📄 Extracted Text (11,535 words)
1
DIGITALLY RECORDED
SWORN STATEMENT
OF
OIG CASE #:
2019-010614
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL
SEPTEMBER 22, 2021
RESOLUTE DOCUMENTATION SERVICES
28632 Roadside Drive, Suite 285
Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Phone:
EFTA00127564
APPEARANCES:
OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR-
EFTA00127565
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1 MR. : It's Senior Special Agent
2 . He's also assisting on the
3 case.
4 MR. : Is it
5 MR. : Yeah.
6 MR. :
7 MR. : Yeah. I'm right here.
8 I'm the Senior Special Agent here. So, yeah.
9 Like here just said, we just want to ask
10 you a couple questions regarding August 8th
11 through the 10th of 2019.
12 MR. : Okay.
13 MR. : And just so you know, all
14 of our interviews are recorded.
15 MR. : Okay.
16 MR. : And just for
17 documentation purposes. Just so you know.
18 MR. : Understood.
19 MR. : All right. Great. So,
20 is going to take it. I'll only jump in
21 if we need some clarifying information.
22 MR. : Okay.
23 MR. : Perfect. And I'm going to
24 start the recording.
25 MR. : Okay.
EFTA00127566
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1 MR. : My name is , and
2 I'm a Special Agent with U.S. Department of
3 Justice, Office of the Inspector General. New
4 York Field Office. This interview is with
5 former SigNet employee, . And it
6 is being conducted as part of an official U.S.
7 Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector
8 General investigation. Today's date is
9 September 22nd, 2021. The time is 9:03 a.m.
10 This interview is being conducted
11 telephonically, via phone number iggo 294-
12 1016. Did I get that right?
13 MR. : Yes.
14 MR. : Okay. Also present --
15 MR. : I'm going to read that
16 back. (III). I'm sorry.
17 MR. : Yes. Perfect. Also present
18 is DOJ/OIG Senior Special Agent
19 . This interview will be recorded by
20 me, Special Agent . Could
21 everyone please identify themselves for the
22 record, and spell your last name? To start,
23 again, I am DOLT Special Agent .
24 .
25 MR. : Senior Special Agent
EFTA00127567
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1 with the DOJ/OIG.
3 MR. : can you introduce
4 yourself, please?
5 MR. : Former SigNet employee,
6 - or , full name -
8 MR. : I apologize for
9 calling you
10 MR. : That's - no, no - I go by
11 .
12 MR. : All right.
13 MR. : But I gave you my formal.
14 MR. : Yeah. Thank you. This is an
15 official DOJ/OIG investigation into the death
16 of inmate Epstein, and the surrounding
17 circumstances. And you are being asked to
18 voluntarily provide answers to our questions.
19 Will you agree to a voluntary interview?
20 MR. : Yes.
21 MR. : Thank you. Please let me
22 know if you do not understand any questions I
23 ask, and I will repeat it, or try to rephrase
24 it.
25 MR. : Okay.
EFTA00127568
6
1 MR. : Okay? I'm going to go
2 through some of your background, and then we'll
3 go into the service request. What is your
4 current home address?
5 MR. : Current home address is
6
9 MR. : Okay. And --
10 MR. : Zip code is
11 MR. .
• -- thank you. What is your
12 date of birth?
13 MR. .• .
14 MR. : Is this your cell phone
15 number, the gm number?
16 MR. : Yes.
17 MR. : Okay. And what is your
18 highest level of education?
19 MR. : High school. One year of
20 college.
21 MR. : All right. Where did you
22 attend college?
23 MR. : I went to Liberty
24 University.
25 MR. : Where is that?
EFTA00127569
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1 MR. : Lynchburg, Virginia.
2 MR. : Was there a major you were
3 following?
4 MR. : It's just business
5 management.
6 MR. : Okay. And what did you do
7 prior to working for SigNet?
8 MR. : Prior to SigNet, I actually
9 delivered Little Debbie cakes for six months.
10 MR. : Excellent. And when did you
11 begin working for SigNet?
