Richert. Versus. WGA
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ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE
“Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Halle Salassie
Nov. 29/ 2017
Honorable John Shepard Wiley jr. Sets L A, Superior Court date for Richert V. WGAw firing of Neville Johnson.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES AND DOCUMENTS SHOW HOW SAG RECORDS WERE SEALED--AND LEFT SEALED BY THE CLASS ATTORNEY IN SPITE OF A JUDGE'S CONCERN THAT THEY BE OPENED FOR ACTORS' REVIEW
Well, Mr. Hadl and Mr. Grossman and others were among the architects of the whole foreign levy scheme, as they themselves call it, and they are as active today as 19 years ago.”
In the "download" link right below these paragraphs you may discover the pdf file of court exhibits and evidence showing corruption, fraud, false reporting, collusion etc. in the mysterious case of RICHERT VS. WGAw, a 7 year class action lawsuit on behalf of all American writers that never happened "for real."
It was all a sham. More and more will be written and posted here and other places to illustrate that beyond question.
The evidence and documents in the download were given by Plaintiff William Richert into the hands of Honorable William F. Highberger at the LA Superior Court just before the commencement of a Court Ordered Mandatory Arbitration conducted by Judge Highberger with Tony Segall and Emma Leheny appearing for the WGAw, Paul Kiesel and Neville Johnson purportedly for the writers they represented, and William Richert acting "in pro per" for the true writers who were to be bound by this lawsuit.
While files and statements in these courtroom mediations with Judges are sealed by law, the exception was made here by Judge Highberger because William Richert had already shown the documents to his class, as the class was not able to attend the mediation, and Mr. Richert explained that the lawyers were not representing the class, but themselves -- hence the need for the April 29, 2009 mediation with all the lawyers and the Plaintiff.
William Richert left the five hour arbitration refusing to settle the lawsuit.
He was convinced to sign the settlement agreement only after 3 days of meetings with class action expert Paul Kiesel (who misled him) and after being assured by Judge West that His Honor would look after the case for three years.
These promises have been broken.
FOREIGN LEVIES
On Jul 10, 2013, at 11:16 AM, william richert wrote:
MEMO TO WGA members and independent American writers and to the USAC:
The lawyers mentioned in the following letter are among the same "Superlawyers" being sued today in Federal Court by the United Screen Actors Committee vs SAG.
Starting in 2005, the WGA, DGA and SAG class action lawsuits were filed by Neville Johnson based entirely on original investigations and discovery by 2004 WGA Presidential Candidate Eric Hughes ("AGAINST ALL ODDS").
Letters like these, and the attached file of evidence, are almost always sealed in hearings like this. I told Judge Highberger it was my obligation to keep the class who could not attend the hearing informed, and thus I had already emailed the letter and stack of evidence I was bringing to the courtroom. Judge Highberger accepted the publication of the letter and evidence.
FROM PLAINTIFF'S LETTER TO THE JUDGE:
“…Now, why is Robert Hadl advising Neville Johnson in this matter, which is about the guild’s 18 year partial-thefts and embezzlement of royalties writers they don’t represent, and even worse, that they sign away almost the whole amount – over 90% -- of this money to studios, who never hired these writers and never paid them, but nonetheless take almost all the money.
Well, Mr. Hadl and Mr. Grossman and others were among the architect
of the whole foreign levy scheme, as they themselves call it, and they are as active today as 19 years ago.”
TO JUDGE HIGHBERGER BEFORE A FAIRNESS HEARING, in chambers,
WRITTEN 4 YEARS AGO:
WILLIAM RICHERT
Lead Plaintiff
RICHERT VS. WGA
“In Pro Per”
April 26, 2009
Honorable William F. Highberger
Los Angeles Superior Court,
Central Civil West Department 307
600 Commonwealth Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90005
Dear Judge Highberger,
On this Sunday evening, having read Nick Kurtz’s Friday evening letter to you and the other lawyers, I am writing to assert that I am just as happy as he is to have your help in our case, and I ask, as he does, that you hear my pre-mandatory-mediation statement along with his, as I am acting as a layman, in pro per, and Lead Plaintiff in this class action lawsuit.
Concurrently, Nick Kurtz is my lawyer, so if you read his letter you may surmise the “mess” I find myself in – quoting the careful words of Judge Carl J. West.
Also, Mr. Kurz is misleading in his letter; there are not yet 3 class members in this lawsuit as one of them died 10 months ago, and the replacement has not yet been certified.
WHY THE LEAD PLAINTIFF WRITES SEPARATELY FROM HIS LAWYER, AND IS ACTING IN PRO PER
In my hearing with Judge West on March 23 the Judge called the situation in RICHERGV VS. WGA “a mess” and declared from the bench that it “has a bad look to it.”
Then he told me to “get a lawyer” and “cooperate.”
Soon you shall discover that the “mess” is bigger and nastier than Judge West presently knows, or could know.
When I signed on to this case, I thought did have a lawyer, and that I was cooperating – that is, acting under the mandate I was given as Class Representative, to consider the needs of my class above my own, for there is surely no possible recompense for me personally from the shocking and draining circumstances of the past four years.
I’m a screenwriter and performer, a poet and a song and dance man, not a sharp LA litigator, though I’ve had to learn some of the lingo and routine during the years I’ve been fighting with the officials at the WGA along with my own attorneys.
BACKGROUND
The WGA has maintained throughout this lawsuit that I am a member “in arrears” of their union. However, It was front page VARIETY in 1995 when I challenged the “special arbitration” the WGA held about my screenplay for THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, and publicly fired the entire WGA.
As part of the cozy relationship among the participants in this case, one of the many participants in that old WGA case, Robert Hadl, is also part of the present case, advising my lawyer Neville Johnson in RICHERT VS. WGA.
Now, why is Robert Hadl advising Neville Johnson in this matter, which is about the guild’s 18 year partial-thefts and embezzlement royalties writers they don’t represent, and even worse, that they sign away almost the whole amount – over 90% -- of this money to studios, who never hired these writers and never paid them, but nonetheless take almost all the money.
