SENATE GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL SECURITY, PROLIFERATION AND FEDERAL SERVICES

TESTIMONY OF SANDY NUNN, FORMER FEDERAL AGENT & WHISTLEBLOWER IN THE U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE

July 27, 2001

Chairman Akaka, Senator Levin, Senator Grassley and other esteemed members of the Subcommittee, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to present my written testimony in support of the proposed Whistleblower Protection Act amendments known as Bill # S. 995.

My name is Sandy Nunn. Like many whose stories you are becoming aware of through both written and spoken testimony before this subcommittee, I was a Federal Whistleblower and I suffered greatly like many other whistleblowers because I chose to do the right thing and stand up for the truth. And by telling the truth, my career was ruined, my life was shattered, my professional reputation was destroyed, and I lost friends. But my life was touched in a more tragic way due to the fact that I lost my own father who died very unexpectedly and very suddenly in the backyard of my familyâs home as I stood up against vicious retaliation, character assassination, threats, and so much more when I spoke out against corruption within my former agency, the U.S. Customs Service. My father was extremely worried and distraught regarding the vicious attack being mounted against me and my fellow Whistleblowers and agents, Darlene Catalan and Ruben Sandoval. He feared for my life and was deeply concerned. I firmly believe that his sudden death was predicated from the stress he was feeling about how I was being treated in my former place of employment. Iâm not only here today to speak out on behalf of whistleblowers and the need to protect their rights through enhanced legislation. I am here to speak on behalf of the mothers, fathers, and families of whistleblowers whose lives have been so deeply and tragically affected.

I grew up the daughter of a decorated military veteran·..an Air Force pilot and officer who served this country with great honor in both Korea and Vietnam. From an early age, I was taught by example to be a leader and to live with integrity and honor. I grew up with those beliefs. I grew up believing in the justice system of this country and the power of truth. I believed very strongly in those concepts and still do which is why I am testifying today.

Throughout my life, from these early years up until the time I became a Federal Whistleblower in December 1997, I was a successful woman and professional in everything I undertook. From achieving two college degrees, working in major Fortune 500 companies out of college, and ultimately becoming a Federal Agent in the U.S. Customs Service from 1988 until 1999 to serve the people of this country, I achieved a wealth of accomplishments with which to demonstrate my success both personally and professionally. In 1991, my casework as a Federal Agent was featured in TIME Magazine, Businessweek and newspapers throughout the United States. From 1994-1995, I served in two international posts in Europe on a Diplomatic Passport representing the United States during the UN Sanctions against Serbia. I have served on numerous occasions in personal protection Secret Service assignments both for political candidates and foreign dignitaries visiting the United States. Because of the professional contributions I have made consistently throughout my entire life, I have been awarded numerous commendations, citations, cash awards and other honors which clearly demonstrate that my work has been highly regarded by the U.S. Customs Service, the FBI, the Commissioner of Customs, the Secretary of the Treasury, the U.S. Attorneyâs Office in Los Angeles, as well as Foreign Organizations I have worked with during the course of my career. I tell you this because when I became a whistleblower this successful life and career, as I knew it, suddenly ended.

In December 1997, I made a decision to support a fellow agent and provide a written statement as a witness in a Title VII EEO case on behalf of Special Agent Darlene Catalan. In my statement, I provided testimony based on personal observations of how I had noted a serious decline in morale and the mental health of many of the agents I worked with daily within the U.S. Customs Office of Investigations in the Los Angeles area under the management of Special Agent in Charge John Hensley and another management official, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Marc Gwaltney. Unlike the management officials before them, these particular officials handled the employees under their supervision in a hard-handed, almost Gestapo-like fashion thus creating a tremendous attitude shift in many of the agents I worked daily with. I noted a propensity to "witch hunt" if certain agents did not comply with this highly unprofessional methodology of management. What alarmed me even more was that the levels of depression and stress amongst my fellow agents began rising dramatically. I was aware of the fact that many of these individuals had been compelled to go on medication because of these issues. I was concerned with the direction that the health of my fellow agents was going. Therefore, in the course of writing my EEO witness statement, I included these observations. I also noted in the course of that statement that I was making these statements of my own accord and based on my own observations. Further, I made a declaration in that statement that I was making these observations as a Whistleblower with the rights and protections accorded me under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

Three days after that statement landed on the desk of the EEO Manager, Anna Morales, I was suddenly transferred to another work location after working nearly 10 years within my office at U.S. Customs. From that day forward, everything went from bad to worse.