12 MR. : When did I pick up working
13 there?
14 MR. : Yeah. When did you begin
15 working for SigNet?
16 MR. : Oh. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
17 I'm going back too far. Sorry. SigNet. I
18 actually worked for Orion Systems Group. That
19 as in Fairfax, Virginia. Sorry. I skipped a
20 whole bunch of years there.
21 MR. : No problem.
22 MR. : Yeah.
23 MR. : I'm thinking before the
24 security industry. Sorry about that. Okay.
25 MR. : And -.
EFTA00127570
8
1 MR. : Yeah. Oh, no. Go ahead.
2 MR. : No, no. No problem. And
3 when exactly did you work, start, begin work
4 for SigNet?
5 MR. : That was April 2011.
6 MR. : Okay. And what was your
7 position with SigNet?
8 MR. : I came on as a service
9 tech, initially. And then, I entered into the
10 role, I want to say it was probably somewhere
11 in 2012, middle of 2012, or maybe early 2013.
12 I think it was the middle of 2012, they put me
13 as the senior customer support representative.
14 MR. : And that was your position in
15 August 2019?
16 MR. : Yes.
17 MR. : Okay. And what did that - as
18 a senior customer representative - what did
19 that position entail?
20 MR. : So, that was basically
21 traveling to the Federal Bureau of Prisons,
22 whenever they needed their VMS video system
23 server upgrades. Basically, any swap outs of
24 their systems, when they expired or went out of
25 warranty. And then, if I wasn't traveling,
EFTA00127571
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1 doing the upgrades, I was at home, working from
2 my house, and doing technical support for the
3 video systems at the prisons.
4 MR. : Okay. So, the main client
5 that you worked with was the Federal Bureau of
6 Prisons?
7 MR. : Yes.
8 MR. : Okay. And when did you leave
9 SigNet?
10 MR. : That was December 30th,
11 2019.
12 MR. : Where are you employed now?
13 MR. : I am at a UK based company
14 called ONVU Technologies. That's O-N-V-U.
15 MR. : Okay. Thank you.
16 MR. : Off of OSCAR NANCY VICTOR
17 UMBRELLA (Indiscernible *00:05:36) and Victor.
18 (Indiscernible *00:05:39).
19 MR. : Thank you. As part of your
20 job at SigNet, in 2019, do you recall working
21 on projects, or work orders, for the
22 Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York
23 City?
24 MR. : Yes.
25 MR. : Do you recall working on a
EFTA00127572
10
1 project that started August 8, 2019?
2 MR. : Yeah. I remember the
3 project. I don't know the exact date, but that
4 sounds about right.
5 MR. : Hey. I just want to clarify.
6 You mentioned the ONVU, that where you work,
7 have you been working there since December
8 2019?
9 MR. : No. I worked at -. When I
10 left SigNet, I went to another company. It's
11 called Enterprise Security Solutions.
12 MR. : Okay. And that was in
13 December 2019?
14 MR. : Yeah. It was December
15 31st, or yeah, basically.
16 MR. : (Indiscernible *00:06:28)
17 MR. : January.
18 MR. Okay. And you were there for
19 how long?
20 MR. : Until July, pfft. What was
21 that? July July. It was July this year. I
22 can Look it up.
23 MR. : And in July, you came over to
24 our -. You started working at ONVU?
25 MR. : Yes. So, my last day at
EFTA00127573
11
1 ESS was July 9th. And my first day at ONVU was
2 on July 12th.
3 MR. : Okay.
4 MR. : 2021. Yeah.
5 MR. : Okay. Thank you for
6 clarifying that.
7 MR. : Yup.
8 MR. : Now, as part of - and I'm
9 going to go back to that last question I asked
10 - as part of your job at SigNet in 2019, do you
11 recall working on projects, or work orders, for
12 the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New
13 York City?
14 MR. : Yes.
15 MR. : Who were you dealing with at
16 the MCC?
17 MR. : I believe that was .
18 MR. : ?
19 MR. .
• .