Well, Mr. Hadl and Mr. Grossman and others were among the architects of the whole foreign levy scheme, as they themselves call it, and they are as active today as 19 years ago.
The split of American writers foreign royalties among outsiders has been going on profitably and quietly in an arrangement between the collecting societies and the studios since 1965, by my estimation, and virtually none among the writers involved had any idea that major studios were taking 100% -- after the cut of the collecting society – from major American screenwriters and authors.
It did become known to the WGA in 1988, when the Berne Convention made such studio claims illegal internationally, and said the copyrights belonged to the authors, not the studios.
Thus the WGA contacted the studios – or perhaps the other way around – and during the contentious bitter protracted angry WGA strike of 1998 the union began to negotiate a deal with the studios consummated in 1990 with an agreement that gave the studios continuing rights to 92.5% of the money Europe sent to writers both union and especially non-union, for they certainly were not subject to the WGA “collective bargaining agreement.”
At the time the DGA was part of the “agreement” signers as well as the WGA, along with Joel Grossman and Robert Hadl, for the major studios; like I said: these men today advise both sides of this issue, unbelievably. This is truly a legal charade that took notonly from American writers and authors and actors and directors, but from the California Franchise Tax Board and the IRS.
Anyhow, on September 14 2005 I received a telephone call from Neville Johnson asking me if I was a member of the WGA and if I had ever received foreign levy checks from the guild.
I said I fired the Guild in ’95, and didn’t recall ever seeing a foreign levy check.
Neville then recited a series of facts he apparently soon forgot, telling me that the WGA and other unions had signed away the foreign royalties of thousands of non-union American writers for almost 20 years; that they had used the money for themselves, concealed it, and hid the deal they had with the studios. He asked if I would join a class action lawsuit and I said “sign me up.”
He didn’t say he was actually working for he the unions and studios involved, or that after our original complaint was filed with me as the class rep (Champion, said the contract I signed) for non union screenwriters – he would proceed to allow the WGA to defame me as a union scofflaw and non-dues payer, claming as when of their own, when they knew I fired the guild as they referenced my letter to them as “threatening” in a New York lawsuit several years ago.
Even though Judge Margaret Morrow ruled that the unions had no rights to this money under collective bargaining, and that their deal with the studios was unfair to writers and actors, Neville Johnson accepted the secret WGA deal as equitable, and removed the original “agreement” as an issue from Judge West’s considerations.
Without a fight or a protest, Neville Johnson and Nick Kurtz gave legitimacy to the greatest outrage to writers both union and non: 92 percent of hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of European royalties were each day going to major US corporations who had nothing to do with the copyright of the original authors, or any participation in the making of the films.
During the long course of this litigation the WGA lawyers have claimed wrongfully and willfully that I was a member of their union, when they knew I was not and my lawyers knew I was not. That I was a suitable class member for the litigation was true, since I made films both union and non union that were distributed internationally.
During the long course of this litigation the WGA claimed that movies I made like THE HAPPY HOOKER and LAW AND DISORDER and THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK were covered by their MBA when they knew they were not.
Recently I discovered that the WGA had been taking my residuals for years as payment for dues I never owned, since I stopped paying the day I sent the letter dismissing them. They had also been keeping my foreign levies, both unlawful acts.
But the WGA accusations of my being a union dues scofflaw, and their allowing studio usurpation of my copyright ownership to films they knew the studios had no right to, went unchallenged by my lawyers.
Thus I – and the class of writers I have come to represent in the settlement: namely “all American writers...etc.” – that is, if Judge West approves this settlement – all of us involved here – would now loose rights and opportunities and money we had when we started this case, and all to the benefit of the major Hollywood studios in cahoots with WGA/DGA/SAG (the unions who are paying Mr. Johnson’s legal bills.)
Where once the WGA took no percentage for “handling” foreign levies -- back in the 1990’s (they weren’t paying out the money anyhow, actually) -- this settlement will give the WGA 10 percent of the gross along with additional fees – the union earning far more from its members and non-member writers, let’s say, than the agent of a Hollywood movie star earns, and this in addition to the other 92% going to the studios!
Where the WGA was being charged with fraud in 2005, they are now being completely exonerated in this settlement, along with their studio partners, and all under the visible guidance of lawyers like Robert Hadl and Joel Grossman, the signers of the agreements never seen or voted upon by WGA members until this very day.
I stumbled into the love nest between the foreign collecting societies and the studios and the unions four years ago, when I still believed Neville Johnson was working on behalf of the Class the courts eventually agreed upon.
I had no idea Neville Johnson was really working for the WGA/DGA/SAG/UNIVERSAL/FOX/DISNEY/PARAMOUT cabal of hungry feeders on the profits of unknowing (and unwilling, too, if they knew) American screenwriters, authors, novelists, actors and directors.
THE PENNY DROPS ON THE STUDIO/UNION/COLLECTION SOCIETY LEGAL MENAGE A TOIS
Although I had publicly questioned Mr. Johnson’s motives and actions in this case before, even withdrawing in 2006 until Mr. Johnson lured me back, promising “complete transparency”, it wasn’t until Mr. Kurtz’s remark that he’d been fighting four lawyers at the WGA and he – and Neville -- could do no more that Neville’s hollow ducks began falling into various slots of realization, to borrow from a penny arcade.
Firstly, and without offense to anybody, I thought Neville Johnson was handling this very important case himself, not passing it off to his newest law school grad.
Imagine, if I may ask the court such a thing, my chagrin and surprise when I read that the total amount of time Neville Johnson spent reviewing and revision the significant PLAINTIFF’S REPLAY ON MOTION TO REMAND in Judge Morrow’s court was 0.2 hours; Nick Kurtz apparently did all the work, and continues to be the go-to lawyer at Johnson and Johnson to this very day, as shown by his letter to you.