After being transferred to the new work location in downtown Los Angeles to work with the HIDTA Task Force with DEA, a series of events occurred not only to myself but to my colleagues and fellow agents Darlene Catalan, a decorated agent and Army officer, and Ruben Sandoval, a decorated law enforcement officer with a background in Secret Service and local law enforcement. Commencing in 1998, the three of us were subjected to unrelenting retaliation, adverse actions against us, false accusations of wrongdoing, frivolous internal affairs investigations, surveillances, threats against us, slander of our reputations in the workplace, days off without pay for frivolous accusations of wrongdoing, and so much more merely because we engaged in the legal administrative process afforded under Title VII to engage in EEO protected activities as both complainants and witnesses. While still assigned with the DEA task force, I found myself being threatened by DEA Agent and Pilot Michael Lea and subjected to discrimination and retaliation by DEA Supervisor Wayne Schmidt, a friend of SAC John Hensley. Darlene even received an anonymous threatening letter to her home. The following day, Ruben woke up and found two surveillance cameras mounted on light poles on his street pointed directly at his residence. I was shocked and still am at how our civil rights were so blatantly violated by management officials within one of the top federal law enforcement agencies in the United States merely because we stood up and told the truth. We had done nothing wrong to deserve such adverse treatment.

Even two of our EEO counselors, Vernon Risby and Rosanne Ventresco, were threatened and removed from their positions as EEO counselors merely because they were truthful and contradicted Customs Managers who clearly were not pleased that I was being truthful as was Darlene and Ruben.

However, believing that having integrity and doing the right thing would protect us from the clearly adverse action beginning to mount against us, we moved forward and were not dissuaded from continuing our quest for the truth. We also believed that the Whistleblower Protection Act would protect us. We were wrong.

In the course of time between 1998 through the latter part of 1999, our lives became a living nightmare. While in the midst of dealing with the EEO matters, Darlene began serious work on a major narcotics investigation involving railway tanker car shipments of tons of narcotics coming into the United States from Mexico. Darlene, a highly competent and successful agent as well as my friend, had successfully tied these tanker car shipments of drugs to the Felix-Arrellano drug cartel in Mexico. This case was the first of its kind in the United States of this magnitude. It was so significant that the Acting Commissioner of Customs called her personally to congratulate her for a job well done. However, shortly thereafter, Darleneâs efforts were undermined when Customs management began ordering her to shut down the case and cease and desist any further investigation. As a seasoned agent who had served as the Case Agent for what was described in 1991 as the "second largest money laundering case in U.S. history," I understood major investigations and felt strongly that there was serious issues of corruption beginning to emerge particularly when Darlene determined that several of the tanker cars which had clearly been suspicious were released contrary to her direction not just once, but over a hundred times, by an unknown Customs management official. These tanker cars, which had been documented as being empty, were showing as being about 5-9 tons overweight. Based on my experience dealing with narcotics smuggling, it is my professional opinion that those released tanker cars were very likely smuggling either narcotics or possibly something more sinister such as firearms or potential destructive tools for use by terrorist cell groups within the United States. As a Special Agent dealing with arms and technology smuggling cases, I even pulled up Darleneâs case files through the Customs computer database as I along with Darlene had received information from a source that there might be a connection to arms smuggling. I was subsequently placed under Internal Affairs investigation by my immediate supervisor Rick Powell, a crony for John Hensley, for doing the job I had been paid to do. After further investigation, Darlene determined that over the past several months, well over 100 of these tanker cars with similar weight characteristics and so forth had passed into the commerce of the United States undetected by inspection and investigators. What was in those tanker cars remains a mystery. But the fact remains that someone within Customs was clearly permitting this to happen without checking these tanker cars as required by proper Customs procedure. Further, when pressed to reveal who was ordering this very successful case to be shut down and basically filed away, Darleneâs immediate supervisor revealed in a meeting witnessed by a Former Federal Prosecutor who is now a Federal Judge in the Ninth Circuit that SAC John Hensley had ordered that the case be shut down. Ironically, Mr. Hensley had been instrumental in prematurely shutting down Operation Casablanca, the major money laundering case which made national headlines in 1998 for the large amount of money (over $200 million in drug proceeds) being laundered through several high profile Mexican banks and which was also targeting the Felix-Arrellano cartel as was the tanker car case being investigated by Former Special Agent Catalan.