20 MR. : Okay. And we have a copy of
21 SigNet service request, 24975. Because this is
22 telephonically, I know I can't show it to you,
23 but I will read it to you. Is that all right
24 with you?
25 MR. : Yeah.
EFTA00127574
12
1 MR. : It says, "Raid (Phonetic Sp.
2 *00:07:32) just crashed." That's under the
3 service request. And this was created on
4 August 8, 2019. That status shows FBOP
5 assigned, and it's assigned to
6 , and . The contact
7 we have is, , and the service
8 location is for 150 Park Row, New York, New
9 York. Is your understanding that is for the
10 MCC?
11 MR. : Yes. I believe so. I
12 don't know their exact address, but yeah
13 MR. : Okay.
14 MR. : -- it sounds
15 MR. : Now, this says
16 MR. : -- familiar.
17 MR. : -- is this an emergency
18 request? It says, yes. Must call. The !
19 problem was reported by And -
20
21 MR. : .
22 MR. : -- . I apologize.
23 It's . And I'm going to read the
24 comments here. The earliest comment, it looks
25 like, is on - it's by you - on August 8th, at
EFTA00127575
13
1 3:36 p.m. It states that the assignment on
2 August 8th to 16th, all day for ,
3 , and was been
4 created. It says will be working
5 on this. Get a case started with Qognify?
6 MR. : Do you want to start with
7 August 8th first. Is that what you started
8 with?
9 MR. : Yeah.
10 MR. : Okay. Sorry.
11 MR. : It's Qognify. That's Q-O-G-
12 N-I-F-Y. Is that your internal system?
13 MR. : No. So, Qognify is the
14 video manufacturer of the software that they
15 were using. At the time, though, they were - I
16 believe - their system was a NICE Vision
17 system, just to give you guys a little
18 background on it. So, Nice Vision was the
19 prior company.
20 MR. : Okay.
21 MR. : When most of the prisons
22 got their video systems. And then, Qognify
23 basically purchased, or bought, Nice Vision. I
24 want to say that was probably in, like, 2018.
25 Maybe 2017.
EFTA00127576
14
1 MR. : Okay. So, and that's why --
2 MR. : So, they rebranded,
3 basically, the new systems that they were
4 putting in.
5 MR. : Understood. Okay. And then,
6 the assignment was created at 3:36 p.m. There
7 is a comment by - that's you,
8 right? - at 3:38 p.m. And --
9 MR. : Yeah.
10 MR. : -- it looks like someone
11 addressed it to you. It says, "Hi, .
12 Unable to locate anything official. The basic
13 steps are as following: One, set the raid
14 level to none, and save. It will restart it
15 with all drives being J. Replace any faulty
16 drives. Two, set the raid level to five, and
17 save. It will restart and begin
18 initialization. The password is 1111. Four
19 ones. And if I recall correctly, once the raid
20 is created, you will need to restart Windows,
21 and create the proper partitions. I'll keep
22 looking, but that should get you going. Best
23 regards, (Phonetic Sp. *00:10:13),
24 Senior Support Engineer."
25 MR. . Okay. I was
EFTA00127577
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1 wondering who that was. I was going to guess
2 Sharom (Phonetic Sp. *00:10:19), but -.
3 MR. : Is that someone --
4 MR. : Okay .
5 MR. : -- internally, or is that
6 from Qognify?
7 MR. : No. So, that -- yeah -
8 that's the Qognify technical support engineer.
9 MR. : So, you reached out to
10 Qognify and to get assistance on this matter,
11 and they responded on these are the steps?
12 MR. : Mm-hmm.
13 MR. : All right. And the next
14 step, the next comment I have is by
15 , on August 14th, 2019. 8:02 p.m. So,
16 this is approximately six days after the
17 incident.