If profit is what you earn relative to capital expenditure, this lawsuit is profitable indeed for Mr. Johnson, but not so for the thousands who will lose if this settlement is enacted, for it gives the studios the rights that the Berne Convention does not.
Judge West, telling me to get a lawyer – yet Mr. Johnson remains, I believe, my lawyer until he is procedurally removed – is like saying to collect the head of the Witch of the West.
If Mr. Johnson’s total bill for the motion to Judge Morrow is $4,872.50, -- including his partners at the time Jim Ryan and Brian Rishwain -- where is the legal passion – as would be shown by minute expenditure – to entice any new lawyer into such a penurious situation? -- Or such a mess.
What lawyer will agree to step in to a “mess” like this without being paid? Who will pay if Mr. Johnson is getting all the fees from the WGA?
A class action lawyer in a large chain store action told me that lawsuits like this can cost millions, and that his lawsuit alone had 13 million documents.
Here there are serious issues involving a large group of American copyright holders over 18 years plus, but only 3 thin depositions taken over four years, along with a settlement that may as well have been written by the WGA lawyers themselves.
Since Mr. Johnson has told me again and again that “nothing is written” in this case – until basically I was presented with the settlement – maybe it WAS the WGA lawyers who wrote the settlement.
Certainly it was WGA lawyer Anthony Segall who paid (not from his own pocket, presumably) roughly $500,000 to silence whistle blower Teri Mial during this litigation, and she is someone who’s declaration of “fraud” has meaning.
But her 9 years of evidence, and the incredibly damning evidence held by Expert Witness Eric Hughes, were carefully and I suspect conspiratorially withheld from this entire litigation, for had it been introduced, the summation of the theft and fraud would surely have led to an outcome far different that that contained in the “Settlement” agreed upon by “all parties.”
As Lead Plaintiff, a job I never asked for, I am, apparently, the only obstacle to their designs.
And by my reading and reckoning of the Class Action act of the 109th Congress, I am entitled to oppose the settlement in my position as Lead Plaintiff, although I am joined in protest by fellow writer Eric Hughes.
Mr. Johnson promised the court and class fair and adversarial representation when he took on this case, but he has yet to provide it, even if Judge West was led to believe he did. The Honorable Judge took at all times the esteemed attorney to be as Honorable as he was.
The WGA couldn’t have done better if it hired him.
As an example among lots of egregious behavior on the part of my lawyers, Mr. Johnson wrote Judge West on June 24 2008 that he had Pearl Retchin and Ann Jamison to take my place as named plaintiffs, but Pearl had died weeks earlier and he knew it and so did the WGA lawyers he copied.
Soon afterward, in July, the WGA lawyers found foreign levy money for Pearl’s heir Maude that they declared “cannot locate” in 1999 for 2 movies that dated back to the 1950s. Thus, unlike Mr. Kurtz’s declaration that Maude received no remuneration to become the new class rep, both he and the WGA had started giving her money months ago, though not to the other class members.
And they located that money almost immediately.
Even more stunning and collaborative, Neville Johnson, Nick Kurtz, Paul Keisel, Emma Leheny and Anthony Segall all appeared in Judge West’s courtroom during a ten month period, and in motion after motion, declared Pear Retchin was present and accounted for, all the while knowing she was dead but never saying anything.
And they convinced Judge West that the money amounts were roughly 80 dollars due members when I just got a foreign levy check for 846.00 for movies the WGA had nothing to do with, dating back 40 years.
Since the amount included deductions already made by the collecting society, the lawful amount should have included that portion the WGA gave with nobody’s permission to the studios, and I would have gotten 8 THOUSAND dollars.
And this group of checks included films never covered by the WGA MBA, and didn’t include money for THE HAPPY HOOKER, for example, which has been a huge seller abroad for many many years, or THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK, which the WGA just sent a five hundred dollar check for. And I am not ranked high among those who are owed much, much more.
Further, both groups of lawyers convinced Judge West I was a union member “in arrears,” though I was a paid up member when I fired them publicly 14 years ago and they know it.
Judge West had no reason to know that the lawyers at his bench were not as “good” as he thought.
But most dangerous of all to artists and copyright owners everywhere is that the lawyers have managed to bury the elephant of major studio involvement in taking more than 90% other people’s money, and thus de facto copyright ownership, and this litigation has narrowed the massive involvement down to a dot of invisible fissionable simplicity to allow them to continue this theft, while partaking themselves, like carrion, from the heirs of deceased writers.
It is truly artful and amazing that in all the filings and motions and counter filings, during a four year period -- 2005-2009 -- nobody mentioned that the WGA gave Universal pictures and its “sisters” almost all of its members foreign levy royalty money, along with the money of non-members.
This central issue should not be ignored or forgotten.
In his Friday night letter to you, Nick Kurtz says I want a trial but he knows, because I’ve told him and Neville Johnson and Paul Keisel that a just settlement would be fine by me and, I’m sure, okay by the class of thousands I represent – for I remain a suitable class representative, having a 40 year career with almost equal decades as both a union and a non union writer, actor and director, with works sold abroad earning foreign levies.
I hope Mr. Kurtz letter has not tainted your opinion of me as Lead Plaintiff, or put questions into your thoughts about my efforts as regards this weighty and important matter.
As you may surmise, this has is not been an easy task, when sneaky lawyers for both sides conceal more than they reveal, and make derogatory statements about the Lead Plaintiff when the Plaintiff doesn’t know, and can’t defend himself.
Based on the scant depositions and amount of time Mr. Johnson has billed this case as indicated earlier, one solution might be that Mr. Johnson actually be compelled by the court to complete the task he set himself: namely a just and timely resolution to a major theft and fraud against US copyright owners and actors within the prevue of the court of Judge Carl J. West.
In fact, there is room in the present settlement to achieve some of these goals, if certain paragraphs are excluded and new ones included, starting with a complete accounting breakdown of the inflow and outflow of the 57 million the WGA says it has received, including examination the original checks given to the collecting societies made out US writers, along and any amounts provided to the studios.
