Forensic Audit of Russian-Linked Black Hall Aerospace

Concealment, perpetuation, and personal gain.  Those words ought to sound familiar to prosecutors at the Office of Special Counsel of the U.S. Justice Department.

On May 23, 2017, Balch & Bingham attempted to deceive the public and Politico.com of their lobbying efforts on behalf of Russian-linked Black Hall Aerospace, saying they “previous represented” the firm owned by Soviet immigrant Oleg Sirbu when in fact they were still representing them at the time.

But why on or about March 2, 2017, after we had exposed their connection to the Russian-linked aerospace company, did Balch scrub their website of all references to their successful lobbying in D.C. of changing Russian sanctions for Black Hall Aerospace?

Why did their top lobbyist in Washington, William F. Stiers, change his resume, removing all references to his success in changing Russian sanctions?

Two days after the Politico.com story posted, we wrote to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III:

Since Black Hall Aerospace was paid through a subcontract of Leidos from a U.S. Department of Defense contract, and Balch may have been paid by Black Hall Aerospace in part from those resources, we believe a thorough forensic audit is in order…. Balch still represents the Russian-linked aerospace company, now being run by a questionable management team that is accused of diverting millions of dollars during the 2016 election cycle in what a court pleading called an “attempted heist.”

Balch terminated their relationship with Black Hall Aerospace a month later, on June 30, 2017, according to a July 12, 2017 filing.

Now, this past month, another lobbying firm, Upstream Consulting terminated their relationship with Black Hall Aerospace effective October 31, 2017, according to an October 27, 2017 filing.

Upstream Consulting is run by the Haddow brothers.  One of the brothers, C.M. “Mac” Haddow served time in prison 30 years ago for “following ‘a course of conduct which involved concealment, perpetuation and personal gain.'”

What a lovely cast of characters!