18 MR. : Okay.
19 MR. : " called us on
20 Thursday, August 8th, stating that he had two
21 bad drives in his raid unit. Off the Nice
22 Vision Pro, Unit NVR (Phonetic Sp. *00:10:57).
23 We advised him to get replacement drives. Once
24 they are replaced, they should start to
25 initialize, to become available for the raid
EFTA00127578
16
1 array. did not have drives
2 readily available. He checked with his local
3 CSM." What is CSM?
4 MR. : Should be computer
5 specialists manager --
6 MR. : That's --
7 MR. : -- I believe.
8 MR. : -- that's internal for the
9 BOP?
10 MR. : Yup.
11 MR. : Okay.
12 MR. : That's what their IT
13 manager, and the IT department, I think.
14 MR. : Thank you. "He checked with
15 his local CSM, to see if they had any spare
16 replacement drives. Once he located
17 replacement drives on Friday, August 9th, he
18 did not have access to the DVR room, to replace
19 them. He called SigNet for some phone support
20 on Saturday, August 10th, when he gained access
21 to the DVR room. He attempted to replace the
22 drives, and they started to rebuild. During
23 the rebuild process of the drives, the drives
24 were required to be taken out of raid, on DVR-
25 2. Once the drives were removed without proper
EFTA00127579
17
1 shutdown of the recorder, the video database
2 becomes corrupted. Typically, any time the
3 raid is - raid on - raid five configuration
4 loses two drives, the raid needs to be rebuild,
5 and all data is wiped from the raid." Do you
6 recall making that comment?
7 MR. : Yeah. That sounds about
8 right. That sounds what I would have stated.
9 MR. : Okay. So, I'm going to go
10 back. Can you explain to me the phone call
11 that you got from on August 8th, if you
12 recall what he stated to you on August 8th?
13 MR. : Yeah. I'm trying to think.
14 Well, yeah. I'm trying to -. So, August 8th,
15 well, that was a -. Was that a, like, a
16 Saturday, maybe?
17 MR. : No.
18 MR. : Maybe it was -
19 MR. : That was a Thursday.
20 MR. : Thursday. Okay.
21 MR. : It looks like, on Thursday,
22 he called - August 8th - he called you, he
23 reported the incident. You gave - possibly
24 gave - him instructions on what to do. August
25 9th, he got replacement drives, but he did not
EFTA00127580
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1 have access to the room. That would be on a
2 Friday. Then August 10th is when he called you
3 back, and it looks like you -. The incident
4 with Epstein happened, and he called you back.
5 MR. : Oh. Okay. Okay. Yeah,
6 because I was going to say -. Let's see.
7 Yeah. I have a different recollection than I
8 thought, because I thought, from what, and I
9 want to say, maybe that incident started
10 earlier, but maybe not. Because what I was,
11 what I was recalling on that was, me and my
12 wife were actually about, I think, let's see,
13 2019. So, that would have been -. Yeah.
14 Me and my wife and my son were out at a
15 cabin on a weekend get-away, and I remember an
16 email, I believe that was from , saying
17 something that he had gotten a call from
18 . Now, that could have been
19 after the initial reach out from him. That the
20 drives were down. I think that might have
21 been. So, I'm kind of questioning if
22 reached out to me initially, or if he reached
23 to , and then assigned that to me.
24 Because , I believe, was also out on
25 vacation, either that week or that weekend, as
EFTA00127581
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1 I was, but I was kind of local. So, he had
2 asked me to reach out or, you know, basically
3 work with him, work with Qognify. And so,
4 that's what I was remembering from that,
5 because I know, I remember specifically, I was
6 on vacation on the weekend.
7 And trying to reach out, basically, to, I
8 want to say, like, our sales rep,
9 (Phonetic Sp. •00:14:27), who worked, you know,
10 for the Bureau, or worked with the Bureau of
11 Prisons. He sold all their equipment.
12 Reaching out to . But again, I could
13 be -. I could be wrong on the timeframe there.
14 But --
15 MR. : It's --.
16 MR. either way, yes, I did
17 work directly with - - at
18 one point, on the case, prior to visiting the
19 site. So, yeah. I was just trying to get that
20 timeline right, because I don't want to tell
21 you that it happened this specific way you're
22 saying it, and then it didn't.
23 MR. : No problem. And you
24 mentioned that you were away with your wife on
25 a camping trip. Do you know how long the trip
EFTA00127582
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1 was for?