This is not an outrageous request, but something that would be done automatically in most other cases.
Lawyer Emma Leheny says that the collection societies never provide the writers names, but this is the responsibility of the guilds, according to the contracts they signed (and almost none are in a foreign language, as she declared.)
If the Guilds cannot connect the writers to the movies, they can get the help of the studios, who provide the movies to Europe to begin with.
Two billion dollars cannot vanish like the tail of a whale in the deep; though I know Hollywood makes its own rules.
Maybe you can compel Mr. Johnson to put in the time needed to truly do the for the thousands of writer’s he’s been casually representing, a job he’s devolved to his most junior colleague.
Or, since Mr. Johnson hasn’t spent much of his own money up till now, maybe the court can convince him to pay a lawyer who will do the job for the writers in the class I represent, now described as “all writers...” – for any named plaintiff can represent the class as a whole, as I interpret what I’ve read – provided the plaintiff is alive.
Any help you can give would be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
William Richert
Cc Nick Kurtz
Neville Johnson
Paul Keisel
Emma Leheny
JF Lawton
DK Holm
Class Members Attachments provided
Outside the courthouse, Hadl lectures Segall while in background Jasko arrives with Neville Johnson's forehead behind Tony's shoulder
From: fcbfilms@hotmail.com
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Subject: Letter to Judge in Writers' Class Action
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2012 04:21:52 +0000
DEAR MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN WRITER, DIRECTOR AND ACTOR CLASS ACTIONS OF 2012:
ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF:
I am the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit WILLIAM RICHERT vs. WRITER’S GUILD OF AMERICA et. al. (BC339972) with related cases against the Director’s union and Screen Actor’s union – three largely unknown lawsuits about “foreign levies” which have been adjudicated in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
The cases are “settled” according to the parties signed agreements, but the truth is they are not settled, they are on fire, smoking and roiling with sealed-up falsehoods and deceit and false accountings.
The outcome of these lawsuits now being re-examined in the LA SUPERIOR COURT will affect the credits and pocketbooks of virtually every American writer, actor, director, porn star and documentary maker – union or free lancer -- who may have sold movies or videos overseas in the past 30 years OR who may sell their works in other countries in the future, where they will collect what are called “foreign levies.”
These “foreign levies,” are like royalties mandated by the state, tiny taxes on sales of media meant to benefit the artist. They were enacted by European legislatures to help writers and actors and artists who otherwise might receive nothing from the corporations who made or distributed their films/performances. For some, the money amounts are enormous.
In the decades-old scheme, billions of dollars have been collected and divided – in secret – by the WGA, DGA, SAG and 11 members of the MPAA. The method behind the split between unions and studios, money collected for actors and writers both inside and outside of unions, who worked independently or worked for studios, was first concocted by WGA Secretary-Treasurer Carl Gottlieb in the early 90’s.
Since then, millions have “disappeared,” unaccounted-for -- according to sworn testimony by paid-off whistleblowers, and the hidden studio-union agreements remained unknown to almost any union or non union American artist until our seminal class action lawsuit was filed against the WGAw in 2005. It is now 2012, and there is still no accounting.
Using evidence from the WGA lawsuit, the same LA contingency lawyers quickly filed two more lawsuits against the SAG and DGA unions, dating back to 2007.
But all three of the settlements are in breach, clearly in breach, and the lawyers for all sides keep stonewalling year after year, to wear down any opposition, to protect attorney interests along with the interests of the unions’ Board of Directors and studio bosses alike; everybody working together to hold up the walls against the truth, now crumbling down on them.
The fiduciary obligations of the unions’ Board of Directors are to their membership. I am sure that just about 100% of the dues-paying members of these “sister” unions would not want to be responsible for taking money from non-members if they knew about it, and would hold their officers directly responsible for immediate, transparent accountings and interest on their own money, too.
There is a hearing coming up on August 9, at the LA SUPERIOR COURT -- 600 Commonwealth Avenue, LA, Department 311, Judge Wiley, 9:30AM -- but if it’s like the other hearings, the majority media will ignore it. No wonder: the unions represent all actors and writers and broadcasters on cable and TV, and the networks and studios are owned by the very same major corporations who are tainted and caught by these decades-long thefts.
As the money appears to have vanished from the various unions’ domestic bank accounts, it may be the studio for-profit corporations that will finally have to pay up for the non-profit union corporations, as only they have the billions due.
I am a formerly reclusive writer/director/actor wrought up in this because I believed the quest of the lawsuit was genuine and was told thousands were signing on the suit along with me. I found out I was lead plaintiff from the NY Times, and up to now I’ve been the only writer among the named plaintiffs. Maybe in the future many more will join to demand fair representation and justice in court. You can read more at my blog (partly constructed) at williamrichert.blogspot or at my work in progress website williamrichert.com. email: richertwilliam@mac.com
From:
LEAD PLAINTIFF WILLIAM RICHERT,
WILLIAM RICHERT VS
WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA, et. al.
SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES – CENTRAL CIVIL WEST
CASE NO: BC339972
DECLARATION OF WILLIAM RICHERT - PLAINTIFF’S OPPOSITON TO ATTORNEY’S MOTION FOR ADDITIONAL FEES
Hearing:
Date: August 9, 2012
Time: 9:30 AM
Place: Dept 311
Action filed: Sept. 16, 2005
JULY 27, 2012
TO: ATTORNEYS FOR DEFENDANT AND PLAINTIFF
HONORABLE JOHN SHEPARD WILEY JR.
DEPT 311
LA SUPERIOR COURT
600 Commonwealth Avenue
Los Angeles, California
via email and Hand Delivery
cc: "All American writers" represented in this lawsuit.
cc: Counsel Neville Johnson & Paul Kiesel for Plaintiff and Tony Segall for WGAw
RE: CLASS REPRESENTATIVE WILLIAM RICHERT RESPECTFULLY ASKS COURT TO DENY COUNSEL'S MOTION FOR ADDITIONAL FEES.
