All of the allegations contained in a pair of lawsuits detailing a purported scheme to funnel $100,000 to then-U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman are false, according to the findings of a Special Litigation Committee appointed by the company at the center of the legal dispute.
The lawsuits allege that Nasser Kazeminy and his allies were responsible for gross fiscal mismanagement of Deep Marine Technology, a Houston-based underwater services firm. Among the alleged waste: an attempt by Kazeminy to provide funds to Coleman through a Minneapolis insurance firm where the former senator’s wife was employed.
The lawsuits were filed in the final days before voters went to the polls in the hotly contested U.S. Senate race between Coleman and Al Franken, which was finally settled on Tuesday with Coleman conceding the race to Franken after a lengthy recount and legal appeal which went to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Bruce Gilman, chairman and CEO of Deep Marine Technology and parent firm Deep Marine Holdings, declines to discuss the specific allegation involving Coleman.
“All I can tell you is that all the allegations were found to be without merit,” he said. “I will not single out every one of the allegations in there because there are many, many allegations.”
The Special Litigation Committee was appointed to look into the charges shortly after the lawsuits were filed. The committee interviewed 24 people and scrutinized thousands of pages of documents during the eight-month investigation, according to Deep Marine Technology.
The initial lawsuit was filed in Harris County District Court in Texas, and is currently pending. A separate lawsuit involving the company, filed in Delaware, contained almost the exact same allegation regarding a Coleman-Kazeminy payoff scheme. That case has since been dismissed, however, according to Deep Marine Technology.

Norm and Laurie Coleman at a 2008 campaign event (Photo by Paul Demko/Minnesota Independent)
Gilman says that the company will now seek to also have the Texas case thrown out. “We will move to dismiss the action in the Texas litigation as quickly as possible,” he said. “We were obviously waiting for this to be concluded.”
The announcement of the investigation’s findings comes just a day after Coleman conceded the protracted U.S. Senate contest to Franken. But Gilman insists that the timing is entirely coincidental.
“Frankly I’d never heard of Norm Coleman until this lawsuit,” he says. “Believe me we were trying to get this done as quickly as possible, because these things are expensive. But if you have an independent group doing this you can’t tell them what to do.”
Casey Wallace, the attorney representing McKim, argues that the investigation wasn’t independent, but rather was controlled by the company’s board of directors.
“We believe that the conclusions of the Special Litigation Committee are wrong, that the investigation was skewed to have a certain outcome,” he said. “The special litigation committee is the board; the board is the special litigation committee. We don’t believe it’s independent or serves any purpose.”
Wallace says the outcome of the investigation will have no affect on his client’s legal strategy. “We plan to go forward,” he said.
Coleman has said that all of the allegations are false and that the lawsuits are politically motivated. Kazeminy has also denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
Related: Texas firm “stonewalling” suit that names Coleman, lawyer says














14 Comments »
Comment posted July 1, 2009 @ 12:44 pm
SO where are all the posters writing to apologize for the things they said about Norm before all the FACTS were in. Norm DID NOTHING WRONG and this false suit filed by someone with a vendetta cost Norm the election. Typical Liberal tactic!!!
Comment posted July 1, 2009 @ 1:03 pm
So, lawyers representing the company say the company did nothing wrong. How is this news? Casey Wallace is right — this is a complete non-story. Wait until this actually goes to court and both sides can argue the facts.
Comment posted July 1, 2009 @ 1:31 pm
Aaron is exactly right. The Minnesota Independent ought to be ashamed at publishing this, and Paul Demko chastened for writing it in such a manner.
The reader has to carefully parse the words and read the entirety in a close manner to realize that no, the so-called “Special Litigation Committee” has no standing whatsoever in the court! It’s only purpose is to defend the company, just a like any hired pack of lawyers.
The status of this lawsuit is unchanged, and still pending in court. The so-called “findings” of this committee are nothing more than propaganda designed to win favorable conditions for defending the company against the lawsuit. On that basis alone, I hope the company loses and goes down in flames.
Comment posted July 1, 2009 @ 1:57 pm
MIke, when is Norm going to apologize for pointing the finger at the Franken camp regarding this whole mess? It was very clear from the beginning that Franken had no hand in this suit. But that didn’t stop Norm from smearing. Can’t wait to find out how Laurie found her way onto the company dole.