2 MR. : It was just a weekend. So,
3 I think we might have left out on a Friday, you
4 know, Friday afternoon, and then, probably came
5 back, like, Sunday night.
6 MR. : So, it's possible that you
7 spoke to him on Thursday, August 8th, before
8 you headed out for the camping trip?
9 MR. : Possibly. Yeah.
10 MR. : You don't recall?
11 MR. : Yeah. I don't - yeah - I
12 don't recall specifically. I do - and like I
13 said - I do know, I did talk to him, at one
14 point, about the drives, and that he couldn't -
15 . Okay. So - yeah - that does clear it.
16 Okay. So, that's really -. Sorry. I'm just
17 trying to piece it together.
18 MR. : No problem.
19 MR. : So, yeah. He did mention
20 something about that he would check with -.
21 So, that's why I'm trying to think that it may
22 have been the weekend prior to the 8th. Or not
23 the 8th. But it would have been the 10th,
24 would have been the Saturday. I want to say he
25 reached out before then. Because I want to say
EFTA00127583
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1 we were out on the weekend, before that.
2 MR. : So, hold on. Let me just
3 clarify.
4 MR. : Yeah. So, let me. So,
5 I'm looking at this now, . This is
6 So, on August 8th --
7 MR. : Uh-huh.
8 MR. : -- that's when you
9 received, it looks like, a message from that
10 individual. Who is it?
11 MR. : .
12 MR.
13 MR. : Yes.
14 MR. : -- saying, "Hi, .
15 Unable to locate anything official. The basic
16 steps are as follows." So, it looks like,
17 maybe somebody would have reached out to you
18 before. So, in fact, that was the August 8th
19 comment. And then --
20 MR. : Yeah.
21 MR. : -- that was something
22 that says comment made by you. And then --
23 MR. : Uh-huh.
24 MR. : -- the next comment made
25 by you was actually on August 14th, 2019.
EFTA00127584
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1 MR. : Okay.
2 MR. : And what you're stating
3 here is, it's saying, " called us
4 on Thursday, August 8th, stating that he had
5 two bad drives." So, it doesn't specifically
6 say he called you. Do you know if he would
7 have called you direct, or he would have called
8 someone else with SigNet?
9 MR. : That's why I was saying. I
10 think he may have called initially. And
11 then, had asked me to basically work on
12 that case because, like I said, I think
13 was out on vacation, and that's why he passed
14 the case to me, asking me to work with
15 and Qognify to try to see if we could get those
16 replaced. Let me look at the year here. I'm
17 just trying to pull it up.
18 MR. : And you mentioned there is a
19 possibility you were away on a camping trip the
20 weekend prior to that.
21 MR. : So, the 10th. Yeah. I
22 mean, I could try to verify that, if that's,
23 like, an absolute --
24 MR. : No, no.
25 MR. : -- necessity. I could see.
EFTA00127585
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1 Yeah. I know it was basically right around
2 this case time. So, it could have been the
3 prior, or it could have been that weekend. But
4 yeah. That's really -.
5 MR. : I know it's tough. It's been
6 a couple years. So, remembering the exact
7 details is kind of hard.
8 MR. : You know, it may have been
9 that Friday night. The 9th. So, you said I
10 was talking to Derek on the 8th?
11 MR. : Yes.
12 MR. : Or I got a reply from him
13 on the 8th. Yeah. Because I want to say we
14 left out on the 9th, and we were at the cabin
15 on the 9th. And I want to say that me and
16 were maybe communicating back and forth
17 via email. And trying to kind of figure out,
18 you know, what drives he could get, or
19 whatever. So, maybe, maybe it all happened
20 right in that weekend. Because I do remember
21 something about hearing that, you know, the
22 incident happened there.