REQUESTS LAWYER'S NEWEST FUNDS BE HELD FOR CLASS TO PAY FOR NEW ACCOUNTING/REVIEW AND INDEPENDENT COUNSEL OVERSIGHT IN BREACHED SETTLEMENT.
Dear Judge Wiley,
Your honor, as you know I am the Lead Plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of non-union free American writers against the Writer's Guild of America, Inc., a non-profit corporation.
During the course of this 7-year litigation I have become the certified representative for both union and non-union writers in tiny towns and places all across America.
I also came to represent all 19,500 WGA members who today find themselves bound "forever" to the settlement terms because I was falsely presented to the courts as a member "Emeritus In Arrears," a category invented for me by the union, which I never was.
There is no other writer among the named plaintiffs.
I am duty bound by Congressional mandate to act as "Citizens Attorney General" for each and every one of my class.
Ethically, I must inform the court about matters that have not been presented to the Judge: willful, serious omissions that deserve the court's attention and remedies:
1.) ON JANUARY 10 2012 Defendant WGAw corporation and its Board of Directors misled Judge West in Dept. 311 by saying there was an acceptable audit in settlement, placed on the wga.org website. Our lawyers did not tell the Judge that the auditors themselves say the website document is NOT AN AUDIT, and cannot be used by anybody except the WGA itself, thus deceiving the court and writer class into believing the lawsuit is satisfied. Both the writer’s class counsel and defendant’s counsel put forth this audit knowing it was not an audit and could not be used as an audit.
2.) Significantly, and only just discovered in DGA documents, a new “second set of books” has been disclosed, pinpointing yearly audits of foreign levies for WGA, SAG and DGA along with the MPAA studios dating back to 2006. It appears that throughout all these years of courtroom litigation for an audit, the guilds and attorneys concealed he existence of an annual ongoing $70,558 PKF "Tri Guild Audit", an audit paid for by the studios which might provide startling new evidence of actual amounts involved in the lawsuits, an audit of the money belonging to the writer class that the class deserves to examine since the only audit given after all these yeas is a NOT AUDIT and can't be used as an accounting for the millions "disappeared.”
3.) The annual "review" on the WGAw website is also bogus and consists of only one page, and the small print states, brazenly and unbelievably, that the audit is taken from the same KMPG numbers provided entirely by the same WGA people accused of embezzlement; thus in no way can this one page document be used to verify class accounting demands under the settlement.
4.) In the May 16 hearing Neville Johnson revealed for the first time that the foreign levy amount collected by the WGAw actually 200 million, or almost twice the 104 million the union told the courts and Variety and the class.
5.) In post-settlement documents the WGA has revealed that 9,360 writers received the just acknowledged 200 million, but offers no proof at all that this happened, how the money was divided, not a single cancelled check.
6.) Though they were told repeatedly from the bench by Judge West to provide accounting documents and correspondence to the Lead Plaintiff for the class, Neville Johnson and Paul Kiesel and Don Jasko refused, excluding American writers from their lawsuit almost entirely.
7.) The court should not allow Mr. Johnson again to substitute any non-writer for the position of Lead Plaintiff for “all American writers,” as he and Tony Segall attempted to substitute into the case the daughter of non-writer Pearl Retchin, a class plaintiff who was dead for a year before the court was told.
8.) As Lead Plaintiff in the case I still have not been provided any accounting at all, and have not been paid the minimum $75,000 owed to me (CAFA) against an estimated $233,000 lost as a result of the embezzlements. My attorney Paul Kiesl told me that my checks from the WGA would be used as the basis for an in-depth accounting that would apply to all the class. This accounting could be compared to the DGA and SAG accountings for my films throughout all three unions. I relied on Mr. Kiesl’s expertise, as he gives lectures on class actions to LA Superior Court Judges, is a Co Chair of the California Bar and provides ample expertise on class actions procedures. Mr. Kiesl sat with me for three days, during which time he explained in front of witness how Lead Plaintiffs accountings are templates for the class. Because of his promise of a fair and understandable audit, given in front of witnesses, provided with court-sanctioned expert opinion I signed the settlement agreement for the class.
9.) I have been retaliated against by both the WGAw Executives and Board in false statements to their membership, and by my own lawyers, who filed vexatious tax reports that got me in trouble with the IRS. In his Oct 3 2011 hearing Judge West admonished the WGA to quit any harm to the writer's plaintiff, but my lawyers ignored him and did nothing about it and the WGA harassing behavior continues online.
“THE COURT: YOU KNOW, THERE’S A LOT OF MYSTERY GOING ON HERE. AND WE ALL OUGHT TO BE AWARE THAT I’VE GOT SOME CONCERNS. AND I WANT TO HEAR FROM MR. RICHERT ON THIS ISSUE.” – Judge Carl J. West, May 21, 2008
Your honor, I declare that if the DGA's accounting is "laughable," the WGA brings down the house with its claim that its Board of Directors spent approximately 35 million in "administrative fees” etc., – not to mention attorney and whistle blower fees – an amount exceeding the entire WGAw yearly budget -- to distribute non-union and union foreign levies – not a penny of which belonged to them -- when they were unable to account for any of it until the appearance a “not audit” audit, accompanied by the equally sudden appearance of 200 million after the recent sudden appearance of 104 million -- and all of it a fraction of what actually was collected by unions divided with the studios -- is pure bunk. WGA corruption exposer Eric Hughes’ documents, and Teri Mial’s paid-off employee Whistle blower testimony, show all the accounts to be false.
Therefore, on behalf of the class I represent, I seek a decree that shifts the funds for future attorneys fees to a general fund for the class of writers I represent, so the just-discovered "Tri Guild" accountings can be examined, and new attorneys can be hired to look at the entirety of this settlement action and its aftermath in your courtroom.
