Peter Strzok’s Wife At SEC Has China Fever
Tore Lindeman
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Peter Strzok’s wife Melissa Hodgman at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been targeting companies linked to China for criminal prosecutions, engendering accusations of racism against her.
Hodgman’s civil fraud prosecution of Japanese-American businessman William Uchimoto fell apart, prompting a lawsuit from Uchimoto against the SEC. Meanwhile, the SEC worked on a massive prosecution of Benjamin Wey, a Chinese-born American citizen and Wall Street financier, which likewise fell through. Wey is now alleging that NASDAQ lied to SEC authorities to bring about his prosecution.
Why are Hodgman and her colleagues at SEC waging legal warfare against Chinese-linked businessmen in a series of cases that are being disputed and discredited?
William Uchimoto’s company CleanTech, a wind and renewable energy company, filed suit in 2012 against NASDAQ for racial discrimination, claiming that Chinese companies were being discriminated against, according to a press release. Former senator Arlen Specter represented CleanTech at the time.
The fraud charges against Uchimoto were dismissed. Uchimoto remained understandably angry about the prosecution, stating, “They gerrymandered what they wanted to look at.”
ABA Journal reported: “A former BigLaw partner says the Securities and Exchange Commission went beyond overzealous enforcement when it filed a civil suit against him that was tossed on Monday by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in his opinion (PDF) dismissed civil securities fraud and aiding and abetting claims against William Uchimoto of Pennsylvania, the New York Law Journal (sub. req.) reports. Uchimoto is a former partner at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, at Saul Ewing and at Stevens & Lee. The SEC had alleged that Uchimoto misled Nasdaq about whether two companies had satisfied shareholder requirements to be listed on the exchange. He was a partner at Buchanan Ingersoll at the time of the alleged misrepresentation. Castel said the SEC complaint failed to allege that Uchimoto obtained money or property as a result of the alleged misrepresentation.”
Benjamin Wey likewise believes that he was wrongfully targeted by the SEC during Hodgman’s tenure at the enforcement agency, when Wey was prosecuted for fraud. The charges were recently dismissed.
Forbes reported: “Wall Street financier Benjamin Wey filed a civil lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against Nasdaq. He alleges that Nasdaq mislead federal authorities with false information that wrongly led to his prosecution. He is seeking $650 million in damages.”
Benjamin Wey
On April 9, 2018, the SEC voluntarily dismissed fraud charges against Benjamin Wey, issuing a press release about the dismissal.
Heavy reported: “U.S. securities regulators…moved to drop their fraud case against Wall Street financier Benjamin Wey, about a month after prosecutors dropped a related criminal case after a judge threw out some evidence,” Reuters reported. According to Reuters, “The criminal case against Wey collapsed in June, when U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan ruled that a huge cache of materials seized from Wey’s home and offices could not be used because they were obtained with overly broad search warrants that violated Wey’s constitutional rights…The article continued, “Nathan said the seizure of items such as children’s school records, family photos and X-rays at minimum reflected ‘grossly negligent or reckless disregard’ of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.”
Hodgman was eventually promoted at SEC by Barack Obama in 2016, shortly before the presidential election and in the midst of her husband’s Operation Crossfire Hurricane plot to target President Donald Trump and excuse Hillary Clinton of crimes.
Hodgman’s history raises serious questions about her credibility, and could open new avenues of information in the effort to expose the full scope of Peter Strzok’s dealings in the U.S. intelligence agencies. Are intelligence agencies coordinating with law enforcement on selective prosecutions?
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