washington d.c. u.s. march 3 1982 1982 03 03 founder william anthony hamilton headquarters washington d.c. products cjis modulaw promis website http www.inslawinc.com inslaw inc. is a washington d.c. based information technology company . in the mid 1970s inslaw developed for the united states department of justice a computer program known as prosecutor s management information system promis . inslaw s principal owners william anthony hamilton and his wife nancy burke hamilton later sued the united states government for not complying with the terms of the promis contract and for refusing to pay for an enhanced version of promis once delivered . this allegation of software piracy led to three trials in separate federal courts and two congressional hearings . during the ensuing investigations the department of justice was accused of deliberately attempting to drive inslaw into chapter 7 liquidation ; and of distributing and selling stolen software for covert intelligence operations against foreign governments such as canada israel singapore iraq egypt and jordan . contents 1 origins 2 enhanced promis contract 2.1 espionage 2.2 federal investigations into allegations of theft 2.3 inslaw affair divides into two separate issues 3 later developments 3.1 fbi acs and foims 4 notes 5 references 6 further reading 7 external links origins edit inslaw once called the institute for law and social research 1 was a non profit business created in 1974 by william anthony hamilton a former analyst with the national security agency and onetime contract employee of the cia . 2 inslaw s original software product promis was a database designed to handle papers and documents generated by law enforcement agencies and courts . promis was a people tracking program which had the power to integrate innumerable databases regardless of their languages or regardless of their operating platforms . every use of promis in the court system is tracking people explained hamilton . you can rotate the file by case defendant arresting officer judge defense lawyer and it s tracking all the names of all the people in all the cases . 3 promis was funded almost entirely by government funds ; 1 therefore versions created prior to january 1978 were in the public domain . on january 1 1978 amendments to the copyright act of 1976 took effect automatically conferring upon inslaw as the author of promis five exclusive software copyright rights none of which could be waived except by explicit written waiver . the federal government negotiated licenses to use but not to modify or to distribute outside the federal government some but not all versions of promis created after the january 1978 effective date of the copyright amendments . 4 in 1981 after congress liquidated the primary source of funds for inslaw s development of promis the law enforcement assistance administration leaa the company became known as inslaw inc. a for profit corporation created to further develop and market promis and other promis derivative software product s . the newly created corporation made significant improvements to the original software . the resulting product came to be known alternately as promis 82 or enhanced promis a 32 bit architecture vax 11 780 version . enhanced promis contract edit in 1981 counsellor to the president edwin meese announced an 800 million overhaul of the federal computer system . in 1981 edwin meese then an advisor to president ronald reagan announced an 800 million budget in an effort to overhaul the computer systems of the justice department the federal bureau of investigation fbi and other law enforcement agencies . 5 the following year the department of justice awarded inslaw a 9.6 million three year cost plus incentive fee contract to implement a pilot program in 22 of the largest offices of the united states attorneys using the older 16 bit version which the government had a license to use . 4 the contract between inslaw and justice quickly became embroiled for over two decades in bitter controversy . 6 the conflict centered on whether or not the justice department owed inslaw license fees for the new 32 bit architecture vax version if the government substituted that version for the older 16 bit prime version which had been the subject of the original contract . espionage edit in february 1983 the director of israel s lakam 7 8 rafi eitan scheduled a meeting with inslaw through the justice department s contract agent peter videnieks . nb 1 the purpose of that meeting was for a promis briefing and demonstration ; the israeli ministry of justice intended to computerize its own prosecution offices . nb 2 following the israeli meeting the justice department obtained inslaw s new 32 bit enhanced promis from inslaw at the start of the second year of their implementation contract by modifying that contract and by promising to negotiate the payment of license fees . 4 6 one month later the u.s. government began to find fault with some of inslaw s services and with negotiated billing rates . the government then began to withhold increasing amounts of payments due to inslaw for implementation services . 9 the justice department agent responsible for making payments was a former fired inslaw employee c. madison brewer . 3 brewer would later claim in federal court that everything he did regarding inslaw was approved by deputy attorney general d. lowell jensen . nb 3 brewer was aided in his new doj job by peter videnieks wrote wired videnieks was fresh from the customs service where he oversaw contracts between that agency and hadron inc. a company controlled by edwin meese and reagan crony earl brian . hadron a closely held government systems consulting firm was to figure prominently in the forthcoming scandal . 3 both brewer and videnieks had obtained their positions under suspicious circumstances according to the chicago based weekly in these times . 10 nb 4 furthermore before moving over to the justice department and taking charge of the promis program in september 1981 wrote in these times videnieks had administered three contracts between the customs service and hadron ... hadron was in the business of integrating information managing systems such as promis into federal agencies . 