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Originally Posted by Uturn2001
Do you have a link to this story, though it would not surprise me one bit. Buske hauled a lot of product in and out of SCJ.
SCJ and Ford made up a HUGE percentage of the over all freight that Buske hauled, and they were the two companies that you had better get a notorized letter from GOD delivered by Michael and Peter if you were going to be late on.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=721217
Posted: Feb. 22, 2008
Racine - An attorney for S.C. Johnson & Son asked jurors Friday to award the company $101.9 million in damages for what was described as a multiyear scheme of bribery and corruption involving two former employees and several transportation companies.
Buy a link hereBut defense attorneys argued that the defendants were not involved in any kind of group conspiracy or criminal enterprise and did what they had to do to keep contracts with S.C. Johnson.
Closing arguments were Friday in the four-week civil jury trial alleging fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and bribery and violations of the state organized crime act. Accused are S.C. Johnson's former transportation director, Milton E. Morris; his former deputy, Katherine M. Scheller; and several transportation company owners and their entities, including Thomas H. Buske of Edwardsville, Ill., Buske Lines Inc., and Tom Russell of Racine, and his company, JMP Intermodal Inc.
S.C. Johnson attorney Jeffrey Willian directed jurors to reflect on the weeks of testimony that reconstructed a puzzle that showed the defendants participating in a scheme that included the creation of sham transportation companies and a plot to double rates.
Willian recalled for the jury the testimony about the transportation companies providing lavish gifts of trips and jewelry for Morris and Scheller, whom he said conspired in part because of an affair, as well as prostitutes for Morris, and so much money that Morris kept some of it in his car's trunk.
The scheme, Willian said, involved phony letters about negotiations that never occurred, lies to supervisors and efforts to keep all transportation contracts at higher rates and distort information to cover up the illegal relationships.
"We're just asking for the money that the company lost as the result of this scheme's activity," Willian said.
Circuit Judge Wayne Marik gave jurors instructions Friday afternoon, and deliberations on 46 questions in the case are to begin Monday morning.
Attorney Frank Gimbel, representing Russell and his companies, admitted his client's guilt in providing gifts and kickbacks to Morris through a sham company, JMP Intermodal. But he denied that Russell's other company, JMP Transportation, played any role, and he denied his client was involved in any kind of group conspiracy or criminal enterprise.
Gimbel said what happened did not rise to the level of $101.9 million. Gimbel set his client's fiduciary responsibility at $4.11 million, which he said was S.C. Johnson's real loss as the result of the scheme between Morris and Russell.
"They (S.C. Johnson) are asking you to punish the defendant," Gimbel said. "They are asking you to send a message. I say to you, that's not what you're supposed to do. I don't think you will agree to leave Tom Russell or any other defendant in this case as a blood stain on the highway."
Attorney James Murray, representing Buske and his companies, said his client did what he had to do to keep his contract with S.C. Johnson. Companies that didn't play the way Morris required lost the work, he said.
"That's not an excuse, that's not a justification, but it is a fact," Murray said.
Murray maintained that Morris' supervisors knew about much of the conduct and that Morris' immediate supervisor even participated in some of the golf games with trucking company clients.
"It was sanctioned and done in plain view for everyone to see," Murray said. They did nothing at the time because, he contended, they knew the conduct did not result in higher transportation costs to the company.
Murray calculated the financial loss to S.C. Johnson as a result of Buske's involvement at zero. But, he said, he recognizes that not all of the jurors would agree with that. Instead, he said, he suggested damages between $4.1 million and $8.2 million.