23 MR. : Okay. Yeah, and I'm --
24 MR. : Uh-huh.
25 MR. : -- re-reading this. It
EFTA00127586
24
1 doesn't specifically state in your comment, on
2 the 14th, that you actually ever spoke with
3 him. It just says --
4 MR. : With .
5 MR. : -- it - yeah - with
6 . It just says that he called us on the
7 8th. And then, it talks about, you talk about
8 how, on the 9th, he didn't have access to the
9 DVR room, to replace them. And then, it says,
10 he called SigNet for phone support on Saturday,
11 August 10th. So, do you know --
12 MR. : Okay.
13 MR. : -- if you were away, I'm
14 assuming this information was passed to you on
15 August 14th, when you made the comment? Would
16 that be accurate, since it sounds like you were
17 aware that weekend?
18 MR. : Well, I do -. So, I do
19 remember talking to him, at some point, and him
20 -. Well, I don't know if I talked to him or
21 emailed --
22 MR. : Okay.
23 MR. : -- but basically, I
24 remember, I remember him saying that, like, he
25 was trying to find drives. He didn't have any,
EFTA00127587
25
1 so he was going to check with the CSM, to see
2 if they had any on site. Then, I believe he
3 found them, and then, he said, and he called,
4 he either called me back, or emailed, and said,
5 hey, the room where the NVR is locked, and it's
6 our internal investigation office, and they
7 have the keys. I don't have access to that.
8 So, I'm going to have to wait until such and
9 such. It was probably Saturday. I think I
10 stated there that he could actually get access
11 into the room, to go try and replace the
12 drives.
13 MR. : Okay. So --
14 MR. : Sorry.
15 MR. : You just
16 MR. : -- but -.
17 MR. : -- don't know if that's
18 August 8th or August 9th, the day you left for
19 your trip?
20 MR. : No. I was actually trying
21 to see if I could pull up a Outlook data file,
22 because I believe I saved some emails.
23 MR. : Oh, that would be
24 awesome. And then, specifically --
25 MR. : I'm just like that.
EFTA00127588
26
1 MR. : -- yeah. No. That would
2 be great. Specifically -.
3 MR. : I want to even say I saved
4 all of my tickets from SigNet, but I can't
5 promise that.
6 MR. : Oh, that would be huge.
7 And I think going back, as far as, like, July
8 29th, if you don't mind, because that's when we
9 think that the drives may have actually gone
10 down.
11 MR. : July 29th?
12 MR. : Yeah. I mean, I don't
13 know that they contacted you or not, but that
14 would be the follow up question, after we
15 figure out what happened on the 8th and 9th.
16 It would be, how far back did you know that
17 these drives, or had you been working with
18 , to replace these things,
19 because it looks like they may have gone bad on
20 7/29/2019.
21 MR. : 29th. So, that would have
22 been about. That sounds about -. That sounds
23 about right.
24 MR. : Why do you say that?
25 MR. : Well, because - again -
EFTA00127589
27
1 like, I know that he initially contacted us
2 about the drives being out. And I want to say,
3 it took -. I remember it -. I thought it was
4 at least a couple of days of the process of
5 trying to go back and forth with him. And I
6 don't know if it was me or , basically
7 saying, hey, we've got to get drives. You
8 know, they don't sell them anymore at Qognify,
9 I don't think. Because they are basically non-
10 production drives, and we would have to get
11 refurbished drives. And I think was
12 looking on, like, eBay, and, you know, a couple
13 of our sources, to find some. So, I don't know
14 exactly, did that comment say that he had
15 drives on site?
16 MR. : So --
17 MR. : Or did he order them?
18 MR. : -- that --
19 MR. : Because that's the other
20 question
21 MR. : -- it looks --
22 MR. : -- is, did he not have
23 them?
24 MR. : -- he didn't have access to
25 them.
EFTA00127590
28
1 MR. : Okay. So, that may have
2 been the gap, from the 29th.
3 MR. : Well, it does say --
4 MR. : (Indiscernible *00:22:07).
5 MR. : -- so, after the August
6 8th thing, it says, "He checked with his local
7 CSM to see if they had any spare replacement
8 drives. Once he located replacement drives, on
9 Friday, August 9th, he did not --
10 MR. : Okay.
11 MR. : -- have access to the DVR
12 room to replace them."
13 MR. : Okay. So then, he did have
14 them on site. Okay.