Because of these post-settlement revelations, an outside accounting is in the interest of fairness to the millions owed by law to the authors and screenwriters of the 102,00 "titles" the WGA claims to have collected money for, and split with the DGA and studios.
With these revelations since Judge West retired, we discover a large number of artists in plaintiff classes, with the guilds owing money to 102,000 writers and 102,000 directors of those titles and the 500,000 or more actors in the related SAG case; they say they paid it, but as Mr. Hughes puts it, there is “not a shred of evidence.” -- But sworn evidence of plenty of shredding.
“THE COURT: THE UNDERLYING GOAL OF THIS SETTLEMENT AND THE COURT’S DETERMINATION THAT IT WAS A FAIR AND REASONBLE SETTLEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE CLASS OF PEOPLE WHO WERE CERTIFIED FOR SETTLEMENT PURPOSES AND WHO ARE BENEFITTING FROM THIS SETTLEMENT: IS THAT THERE WOULD BE A MORE TRANSPARENT AND OPEN ACCOUNTING OF COLLECTIONS AND DISTRIBUTIONS.” Judge Carl J. West, Dept 311, Jan 10, 2012
As "Citizen Attorney General" for my class of American writers, I plead that your honor will assist this plaintiff by enacting the following motions in the interests of fairness, justice and transparency:
MOTION TO DENY ATTORNEY FEES TO CLASS LAWYERS in the August 9, 2012 hearing until the court is satisfied the writer class plaintiff has funds to hire a lawyer equal to the super-lawyers so the writer-plaintiff can adequately defend the class against further theft, "Both federal and California courts have held that, when the ethical violation in question is a conflict of interest between the attorney and the client, the appropriate fee for the attorney in question is zero." -- letter to Judge Highberger re fraud on LA Superior court.
MOTION TO COMPEL DEFENDANT DGA, ITS CFO AND PRESIDENT AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS TO PROVIDE ALL PKF STUDIO AUDITS IN ITS POSSESSION RELATING TO THE WGAW FOREIGN LEVY LAWSUIT, INCLUDING AUDIT OF WITH MAJOR STUDIOS TO VERIFY AMOUNTS. The class should not be the out and out loser in a class action if the action has merit and is sound. The class is entitled to simple transparency in all audits which relate to money which was collected illegally for thousands of unsuspecting free writers and writers not hired by studios. It is in the most urgent interest of the class to know how much of their money was given to the studios, and to each of the unions, and how much actually received from this settlement.
MOTION FOR WRIT OF MANDATE TO COMPEL WGA TO PROVIDE WRITER CLASS COPIES OF WGAW"TRI STATE" AUDITS SHOWING WHERE THE FOREIGN LEVY MONEY DISAPPEARED. The settlements do not release claims against the WGAw for splitting with studios outside the collective bargaining agreement; the settlements do not settle any future claims from non-union American actors OR union American directors. The Board of Directors are basically withholding evidence.
MOTION TO COMPEL COPIES OF DOCUMENTS, ACCOUNTINGS AND EMAILS BETWEEN CONSULTANT DONALD JASKO AND WGAW et. al. CFO DON GOR BE GIVEN TO THE WRITER CLASS. Donald Jasko asked me specifically for copies of checks I got from the WGA that did not match the DGA; I did not know it was just to keep me quiet, and he had no intention of using them.
MOTION TO COMPEL ACCOUNTING FOR LEAD PLAINTIFF WILLIAM RICHERT AS TEMPLATE FOR THE CLASS, AS PROMISED by counsel Paul Kiesl before signing the settlement, specifically the titles “Law and Disorder,” “The Happy Hooker,” “Success,” “Winter Kills,” and “The Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,” “The Man In The Iron Mask,” years 1974-2012.
MOTION TO COMPEL WGAw to provide copies of its settlement documents to states attorneys-general and Federal authorities as provided by law, since the affected are from all states.
MOTION TO DEMAND NEVILLE JOHNSON AND WGAW CEASE RETALIATION AGAINST NAMED PLAINTIFF, as the WGAw puts false statements about me on its website and to letters to its members, and Neville Johnson purposefully filed misleading tax information to the IRS causing me tax burdens. No class representative should have to fear retribution or bad-mouthing from the defendant or his own lawyers.
I have been threatened to be dumped roadside, and blacklisted, and other things during this confrontational litigation with my former union, who claim I am a member when they need the association and then deny it in emails to their members when they don't.
BACKGROUND AND AUTHORITY
Neville Johnson told the LA Daily Journal that he was the mastermind of the “3 sister” foreign levy lawsuits in 2005, drawing upon his existing clients as Lead Plaintiffs.
I was such a client at the time, with my jury award the highest he ever got, almost 15 million. Mr. Johnson knew I’d publicly stated that the WGAw was corrupt from having my credit for THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT/WEST WING given to another writer without due process or transparency just the way Mr. Johnson described the way the guild concealed millions in undistributed funds for unnamed non-union writers the guild divided with the studios in a long-running kind of mutual extortion.
The real force behind Neville Johnson's lawsuits was Eric Hughes, screenwriter of "Against All Odds" and "White Knights." It was Eric Hughes, WGA presidential candidate running against corrupt credit arbitration in the WGA, who obtained insider documents from whistle blower Teri Mial, paid six-figures herself to keep quiet in this lawsuit. And it was Eric Hughes who introduced Mial to Mr. Johnson, and who showed Mr. Johnson, along with me and other prominent journalists, just what the corruption looked like on paper.
Mr. Johnson was essentially a copyist of Mr. Hughes' written allegations used by his firm Johnson & Rishwain for their original complaints of fraud and other things against all three Hollywood “labor” guilds.
We ask the court to demand that documents held by Mr. Hughes be given to the class. Mr. Hughes owes it to the writers, actors and directors to provide copies of evidence that rightfully belongs to them, and which can eliminate instantly, with publication of names and amounts, all doubt about who did what, and can provide immediate finality to this class litigation.