It became clear to Darlene, Ruben and I, particularly when I began to piece together some other key facts which looked suspicious that we were dealing with something much more sinister than just mere EEO issues. We had found other information which pointed to a group of people within Customs engaging in questionable activities potentially linked to narcotics trafficking on a massive scale. Too many red flags had begun to rise and it was our professional opinion as Federal Agents that we were dealing with a far greater issue which pointed to serious corruption within our agency. Even local law enforcement officers aware of the situation believed strongly that there was corruption by certain key individuals within the Customs Service. These officers frequently stated this. Based on the information we consolidated, we made the decision to address the issues to our Senate Leaders, most notably Senator Diane Feinstein. We drafted a letter to Mrs. Feinstein and it was signed by over 20 Federal Agents, Inspectors and Administrative employees. The same letter was sent to three other Senate leaders as well as several Congressional representatives. Interestingly, we did not receive any form of acknowledgement or reply from these elected leaders. Yet, weeks later, Senator Feinstein was seen meeting with SAC John Hensley, the very man suspected of some of the corruption we were speaking about. The retaliation continued.

We took this issue along with several other key issues we had identified to the former Commissioner of Customs Raymond Kelly in order to address this matter. Again, we were ignored. The retaliation continued.

We contacted the FBI, the Office of the Inspector General, the Office of Internal Affairs, and the offices of other U.S. Government officials in a very solid attempt to report not only our suspicions but also to provide documentation and witness statements to corroborate our allegations which appeared to indicate grave misconduct and corruption within our agency. Unbelievably, not one of these attempts was even acknowledged. NOT ONE! Might I add that in these attempts, we reported attempted rape of a female agent by a male senior special agent as well as the fact that two special agents had taken seized narcotics (heroin) home with them instead of keeping it locked up in the secure walk-in vault as per Customs regulations. Unbelievably, nothing was done to address these matters. The retaliation against us continued and merely got worse.

As the retaliation and the harassment against each of the three of us mounted, our stress levels went up and we began to experience fear such as I had never known in all my years serving as a Federal Agent. I actually began to fear for my life feeling that we were up against something so insurmountable that anything could happen to us and no one would care. I began having trouble sleeping and my work performance began to suffer greatly because I was dealing with too much stress. The stress was also impacting my parents negatively out of concern for my well-being. My own father, the decorated war veteran and the man who taught me integrity and honor, sat in front of my mother one day in tears saying "Iâm old and Iâm sick and I canât help my daughter." This was tearing him apart. I tried all I could to protect him from it all. But, I was close to my parents and I consulted with my Dad for advice frequently having nowhere else to turn.

In May 1999, we began to go public with some of our allegations to the media when we held a press conference with our attorney. But, within 2 weeks of that press conference, both Ruben and I were told that we would be getting suspensions without pay for reasons that were frivolous and without merit. Ruben, a father of several small children and a husband, was forced to take a 30 day suspension without any source of income for his single-income family. I was forced to take a 3 day suspension. In 12 years of government service, I had never been punished like this··until I became a whistleblower and an EEO witness/complainant.

Therefore, on June 14, 1999, I began serving a 3-day suspension based on a frivolous charge of misconduct by Customs management meant to stifle my whistleblowing and EEO protected activities. On the second day of this suspension on June 15, 1999, my father suddenly died in the backyard of my parentâs home, just four days before Fatherâs Day. His death devastated me.

If ever there was a turning point in my life, it occurred when I had to spend a day saying goodbye to my father on Fatherâs Day instead of celebrating this day with him. I cannot begin to explain the loss that hit me that day when I placed 3 Fatherâs Day cards in my fatherâs casket to tell him the things I never got a chance to say while he was alive.

And the following day when we buried him with full military honors at Riverside National Cemetery and I listened as the officers escorting my fatherâs casket performed a 21-gun salute to this great and noble but yet very humble and much-loved man who had served this country proudly and with honor, I found myself at a loss. As the officer presented the folded American flag and the symbolic spent rifle rounds to my mother while stating "This is on behalf of a grateful nation" and then saluting in tribute to my father, I knew that I would have to find the strength within to carry on and continue to fight for the rights of whistleblowers like myself. I had to do this to honor the memory of my father. It had cost me dearly and I had paid the price as had he. But, I would have to find the courage within me to continue speaking out until we could bring this issue to the forefront and make people understand the sacrifices that whistleblowers have been forced to endure in simply telling the truth.

Several weeks later, I visited my fatherâs grave and I promised him that I would finish what I had started and I would see justice done. Not long after that promise was made, I resigned from my career as a Federal Agent. I could no longer work for an Agency whose management I did not trust or respect. Darlene resigned two weeks later.

