News (Media Awareness Project) - US: Laredo Bank Officer Sues U.S. Over Drug Report |
| Title: | US: Laredo Bank Officer Sues U.S. Over Drug Report |
| Published On: | 2001-05-25 |
| Source: | San Antonio Express-News (TX) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-01 07:30:20 |
LAREDO BANK OFFICER SUES U.S. OVER DRUG REPORT
LAREDO -- Laredo National Bancshares Chief Executive Officer Gary
Jacobs said the federal government violated his privacy two years ago
when it circulated a damaging secret report about his bank's Mexican
owners.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court here Wednesday seeking $129
million in damages, Jacobs said the National Drug Intelligence Center
damaged his reputation when it leaked a draft report alleging Carlos
Hank Rhon, the bank's largest shareholder, was involved in drug
trafficking and money laundering.
The Johnstown, Pa.-based NDIC, an agency of the Justice Department,
gave a copy of the report to a professor at a think tank at the nearby
U.S. Army War College, who in turn gave it to the media, the lawsuit
alleges.
News about the leaked report appeared on the front pages of newspapers
internationally in June 1999.
In April 2000, then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno retracted the
report, saying the conclusions were wrong and that the person who
leaked the document had been fired.
No one at the NDIC could be reached late Thursday for
comment.
But the professor mentioned by Jacobs in this suit, Donald Schulz,
whom the bank is suing separately in an Ohio federal court, has told
the San Antonio Express-News he did not leak the report to the media.
Jacobs' lawyer Ricardo Cedillo could not be reached Thursday for
comment.
The draft of the federal report was based on nearly two years of
assessment of the anti-drug efforts by such federal law enforcement
agencies as the FBI, CIA, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal
Revenue Service and U.S. Customs, according to Jacobs' claim.
Jacobs' lawsuit says the report contained false information, including
linking Hank Rhon and his politically powerful father, Carlos Hank
Gonzalez, to a criminal enterprise involved in money laundering and
moving cocaine and heroin into the United States.
Robert Siegfried, Hank Rhon's U.S. spokesman, has said his client has
"absolutely not" been involved in drug trafficking or money laundering.
LAREDO -- Laredo National Bancshares Chief Executive Officer Gary
Jacobs said the federal government violated his privacy two years ago
when it circulated a damaging secret report about his bank's Mexican
owners.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court here Wednesday seeking $129
million in damages, Jacobs said the National Drug Intelligence Center
damaged his reputation when it leaked a draft report alleging Carlos
Hank Rhon, the bank's largest shareholder, was involved in drug
trafficking and money laundering.
The Johnstown, Pa.-based NDIC, an agency of the Justice Department,
gave a copy of the report to a professor at a think tank at the nearby
U.S. Army War College, who in turn gave it to the media, the lawsuit
alleges.
News about the leaked report appeared on the front pages of newspapers
internationally in June 1999.
In April 2000, then-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno retracted the
report, saying the conclusions were wrong and that the person who
leaked the document had been fired.
No one at the NDIC could be reached late Thursday for
comment.
But the professor mentioned by Jacobs in this suit, Donald Schulz,
whom the bank is suing separately in an Ohio federal court, has told
the San Antonio Express-News he did not leak the report to the media.
Jacobs' lawyer Ricardo Cedillo could not be reached Thursday for
comment.
The draft of the federal report was based on nearly two years of
assessment of the anti-drug efforts by such federal law enforcement
agencies as the FBI, CIA, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal
Revenue Service and U.S. Customs, according to Jacobs' claim.
Jacobs' lawsuit says the report contained false information, including
linking Hank Rhon and his politically powerful father, Carlos Hank
Gonzalez, to a criminal enterprise involved in money laundering and
moving cocaine and heroin into the United States.
Robert Siegfried, Hank Rhon's U.S. spokesman, has said his client has
"absolutely not" been involved in drug trafficking or money laundering.
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