The Little Engine that Couldn't

Thomas P. O'Brien, a retired U.S. Naval officer and F-14 fighter weapons officer, was sworn in as the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California in late 2007. Not long thereafter he received a written complaint by the whistle-blower to the eToys fraud involving BigLaw law firms and alleged cover up by lawyers affiliated with the wrongdoers working at the Department Of Justice.

In a bold and controversial step, one of O'Brien's first moves was to "disband the official public corruption unit amid rumors of threats.

We don't know for sure what information was available to O'Brien, how and why he came to his extraordinary decision. However, it appears that the dissolution of the public corruption unit is related to the special prosecution unit's inabililty to provide an audit trail for their investigative responce to determined whistle-blower complaints of public corruption vis a vis the eToys and Aureal bankruptcy cases. Below is some information from a site devoted to public corruption involving the bankruptcy courts:



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The following is a small quote from one of the sites which is covering the eToys Crimes. Such crimes involving professionals in Federal Bankruptcy Courts and their affiliates at the Office of the U.S. Trustee are just beginning to draw some attention by the mainstream media, our elected representatives, and the FBI:

Additional items of malfeasance have been discovered as we learn that Colm F Connolly, the US Attorney's whose office has refused to intervene and do an investigation, is also guilty of non-disclosure. Colm F Connolly was a partner of the MNAT law firm in 2001, whne the fraud and perjury began. (for all we know he even worked on the case).

When we discover that tidbit of unethical behavior we reported it to the US Attorney's office in California, Tom O'Brien. Doing so with an official 18 USC 3057(a) complaint and 18 USC 3771 complaint the first week in December 2007. We were supposed to receive an answer within 8 to 12 weeks. When the answer did not come forth we began to press the US Attorney's office of Tom O'Brien for an answer.

The answer is, Tom O'Brien has now dismantled the Public Corruption Fraud Task Force.