Jeff Mazon Trial - a case of speculation and circumstance; Where is evidence?

Jeff Mazon Trial - a case of speculation and circumstance; Where is evidence?

The trial of Jeff Mazon, a former Halliburton employee accused of inflating a war-related contract in exchange for a kickback, enters its third week in a Federal courtroom in Peoria.

This case was tried once before in Rock Island before the same judge and by the same prosecutors, and with the exact same evidence. The jury in the last trial deadlocked, failing to reach a decision.

The deadlocked Rock Island jury obviously was not overwhelmingly conviced that Mazon was guilty of the crimes charged and was in fact an innocent man. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey B. Lang, insists it was not a majority but declined to disclose how many jurors did in fact support conviction versus acquittal.

Having reported on the first trial, the only thing new about this trial is déjà vu. The same witnesses. The same accusations. Nothing new, so why are we here again?

Mazon's defense is solid. He admits that a calculation error was committed on the contract in questions, but a mistake is not intentional criminal conduct. The prosecutors insist he inflated the price on purpose in order to receive a "bribe" that was paid to him six months after he left the company, even though the error was later discovered. In the end, the inflated payment amount was corrected.

The contract was among thousands of contracts issued to support the war effort in Iraq in early 2003. It was issued in Kuwait Dinars. Each Kuwaiti Dinar is equal to 3.3 U.S. Dollars. The spreadsheet used to calculate the conversion mistakenly increased the dollar amount instead of converting the Kuwait Dinars into U.S. Dollars.

Mazon and his attorneys have always alleged this case is little more than an effort by Halliburton and the Bush administration to make Mazon into a "scapegoat," taking attention away from the bigger issues of corruption involving the war itself and the role that Halliburton has played in managing the contracts.

Bush wants the American public to believe something is being done about allegations of war-related corruption that are rampant, but not enough so that the public might ask the logical question: "If there is so much corruption under Halliburton's watch, why is Halliburton and its subsidiaries continuing to receive the lucrative contract business?"

Halliburton was formerly owned by Dick Cheney, the U.S. Vice President. Many expect Cheney to return to Halliburton when his term ends this year.

The prosecutors failed to convince the jury the first time that Mazon committed any crime. And they haven't presented any new evidence in this second trial to suggest the outcome will be any different.

Last week, we heard testimony from a number of prosecution witnesses who failed to make a connection between the allegedly intentionally "inflated" contract bid of a Kuwaiti company and the million dollar loan that Mazon received over 5 months after he left his job with Halliburton.

The testimony of each and every government witness was speculative and inconclusive. They could not say with certainty that the contract in question was intentionally inflated. How could jurors reach that conclusion?

There are no eye-witnesses to a "deal." No evidence of a conspiracy between Mazon and the Kuwaiti contractor to inflate the contract in exchange for anything. All there is before the jury is the prosecution's assertions and an Excel Spreadsheet with a poorly constructed formula that each time miscalculates the final amount with an embedded inaccurate formula.

It is also a fact that Mazon did enter into a business relationship with a Kuwait businessman and his company.

But, before Mazon engaged in private business with the Kuwaiti, he left Halliburton and worked for the Athens Olympics in Greece for at least six months.

The prosecution's allegation that the loan Mazon received from the Kuwaiti contractor was a "kickback" in exchange for the inflated contract price is weak. The loan is not connected in time or logic to Mazon's employment with Halliburton. There is no testimony other than suspicion.

Additionally, the loan was in the form of a draft check that was declared to U.S. customs when Mazon entered the U.S. Attempts to deposit it in an "off-shore account" was at the direction of the bank in Greece where he was working at the time, six months after leaving Halliburton's employ. The "loan" eventually never materialized, the check was never cashed and no money exchanged hands.

As I prepare myself to sit through yet another week of trial, I cannot help but think about how these wasted dollars could have been better spent by the Bush administration. One failed attempt to convict should have been the end of this apparently never-ending story.

- Ray Hanania

Some observations on the Jeff Mazon trial in Peoria, Illinois

I spent a few days in Peoria covering the federal prosecution of Jeff Mazon. This is the second trial. The first ended last April in a deadlocked jury. Clearly the evidence was unconvincing in that trial. And as I sat through the beginning of this second trial trying to understand the evidence, it seemed clear that is no real evidence. Just a lot of circumstance.

Clearly a mistake was made in the awarding of a contract. But was it intentional as the prosecution and Bush Administration contend, or, was it the result of an error caused in the mass confusion of the weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Mazon used an Excel spreadsheet that was created five years earlier. The creator of the spreadsheet was one of his former bosses at Halliburton. The spreadsheet is important because is presenting bids for approval, they must be converted from the Kuwaiti Dinars that they were submitted in -- much of the work was done in Kuwait and the contracts there bid using their local monetary system. One Kuwaiti Dinar (KD) is equal to 3.3 U.S. Dollars. But, the spread sheet used to prepare the bids -- from three companies -- had a mathematical flaw in it. Two of the bids were multiplied incorrectly and listed first in Kuwaiti Dinars and then multiplied by 3.3 as if the amounts were dollars. Two of the bids were listed incorrectly. A third bid was rejected for lack of qualification but was listed correctly.

Was this done intentionally?

All of Mazon's supervisors received the bids in paper form and in electronic Excel Spreadsheet form. They had ample opportunity to review the bids and even raise questions about the bids by simply clicking the "cell" in the spreadsheet to determine if there was something wrong, like an inaccurate calculation.

