Expert alleges e-mails altered

In a filing in the federal civil lawsuit that is the basis for an FBI investigation of Gibbons, a computer expert states that the damning line, "We need to take care of him like we discussed," was never a part of e-mail correspondence between eTreppid executives after Gibbons helped them get access to Pentagon officials.

The expert concludes that Dennis Montgomery, the former eTreppid partner who is suing the company, altered the e-mail sent from eTreppid Vice President Len Glogauer to firm founder Warren Trepp, to include the sentence.

The filing doesn’t address other purported e-mails Montgomery has cited as evidence that Trepp made payments to Gibbons. In one of those e-mails, Trepp’s wife allegedly reminded him, "Please don’t forget to bring the money you promised Jim and Dawn."

Trepp lawyer Stephen Peek said those e-mails weren’t analyzed because there was no evidence they ever existed. Peek said they were never submitted in any court filing, only leaked to the media.

But Carla DiMare, one of the attorneys representing Montgomery, said in a statement that the e-mails in question are legitimate.

Trepp’s effort to discredit the e-mails is an attempt to distract attention from the Justice Department investigation of Trepp and Gibbons, DiMare said.

"I believe you must look at the credibility of the source: Trepp, the former Chief Trader for junk bond king Michael Milken, has spent at least the last twenty years of his life living off of the famous Drexel Burnham junk bond scam and he has made these types of allegations before," DiMare said in an e-mail. "Also, it is very revealing that Trepp’s lawyers did not file any declarations under oath from either Trepp or Len Glogauer denying the e-mail in question."

DiMare said Montgomery’s legal team will show proof in court that the e-mails are legitimate.

According to exhibits submitted with Friday’s filing, Glogauer forwarded to Trepp a string of messages between himself, Gibbons and a Gibbons aide. The messages were sent in September 2003, when Gibbons was a member of the U.S. House.

Glogauer’s note to Trepp at the top of the forwarded correspondence stated, "For your information … it looks like Jim has ‘hit the ground running’ on this one!"

A computer forensic expert, Jonathan Karcher, states in Friday’s court filing that he found four versions of the e-mail saved in various locations, including an external hard drive kept in a locked cabinet. All four were identical, and the "metadata" attached to them — the electronic fingerprints that record modifications to files — indicate they were not tampered with.

Therefore, Montgomery’s submission to the court of the same e-mails containing the extra sentence must be a fabrication, Karcher attests.

"The inclusion of the sentence, ‘We need to take care of him like we discussed,’ indicates that the document submitted to the court by Mr. Montgomery is an altered version of the e-mail as it existed when Len Glogauer sent (it) to Mr. Trepp on September 25, 2003," Karcher’s declaration states.

The string of e-mails begins with Gibbons e-mailing Glogauer from his House address on Sept. 24, 2003.

"Indeed, both Dawn and I enjoyed ourselves at Primm’s last Sunday, and seeing you and Nanci there was especially nice," Gibbons writes, referring to Nevada first lady Dawn Gibbons and Glogauer’s wife, Nanci.

Gibbons says he has asked a military official assigned to his staff to contact then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s office "in an effort to set up a meeting for you and the agency."

Gibbons adds that he was quite impressed with what he was shown of eTreppid’s video compression technology in a demonstration.

"No doubt, the Agency will be just as impressed!" Gibbons wrote.

Gibbons goes on to assure Glogauer that he is reachable. "Dawn has given you the correct e-mail address for me here in DC. That e-mail address is a direct link to my desk and does not go through anyone else."

Glogauer responds by thanking Gibbons and noting, "It was great being able to catch up with you and Dawn on a personal basis. I know that Nanci is enjoying working with Dawn on her current efforts. I think we can help and we want to be a part of your continued success."

A source close to the matter said Glogauer’s and Gibbons’ wives worked together on charitable causes. Nanci Glogauer was executive director of the Parasol Community Foundation, an Incline Village nonprofit founded by Trepp in 1996.

Len Glogauer goes on: "We are looking forward to showing what can be done with this advanced technology to the right people. Dr. Rice would present a great opportunity to get things moving quickly."

He adds that eTreppid is working on another technology that could save the Army time and money, and "I will send our findings and recommendations directly to you first."

Glogauer’s e-mail was answered by a legislative assistant to Gibbons, Ken Madura, the following day, Sept. 25. Madura said Gibbons had had breakfast that morning with Gen. T. Michael Moseley, then vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, "and he (Gibbons) brought up the eTreppid technology."

Madura writes, "Mr. Gibbons believes that this would be another good opportunity to demonstrate the technology to the AF at even a higher level. … I hope that you can make a demonstration to General Moseley soon."

Three minutes after receiving Madura’s e-mail that morning, Glogauer forwarded it to Trepp with the note about Gibbons hitting the ground running.

Karcher, the computer expert, states in Friday’s court filing that the differently worded e-mail Montgomery submitted as evidence in his lawsuit was a "TXT" file, which could easily be altered as it "is not the original format of an e-mail message sent/received using Outlook."

Karcher demonstrates by creating his own TXT file with an extra sentence included.

Gibbons was out of the office Friday afternoon, and his staff said he was unreachable for comment. His staff referred requests for comments to Gibbons’ lawyers handling the matter. Efforts to reach Gibbons’ Washington, D.C., lawyer, Abbe Lowell, were unsuccessful late Friday.

Peek, the lawyer for Trepp, said Gibbons was vindicated by the expert’s analysis.

"We have been outraged over the course of the last six months at Mr. Montgomery’s false accusations leveled in the press, and this has given us an opportunity to be able to set the record straight by showing in our filing that Mr. Montgomery’s accusations are false and fabricated," Peek said.

He said of the other supposedly incriminating e-mails, "There’s no such e-mails on our hard drives."

However, Peek said, the alleged fabrication of one e-mail should show that Montgomery has no credibility and could easily have made up other supposed evidence.

As for the line about hitting the ground running, he said that shouldn’t be interpreted as Gibbons obeying a paying master.

"It means Jim has done his job as a congressman and assisted one of his constituents in making an introduction to officials with the Department of Defense. That’s all I think it means," Peek said.

Montgomery’s claim that Gibbons took both campaign contributions and cash from Trepp in exchange for helping him get lucrative federal contracts was revealed by the Wall Street Journal in October.

The allegations are mostly contained in litigation between Montgomery and Trepp, who founded the technology company together and later had a falling out. The lawsuits are largely sealed because they are said to contain classified information.

Gibbons took a lavish sea cruise hosted by Trepp in 2005 but didn’t report it as required by House ethics rules. Montgomery has since said he also saw Trepp give Gibbons a briefcase loaded with $100,000 in cash.

Gibbons has maintained that he championed eTreppid’s technology because it was a good product and would bring jobs to his Northern Nevada congressional district while helping the military. He says the nearly $100,000 in campaign contributions he got from Trepp were not connected to the federal contracts.

Review-Journal writer Sean Whaley contributed to this report.