15 MR. : At least that's --
16 MR. : That's what it sounds like.
17 MR. : -- that's what it sounds
18 like. Yeah.
19 MR. : Yeah.
20 MR. : Okay.
21 MR. : So, I'm assuming that
22 means that you wouldn't have sent them. Do you
23 know who the CSM was, by chance?
24 MR. : I can try to look here.
25 I'm looking at our database. I probably
EFTA00127591
29
1 shouldn't have all this information, but -.
2 MR. : It helps us a lot. We
3 appreciate it.
4 MR. : Okay. Maybe, yeah. I
5 don't pass it out to, you know, other
6 companies, but stuff like this, I do find it
7 useful, if it -. Hmm. Okay. I've got -.
8 Hey. There is a camera outage. Oh. I've got
9 a camera outage report.
10 MR. : What is that?
11 MR. : But I don't -. That shows
12 from 8/16. These are all looking at August
13 16th. Which could have been the time that I
14 actually was on site.
15 MR. : Okay.
16 MR. : Yeah, we would be looking
17 specifically 8/10, and prior.
18 MR. : Okay. Let me see what I've
19 got. Do I have screenshots? 8/16. 8/11.
20 Okay. Let me go back and see. Let me look at
21 this report and see if it gives me, like, a
22 date of when this was exported to, because that
23 could be something, if you guys need it.
24 MR. : Okay.
25 MR. : I don't know if you guys
EFTA00127592
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1 have all that or not.
2 MR. : We don't have the -. This is
3 -. This is between SigNet employees. Right?
4 MR. : This is an Excel document,
5 but again, but I've got to see what date it
6 shows on here. Because they kind of hide it in
7 the columns. I'm trying to see if it has a
8 date. This is basically just a camera outage
9 report. So, I don't know if you guys need
10 that. And if that, again, I don't know if that
11 was ran from him, and we got that.
12 MR. : But you said this was on the
13 16th?
14 MR. : That one shows that it was
15 edited on the 17th, but it - like I said - in
16 the outage report, I thought that they give you
17 a date when it was actually exported from the
18 system.
19 MR. : Okay.
20 MR. : So, I would have to look at
21 the order. But yeah, let me go back to your
22 original. You're looking for the email traffic
23 and everything. So, let me see if I can find
24 that. Oh. Hmm. Oh, what's that? Sorry. I'm
25 looking through gigs and gigs of --
EFTA00127593
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1 MR. : No problem.
2 MR. : -- information here.
3 MR. : No. We appreciate it.
4 Thank you.
5 MR. : Oh, no problem. Hopefully,
6 I can find something that helps a little more.
7 Okay. So, I've got -. All right. Let me see
8 if I can load this into Outlook and see, if it
9 will load. All right. So, files. Open. And
10 export. Let's do an import. Oh, import from
11 another program or file. Oh, that is a ODF.
12 Yup, right there. Let's see. Allow duplicates
13 to be created, replace duplicates with items
14 imported. I have no idea. But I'll screw my
15 work email up. Crap.
16 MR. : No problem. Can I - while
17 you're doing it, while you take a look - can I
18 ask you a question?
19 MR. : Yeah.
20 MR. : This is, in here, it states,
21 "During the rebuild process of the drives, the
22 drives were required to be taken out of raid,
23 on DVR-2. Once the drives are removed without
24 proper shutdown of the recorder, the video
25 database becomes corrupted." Is that your
EFTA00127594
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1 understanding of what happened, from your
2 conversation with ?
3 MR. : I'm - so, yeah - I'm trying
4 to figure out when that was happening, because
5 I do know that, at some point, the FBI came
6 there on site, I think prior to us showing up.
7 And I want to say that the recorder was
8 rebuilding, and they said that they had to take
9 the equipment out. And that's what I'm -.
10 That's what I'm trying to piece together, if it
11 was then that they took it out. Or if it was -
12 . Yeah. Because I don't, I don't really make
13 any sense of him putting them in and then
14 pulling them out.
