A story last week in the Niagara Gazette broke the news that charges against me concerning alleged defrauding of Clare Bronfman and Sara Bronfman-Igtet, were dropped by the US Attorney for the Western District of NY. This news came as the US DOJ WDNY issued a superseding indictment against me listing no new charges – but dropping the Bronfmans as victims. It lists a series of new actions allegedly committed by me – all of which strangely are perfectly legal actions when taken in isolation – but were conflated together to allege a scheme to obstruct the IRS and defraud a deceased partner of mine who never once complained in his lifetime about me defrauding him.
I understand the problem the DOJ faces and why they had to issue a far-fetched superseding indictment. I believe the case was fomented initially by Keith Raniere and the Bronfman sisters and was handled at the WDNY by now retired and I suspect corrupt Assistant US Attorney Anthony M. Bruce. He retired shortly after my indictment. It was a bad case from the beginning and was possibly prosecuted mostly as a favor to the Bronfmans and their attorneys.
So what should the DOJ WDNY do now? They should drop the case, if justice was the primary consideration. But they don’t do such things. It is well known that the DOJ must keep up appearances and never admit being wrong. To admit you are wrong is to contradict your assertion that you are always right. That you never bring a bad case. That you are infallible. That your defendant is always guilty. They need this to uphold their high conviction rates and juries must never suspect they can be wrong. That creates reasonable doubt.
This isn’t justice but it is why we have more people in prison than any other nation. It’s not that Americans are inherently more criminal than any other nation.
This prosecutor-is-never-wrong mentality leads prosecutors to focus on convictions, not justice. It is a cult worse than Raniere and results in putting poor, often innocent people, disproportionately in prison. Because the prosecution cannot be wrong and because poor people take plea deals since they know juries believe the prosecutor is never wrong, it is a vicious circle. But a very good one for the people who profit from the prison industrial system.
Since prosecutors cannot be wrong, juries believe the defendant is the only one who has a motive to lie. Yet, the prosecution also has a motive to lie and ignore evidence of innocence [lying by omission]. Once they have chosen their target, their motive to lie is that they must never appear be wrong.
Their whole shtick, their swagger is dependent on one premise: They are competent and virtuous. If once you show them incompetent, fallible or having charged the wrong man – knowingly or unknowingly – their house-of-cards falls. It is better to preserve the honor of the Department for the greater good [and put a few hundred thousand innocents in prison] than let the public know that wrong people are often charged – and sometimes because of convenience and sometimes because of politics. The truth is prosecutors often charge the wrong man and that is partly because there is no punishment for the prosecution for making mistakes.
At best, the innocent person is acquitted – or a conviction is overturned on appeal. But many innocent defendants take plea deals because the system allows the prosecution to over-charge them and because a defendant is facing decades in prison if convicted at trial – versus a few years with a plea deal. Poor defendants cannot afford top lawyers and, as many studies show, unequivocally accept plea deals rather than chance it with a jury whose every member believes the prosecution has no motive to lie, and is never wrong.
In any event, a reader, calling him/herself, “Truther”, made a comment in the Niagara Gazette story about my superseding indictment and the dropping of the Bronfman charges. I do not know who Truther is. Some of the remarks refer to my efforts to expose corruption in Niagara Falls, NY via my newspaper, The Niagara Falls Reporter. I believe that Raniere’s desire to see me indicted was welcomed by local politicians who I criticized and who were very close to the US Attorney who made the final decision to indict me. Whether they had a corrupt hand in my indictment is something I am currently investigating. My explanatory notes are in [brackets and bold].
By Truther
Add up the good that Frank Parlato has accomplished by exposing the real crooks [in Niagara Falls] the thieves who steal and cheat, accept bribes and carry out sweetheart deals depriving the public of millions of dollars. Step back and look at the contrast between a Federal indictment that appears to have effectively quashed his media outlet [I assume Truther means The Niagara Falls Reporter – which is still going strong]—
Right from the beginning with Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster’s code enforcement attacks against him at One Niagara [a building I owned in Downtown Niagara Falls], (and who went to jail?) how he put people to work, cleaned up the “Big Hole” [former owners had left a one acre hole in front of the property] filled it in, found out [Former Mayor Vince] Anello, (and who went to jail?) [Anello was convicted and went to prison].
You know, it’s hard to state the truth when there are two different stories told; but when it comes to playing, “Whack a Mole”, Parlato scored the highest because he did not pull his punches but used the law, American Political culture and his own moral courage to attack the real political disease Mayor Dyster, [his top assistant Thomas] DeSantis, … and others in the political machine who have abused their little power attributed to them for decades!!!!!!!!
Also, if the Feds haven’t put him [Parlato] behind bars by now, with the [old] charges against him, and then they change an indictment – then they changed their horse in the middle of the race for a donkey.
Thanks Frank for your courage and greater honor to you for your exposing corruption; maybe this is just what we need to root out the corrupt lawmakers who are trying to crush you. We are not going to let them put you down, we are going to raise our voices in your defense!
***
It is nice that there are some who recognize that corruption is the same whether in a cult in Albany, in politics in Niagara Falls or in the offices of prosecutors from Buffalo to DC.
It is simple – people are self interested. Power corrupts. When the two come together, corruption occurs. Only the most ethical individuals can resist using their power to further their own self interest and work solely for the public good. No matter how many times a public official or cult leader tells you otherwise, it is not often when their pronouncements of integrity are not really a screen for self interest. It advances self interest to proclaim their integrity. Prosecutors, like politicians and cult leaders, need a healthy does of skepticism and above all – checks and balances – and punishment even when they who seek to punish – are wrong.
As to the other charges against me – they are as false as the Bronfman charges. I am in a peculiar position. I have the will to fight. And I cannot plea to charges that I did not do – no matter how what the plea deal is – and no matter how much I would like to resume a life in freedom from oppression of government.
Were I to accept a plea deal – it would be I who is corrupt – pursuing my own self interest and enabling prosecutors to continue to falsely charge others because – as they constantly tell you – they are always right.