However, far more significant to this breached settlement, a game changer, is the discovery from new statements by the DGA that the unions and studios have actually been covertly doing audits all this time. This means that all during years of lengthy courtroom hearings for the DGA, WGA and SAG since the lawsuit was filed in 2005, the lawyers kept quiet. Now we see proof positive how all foreign levies were all audited by the studios and themselves since maybe as early as 2003 in what the CFO of the DGA calls "Tri Guild Foreign Levy Audits."
It would be a public sham to continue hearings in court to get something already got.
It is iconic misdirection among 19+ lawyers for the unions who appeared for these guilds in court during the past 7 years and never mentioned they already had what the class was looking for: an audit; evidence of a billion-dollar secret royalty split between the unions and studios approved by nobody among the free Americans in my class, whose money it actually was/is, and who could use it today.
BIG STORY, BIG PLAYERS
This could only happen in Hollywood, where a whisper can sink a ship of a career. Where unions have meetings with both writers and young video dancers with teamsters in tow. Intimidation is rampant, your honor should know.
Once I discovered Mr. Johnson, and next Mr. Keisl, were ready to sell out the rights of American writers for their personal and corporate profits, that they were essentially profiteering on Superior Court litigation without regard for the greater long term rights of the writers who are their clients, I became in direct conflict with my lawyers while standing in place as lead plaintiff, and I am standing still, for I have not surrendered the original goal of the case: a true accounting and payout and end to unethical behavior.
I attach a "disappeared" check signed by Patric Verrone made out to the poet Bukowski, a fellow class member.
Mr. Johnson tells each judge about how weak and unorganized our related cases for writers, directors and actors are; tells each judge he/she is our only hope, but that's because Neville Johnson is not doing his job, as it is not the Judge's job to act as advocate for the lawyer's underdog in a lawsuit.
The lawyers for both sides in this case purport to represent writers and artists, but none of them really do.
The true facts and true movers have been concealed from Dept. 311, from both you and Judge West before you, and Judge Morrow before that in Federal court.
The court transcript of January 10, before he retired, shows Judge West believed both sides when he was told an "audit" had been placed on the WGAw website. His sudden retirement meant he never saw the one page NOT AN AUDIT that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Kiesel and Mr. Segall told him gave settlement finality to the RICHERT VS. WGAw lawsuit.
At Judge West’s last hearing in Dept. 311, January 10, 2012, which I couldn’t attend because I wasn’t told about it, Judge West did say to Messrs. Johnson and Schecter: "I don't want the two of you in front of me any more. It doesn't do any good,” and “I know enough to be dangerous.”
Judge West said if it had his name on it, "it has to be right."
Before telling Judge West the audit was on the WGAw website, Neville Johnson claimed that the settlement was in material breach; only a large payment to Donald Jasko changed that, along with fees yet to be paid to Neville Johnson. But for these payments, the settlement is still in breach.
I don't claim copyright but my name is on this lawsuit and I've known some great writers who deserve my sticking to our rights, even if I am threatened with expulsion from the writer's lawsuit in favor of lawyers. A case brought on behalf of writers should have a writer in it.
SOLIDARITY OF CORRUPTION
It is absurd to have the accused corporation offer its own accounting without strict oversight, or any oversight. Having the WGAw review its own review is like a joke; a "Not Audit" is not acceptable to settle a lawsuit except for suckers, and putting numbers from a "not audit" up on the wga.org website as an "one-time review" with an “annual review” consisting of 3 lines is offensive and insulting to my class.
I still have not gotten any form of accounting for my own foreign levies owed and interest bearing dating back to 1974. Please show us the stubbs.
Besides being useless to the class, the accounting is AICA, not GAAP; another breach.
ACCOUNTING NOT PERFORMED ACCORDING TO GENERAL ACCOUNTING PRINCIPLES AS REQUIRED IN SETTLEMENT
The startling figure 200 million entered into the record by Neville Johnson is double what was reported only months ago by the WGA to Variety. Where’d it come from? We need to know, your honor.
Now suddenly, the WGAw says it paid out 21 million dollars to its members/non members in the single year 2011. This single amount is 20% of what the union claims to have paid out over the past 20 years -- and this year the lowest in DVD sales since the past decade or so -- how does this add up?
In fact, the WGA claims it collected 85 million dollars plus 1,323,149 “interest/income” for members and free writers nationwide since 2007, more than in all the years from 1992-2007, when DVD sales were ballooning.
WGAw Board claims it distributed 21 million to members this year. In the past 20 years they charged 35+ million in “fees” to do all this “administration,” but cannot produce a single canceled check in evidence.
How can the WGAw charge its members roughly one-quarter of what it collected for "administrative" fees when it can't show it administered anything, when it has to hire an outside firm for an audit amazingly limited and confined to numbers only they offer, and nothing more?
How can the lawyers from several firms keep billing the same writers in all cases millions in fees without producing a single accounting of merit? In fact, hiding the audit that really does exist.
In the hearing before you on May 16 in Dept 311, where this case has been for years, the WGA counsel is silent when Neville Johnson suddenly pops up with an extra 100 million.
The Lead Plaintiff is obliged to protest. The court should look at the 2007 WGAw accounting, given under oath, which both duplicates and contradicts the KMPG report.
The KMPG-WGAw accounting, approved by its Board of Directors to settle a case for fraud, doesn't compute, add up, or make sense. It's a big lie.
That means the Boards of Directors and Executives at 3 major guilds handling the money of thousands of people are untrustworthy.
THE BREACHED SETTLEMENT WITHOUT COMPLIANCE GIVES WGAw/MPAA STUDIOS ECONOMIC CONTROLS OVER U.S. WRITERS NATIONWIDE UNLESS THE CLASS SAYS FOUL AND THE COURT ALLOWS THE CLASS TO SPEAK.
The WGAW has concealed facts about writers’ credits and income before.
