Lawrence R. Velvel, JD

The Honorable Douglas Shulman Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service 1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Department of Treasury Washington, DC 20224 Dear Commissioner Shulman: I do not know whether you are aware that in July of 2004, in the midst of Harry Markopolos’ revelations to the SEC that Bernard Madoff was operating a Ponzi scheme, the Internal Revenue…

I have read the descriptions by Helen Chaitman and Richard Shapiro of their meeting with Thomas McGowan of the SEC, Picard’s written statement published in Dealbook, and various comments by members of the Google groups about the oral statements by Picard and Harbeck (which I did not hear but which, one gathers, pretty much tracked…

[On April 30th, BC published the first part of a three part essay that deals with the torture practiced by the American government. Since then I have been preoccupied with other matters; thus Part 2 was not written until now. Click here to read Part 1.] I recently read the 2009 book by Neal Bascomb…

Law Professor John Q. Barrett of St. John’s ([email protected]) is writing a biography of Justice Robert Jackson, perhaps the greatest writer ever to sit on the Supreme Court and the first American Chief Prosecutor at Nuremberg. Every few weeks or so, Professor Barrett sends an email about an event in or an aspect of…

in 1914. (The partisans would fire from roofs, windows, etc.) In consequence, when the Kaiser’s army would enter a Dutch town, it began to shoot three or four of the leading citizens – the mayor and town councilmen, for example – as a warning to other partisans of what would happen if German soldiers were…

I’m probably missing something, in fact I’m probably missing a lot, but as far as I know there has been little in the way of official release of certain crucial numbers related to the Madoff scam. The government has said that $65 billion was lost; I presume that $65 billion is the collective total shown…

I recently received a communication from a sophisticated, savvy individual who has much experience with how the world works. This person seems to be of the view that the Madoff scam may have been an organized crime operation, with Mafia corruption in Madoff and the SEC. This possibility of organized crime being involved has occurred…

Permit me an observation about life. It is sometimes, perhaps even frequently, the case, when an unusual but reasonably complex situation arises, that people ignore the immediately obvious but rather simple solution in favor of complex possibilities that ultimately are recognized as either unlikely of success or overly difficult of accomplishment. Something like that may…

“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty, or your recklessness.” “I like to think I am a gentle man, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me.” “ [A]nd if there is a God in heaven, it will do neither you nor your cause any good.”…