How Cisco & The Justice Department Conspired To Try To Destroy One Man's Life For Daring To Sue Cisco
from the shameful dept
Whenever we talk about the very serious risks and likely abuses of new laws favored by the entertainment industry -- such as PROTECT IP and the felony streaming bill, S.978, supporters of those bills insist that we're crazy for suggesting that the laws will be abused or that there will be any unintended consequences. We're told, over and over and over again that these laws are designed for and targeted only at the "worst of the worst." They're targeted at "rogue" actors, who must be stopped.And yet, we've seen all too often how US officials have abused other such laws to attack and protect certain US companies from competition. A whole bunch of you have been sending over this incredibly frightening example of the Justice Department conspiring with Cisco to effectively try to destroy a former exec's life for daring to file an antitrust claim against Cisco, due to Cisco's desire to block competitors from servicing some of its products. Unfortunately, I actually found the version of the story at the Ars Technica link above a bit confusing (and it buries many of the key points). A much better way to understand just what Cisco and some federal prosecutors appear to have done is to read the ruling, embedded below, from a Canadian judge, who explains the whole thing clearly and bashes Cisco and the US Justice Department for its incredible overreach, for no reason other than to try to destroy the life of Peter Adekeye.
Adekeye, born in Nigeria, but a UK citizen, had apparently been a quite successful Cisco exec in both the UK and the US for many years. In 2005, he left Cisco and started a couple of companies himself, including one, Multiven, that offered to help provide maintenance services for various Cisco equipment. Apparently, Cisco tried to force customers into purchasing maintenance contracts only from them by denying third parties, such as Multiven, access to various bug reports and fixes. Because of this, Multiven sued Cisco, claiming antitrust violations. Cisco then countersued, including suing Adekeye directly, claiming that Adekeye had accessed Cisco's internal network illegally over 90 times. Adekeye does not appear to deny accessing Cisco's internal systems, but notes that he was given the login information from a Cisco employee, which he believed meant he was now authorized to use the system. It sounds like he used this access to get some of the info that Cisco had been denying Multiven. As part of its "hardball" litigation strategy, Cisco also sought to get the federal government to file criminal charges against Adekeye based on the exact same issue.
Separate from all of this, Adekeye had been dealing with attempts to get a work visa to be in the US for Multiven. The court ruling documents the incredibly ridiculous bureaucratic nightmare that Adekeye went through over the period of a few years in an attempt to seek proper visas to work in the US. At no time does it appear that Adekeye violated the various visas he did have. In fact, it sounds as though Adekeye bent over backwards (and then some) to always comply with US immigration and visa rules, even when it resulted in absolutely ridiculous circumstances, such as when he wasn't allowed back into the US, even though he'd been granted his H-1B visa. That story is crazy, but tangential to the point here -- though I suggest reading the ruling to get a sense of the ridiculousness of US immigration and visa policy.
In part because he was unable to get back into the US, Adekeye moved to Switzerland where a new Multiven office was opened, and continued his efforts to get his immigration status cleared up. As part of the ongoing legal dispute, Cisco wanted to depose Adekeye. Adekeye applied for permission to enter the US to do that... but was denied, and he was told if he went anyway, it could harm his chances of getting his visa status fixed. And Cisco used this to their advantage:
Notwithstanding this entirely reasonable explanation for his inability to attend a U.S. deposition, Cisco had the unmitigated gall to commence contempt proceedings for the applicant's "failure" to attend a U.S. deposition. It was, of course, unsuccessful, but it speaks volumes for Cisco's duplicity.Eventually, all of the parties agreed to handle the deposition in Vancouver. It was outside the US, but close to Cisco's offices here in Silicon Valley. There was a separate (again tangential) issue involving the belief (which may not have been accurate, apparently) that a US deposition could happen in Canada without having to alert Canadian officials. It was at this deposition hearing in Vancouver on May 19th of last year that things got crazy. Cisco, knowing full well where Adekeye was and why he was in Vancouver -- and that he had tried and failed to get to the US -- apparently told the US Attorneys, who they'd been pushing to file criminal charges, about Adekeye's presence in Vancouver. The Justice Department then filed its criminal charges -- once again totally abusing the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA) to make Adekeye's actions sound much worse than they actually were, and had a warrant issued for Adekeye's arrest.
They then sought rather extraordinary efforts from the Canadian government to arrest Adekeye immediately. Part of that, according to the Canadian judge who issued this ruling, appeared to involve a US Attorney leaving out key information, making blatantly false insinuations about other facts, and in some cases, what appears to just be lying:
The affidavit made no mention of the fact that United States immigration authorities had refused the applicant entry to the United States. No mention was made that the applicant had no criminal record. No mention was made that the United States Federal Court had ordered a deposition in Vancouver, presided over by a "special master" at which six or more United States lawyers would be present. No mention was made that the criminal complaint "mirrored" a counterclaim brought by Cisco in the main action in which the applicant was seeking large damages in an antitrust suit.What happened then was somewhat astounding. In the middle of the deposition, RCMP officials walked into the room, interrupted the deposition in progress and arrested Adekeye in the middle of the proceedings. The beginning of this is on videotape. Adekeye, his lawyers, and the "special master" clearly have no idea what's going on, but what's notable is that, while people repeatedly ask for the recording to be turned off, Cisco's lawyers immediately say that the recording should be left on. It appears they knew exactly what was going on and wanted the humiliating arrest on the deposition tape. You can see the video below. As the judge in this ruling notes, the police's actions "could be compared to entering a courtroom and arresting a person during the course of his or her testimony. It is simply not done in a civilized jurisdiction that is bound by the rule of law."
Sinister inferences were suggested, leading to an inference that the applicant would be a flight risk. The affidavit stated that the applicant "is a Nigerian citizen who claims to have citizenship from the United Kingdom", and that he possibly had British citizenship, and that he was in Canada on a Nigerian passport. The latter reference invited an inference he might flee to Nigeria, a country from which extradition was highly unlikely. In fact, U.S. authorities well knew and had a duty to disclose to the issuing judge that the applicant was a citizen of the United Kingdom and possessed a British passport, on which passport he had entered Canada. They also knew and had a duty to disclose that he had been a resident of England, but was currently residing with his wife and child in Switzerland, and that he had travelled from Switzerland to Canada for purposes of the deposition.
And yet, federal officials continued to seek extradition. Even then, months after the arrest, the civil suit between Cisco and Multiven were settled, in a manner that everyone agrees was a "win" for Multiven, with Cisco changing its policy. So the key matter over which this highly questionable criminal charge was brought was settled. And yet, the feds continued to push forward. It was only in May of this year, a year after his arrest, that this new ruling came out and freed Adekeye to leave Canada and go back home.
Honestly, the whole story is really terrifying and makes me depressed to think that my government would do something like this. However, it should seriously call into question whether or not new laws like S.978 and the PROTECT IP Act should be allowed. It seems clear that the Justice Department has no problem using very questionable means to act as the private bullies of certain large companies. It should also call into question some of the recent efforts by other US Attorneys from the Justice Department, such as the efforts in coordination with Homeland Security/ICE to seize domains on questionable evidence, the attempt to extradite Richard O'Dwyer from the UK over very questionable charges and, of course, the recent charges against Aaron Swartz.
All of these cases have key factors in common. They involve what at best should be minor civil issues between private parties in court -- but in which, due to the presence of certain large industry interests, the Justice Department steps in and starts throwing its considerable weight around, including insane possible punishment, all because of dubious and often extremely misleading claims from these private interests. It's possible that the Justice Department officials here are simply incompetent (and honestly, that's an only slightly more comforting idea than the alternative) and unable to realize they're being manipulated by companies seeking to stamp out competition. But it's certainly demonstrating a really horrifying pattern of questionable behavior by the Justice Department and US Attorneys not to focus on real criminal behavior, but to abuse the criminal justice system to take vindictive action against potential competitors for big US industry players.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: antitrust, canada, extradition, immigration, justice department, peter adekeye, prosecution
Companies: cisco
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
So the feds are acting like cops? Color me surprised.
I think we all know deep down that both the local and federal 'law enforcement' agencies are completely without morals, ethics, or integrity. The most surprising thing is the lack of outrage, maybe I'm wrong or most people don't see it.
The rule of law in america is for sale, has been since the 60s. I personally have no respect for it, often go out of my way to give it the middle finger, and know of many others(granted they are mostly of an age with me, being just graduated from college) with the same attitude.
Stories like this make me sick to be an american. Down with the government.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
This is a rather law-oriented society. Once people figure out how to set up their own courts, the people who committed crimes under color of law should watch out.
It has happened before. It will happen again. It will probably take a few decades.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I mean private interests run them anyway, at least I could stop paying taxes for this bullshit
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
but if we had real competition in the market place of private security you could buy insurance from a security firm, and they would protect you to the best of their abilities, and arbitrate on your behalf if needed, and if they attempted to abuse the power you've given them, simply choose to defend yourself or find another secuity firm that will not abuse it's authority. IF there is enough competition then it would never be in their best interests to screw you over, becuase you and the rest of their customers would leave. it only becomes a companies best interest to screw you over when they know you have no where else to turn.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The fall of western civilization approaches
When the government refuses to follow its own laws it sets an example for the people to look at those laws and think that there is no benefit in following them so why bother? Laws work only because the people believe that they should. Because the people choose to obey them. There are never going to be enough soldiers and police to stop the entire populace of any country from doing what they want to do if they decide that the law doesn't apply to them. So, in a nutshell, the government that continues to ignore the law is the government that destroys itself.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The fall of western civilization approaches
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Consequences?
I'm assuming that he's about to be arrested for prosecutorial abuse or something ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Consequences?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Consequences?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Consequences?
Maybe some, but I am personally offended that you would group all of us Americans together in that respect. Especially after reading this post written by an American, and seeing many of these comments expressing their disgust at these actions.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Consequences?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Yeah, that's right up there with releasing revealing about an ongoing government.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
They are both unethical by the US Govt and by proxy it's corporations (paypal, visa, m/c etc in case of Wikileaks) in the extreme.
They both involve the US government going after International actors that were doing citizens a public and legal service by showing in a public forum how the US Government and its Corporations are inept, hypocritical, fallacious, fraudulent, and bordering on criminal actions.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Checks and balances on government power.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Checks and balances on government power.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Checks and balances on government power.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well, at last you're writing clearly and forcefully.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well, at last you're writing clearly and forcefully.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110721/18124415200/can-google-get-past-big-faceless-whi te-monolith-stage.shtml
Trololol
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well, at last you're writing clearly and forcefully.
Seriously. I think your lack of empathy for fellow humans and your slavish devotion to authority may produce a self-hatred culminating in suicidal or homicidal actions.
Please seek help!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Well, at last you're writing clearly and forcefully.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Well, at last you're writing clearly and forcefully.
I have been watching the "social media" blossom for the second time (the first was the early web and ICQ, AIM & etc). The chutes are narrowing until your Wallet ID is going to be legally required to matchable your Net ID, all for "your convenience" when it's really the convenience of the marketeers or to save the children or whatever. Two approaches; two gates.
As government is theoretically restrained from overt surveillance and intrusion, it's pretty convenient to have companies gather that data, in many cases willingly provided by users in return for "free services" or some pixel bragging badge, and simply buy it as another customer.
It's not "tin-foil hat" to simply question that premise. The marketeers make no secret that thier business models are based on selling data. Governments throughout history have always been ferocious consumers of data; Alvin Toffler had a lot to say about that in Power Shift. His predictions about government, data and corporations remain a pretty accurate picture 21 years later.
Such a relationship is not any more "blue-sky" than questioning many of JP Morgan's dealing with the government for railway dominance. After all, Google is getting pretty big for its britches and there's definitely nosing-around going on regarding anti-trust, ability to conduct business on US soil and whatever else the Feds might decide would be a good lever to pressure Google or other companies with in order to "be allowed" to access or purchase those socio-metric goldmines. In the name of the children, or terrorists or chinese cyberwar or something.
If the NSA could pressure ATT to be silent about wiretapping rooms squatting on the major backbone points (which are fairly-well documented now)and then told ATT to use another supplier if they knew what was good for their business with the USGOV, it's certainly worth thinking about to question whether the NSA could raise enough problems for even Google's bottomless coffers and legions of hand-bred lawyers to have difficulty handling, unless they went full-out and simply bought the US wholesale.
Or they might just be becoming evil exactly like Cisco in this case. Or they might be being arm-twisted. Neither one is a far-fetched idea given the current climate of plutocratic Theatre Of Fear & Commerce.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Well, at last you're writing clearly and forcefully.
Don't confuse techdirt giving google a fair "trial" with favoratism
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I still maintain a peripheral awareness of Cisco-isms because I need to deal with Cisco-centric operations. But that's about it; every product they make has a superior alternative (or more than one), all you have to do is find it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
So you can even make redundant routers/firewalls with automatic failover using open source.
I have replaced all of my Cisco border routers with off the shelf hardware and openBSD.
I use openBGPD too, works great!
Hardware is cheaper, performance is better, configuration is easier and everything is more reliable.
