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[zman <zman AT shell.neverwhere.org>]

> Despite Diebold's asserted inability to meet the requirements of state
> law, the North Carolina Board of Elections today happily certified Diebold
> without condition. Never mind all of that third party software. Never mind
> the impossibility of obtaining a list of programmers who had contributed
> to that code.

Not to mention the rather sketchy criminal records of the Diebold 
Principals.


In 2002 Diebold bought Global Election Systems, which became the Diebold 
Election Systems unit. Global was founded under another name in 1988 by 
Norton Cooper, Michael K. Graye and Charles Hong Lee...all with damned 
interesting resumes (footnote 1):

Norton Cooper - jail for a year mid-1980s for fraud against the Canada 
government; ordered out of stock pitch schemes and was part of the 
collapse of the Vancouver stock exchange - ordered by decree not to pitch 
stock after 1992 or so because he caused havoc every time. Written up by 
Barron's and Forbes as a "hazard to avoid at the golf course". First 
convicted of political corruption in 1974 - look up a Canadian case titled 
"The Queen v. Norton Cooper" 1977 Canadian Supreme Court.

Charles Hong Lee - stock schemes; Cooper's partner pitching deals. 
Defrauded Chinese immigrants, $600,000(Can) court-ordered restitution 
mid-90s. Sold "real estate" which was actually the bail for the third 
partner below to the tune of about $300,000(can) circa 1995ish.

Michael K. Graye - nailed for stealing $18mil from three companies in the 
'88-'89 era, caught in '94, jailed in the US for stock fraud around '94 
re: Vinex wines, released around 2000 - 2002(3?) in the US, brought back 
to Canada, still in jail there. Arrested for tax evasion and money 
laundering circa '94.

Those three in turn hired even more "colorful" staff:

John Elder was a cocaine trafficker, in a WA prison early/mid 
1990s...fellow inmate was Jeffrey Dean (see next entry). Handled ballot 
printing for Global late 1990s. Seems to have been the one to bring Dean 
into Global.

Jeffrey Dean was convicted early '90s of 23 counts of computer-aided 
embezzlement. He was a computer consultant for a large Seattle law firm 
and defrauded them of about $450,000 in what US courts called a 
"sophisticated computer-aided scheme". In a statement to Seattle PD, he 
claimed he needed the money because Canadians were blackmailing him; in 
that country, he'd gotten into a fistfight and the other guy had died. 
(Yes, I've seen the police report.) He joined Elder in the Global ballot 
printing business late '90s, and with Global's introduction was doing 
computer consulting with the King County WA elections division - they had 
no idea of his criminal record. By 2000 he was doing programming for 
Global and by early Oct. of 2000 he was a full employee and lead 
programmer for the GEMS vote-tally product still in use. By late Oct. 2000 
and shipping in time for the November election, GEMS ver.1.17.5 contains 
the first "double set of books" problem where all votes are recorded twice 
internally and don't need to match...long story but it apparantly hides 
some forms of vote fraud. At the time Diebold bought Global in 2002, Dean 
quit and was immediately hired back as a consultant via management 
decision made within the division. This appears to be an attempt to keep 
Dean's criminal past out of Diebold corporate head office's scrutiny.

At the time Diebold bought Global, Dean owned 10% of Global's stock.

We don't know how many other lower-level progammers within Global/Diebold 
have criminal records. It's rather obvious that Diebold sure as hell 
doesn't want us finding out.

http://www.bbvdocs.org/dean.pdf
http://www.bbvdocs.org/elder.pdf


Scott H. Zekanis
zman AT kungfumonkey.com
http://www.rod-o-rama.com
http://www.thehellbenders.com
1957 Buick Riviera Hardtop (2 dr., 425" Nailhead)
1960 International B100
1923 Buick Roadster (Dual Quad 425" Nailhead) 
1990 Ducati 750 Sport