Mazon's superiors demanded that all the bids be submitted to them for review in Dollars. These bids were submitted in combination with the dollars listed. None of Mazon's supervisors bothered to check.

The prosecution's strongest witnesses were presented in the opening days of the trial this past week. I listened to them all. But it was clear to me that no evidence exists or has been presented so far that proves convincingly that Mazon intentionally inflated the numbers. It was more likely the numbers were accidentally inflated by the erroneous spreadsheet prepared by his supervisor.

I have yet to hear or see evidence that he is guilty and that makes me wonder why this case is being prosecuted a second time.

Mazon clearly is being tarnished not by evidence but by the culture of corruption that accompanied the opening of the illegal war in Iraq. The Bush Administration should be looking at Halliburton, not someone whom some insist is a whistle-blower. Mazon's challenge is to show his innosense in the backdrop of so much questionable conduct by others around him. His attorney, J. Scott Arthur is a very capable attorney who happens to be from Orland Park, Illinois. Very smart. Very bright. Arthur has been pouncing on the apparent lack of evidence, despite having his hands tied by the judge in the case, Federal U.S. District Court Judge Joe Billy McDade. McDade has denied Arthur the ability to fully explore the larger issues that would prove his client innocent.

Despite that, I think Mazon will be found innocent. The evidence just doesn't exist. There is no smoking gun.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Click here to read my most recent news/analysis of the trial.

Reporting on a Halliburton abuse case -- local Orland Park lawyer heads defense

I'm in Peoria reporting on the Bush administration's prosecution of a former Halliburton-KBR contractor who is accused of inflating a contract in exchange for a bribe taking place in the Peoria Federal Court room of Judge Joe Billy McDade. The judge and J. Scott Arthur, the attorney for the defendant Jeff Mazon, got into an argument over how far Arthur could go in defending Mazon, excluding a discussion about the merits of the Iraq War, other instances of corruption related to Halliburton and KBR contracts in Iraq and more. You can read the first report at the Southwest News-Herald newspaper online at www.SWNewsHerald.com or at my Middle East writing sites including the Arab American Writers Group Syndication at www.ArabWritersGroup.com.

Arthur is from Orland Park. Mazon is from Country Club Hills.

Since I will be doing remotes often on Mornings with Ray Hanania, this week is a test to see how we can work out some kinks in the direct internet link connection from Peoria to the station iN berkeley at WJJG 1530 AM Radio.

This morning's topic includes the Halliburton case, but focuses mainly on the current economic crisis in America and the opinions of listeners on how they feel about the $700 billion bailout package and what they think needs to be done.

Call the station at 708-493-1530 or listen to the program online at www.RadioChicagoland.com. There is a link to the online stream feed at the upper righthand corner of the web page.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

Radio show live from Peoria where Halliburton trial is continuing

I'm in Peoria reporting on the Bush administration's prosecution of a former Halliburton-KBR contractor who is accused of inflating a contract in exchange for a bribe taking place in the Peoria Federal Court room of Judge Joe Billy McDade. The judge and J. Scott Arthur, the attorney for the defendant Jeff Mazon, got into an argument over how far Arthur could go in defending Mazon, excluding a discussion about the merits of the Iraq War, other instances of corruption related to Halliburton and KBR contracts in Iraq and more. You can read the first report at the Southwest News-Herald newspaper online at www.SWNewsHerald.com or at my Middle East writing sites including the Arab American Writers Group Syndication at www.ArabWritersGroup.com.

Since I will be doing remotes often on Mornings with Ray Hanania, this week is a test to see how we can work out some kinks in the direct internet link connection from Peoria to the station iN berkeley at WJJG 1530 AM Radio.

This morning's topic includes the Halliburton case, but focuses mainly on the current economic crisis in America and the opinions of listeners on how they feel about the $700 billion bailout package and what they think needs to be done.

Call the station at 708-493-1530 or listen to the program online at www.RadioChicagoland.com. There is a link to the online stream feed at the upper righthand corner of the web page.

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

"Mornings with Ray Hanania" Broadcasting from Peoria

I'm in Peoria broadcasting my radios how this morning as I prepare to cover parts of the U.S. Justice Department prosecution -- the second attempt -- of Jeff Mazon, a Country Club Hills former contractor with Halliburton who is accused of taking a bribe. But the big issue is that the government doesn't want anyone to discuss the issues about Halliburton itself, the pattern of corruption that has plagued Halliburton's contracts in Iraq ... or the role of the Bush administration or Halliburton "former" CEO vice president Dick Cheney ...

No one is covering the trial and I think the government is trying to bury this case so Halliburton doesn't become the bigger issue than an alleged corruption case that a jury already tossed last April 2008 during the first trial because of concerns over the evidence.

I'll post updates and we can discuss this and the $700 billion bailout and President Bush's speech this morning on TV, the drop in the stock market that represented more than a trillion dollars in loses.

The online broadcast of the radio show sounds great from Peoria ...

-- Ray Hanania
www.RadioChicagoland.com

War-related corruption case building

The Rockford Trial of the Iraq war corruption case is continuing.

Here's a link to my story on First Kuwaiti and contractor Jeff Mazon:

http://swnewsherald.com/online_content/2008/04/041808rh_contract.php

Here's a link to the Washington Post which has not covered the Mazon trial but reported on the completion of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041703603.html?hpid=topnews