Gettin' my hands dirty

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours researching the story that has become to be known as Pizzagate. When I say ''researching'', I actually mean digging on the Internet for clues that would prove, disprove or hint at some nefarious activities involving public figures. Like a lot of you I did read articles, watch videos or listen to podcasts about the impressive number of circumstancial evidence that seem to unveiled yet another elite pedophile ring scandal, but this was kind of my first time getting my hands dirty on this affair by doing some work by myself.

What I discovered of interest might not please some people from the conspiracies investigating community, as today I'm writing to set the record straight about the belief that ''Andrew Kline of the DOJ is the owner of Besta Pizza''.

Here is a meme I saw in a Facebook group that conveys the specific idea I'm going to debunk.

Andrew Kline, his daughter Logan & Obama

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For those wondering how the Besta Pizza place got included among the ranks of the #Pizzagate suspects, the thread starts not with its proximity to Comet Pizza but with its logo, which according to Wikileaks is well known to the FBI. If like The New York Times and Slate, you believe the 2007 leak to be legit, then you would be justified to think that the Besta place use of a logo (identical to the one that has been circulated between federal agents as a boy lovers sign of recognition for pedos) could be construed as something to investigate.

Besta Pizza, 5029 Connecticut Ave NW, Wash.

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Fact Finding

At some point when only scratching the surface, I was under the impression that James Alefantis who was mentionned in The Podesta Emails was connected with Besta Pizza. Now, I'm not so sure about that. I did a bit of fact searching at the DC.gov - Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, where I had to create an account and here is all that I found:

Let's summarize what was find at this official source for public records:

• the name Andrew Kline comes up as the registered agent, not as the owner
• the entity status is revoked
• the trade name (BESTA PIZZA) status is cancelled
• the legal name is UPTOWN PIZZA, Inc.
• the Governor is Abdel Rahman Hammad and he is no Executive Officer

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What does it all mean?

Disclaimer

First off let it be clear that I'm a Canadian citizen and that I'm not particularly familiar with the American legal system. That being said, I work in the accounting field so I know about business management in general.

He's an agent?

Now, adressing the first point, what is a registered agent according to Wikipedia?

The registered agent for a business entity may be an officer or employee of the company, or a third party, such as the organization's lawyer or a service company

Obviously, nothing about Andrew Kline being the owner here. But who is Andrew Kline after all? Be patient, we will come around to it in a moment.

The ''beast'' is powerless

No matter who he is, the first piece of information we are getting here is what he does, or to be more precise, we should say what he didn't do. On 12/16/2014, he filed three reports for the year 2010, 2012 & 2014. At least two out of three reports were late at that time, but now it would seem he might be late again for 2016, and that could explain why the entity status appears as revoked & why the trade name status is showing as cancelled. Of course, this is way far from the type of criminal offence we are looking for, but still it is a small infraction according to the DC.gov - Corporate Registration FAQs:

What does "Entity status is revoked" mean in the District of Columbia? What is it and how can I put my company back in good standing?

If entity’s status is revoked then articles of incorporation / organization shall be void and all powers conferred upon such entity are declared inoperative, and, in the case of a foreign entity, the certificate of foreign registration shall be revoked and all powers conferred hereunder shall be inoperative.

Penalties for operating after revocation
Civil fines, penalties, and fees may be imposed on any domestic or foreign filing entity that commits an infraction of any provisions of Business Organizations Act specified under § 29-101.06 and fails to comply with any provisions thereof pursuant to Chapter 18 of Title 2 ("Civil Infractions Act").

What is going to happen?

Will Besta Pizza be ''punished for breaking the law''? Without going into every little details of the Business Organizations' Code of the District of Columbia, take notice of the short and simple answer:

§ 29–101.06. Civil fines for violations of title.
(a) The Mayor, pursuant to rules adopted in accordance with subchapter I of Chapter 5 of Title 2, may impose civil fines and penalties pursuant to Chapter 18 of Title 2, on any person who:
(2) Does business in the District of Columbia and:
(A) If a domestic business corporation or professional corporation, does not have articles of incorporation filed under § 29-302.02;

So it will have to pay a fine?

It seems like Besta Pizza might have to face penalties for failing to file a report which I think was the cause of the revocation of the entity status. So what are the monetary sanctions? Unfortunately, there is no precision as to the amount on the government's site:

Chapter 18. Administrative Review of Civil Infractions.
§ 2–1801.04. Monetary sanctions.
(a) (1) The Mayor shall prepare and periodically amend a schedule of fines. The schedule of fines shall be submitted to the Council of the District of Columbia (“Council”) for its approval or disapproval, in whole or in part, by resolution. The schedule of fines and subsequent amendments shall not become effective until approved by the Council, or 30 days after submission if the Council has not disapproved the schedule or amendments.
(2) In addition to the civil fine, a respondent who fails to answer a notice of infraction within the time specified by § 2-1802.02(e) may be assessed a penalty equal to twice the amount of the civil fine for the infraction set forth in the notice.
(b) In addition to any civil fines and penalties imposed following the adjudication of an infraction adverse to a respondent, an administrative law judge or attorney examiner may, in accordance with rules issued by the Mayor, impose upon the respondent, by order, the costs to the District of any additional inspections before, during, or after the hearing, and other costs associated with the hearing.

A quick apology

Sorry to disappoint you with this low level of unlawfulness and maybe even for having bored you to death with all these code quotations, but I felt it was necessary in order to really try and understand what ''is'' Besta Pizza.

