Who are these people? What role did they play in Agnew Saga? Any?
VIRGINIA BEACH (August 10, 2007) - - Who are these people? These are some of the most obvious linkages of people to the Agnew Saga. There are many others not included because the web to them is much, much thinner.
We began this series asking the question: Conspiracy or Coincidence? The saga of Mike and Barbara's bank fraud convictions through their business dealings with Resource Bank.
The reason for the question is because so many prominent people, with so much behind-the-scenes power have the political and judicial connections to impact this case. Too many strange things not to believe that outside influences rather than corrupted evidence was responsible for the conviction of Mike and Barbara Agnew.
Political tentacles are long, run deep, and are powerful.
In May, 2004 Mike went to Commissioner of the Revenue Phil Kellam's office to pay $600 in business taxes. The clerk in Kellam's office said he had to pay $8,000 - which he'd paid or owed to other municipalities. Out of frustration he left. If you have jobs in Newport News, for example, you pay in that city, not there and in Virginia Beach, too.
Two days before he was supposed to be sentenced in federal court, Mike was picked up on a Virginia Beach City warrant, handcuffed, and hauled off. Why? He hadn't paid his business license taxes from Commissioner of the Revenue Phil Kellam's office.
Barbara asked Kellam's top deputy, Shirley Callis, "Why is this going on?" He answered, "You know why." One of Kellam's sisters is married to Jonathan Hauser, the bank's lawyer. Another coincidence? Harassment?
One investigating FBI agent had loans of $200,000 with Resource Bank. The other agent who 'discovered' the Agnew case and showed up at the bank 10-days after Agnew's company, AGM, had been closed by the bank, does not deny she received lavish wedding gifts from the bank when she got married and quit the FBI.
Federal Judge Jerome Friedman who heard the case without a jury had been in a multimillion dollar partnership with Dan Hoffler and A. Russell Kirk, president of Armada/Hoffler, member of the bank board, and 3rd largest stockholder in bank. (See Partnership Agreement)
[Armada Hoffler's employee testified against the Agnews that his company had lost possibly $2 MILLION as a result of the Agnews. However, Armada Hoffler did not pay AGM for July 1999 bills, which contributed to their downfall, said Mike Agnew.]
And appellate judge Roger Gregory, just happened to have started his first law firm with X-Gov. Doug Wilder, who was illegally tape-recorded talking compromising political talk on a cell phone with Hoffler to the detriment of X-U.S. Sen. Chuck Robb.
Gregory was one of three judges who heard the Agnews' appeal from Judge Friedman in Norfolk. How cozy?
Wilder played hardball with Robb over the illegal tape that caught him and Hoffler in a compromising, conspiratorial conversation plotting against Robb.
Robb was lucky to escape as well as he did. He let his staffers take the fall, but Wilder knew that Robb knew more than was being publicly reported. (And Bruce Thompson, the city's partner in the 31st St. Hilton Hotel project was also caught up and charged in the taping incident.)
The incident gave Wilder considerable clout with Robb and brought him favors he could call in, such as getting his friend Friedman nominated to the federal bench by Robb.
Robb was also a close personal friend of X-Prez Bill Clinton. Wilder through Robb got Clinton to make a recess appointment of Gregory to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. Gregory had been in private practice for 22 years when he was elevated to that lofty post.
| So who 'goosed' the FBI into action against the Agnews? We know it wasn't the bank. The bank had not asked for a criminal investigation or prosecution. |
VNS is not implying anyone on the accompanying cast of characters did anything wrong. VNS is saying somebody did. We leave it to the readers to make your pick.
Previous stories:
- A Tale of Miscarriage of Justice: Conspiracy or Coincidence?
- The view of the miscarriage of justice through eyes of an innocent teen: Miscarriage of Justice: Conspiracy or Coincidence - Part 2
- Miscarriage of Justice: Beach couple's American Dream becomes their worst nightmare
- Family helps daddy have a merry Christmas - even in prison
- Miscarriage of Justice: Death throes begin for AGM as Resource Bank reneges on deal and pulls financial plug
- When the FBI goes bad: SOMETHING STINKS ABOUT THE AGNEW CASE: FBI refuses to answer legitimate questions
- Miscarriage of Justice: The trial ends with a 'Hallelujah' shout from the federal judge
- Miscarriage of Justice: Barbara Agnew is more than Inmate No. 54498083