Since leaving the service, both Darlene and I have been blackballed from finding employment and have been forced into desperate financial situations. Both Ruben and I have been forced to file bankruptcy. Without an income, I was forced to move in with my elderly mother, whose income has been drastically reduced since my fatherâs death thus placing us near the poverty level. I can honestly say that had it not been for my mother, I would now be homeless and destitute, quite a tragic situation after being a highly-paid successful Government employee who served the public interest with integrity and pride. I have lost my career, my income, my reputation, my lifestyle, and my father from being a whistleblower. Yet, if asked what I would do if I could go back in time and have a second chance, would I become a whistleblower again, the answer would be "yes." Though it has cost me dearly, my integrity was worth far more than the cost of being silent.

Therefore, as I come to the end of my testimony, I would ask you to consider my story as well as those of so many others and choose to make our sacrifices the springboard for legislation that will serve to protect whistleblowers as it was intended to do. I have noted through my experience that there is a grave lack of accountability by Federal Management Officials within U.S. Government Agencies due to the fact that they know that these laws are not being enforced through the courts as well as by other organizations (i.e., the EEOC, the Office of Special Counsel, etc.). The Whistleblower Protection Act needs to be amended so that individual management officials as well as the individual agencies are held financially responsible for engaging in retaliation of any form against whistleblowers who emerge within their agencies to alert the public to corruption, illegal activities, and anything else which serves to undermine the trust and well-being of the taxpayers of this country.

It is my firm opinion that Management Officials need to suffer grave consequences if they engage in any form of retaliation against whistleblowers. They need to be removed from their positions of employment and the agencies need to stop defending their illegal practices by ceasing the practice of providing U.S. Government Attorneys at taxpayer expense to defend these managers who have clearly perpetrated these illegal activities. This practice is grossly unfair as evidenced by the fact that those of us who have told the truth are being forced into bankruptcy because we have to retain private legal counsel at great expense to our own limited financial means merely to protect our rights. This is a grave injustice and a practice that needs to stop. If the members of this subcommittee could support this type of change in the law, it is my belief that retaliation against whistleblowers and those employees who engage in EEO protected activities would cease to exist. Instead of the taxpayers footing the legal bill for clearly abusive managers, these management officials would now bear the brunt of their illegal behavior out of their own pockets since they would be compelled to retain their own legal counsel instead of being granted taxpayer-retained government attorneys.

I also feel that besides financial consequences, Management Officials who engage in these illegal retaliatory practices should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and there should be appropriate legislation in place to support severe fines and prison sentences for those who engage in this misconduct.

Whistleblowers are brave men and women who sacrifice much to alert the public to wrongdoing. They are the first line of defense and serve an important role in society. Their rights should be protected fervently through strong legislation and the justice system. Whistleblowers are a special breed of American and have a strength of character which should be honored and protected if we are to maintain a healthy society and fulfill our destiny as a nation which honors truth and justice. Like the true-life heroes portrayed in "The Insider" and "Erin Brockovich", whistleblowers serve the public good and are heroes. They protect the health and well-being of every man, woman and child in this country. Instead of being treated as lepers, they deserve to be honored for their bravery and courage in the face of consequences that most Americans would not be willing to face. These brave men and women have earned their own Purple Hearts for facing adversity squarely and doing what is right and just. They deserve respect for their sacrifices. They should not be the losers. In my opinion, they are all winners. And like my father, they are veterans of war and have seen battle. Their war and their battle has been here on American soil and they understand all too well what courage is when the world is falling down around them. My father always respected the fact that I never gave up no matter what happened to me next. I think, in his own way, he understood how much his own daughter was facing down the enemy and he was proud of that. I am proud that I am still here to tell my story to you today and carry out my promise to my father.

It is my firm hope that each of you will provide this protection through appropriate legislation so that we can feel that our fight for justice not only for ourselves but for all the people of this nation will not be in vain. It is my hope and prayer that you will see the wisdom of this and give whistleblowers the protection so desperately needed so that the story I presented here today will not be repeated in another family.

I leave you with this quote from President Theodore Roosevelt which I feel adequately sums up the passion of whistleblowers when they dare to speak out and stand up against all odds and at great costs to themselves, their families, their finances and their futures:

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly·."

I thank you for your time Mr. Chairman, Senators Levin and Grassley, Members of the Subcommittee and your support of this legislation.