10 nb 5 simultaneously with the withholding of payments in the 1983 modification 12 agreement the government then substituted the enhanced vax version of promis for the old prime version originally specified in the contract . the government did not negotiate the payment of license fees as promised claiming that inslaw had failed to prove to the government s satisfaction that inslaw had developed the enhanced version with private non government funds and that the enhanced version was not otherwise required to be delivered to the government under any of its contracts with inslaw that is inslaw had provided it voluntarily . 6 enhanced promis was eventually installed in a total of forty four federal prosecutors offices following the modification 12 agreement . nb 6 elliot richardson alluded to earl brian s alleged involvement in an op ed opinion in the new york times . 15 brian later sued but lost . 16 according to affidavits filed by william hamilton as the contract details were modified hamilton then received a phone call from dominic laiti chief executive of hadron . laiti wanted to buy inslaw . hamilton refused . according to hamilton s affidavits laiti then warned him that hadron had friends in government and if inslaw did not want to sell willingly inslaw could be coerced . 3 6 by february 1985 the government had withheld payment of almost 1.8 million for inslaw s implementation services plus millions of dollars in old promis license fees . inslaw filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection . 17 meanwhile the government began highly suspicious activities to force inslaw into chapter 7 liquidation . 6 11 federal investigations into allegations of theft edit in his court cases william hamilton was represented by several attorneys one of whom was lawyer elliot richardson formerly the united states attorney general under president richard nixon.two different federal bankruptcy courts ruled that the justice department took converted and stole nb 7 the promis installed in u.s. attorneys offices through trickery fraud and deceit nb 8 and then attempted unlawfully and without justification nb 9 to force inslaw out of business so that it would be unable to seek restitution through the courts . 6 three months after the initial verdict george f. bason jr. the federal judge presiding over the bankruptcy court for the district of columbia was denied reappointment to a new 14 year term on the bench by the u.s. court of appeals for the district of columbia the appointing authority . nb 10 his replacement s. martin teel took over shortly after judge bason announced his oral findings of malfeasance against inslaw by the justice department ; teel had been the justice department tax division attorney who had argued unsuccessfully before judge bason for the forced liquidation of inslaw . 18 19 leigh ratiner of dickstein shapiro and morin which was the 10th largest firm in washington at the time was fired in october 1986 ; he had been the lead counsel for inslaw and had filed the suit against the justice department in federal bankruptcy court . his firing came reportedly amidst back channel 7 discussions involving the doj his law firm s senior partner and the government of israel ; moreover there were rumors that the mossad had arranged a payment of 600 000 to ratiner s former firm as a separation settlement . nb 11 attorney general dick thornburgh repeatedly reneged on agreements made with the house committee to provide full and open access to information and witnesses 6 then in september 1991 the house judiciary committee issued the result of a three year investigation . house report 102 857 inslaw investigative report 6 confirmed the justice department s theft of promis . the report was issued after the justice department convinced the d.c. circuit court of appeals on a jurisdictional technicality to set aside the decisions of the first two federal bankruptcy courts . nb 12 the house committee also reported investigative leads indicating that friends of the reagan white house had been allowed to sell and to distribute enhanced promis both domestically and overseas for their personal financial gain and in support of the intelligence and foreign policy objectives of the united states . 3 15 21 the report even went so far as to recommend specifically further investigations of both former attorney general edwin meese and businessman earl brian for their possible involvement in illegally providing or selling promis to foreign governments including canada 22 israel 8 23 singapore iraq 2 egypt and jordan . 6 the democratic majority called upon attorney general dick thornburgh to compensate inslaw immediately for the harm that the government had egregiously inflicted on inslaw . the republican minority dissented and the committee divided along party lines 21 13 . attorney general thornburgh ignored the recommendations and reneged on agreements made with the committee . 6 inslaw affair divides into two separate issues edit on november 13 1991 newly appointed attorney general william barr appointed a retired federal judge nicholas j. bua as special counsel to advise him on the allegations that high ranking officials had acted improperly for personal gain to bankrupt inslaw . 24 william barr appointed special counsel nicholas j. bua to advise him on what had become known by 1991 as the inslaw affair . by june 1993 a 267 page bua report 18 25 was released clearing justice officials of any impropriety . 26 inslaw s attorney elliot richardson immediately wrote inslaw s 130 page rebuttal with evidence suggesting bua s report was riddled with errors and falsehoods . 19 on september 27 1994 attorney general janet reno released a 187 page review concluding that there is no credible evidence that department officials conspired to steal computer software developed by inslaw inc. or that the company is entitled to additional government payments .