It was the writer's guild union who blacklisted hundreds of great American screenwriters, their own colleagues, putting them out of work for years, a long list of names also due foreign levies, if living; otherwise, their heirs.
This Hollywood union/studio combo are seeking to control piracy on the internet, when they are pirates themselves with American foreign royalties and copyrights.
The guilds and studios have "organized' the collection of foreign royalties for all American artists, and they have done so in secret, illegally.
American writers and artists should know that there is a huge database with their names and financial information on it, as many as 700,000 citizens, a database they cannot access.
The WGA/MPAA should not be in possession of that database – U.S. citizens’ social security numbers and addresses and tax ID’s – which will soon number in the millions as more and more independent filmmakers sell their work abroad over the internet and other places.
Unions so ostentatiously corrupt should not have access to this information so as to seize it as a “mailing list” ripe for exploitation.
WGAw claims the 2007 strike gives the union jurisdiction over the Internet for any thing that moves, saying if it moves it must be written, and they control it.
The WGAw refers to writers who write without a union or new media contract with them as “scabs.”
“THE COURT: I GUESS I HAVE REAL CONCERNS ABOUT HOW ALL THESE NEGOTIATIONS AND MEDIATIONS WERE TAKING PLACE WITH NO LIVING CLASS REPRESENTATIVE FOR ONE OF THE SUPP. CLASSES. THAT'S A PROBLEM.
I HAVE A QUESTION REGARDING THE ABILITY OF CLASS COUNSEL TO CONTINUE TO REPRESENT THE INTERESTS OF THE CLASS AT THIS JUNCTURE GIVEN THE INFORMATION THAT HAS BEEN PLACED BEFORE THE COURT.” Judge Carl J. West, Dept 311, March 23, 2009
Paul Kiesl, who induced me with his knowledge of facts and law (in front of 2 witnesses) to sign this settlement on behalf of my class, did not attend the May 16 hearing, perhaps because he was out raising 660 million in emergency funding for the LA Superior Court system. That amount may have been lost to the LA tax base during the 2.9 billion WGA strike in 2007, which still hurts, led by the same Board who gave the KMPG accounting.
Your honor clerked with Justice Powell who vigorously promoted the idea of corporations having the same rights as individuals -- and it ought to work both ways.
If corporations have the same rights as individuals, as Chief Justice Powell believed, they have the same obligations for honesty and fair dealing, and ought not use their lopsided power, as in LA, where unions and studios possess vastly superior resources and hidden agreements dating back years. If their rights Trump ours, and they as “corporate individuals” are protected over my class and me as an non-corporate individual in your courtroom, my class action is doomed.
Individuals cannot fight major corporations alone, which is why class actions were created. Of course the court knows that, you handle class actions routinely.
I am not be able to afford a lawyer on my writer's income, esp. now that the WGAw has stopped sending me residuals and levy checks altogether as a result of this litigation.
LAWYER CLIENT CONFLICT WHEN CLIENT REPRESENTS A LARGE CLASS
Some legalists have told me to contact the Bar about Neville Johnson and Paul Kiesl, but it's quicker to just email Mr. Kiesl as he is Co-Chair of the California bar.
Eric Hughes did complain to the bar, which found the fact Mr. Kiesel didn’t associate himself into the case was problematical, as Mr. Kiesl already knows.
CALIFORNIA CODE OF JUDICAL ETHICS: (1) A judge shall not allow family, social, political or other relationships to influence the judge’s judicial conduct or judgment, nor shall a judge convey or permit others to convey the impression that any individual is in a special position to influence the judge.
Also I feel obliged to say, as the only writer court-certified to represent my class that your honor’s remarks to me on first sight when I raised my hand to speak in protest after Neville Johnson said my case was "settled" when I say no -- when you advised me this was “not a town hall” “or a therapy meeting” -- as if I were a hothead or a nutcase -- and later when you said in front of me that these lawyers sitting in front of me were such that “every law school student in the country would like to be like you” -- and especially when you told me that my lawyers were "famous," implying I was not, and maybe for some faulty reason I was not -- these statements from your authority, which are absolute, made me think I should complain to the Commission of Judges for fair dealing with all parties in a lawsuit -- as to whether you showed bias towards a Lead Plaintiff in a class action lawsuit in favor of lawyers --but as in the case of my lawyers, I may as well just state my concerns to you here directly, respectfully, and ask you as a member of the California’s Commission on Judicial Ethics Opinions to consider the pain of my humiliation in court.
You honor must be aware that you are highly regarded as a brilliant legal mind in article after article about Judges on the Internet, and so your initial opinion of me is even more damaging and I plead with the court to remember:
(8)…A JUDGE SHALL MANAGE THE COURTROOM IN A MANNER THAT PROVIDES ALL LITIGANTS THE OPPORTINITY TO HAVE THEIR MATTERS FAIRLY ADJUDICATED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAW.
COMENTARY: …A judge should encourage and seek to facilitate settlement, but parties should not feel coerced into surrendering their right to have their controversy resolved by the courts.”
This class action is not about coupons or consumers, it is about creators and copyrights and human rights, each and every artist involved is different, and that is one of their similarities as a class. No assembly line here.
As artists, they have a right to know if their work is shown abroad, indeed shown anywhere, and they have the right to be assured their accountings are transparent and honest.
I figure the combo lawyers have made millions off the defendants in these cases so far.
At the hearing for attorney fees on August 9, if your honor could move a little cash -- which comes from writers anyhow -- to the other side of the table -- it would mean we could pay for a true accounting, a great leap towards justice for as 700,000 Americans.
Like Neville Johnson, I concur that history will be made in your courtroom, only not in Mr. Johnson’s way.
We shall do all in our power to make sure this settlement is not an out and out loss for the freedom of artists in America, a Hollywood snuff job for our civil rights and economic rights as free writers and artists in a free nation.
Sincerely,
William Richert
Lead Plaintiff
WILLIAM RICHERT VS
WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA et al
4 EXHIBITS: