Stephanie Weissenstein and Desa Ballard

A S.C. Hotline, Grand Strand Daily Exclusive

By Paul Gable

It came to my attention recently that Stephanie Weissenstein, attorney for John Rakowsky, sent to the Court copies of two articles from Grand Strand Daily along with a letter dated January 9, 2012. While I appreciate Ms. Weissenstein making the court aware of the articles, I do question the logic stated in her letter.

Complaint about News Media Coverage

In the letter, Weissenstein refers to the articles as “this slanderous campaign in effort to intimidate and harass my client and me, while also smearing the Courts.”

First of all, surely Weissenstein understands that the articles would fall under laws of libel, not slander, if she could ignore or negate the first amendment and prove malice aforethought. Second, her claims of intimidation, harassment and smearing fall apart when the facts included in the articles are considered.

Rakowsky represented the plaintiffs in a civil action titled Southern Holdings et al v. Horry County et al, case number 4:2004cv22135. He is now engaged in an interpleader action, represented by Weissenstein and Desa Ballard regarding the funds remaining from deposits that were made for litigation expenses in the case.

Attached to a letter sent by Weissenstein to James Spencer, one of the plaintiffs in the Southern Holdings case, is an accounting of the funds submitted by Weissenstein on behalf of her client Rakowsky.

Confirmation of money owed to Spencer by Rakowsky

The initial deposit shows $67,500. Reduced from this are unsubstantiated expenses totaling $57,644,15, leaving a balance of $9885.85 due to Spencer.

However, the agreement with LawMax, clearly shows Rakowsky received $35,000 from LawMax and that he acknowledged prior funds received from Lit Funding in the amount of $50,000 and Resolutions Settlement Corporation (RSC) in the amount of $25,000. Those three fund amounts total $110,000 received by Rakowsky to help in moving the case forward.

(Letter from Weissenstein to former clients with accounting attached)

The obvious question is where is the missing $42,500 (difference between $110,000 obtained by Rakowsky and $67,500 admitted to by Rakowsky and his attorney in the accounting)?

In addition, why did Weissenstein state, on the court record of a September 15, 2011 court hearing on the interpleader, that an accounting has been provided to Spencer (Exhibits N) and Rakowsky state to the judge he included all funding organizations (Exhibits O)? Obviously the accounting provided to the Court and Spencer is, at best, flawed and, at worst, false!

It has also recently come to my attention that the issue of Rakowsky’s misuse of funds was included in a complaint Ron Serota submitted without knowledge of the clients to the South Carolina Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) of the South Carolina Supreme Court in September 2007. Serota is an attorney from Las Vegas who also worked on the Southern Holdings case with Rakowsky. Serota said he became suspicious of personal misuse of funds by Rakowsky.

(Serota letter to ODC)

In a recent telephone conversation, Serota said he received a letter from the ODC stating an investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of Rakowsky. According to sources, it is believed that Serota’s letter and the ODC finding were wrongfully submitted in secret (ex-parte) to the Court in the interpleader case. The questions are how, why and who submitted these secret Supreme Court documents considered important enough to be submitted ex parte to the presiding judge and who made the decision?

The documents linked with this article clearly demonstrate that the accounting of litigation funds provided to the court is, indeed, flawed. Further, they demonstrate that the ODC of the South Carolina Supreme Court either did not investigate Serota’s complaint at all, or ignored the obvious discrepancies and misuse of funds.

It certainly seems there is sufficient evidence to question where the missing $42,500 went, why it has been ignored to this point and why the Courts will not allow his former clients to know what happened to the missing funds!

Paul Gable is a veteran investigative reporter residing in Horry County, South Carolina and is the current editor of the Grand Strand Daily an online magazine featuring all things local and political.

(FITSNews)

In news that will cause many South Carolinians to expectorate all over their computer monitors, S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley was named as one of ten “Republican” politicians who could conceivably jump into the 2012 GOP presidential race in the event that Mitt Romney is defeated in Michigan next week.

No really … she was.

Compiled by The Politico (or at least some chick who works at The Politico), this list of campaign 2.0 prospects listed Haley at No. 9 – behind Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie, Paul Ryan, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee and John Thune (and ahead of Marco Rubio).

Not bad for a gal with a 34.6 approval rating in her home state … which she failed to deliver for Romney, by the way.

Read more >>

Haley administration will repay state for cost of out-of-state …

Local: Haley: Business and tourism should work together‎ WPDE
Nikki Haley’s Port Veto: Why The Delay?‎ FITSNews
Haley: South Carolina needs marketing to boost tourism industry‎ Charleston Regional Business

(Washington Times)

Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign has received a second warning from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for widespread financial irregularities, saying the campaign must disclose why nearly $1 million was paid to the candidate, staff and a small group of fundraising consultants for questionable reimbursements.

But hours after the FEC letter on its 2011 finances became public, the campaign filed a report for a newer time period, January, that indicated that the problems have become far worse.

The campaign transferred Mr. Gingrich $88,000 last month for unspecified “travel” expenses, a pace far higher than he paid himself over the course of 2011, a federal report filed Monday showed. It was part of $220,000 in mystery money that month that went to people close to Mr. Gingrich on top of their salaries, raising the issue of potential self-dealing.

The FEC warning letter was issued the day The Washington Times documented the suspect reimbursements.

Read more >>

(Hot Air)

Taking one for the team: Santorum’s big debate stumble

Santorum’s biggest blunder on this front came in how he described his vote for Bush’s expansion of the federal role in education, saying “It was against the principles I believed in. But when you’re part of a team, sometimes you take one for the team, for the leader.” This gets at the heart of the problem with Santorum, which I wrote about the day he announced he was running for president — he was the quintessential Bush era Republican.

As the number three Republican in the Senate, he was a loyal soldier and went along with Bush’s big government policies, from NCLB to the Medicare prescription drug law. The very problem with the Bush era was precisely that too many Republicans decided to be team players rather than push back against the president when he was violating conservative principles. It’s this very “team player” mentality that the Tea Party movement, in part, was created to combat.

Read more >>

(Metro Weekly)

Gay Rodeo Clowns take on the Atlantic Stampede and Team Santorum

By Paul Gable

President Obama does not “accept responsibility” for high gas prices, his spokesman indicated today, arguing that Obama has done everything he could to bring down the price of oil and blaming the high gas prices on oil price increases caused by global factors.

“The president accepts the responsibility that he identified the next president should accept, back in 2008, which is the need to develop a comprehensive energy policy,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today when asked if Obama “accept[s] responsibility” for the high price of oil and gas. “If you’re suggesting that there is responsibility for a rise in the global price of oil, it’s certainly not because of anything he hasn’t done to expand domestic oil and gas production,” Carney added.

Read more >>

Obama to talk about gas prices on Thursday USA TODAY (blog) - 1 hour ago

In-Depth: GOP blames Obama for gas prices‎ msnbc.com
Gas prices up for 4th straight week in W.Va.‎ Sacramento Bee