PA AG Kathleen Kane’s Dirty Deeds Against Minuteman Environmental

| | | | | |

guest postPennsylvania’s Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, will appear in court today to answer charges that she is, herself, a criminal. She will appear in Montgomery County court to face nine criminal charges, including perjury (i.e. lying under oath). As we have reported, Kane is attempting to divert attention away from her own criminal actions by resurrecting an old porn case, claiming angry white men are out to get her (see AG Kathleen Kane’s Defense: Dirty Old Men are Out to Get Me!). Kane has lost the confidence of everyone, including PA Gov. Tom Wolf–the most liberal governor in America, who is calling on her to resign. Kane lost our confidence from her first day in office in 2012 when she started out by targeting the drilling industry (see Will New PA AG Go After the Marcellus Drilling Industry?). One of the many companies in the Marcellus industry targeted by Kane for extinction over the past three years was Minuteman Environmental Services, a PA company that serves the shale industry with several different businesses (see PA’s Anti-Drilling AG Charges Minuteman with Enviro Crimes). Kane orchestrated what can only be called a terror attack on Minuteman and its owner Brian Bolus and his family (see Minuteman Enviro Says PA AG Office “Terrorized” Family Members, Filing Lawsuit). Amazingly, Minuteman is still in operation–even though Kane and M&T Bank, working with Kane, froze Minuteman’s assets and tried to bankrupt them. An employee of Minuteman has written a guest editorial for MDN to point out that although Kane is going to court for reasons unrelated to the travesty she’s inflicted on Minuteman, folks should not forget the damage she’s done to the industry, in particular the damage she’s done to Minuteman and its workers…

By Kevin W Cromley, 9-Year Employee at Minuteman

Now that Kathleen Kane has been officially charged, this is a good time to identify another victim in her criminal activity. The Montgomery County District Attorney has also been notified of numerous crimes committed by Kane and the Office of Attorney General (OAG) in their attack on Minuteman Environmental Services.

Kane deliberately orchestrated a “raid” of unprecedented size and scale on a PA company providing services to the natural gas industry. The raid was based on hearsay and lies. Any individuals who disagreed with the accusations were never interviewed or called to the grand jury. This was a selective witch hunt. The OAG enlisted the help of every agency they could think of across the state to participate. The only agency that was not notified or involved was the Pennsylvania State Police. Why? Because the PSP had 24/7 access to the Minuteman facility in Milton, PA and in fact even had keys to enter site at will. Was it because PSP knew that there was no wrongdoing and would not support the OAG’s baseless accusations.

For almost two years, the Office of Attorney General (OAG) has conducted an investigation into the business practices of Minuteman Environmental Services, a company owned and operated by Brian Bolus. During the investigation the OAG has terrorized Mr. Bolus’ family, abused his employees, and relied on extreme tactics which jeopardized his business.

Throughout this entire time, the OAG has ignored repeated offers of cooperation from Mr. Bolus, and, instead, chose to proceed without his assistance. As a result, their investigation has been at best incomplete, and, at worst sloppy and intentionally one-sided. They have relied on a small group of disgruntled former employees, many of whom were disciplined or dismissed from Minuteman for their poor job performance. The OAG’s witnesses represent a tiny fraction of the company’s total work force, and presented a distorted, and, in some instances, patently false version of Minuteman’s operations. If the OAG had wanted the truth, they could easily have obtained it with a simple request; they chose not to do so. While this may have accommodated Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s anti-fracking agenda, it has resulted in a grave injustice which the Attorney General attempts to disguise with a ridiculously large number of duplicative charges, all of which are baseless and without merit.

Minuteman was railroaded in every sense of the word by Kane for political motives.

First, the owner of Minuteman was a strong Republican supporter. Governor Corbett was at Minuteman headquarters for the grand opening and released his new budget there. The governor traveled around the state calling Minuteman “An American Success Story” for the jobs created in the natural gas industry, with over 200 local jobs created in PA. Kane caused over 150 of those jobs to be lost in her political vendetta against the governor.

Bolus Trucking, a Scranton based trucking company, was a competitor of her husband’s business for years. Who knows what sense of animosity Kane held for a competing business?

So here are some facts that are all public record and have all been disclosed in preliminary hearings. They clearly show that Kane and her minions were in trouble when they quickly realized there was NO evidence to support the raid or their actions. Instead of walking away, they were too far out on a limb. So what did they do? They used the investigation to search for a crime–any crime–they could muster or fabricate.

Environmental crimes:

ALL of the accusations of leaking radioactive waste and illegal dumping at Minuteman’s Middletown, PA facility were withdrawn at the preliminary hearing. Why? Because they we baseless lies.

Dumping waste at the Milton, PA HQ well was another lie. Why was it that the OAG could not produce any samples from the site? The fact is, there was no evidence to support any illegal dumping, even though every inch of the property was sampled. That is why the baseless charge was the the equivalent violation of spitting on a sidewalk.

The other two charges of dumping were from two tractor trailer accidents in 2005 and 2007. The units were demolished during the accidents, scattering debris everywhere. The OAG found a few small pieces of debris and claimed it was illegal dumping from the crashes. What did they do with the couple of pieces they claim were from the wreck? Did they pick them up and take them? No, they buried them on site and left! Any towing company that leaves a piece of glass etc. at an accident scene can be charged with the same crime.

The OAG has claimed there was a practice of over billing. As a company, Minuteman billed over $49 million in the period that the OAG examined. In the presentment to the grand jury, the OAG claimed millions were over charged. At the preliminary hearing the numbers the OAG could muster up was a possible discrepancy of $121,000. In fact, the OAG could not even support that number with any details–how they derived it. The claim that every customer was defrauded was clearly a lie and the only company that they based their claim on has never attempted to assert their rights through the legal system.

The OAG has charged insurance fraud for having family members of the company on health insurance. This was a last ditch effort by Kane to find some sort of crime. It is as flimsy as it sounds. The OAG claims that anyone on the health insurance plan needs to be a 40-hour per week employee to be covered. The fact is, it was up to the group to decide the parameters for employment. Extra people, family members, on the insurance plan had ZERO effect on the rates or policy and was a technicality at best, not a crime. How many family-owned businesses have family members on their policies? When approached with allegations the health insurance company did not cancel the policy, they continued to insure the company and the employees on the same terms as before.

It is interesting that ALL of the agents and the original prosecutor longer work for the OAG. Why? Were they fired, or did they quit? Many of these people helped orchestrate and execute Kane’s dirty deeds. All of the players are named in the civil rights lawsuits on behalf of the Bolus’s and Minuteman.

Civil Rights Case # 4:15-cv-02062-MWB and Case No 4-14-BK-01825-JJT

In summary, Kane has used her power to destroy the reputation of a good company and good people for her own political agenda. Now it is clear this was a common practice for her–to set aside what is right for what she believed was advantageous to her career. The act of leaking grand jury information is merely the tip of the iceberg in her abuses of power. Let the lesson be that no one is above the law and maybe people can see the whole story behind the witch hunt that has been brought against Minuteman Companies, Brian Bolus and his family.