I am very happy without Cisco gear!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Quote:
Source: http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#35 (at 03:44)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I ask you nicely
I ask you nicely, I beg you, I implore you, please by all means stop giving in to things the US wants. Do not bow to my government's pressures. They are not in your best interest. My governments action's are quite rarely in its own citizen's best interests these days. Please do not give in. There are those of us who see reason and common sense here. I ask that you do not confuse us as liking this form of government and work. It is atrocious when our government does things such as the article above. We want it to stop. We want reason and good will back in our country. We currently have a problem that the rich and corporations have far more control than they should. Some of us are working to try to fix this but it is a tough process. I ask that you do not give in and let your country become what we are becoming. It will not work out for over 99% of the population.
So, I ask you again, please do not do stupid things our government asks. Stand up and do what is right and just.
Sincerely,
A concerned US citizen
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I ask you nicely
It is supposed to be "For the people" not, for the corporations.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I ask you nicely
Maybe that's why the Supreme Court decided that corporations are people.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I ask you nicely
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: I ask you nicely
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I ask you nicely
Look, we Canadians been trying to forgo that "U.S.'s little lacky" for a long time now. And incidents like this does help at all.
Every government we elected so far lacks some serious spine, whether they are conservatives or liberal. The current Conservatives' been trying to sneak in US DMCA into Canada repeatedly. They are pretty much US' monkeys. US says, monkey do.
Hey Election Canada, wonder why voting percentage dropped again in the last election? This is why. Young people coming of age having no hope of changing how older "politicians" runs the freakin' country.
PS. I feel for the US too. Who would have though Obama turns out to be more full of S*** then Bush. At least with Bush you know he's going to mess you up. Obama is worse by telling you a whole bunch of lies to build a dream of the future, then mercilessly crush that dream behind the back doing everything he promised not to do. A evil doer is not scary. A evil doer who lies should scare your pants off.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I ask you nicely
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
One more reason for Canada to ignore the US
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: One more reason for Canada to ignore the US
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What should happen
Somehow, though, I doubt any of this will come to pass.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe Vyatta can do it.
http://www.vyatta.com/news-events/press_releases/2011/vyatta_appliances_advance_next_generation _edge_networking
http://opencores.org/ (open source hardware design)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_hardware_projects
http://en.wikipedia.org /wiki/GP2X_Caanoo (open source game console from South Korea)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Go Canada!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
this has all been played out for years in the Military of the USA
the charge against him
"suspicion of being in an area where Cannabis was suspected of being smoked"
No positive urine or blood test
they just didn't like the Marine
this was 30 years ago......
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The reason never to travel to US again
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm shocked...SHOCKED!
All I can say about this remark is...DUH!
I was once in a Federal holding cell awaiting an appearance in court. A defendant in an earlier case comes in laughing. He says the Magistrate was skeptical about the testimony of a DEA agent. The prosecuting attorney tells the Magistrate, "But Your Honor, this man is a Federal agent. He wouldn't lie!"
The Magistrate bursts out laughing. He tells the attorney, "Don't tell me a Federal agent wouldn't lie in this courtroom!"
Attorneys and cops are professional liars and they do it most of the time.
And this: "the police's actions 'could be compared to entering a courtroom and arresting a person during the course of his or her testimony. It is simply not done in a civilized jurisdiction that is bound by the rule of law.'"
That term "civilized jurisdiction" doesn't apply to either the US or Canada... Both are fascist-corporate states ruled by people with money and power, just like the worst South African zoo state - and with worse consequences because both countries are far more powerful than a zoo state. African zoo states tend to kill only their one people - not a million people and displace four million more in countries thousands of miles from their location whereas the US and Canada (and NATO countries in general) MAKE THEIR LIVING doing that sort of thing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I'm shocked...SHOCKED!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What Went Wrong in America? America's Secret Government Revealed.
Psychological Warfare and the New World Order: The Secret War Against the American People, by Servando Gonzalez
http://www.amazon.com/Psychological-Warfare-New-World-Order/dp/0932367232/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UT F8&qid=1311390839&sr=8-1
The elite have two primary goals: 1) Global Neo-feudalism, and 2) Global De-population, or Eugenics.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Multiven v. Cisco
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Slip of the pen
Too delicious to be accidental...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The DMCA is used to silence critics. Now you have a corporation AND the government conspiring together to have a person arrested and extradited with false information.
I can't believe my government facilitated this arrest and sped up his extradition. Time for a revolution in every western nation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]