My friend Lisa Graves testified Monday in front of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations Hearing on “Postal Update.”
“I am calling on Mr. DeJoy to be fired or resign,” government watchdog Lisa Graves told lawmakers on Monday morning, during a briefing on postal operations before the House Oversight Committee. True North Research, the organization Graves heads, found that DeJoy — who runs a North Carolina shipping firm — had been sued by his brother Dominick for allegedly siphoning money from the trucking company founded by their father. –– Alexander Nazaryan Yahoo News
Lisa’s an expert on vetting people and she found out that the Board of Governors missed some doozies. Like this one she uncovered, ( Bloomberg)
DeJoy Gave $600,000 to GOP After Postmaster Job Opened Up
DeJoy gave President Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee more than $600,000 over eight weeks after the opening was announced, Lisa Graves, executive director of True North Research, which investigates the influence of money on public policy, said in written testimony submitted to a panel of the House Oversight Committee in advance of a hearing Monday
But the part that got my attention was how Louis DeJoy’s own brother sued him for hiding mail and money from him. From Graves’ research (link)
Louis DeJoy Was Sued by His Brother Who Alleged a Pattern of Financial Deception, which DeJoy Denied
- Dominick alleged that Louis DeJoy opened three different bank accounts in his name, forging his signature without his permission, and that he did not know these financial accounts–that held millions of dollars–were in his name.
Louis DeJoy claimed they often signed each other names on documents.
- Dominick also alleged that Louis DeJoy hid the mailed bank statements for three different bank or investment accounts in Dominick’s name from him for more than five years, from 1994-2000, or had employees of the company hide that monthly mail from him.
Graves goes into detail based on the public information that the Board of Governors could have found if they did a simple Lexis/Nexis search.
Dominick DeJoy, Jr., who alleged that Mr. DeJoy told him certain companies were subsidiaries of the family business they owned jointly but then it turned out that Mr. DeJoy had secretly created companies with a similar name that were held only in his name and the name of another brother, Michael DeJoy, who also denied wrongdoing.
Dominick DeJoy, Jr., swore in his complaint that Mr. DeJoy cheated him out of millions of dollars of business that he helped generate through this secret arrangement, and that Mr. DeJoy was able to do so because he had trained as an accountant and knew how to structure different legal entities.
The DeJoy brothers reached a confidential settlement in 2000. There were never any charges brought for the allegations regarding signing someone else’s name. Nevertheless, the claims alleged are troubling given the position of enormous public responsibility Mr. DeJoy now holds.
Look, I don’t want to draw comparisons between the DeJoy Family and The Trump Family. Maybe Mary Trump could explain the mind of someone who manipulates financial documents to screw his brother (and family) out of millions from the family business.
Raw Story has more details, like how they haven’t talked since 2001.
(“You never call you never write. What, you need stamps? I’ve got a million of ’em!” )
The other big thing I learned from talking to Lisa about this is that only the Board of Governors can fire DeJoy. Congress can’t impeach Postmaster General DeJoy. so what can people do?
Tell the USPS board of governors to fire Louis DeJoy.
Mail them a Postcard titled Fire DeJoy
at…
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C. 20260
Just kidding. Here are their emails.
Robert Duncan, Chairman: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com
John Barger: barger.jm@gmail.com
Ron Bloom: ron.bloom@brookfield.com
Ramon Martinez IV: roman@rmiv.com
Donald L. Moak: lee.moak@moakgroup.com
William Zollars: DirectorAccessMailbox@cigna.com
I’d suggest you tweet #FireDeJoy at the Board of Governors but none of them are on Twitter! (“We get no revenue from Twitter! Mail us a letter if you want to talk to us!” -BoG probably)
Here’s the kicker about this board–they are all Trump approved! It turns out that the entire board of Governors are new! Some have served less than a year. And Chairman Duncan? Huge McConnell donor buddy.
| Name | Title | Political party | Term begin | Term expiration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louis DeJoy | Postmaster General | Republican | June 15, 2020 | No term limit | 75th United States postmaster general[16] |
| Robert M. Duncan | Governor, Chairman | Republican | August 2018 | December 8, 2025 | Re-elected as chairman in November 2019[17] |
| Ron A. Bloom | Governor | Democratic[18] | August 20, 2019 | December 8, 2020 | Chair of Strategy and Innovation Committee[19] |
| Roman Martinez IV | Governor | Republican[20] | August 1, 2019 | December 8, 2024 | Chair of Audit and Finance Committee[21] |
| John McLeod Barger | Governor | Republican[22] | August 1, 2019 | December 8, 2021 | Chair of Compensation and Governance Committee[23] |
| Donald L. Moak | Governor[24] | Democratic[25] | June 18, 2020 | December 8, 2022 | Replacing Alan C. Kessler[26] |
UPDATE: Full disclosure, as I said, Lisa’s a friend and I’ve been an advisor to her and did a project for Center for Media and Democracy in the past on journalism and drones. She is working now on The Ben Franklin Project to protect the Post Office. Twitter: @ProjectBenFrank
or Facebook Link
I’m always trying to figure out effective actions activists can take to have an impact. Graves’ research got in front of Congress and made the news, but that doesn’t always translate to the kind of pressure that is needed to force action. There needs to be more pressure on the Board of Governors.
Sadly in America it often comes down to money above all else. Saying “Save Democracy!” is too abstract. I would tell the millions of people who sell & buy items through Etsy and Ebay to write the Board of Governors and tell them “DeJoy is hurting my bottom line and needs to be fired right now.”
(I’m also thinking that the millionaires on the boards of those companies should make some calls to the Board of Governors too since they travel in the same circles. ‘Hey our stocks are going to take a hit this quarter if DeJoy keeps messing with the P.O.”)
If people don’t want to write postcards or send email they could donate to the Ben Franklin Project, because that is where people like Lisa are doing these kind of strategic and tactical actions to save the USPS.