Comment posted July 1, 2009 @ 2:16 pm
A “special litigation committee” named by “the company” says “the company did no wrong”. No members of the “special litigation committee” are identified. Are they all board members? Why not say who they are?
You want an apology based on that? Or didn’t you bother to read the details?
If the company has so much great evidence, then they can ask for summary judgment. Which they won’t get. If they had everything needed to get a summary judgment, they wouldn’t be dragging this out.
It will get settled out of court, with no one accepting blame. And everyone will be prohibited from ever discussing the case. It ends with a whimper, not a bang, as usual, in this thing we call a legal system.
Comment posted July 1, 2009 @ 3:00 pm
Hey Minnesota Independent – here’s another “HEADLINE” for you:
Norm Coleman: Allegations in Coleman-connected lawsuit are baseless
What a joke.
Comment posted July 1, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
And we still don’t know what Laurie Coleman actually does to get paid by this insurance company. Does she have any skills they’d want to pay for? Why isn’t anyone asking that question?
Comment posted July 2, 2009 @ 10:46 am
Having the company declare that it did nothing wrong is not surprising. It’s rather like Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney saying they didn’t do anything wrong in the decision making that lead to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Not surprising.
But also not the source I’d trust to learn the truth of the matter. It would be assuring to learn that the Colemans were not interested in such bribery attempts and refused them. Short of that, this piece is rather like a ‘dog bites man’ news story. T
Comment posted July 2, 2009 @ 10:56 am
Alan is right. What justification is there for Norm’s wife to have a job with this company? It is simply a political payoff. She has no skills, that is why she is an unemployed actress.
And Norm is guilty. He should be put in jail and serve the rest of his life with a boyfriend rather than a bottle blonde at his side.
T-Paw needs to join Norm in prison. T-Paw & Norm lied. People died!
Comment posted July 2, 2009 @ 11:31 am
So let me understand the thinking here… it is ok to have these articles out there before all of the facts are presented but now before we have all of the facts in it is to soon to jump to the conclusion that Norm and the Texas firm did nothing wrong. (Sometimes I really wish I could live in this world.)
As for Norm making an apology to the Angry Al camp, why, all of the facts are not in, they could have orchestrated this. Wait, now I am confused, is this when we care about facts or not care about facts??
Comment posted July 2, 2009 @ 11:56 am
Gee, Mike, it sounds like you think that all lawsuits should be completely secret until they are finished? Or should just lawsuits involving politicians be secret? Were you in favor of keeping the Whitewater investigation secret until the proceeding was over? How about the impeachment hearing against Clinton? Shouldn’t that have been a secret until “all the facts were out”?
Comment posted July 2, 2009 @ 1:35 pm
One thing I’ve got to give Coleman credit for…he knows how to look like a martyr for public effect; like one last hurrah?
Consider this…first this blatantly bitter-faced ex-candidate managed to squeeze some wierd kind of martyrdom position out of his ugly, drag-out, vote counting, ad nausem bid to win; damming the process.
After closure from this elongated delay; after conceding in a most ‘humble’ manner, he managed to build his own cross in the process; polish up the two boards and then nail himself on the same two, for some kind of public sympathy? Wow…what can one say as he hangs there trying to look like J.C. himself maybe.
But in all honesty, he looks more like one of those other two guys who, historically, were hanging up behind (as the old story goes, hear what I’m
saying?)…the two behind J.C….robbers, weren’t they?
Now J.C. good man that he always was (’as foretold’ you could say)…would certainly forgive N. C for trying to fudge, copycat another’s martyrdom?
J.C. says I should too,so…
I forgive you Norm.
Comment posted July 2, 2009 @ 4:56 pm
Beryl, you might forgive Normie, but the rest of us will never forgive him until he is behind bars for the rest of his life.
He and Bushco caused so many of us poor to die – they are murderers and T-Paw is going to cause people to die in the streets with his unallotment.
I will never rest until all of those neo-cons are in prison.
God bless Barack. I can keep my house & get our from under my bills with help from the stimulus program. Colemen, T-paw, and Bushco tried to bury me. I and the American people are too smart to fall for their tricks. That is why we elected our hero, Barack Obama. And Michelle will occupy the Whilte House for 8 years and Barack’s 8 years.
Take that, you slimy Republicans.
Comment posted July 5, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
It’s politics, they lost this time. How is this different than swiftboats?
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