HBGary tries again

Barrett Brown barriticus@gmail.com
to	leota@zwillgen.com
date	Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 5:07 PM
subject	HBGary Federal, Romas/COIN
mailed-by	gmail.com


Ms. Bates-

The reporter who first published my report on Romas/COIN forwarded me the below e-mail in which you object to the term "parent company" as applied to HBGary in regards to HBGary Federal:

Dear Ms Smith:

I am outside counsel for HBGary, Inc.  Your June 22, 2011 article regarding
Project PM refers to HBGary as the "parent company" for HBGary Federal.
However, HBGary is in fact only a minority investor in HBGary Federal.
While it appears that the confusion could be entirely innocent, by this
misstatement, you are unfairly insinuating a corporate relationship between
HBGary and HBGary Federal that does not exist.  Accordingly, we ask that
you correct this statement and confirm the correction as soon as possible.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter

Sincerely yours,

Leota Bates


I'd like to clarify that the assertion was made by myself, rather than Ms. Smith. And regardless of what has been told to you by your client, the two firms are very much intertwined. Please see the following e-mail sent from your client to other employees of HBGary upon the founding of HBGary Federal:

From: Greg Hoglund <greg@hbgary.com>
To: all@hbgary.com
Subject: Welcome Aaron Barr and Ted Vera to the HBGary management team!
Date: 2009-11-23

I am extremely excited to announce that Aaron Barr and Ted Vera have joined
the HBGary team!  Ted and Aaron will operate and lead HBGary Federal, a
wholly owned subsidiary of HBGary, with a focus on contracting in the
government space.  They are very experienced and most recently built a
$10 million/year business at Northrop Grumman.  Both have won and lead
multi-million dollar development projects and managed substantial teams.
We have known Aaron and Ted for more than 5 years.  These two are A+ players
in the DoD contracting space and are able to “walk the halls” in customer
spaces. Some very big players made offers to Ted and Aaron last week, and
instead they chose HBGary.  This reflects extremely well on our company.
"A" players attract "A" players.  Aaron will take position as CEO of HBGary
Federal, and will be operating out of the DC area. Ted will take position as
President and COO of HBGary Federal, and will be operating out of Colorado
Springs.  Welcome aboard!

-Greg Hoglund
CEO, HBGary, Inc.


Thus it is that, contrary to your objection, your own client has specifically referred to HBGary Federal as a "wholly-owned subsidiary of HBGary." As such, I will from now on refer to HBGary Federal as such in order to better convey the strong operational and financial connection between the two firms. Meanwhile, I would suggest that you make sure you are aware of what is already known about your client before warning any further reporters that they are "unfairly insinuating" demonstrable facts.

--
Regards,

Barrett Brown