PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 23, 2014) - The Small Business Administration (SBA) is refusing to release complete copies of all Press Office Director Terry Sutherland's emails. The American Small Business League (ASBL) originally requested Sutherland's emails for the month of March on April 9, 2014 under the Freedom of Information Act.
The SBA originally claimed Sutherland only had 73 emails in March. The ASBL appealed the request and the SBA then acknowledged he actually had over 2,000 emails. When the ASBL finally received Sutherland's 2000 emails, several had been redacted.
After analyzing Sutherland's emails, the ASBL believes the SBA is still withholding a significant number of the documents. ASBL President Lloyd Chapman has been the SBA's harshest critic issuing several press releases and blogs a month criticizing the fraud that has been uncovered in SBA programs. None of the emails released by the SBA makes any mention of Chapman or the ASBL. The ASBL believes the SBA is withholding any of Sutherland's emails that would reveal the SBA's campaign to discourage journalists from writing about fraud at the SBA.
Several of Sutherland's emails seem to indicate he does not physically work at the SBA headquarters, but actually works out of his home. Sutherland's emails also indicate he is still closely connected to the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA) where he was head of Corporate Communications.
The ASBL believes Sutherland took over the SBA Press Office in April 2013 to reduce media coverage of the Obama Administration's plan to quietly dismantle the agency. President Obama initially tried to close the SBA by combining it with the Department of Commerce. That plan was derailed after the ASBL launched a national campaign to expose the plan to shutter the agency. The Obama Administration dropped their plan to close the SBA after several journalist published stories agreeing with Chapman that President Obama was actually trying to close the agency.
"It's obvious the SBA Press Office is attempting to block stories on the Obama Administrations plan to close the agency. They are also trying to kill any media coverage of the rampant fraud at the SBA that has been uncovered by the GAO, the SBA's own Inspector General and the mainstream media," Chapman stated.
News organizations such as NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC and RTTV have all reported on the fraud in SBA managed programs.
The ASBL plans to file suit in the Federal District Court in San Francisco to force the SBA to release all of Terry Sutherlands emails in their entirety.
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