Press Release
Small Business Administration Refusing To Release Executives Un-redacted Emails
ASBL Prepares For Legal Battle With SBA Over Press Office Executives Emails
By Lloyd Chapman
American Small Business League
March 19, 2015
PETALUMA, Calif., March 19, 2015/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Small Business Administration (SBA) isrefusing to release electronic un-redacted copies of emails from SBA PressOffice executives Terry Sutherland and FredBaldassaro.
The American Small Business League (ASBL) requested the emailsunder the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) because they believe the emailswill show that the SBA Press Office staff has engaged in a systematic campaignto block stories in the media about the rampant fraudand abuse that has been uncovered in SBA managed programs.
A series of federal investigations and investigativereports in the media have all found billions of dollars in federal smallbusiness contracts that have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms and many of thelargest corporate giants around the world.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News and RTTV haveall reported on the SBA's role in the diversion of federal small businesscontracts to Fortune 500 firms.
The SBA has reported contracts to firms such as Dell, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard,Oracle, Microsoft, Rolls Royce, IBM and British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) as smallbusiness contracts.
The House Small Business Committee chastised SBAAdministrator Maria Contreras-Sweet for including billions of dollars incontracts to Fortune 500 firms in the SBA's 2013 small business contractingdata.
In 2009 the Office of Government Accountability essentiallyaccused the SBA of encouraging fraud in Report 10-108 that stated, "By failing to hold firmsaccountable, SBA and contracting agencies have sent a message to thecontracting community that there is no penalty or consequences for committingfraud "
The SBA has now adopted the final rule on their "safe harbor from fraud penalties policy" that willallow fraudulent small business firms to avoid all penalties and prosecution bysimply claiming they "acted in good faith."
The ASBL believes the emails will also prove SBA Press Officedirector Terry Sutherland and FredBaldassaro have launched a campaign to interfere with theASBL's efforts to publicize President Obama's announcement that he intends to resurrectRonald Reagan's plan to permanently close the SBA by combining it with theDepartment of Commerce.
The ASBL plans to file an appeal of their request and then filesuit against the SBA in Federal District Court in SanFrancisco if their appeal is denied.
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