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For a virtual visit of the restaurant, watch these two videos:

Kicked out of Comet Pizza + Visit to Besta. PIZZAGATE 2/3

Besta Pizza Recap PIZZAGATE 3/3

The strangest encounter during the the Besta Pizza visit, in my opinion, was with this weird unexplained picture:

live your dream! you want to live upstairs go for it

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The Governor

One last thing before getting into the meat of who is Andrew Kline? : Abdel Rahman Hammad, the governor.

I googled his name, but a lot of people came out. It's almost as if the name is the equivalent of John Smith but for the arabic world. And what is this ''governor'' title for businesses? Also, does not being an executive officer means he does not get involve in administrative business operations? To all of these questions, I didn't find out satisfying answers. Maybe YOU can discover who Mr. Hammad is and what is his exact role with the company. If so I encourage you to share in the comments any thing you deem relevant to this man or anything else in regard to #Pizzagate for that matter.

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Will the real Andrew J. Kline please stand up?

Andrew J. Kline #1

Capture 10

Odd. As I was about to share the source for the following picture, I just found out that the capture10.com web site is currently unavailable. I'll try later and update the post accordingly if the site gets back online. Yesterday, it was working fine. In the meantime, the description of what is Capture 10 from one of their own press release:

Capture10 is a business development and strategy firm that helps firms identify, pursue, and capture new billion dollar markets within the technology and aerospace industry. The firm provides strategic guidance to clients on how to secure domestic and international government contracts through direct sales, distribution agreements, partnerships, shaping procurements and navigating regulatory processes. Capture10 was founded in 2012 by high tech and aerospace expert and entrepreneur Lawrence Williams, who began his career working in government, technology, communications and space policy.

Can't get a hand on Capture 10

Criminal lawyer

As I was trying to say, I believe that the Andrew Kline, who is in the first picture at the top of the post with Obama, is the same as the one with Capture 10, and the one having the @kliner twitter account & the deleted andrewkline1 Linkedin account. The two thumbnails below speak for themselves:

Twitter

Linkedin

Loosely judging by his overall appearance, his approximative age in the pictures, and his involvment throughout is life with criminal justice & the government, I would say this is the person who describes himself as Special Counsel, Enforcement, Federal Communications Commission (Twitter); who was named as a Civil Rights Division Special Litigation Counsel (in a New York-Connecticut sex-trafficking ring case); and had a dispute with the D.C. Bar Counsel as an ex-Prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department; and who was once also an outgoing Chief of Staff for the Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement (see the link under Obama's pic).

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Andrew J. Kline #2

Veritas

Now let's compare with someone I would propose is an entirely different Andrew Kline, one who looks older, less confident, and who specialize in civil matters.

Let's begin with the Besta's agent adress in the public records, meaning 1225 19th Street, NW, Suite 320, Washington, DC 20036. Now what firm do we find at this location? VERITAS LAW, which happens to have a principal partner name Andrew Kline working there. On the lawyers' web site, it says Mr. Kline served as legislative advisor to the is Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington (“RAMW”) for more than 10 years, and his involvmment with the RAMW checks out when we also do the exercice to visit their Board of Directors page.

Misrepresentative

Things get unsavory when we look at his regular appearances before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on his clients’ behalf:

Attorney Andrew Kline has represented dozens of restaurants seeking or renewing alcohol licenses which have come before ANCs...

Challenged by Commissioner James Loots that the only person well served by Kline’s tack – which would lead to an ANC protesting renewal of the license – was Kline himself, the attorney indicated that he was prepared to suffer the protest of the license by the ANC and take the issue to the Alcohol Beverage Control Board. He persisted with his objections, interrupting and speaking loudly over commissioners who were trying to speak (not only a mistake but a violation of decorum), until Jayaraman silenced him with a crescendos of “Thank yous”.

...CHC reached out to McMahon for comment and received the following response:

“Last night was the first time I have ever met Mr. Kline and in no way had intended for him to represent us in the manner he did. [We] have worked very well with the neighborhood and ANC for 4 years and intend to continue that. His presence was a mistake and miscommunication that, apparently, got out of hand.

Getting into trouble

It's one thing to diplease your clients or a commissioner, but this one Kline lowered the bar even more at one point in his career:

But LL’s got some bad news for the District’s food-and-drink-purveyors: You will likely soon be deprived of Kline’s services.

That’s because he’s gotten himself into some deep legal troubles of his own. Late last month, a hearing panel convened by the D.C. Court of Appeals’ Board of Professional Responsibility—the body charged with adjudicating matters of legal discipline in the District... finding that Kline violated nearly a dozen rules of professional conduct, including committing criminal forgery and engaging in behavior “involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”

The board recommends that Kline be suspended from the practice of law for 18 months.

It's not his fault

It looks like we might have found why A. Kline is neglecting Besta's legal paper requirements. The guy handles himself somewhat like a lunatic:

Kline argues that his misdeeds are due to the fact that he’s hyperactive.

Or, as the report reads, “Respondent claims he suffers from adult ADHD,” referring to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Kline hired a psychiatrist, who made the diagnosis after seven visits, citing such evidence as “a history of procrastination,” which includes once failing to file a law school paper on time and not filing tax returns for several years. During the discipline proceeding, bar counsel hired its own shrink, who made this point: “The fact that [Kline] was able to be successful academically during his grade school years, college and law school and successfully run his own law practice is inconsistent with a diagnosis of ADHD.”

In the end, the hearing panel decided not to grant Kline any leniency.

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Still think Besta's Andrew Kline is Obama's Andrew Kline? Apart from both having their middle name starting with the same letter (J.) and now living in the same area, the case for being two different guys as been layed out.

Unless it's a case of lifetime actor/spy with the use of makeup...

What do you think?