to documents which Betancourt reasonably believed were evidence of potential fraud and criminal activity on the part of BTU and Al Mazeedi. These documents numbered approximately 12-13 pages.


[Note:  BTU/Almazeedi fired and sued Betancourt on the same day.]


"BETANCOURT WAS WRONGFULLY TERMINATED FOR HIS DISCLOSURE OF SUSPECTED FRAUDLENT/ CRIMINAL ACTIVITY"

Monday, January 31, 2011

Alycia Goody, James Commodore, Jonathan Golden - former Corporate Counsel for BTU and/or QGEN: background info and their roles in the BTU and/or QGEN "story"

Another work in progress [Note: postings WILL eventually be completed with hyper-links to appropriate references].

James Commodore
Based on publicly available information, James Commodore plays an absolutely critical role in support of some of BTU's (Wael Al-Mazeedi's) litigation against his former employees.
Mr. Commodore authored a very "interesting" affidavit (soon to be included in this blog) supporting Mr. Al-Mazeedi's - BTU's lawsuit against Mr. Betancourt.  Also, although probably not a big issue in itself, it is interesting that the Notary Public present when Mr. Commodore stated that his affidavit was "Sworn to under the pains and penalties of perjury this 14th day of January, 2009." was none other than Ms. Christina Stephens, Mr. Al-Mazeedi's ever-present administrative assistant.


LinkJames Commodore CV from LinkedIn

Jonathan Golden
Also of interest (based on public info.), Jonathan Golden was a lawyer at WilmerHale that worked on BTU's (Wael Al-Mazeedi's) Meiya Power Company transactions and then left or was let go by WilmerHale.  Subsequently, he was hired and worked for BTU for 11 (eleven) months or so until he left or was let go.

LinkJonathan Golden CV from LinkedIn

Meiya Power Company
Mr. Golden's involvement in the BTU sale of Meiya Power to Standard Chartered is mentioned in the "Selected Merger and Acquisition Transaction" section of the following document:

LinkJonathan Golden experience: BTU sale of Meiya Power to Standard Chartered

Alycia Goody 
Alycia Goody may not have even realized this but she is still the Registered Agent of RECORD for BTU Holdings (USA) Inc.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Christina Stephens and BTU Ventures, BTU Industries, QGEN, etc. More to Come

upcoming information on a person that is seemingly KEY to much of BTU / QGEN.  She is his administrative assistant (and a seemingly devoted one at that).

from DEFENDANT BRIAN MURPHY’S ANSWER TO COMPLAINT (Murphy litigation)
"The defendant admits that on September 23, 2009 he reviewed surveillance video showing BTU employee Christina Stevens [sic] preparing a listening device that was then used by BTU CEO Wael Al-Mazeedi to conduct illegal audio surveillance of Mr. Murphy during a meeting September 23, 2009. The defendant denies the remaining allegations in this paragraph."  (paragraph 19)
from JOINT STATEMENT OF THE PARTIES, section IV. Proposed Deponents (Murphy litigation)
"The defendant seeks to depose Wael Al-Mazeedi (BTU President); Christina Stevens [sic] (Secretary to Mr. Al-Mazeedi); Faisal Kahn (BTU Chief Operating Officer); and Jeffrey Kent (BTU Accounting Department)."
from DEFENDANT BRIAN MURPHY’S OPPOSITION AND MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF (Murphy litigation)
"These steps were designed to resolve the plaintiffs’ immediate concerns about any confidential or proprietary information that remained in the possession of Mr. Murphy, the plaintiffs’ former Manager of Information Technology, after he was terminated November 9, 2010. They were also designed to ensure that no party to the litigation had exclusive control over certain BTU documents that have been subpoenaed from Mr. Murphy by Martin Betancourt, who is a party to litigation with BTU in this Court."  [footnote 1]
[footnote 1]  "Mr. Murphy’s preference for securing evidence with the Court is well founded. On November 30, 2009 he notified the plaintiffs’ CEO, Wael Al-Mazeedi by letter of his claims against BTU of unlawful discharge, wage violations and audio surveillance in violation of M.G.L. c. 272, § 99. Mr. Murphy’s counsel later learned from BTU’s counsel (not counsel of record in this action) that digital video captured by BTU’s surveillance system on December 3—video which, Mr. Murphy will testify, shows BTU’s preparations to conduct illegal audio surveillance on Martin Betancourthad been overwritten and no longer existed on BTU’s computers. Fortunately, Mr. Murphy had prepared a cd backup of the December 3, 2008 video surveillance while he was IT Manager at BTU, with responsibility for the surveillance system. That cd backup, which now appears to be the only surviving video evidence of the events on December 3, 2008, is among the materials Mr. Murphy deposited with the Court January 11, 2010."

Sunday, January 16, 2011

(READ 3rd) December 7, 2010 U.S. Federal Court decision re: Counter Claim and Third Party Claim by Martin Betancourt against BTU and Wael Al-Mazeedi

From Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) for US Courts  [link: www.pacer.gov]
Full docket text for document 65: Judge Joseph L. Tauro: ORDER entered. After a Scheduling Conference held on 12/7/2010, this court hereby orders that: Plaintiff's Motion to Dismiss Defendant's Amended Counterclaims [53] is DENIED.
BTU (Plaintiff) had filed a motion to dismiss Betancourt's counterclaims (they did not challenge the Federal and State wiretap claims). ALL six claims by Betancourt against Ventures and/or Al Mazeedi are moving forward in US Federal Court and are listed below.
  1. Misrepresentation (Against Ventures and Al Mazeedi)
  2. Wrongful Termination (Against Ventures)
  3. Abuse of Process (Against Ventures and Al Mazeedi)
  4. Intentional Interference With Advantageous Relations (Against Al Mazeedi)
  5. Violation of Massachusetts Wiretap Statute G.L.c.272 Section 99 (Against Ventures and Al Mazeedi)
  6. Violation of Federal Wiretapping Statute 42 U.S.C. Section 2510 et. seq. (Against Ventures and Al Mazeedi)
A link to the entire document filed by Betancourt is included at the bottom of this posting.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

BTU Ventures and BTU Industries Holdings (USA) sue 3rd former employee or contractor in less than a year using similar allegations

 Note: see Betancourt, McBrearty, and Murphy litigation in "Lawsuits" section.
Excerpt:  An energy investment company and an affiliate have sued their former head of information technology and data security, alleging the one-time employee is refusing to return "highly confidential internal company data" unless he gets a "substantially larger severance payment."
Link: Boston Business Journal

Friday, December 10, 2010

Hayat (44% owner) is "frozen out" of his investment by Wael Al-Mazeedi and Mitsue Oishi

The following paragraphs provide further detail regarding the corporate and ownership structure of the BTU group of companies. Links to the Hayat Amended Complaint as well as the lawsuit referenced below (Murphy) are included in the section of this blog titled LAWSUITS.
35. After freezing out Hayat, Al-Mazeedi and Oishi began to form their own parallel set of companies that had no subsidiary relationship to Holdings, to carry out the business of the BTU Group. BTU Industries Holdings (USA) Inc. ("Industries USA") is a Delaware corporation, which is a subsidiary of BTU Industries Holdings Limited, a Cayman corporation. On information and belief, Al-Mazeedi and Oishi are the shareholders in the parent entity. Moreover, Al-Mazeedi and Oishi are the sole shareholders of BTU Industries, Ltd., the corporation that received the $8 million consulting fee described above. Hayat does not hold shares in any of these entities.