The government filed the below motion today before Judge Sweeney (H/T Peter Chapman)
APPLICATION FOR ACCESS TO PROTECTED INFORMATION
Pursuant to paragraph 7 of this Court’s Protective Order dated July 16, 2014 (ECF No. 73), defendant, the United States, respectfully requests that Robert Hutchins, Andrew Ackel, Amanda Levesque, Leigh Lovelady, and Timothy Varner be permitted access to information protected by the Protective Order. All of the applicants are “financial consultants” within the meaning of Paragraph 4 of the Protective Order, and work for the consulting firm Navigant Consulting, Inc., which has been retained by the United States for purposes of this action.
Counsel for the United States has consulted with counsel for plaintiffs, Fairholme Funds, Inc., et al. (Fairholme), who has indicated that Fairholme does not oppose these applications for access to protected information.
Mr. Hutchins will lead the team. Hutchins is not an attorney. His area of expertise is in financial fraud, damages and and fiduciary responsibilities. In other words, as a defense witness in a trial for the government. Up until this point they have been relying on CBO and other government analysis of the GSE’s and their actions for their defense. It seems they are understanding this strategy is not working. It may also be a response to the recent Status Conference when there was a disagreement over produced materials (or not yet produced) from Treasury/FHFA. Perhaps that conference did not go the way they wanted?
It seems government lawyers have finally come to the conclusion that when Sweeney said “plaintiffs will have their day in court” she actually meant it.
Hutchins’ bio:
Rob Hutchins Managing Director
Robert Hutchins is a Managing Director in the Disputes and Investigations practice. He has substantial experience in a broad range of accounting investigations, bankruptcy proceedings, commercial litigation, and intellectual property disputes and has served as an expert witness, consultant or forensic accountant on numerous occasions. With more than 20 years of experience, he has consulted on matters involving asset tracing, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, director and officer misconduct, fraud, fraudulent conveyances, insolvency, patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and trademark infringement.
Rob has worked on disputes in a variety of industries, including biotech, financial services, healthcare, internet, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications. In connection with these assignments, he has performed numerous forensic accounting and fraud investigations, lost-profits studies, damage calculations, royalty rate analyses, and valuations. He has also prepared a significant number of expert and rebuttal reports and has assisted counsel prepare for numerous depositions and trials.
Selected engagement experiences include leading teams assisting in:
- Multiple breach of contract economic damage analyses in the financial institutions industry related to the enactment of FIRREA in 1989
- Valuation dispute between management and the shareholders of an educational testing company
- Breach of fiduciary duty matter involving the sale of a major regional theme park
- Fraudulent conveyance matter involving the failure of a multi-billion dollar Boston-based bank and the resulting bankruptcy of its former holding company
- Patent infringement dispute in the pharmaceutical industry related to the at-risk launch by a generic company of a branded company’s blockbuster drug
- Multiple patent infringement disputes in the pharmaceuticals industry involving the modeling of settlement scenarios
- Patent infringement dispute in the pharmaceutical industry between two brand manufacturers
- Patent infringement dispute in the computer industry between computer resellers and a patent holding company
- Trade secrets misappropriation in the biotech industry between a biotech company and a former employee
- Trademark infringement matter in the water technology industry
- Accounting investigation in the banking industry that focused on the appropriateness of the accounting surrounding a multi-billion dollar Puerto Rico–based bank’s investment in collateralized debt obligations
- Accounting and fraud investigation surrounding the failure of one of the largest independent mortgage companies in the country. The investigation focused on allegations regarding the misappropriation of thousands of mortgage loans and billions of dollars in cash.