[flamefront]

PROMIS and the INS promotions. It never stops.

Sposato, then top ethics cop at the Justice Management Division, was singled out by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George F. Bason Jr. He lambasted Sposato for dealing "so casually with the repeated serious allegations of outrageous conduct" by a senior Justice official who oversaw contract issues involving PROMIS. That official, C. Madison Brewer, was a disgruntled ex-employee of Inslaw with a huge conflict of interest in the matter.

The government, Judge Bason said, stole Inslaw's software through "trickery, fraud, and deceit" with "contempt for both the law and any principle of fair dealing." Sposato's involvement, the judge said, "can be charitably described as willful blindness to the obvious." Yet, Sposato suffered no reprisal.

As for PROMIS, Washington Times reporter Jerry Seper reported in June 2001 that former FBI agent and convicted spy Robert Hanssen sold an enhanced version to Russian crime figures, who in turn are suspected of selling it to Osama bin Laden, who could be using it to monitor financial transactions and intelligence-gathering efforts.