15 MR. : Okay.
16 MR. : Yeah, because I would
17 think, once he puts them in, I mean, he would
18 leave them to rebuild. And I think I would
19 have probably made that comment, because he
20 said something about the FBI coming in, they
21 need to confiscate the equipment. And then,
22 and I'm pretty sure I told him, I said, well,
23 you don't want to, you don't want to unplug
24 those while it's rebuilding because if it, you
25 know, basically stops, you have no pick up
EFTA00127595
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1 point to start rewriting. It's going to start
2 all over, and then, you're going to have gaps
3 where you're going to be missing recordings.
4 MR. : Now, so, do you believe,
5 then, for whatever they did, that erased all
6 prior data, anything that was saved on there
7 would have been erased?
8 MR. : If - yeah - if they pulled,
9 if they pulled power, and pulled the units out,
10 then yeah. I mean, it would have wiped, wiped
11 the raid, I would think.
12 MR. : So -.
13 MR. : Now, if we have
14 information that the servers were already down,
15 since 7/29/2019 --
16 MR. : Mm-hmm.
17 MR. : -- would have those
18 servers been recording up until the date that
19 they tried to rebuild them anyway?
20 MR. : That depends, because I
21 don't remember if the -. I think those
22 servers, the way, the older servers, I believe
23 they were set to a raid five. Let's see.
24 Those are the pros. So, I want to say that is
25 a raid five, and they loaded, basically
EFTA00127596
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1 everything was kind of compiled together, on
2 the same raid in those servers. So, that would
3 have put the os, and the video storage on the
4 same raid array.
5 But they partition out for the OS. So, if
6 they lost one drive, then that would be okay.
7 With a raid five. If they lost two drives,
8 then -. So, if they would have lost two drives
9 simultaneously, they would lose everything.
10 The recorder would go down, and you wouldn't be
11 able to get into the OS. From what I
12 understood. So, it's possible that he lost one
13 drive and called us. Initially. Was trying to
14 replace that. And then, when, you know,
15 basically, another one went down while the
16 other one was rebuilding. That could have been
17 possible. And that could explain why the OS
18 didn't crash.
19 MR. : So, on that note, so, our
20 understanding, there is, like, let's say there
21 is 150 cameras in the MCC.
22 MR. : Uh-huh.
23 MR. : We were told about half
24 of them go to one drive, and half of them go to
25 the other drive. If that one drive went down
EFTA00127597
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1 on 7/29/2019, would those cameras that were on
2 that drive had continued to have recorded on
3 the other drive, or would have they stopped
4 recording, and only the other drive that was
5 good, that housed the other half of the
6 cameras, have recorded?
7 MR. : Well, sorry. So, it really
8 doesn't work like that. But yeah. I mean,
9 yeah, in theory, you would want it to work like
10 that. But essentially, the raid will spread
11 the data over all drives.
12 MR. : Oh, I'm going to stop -. Can
13 you explain what a raid is?
14 MR. : So, a raid is a group of
15 drives.
16 MR. : Is that, like, a DVR system?
17 MR. : What's that?
18 MR. : Is that, like, a DVR system?
19 MR. : Yeah. I'm sorry. Yup.
20 Let's - yeah - let's go back. So, the DVR
21 system recorder. So, normally, their old set
22 up, I believe, had a - and that would be a PC
23 or a computer, like a server. A server. Like,
24 a rack PC server. That would contain the OS.
25 Okay. So, yeah. Never mind. Let me take back
EFTA00127598
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1 what I said about the OS. Because now, I'm
2 remembering their set up.
3 I believe they had -. The way the old
4 ones were, is they had a separate computer.
5 They called the Nice Vision Pro units. So,
6 that, I believe, had two drives in it. So,
7 that would be a raid one redundancy. So, that
8 -. So, again, the raid is a group of drives
9 for storage.
10 MR. : Okay.
11 MR. : And what a raid allows is,
12 so, like, in your case, you were just talking
13 about if you had two drives, you had, you know,
14 half the cameras recording in one, half the
15 other, to the other one, if one went down, you
16 would technically still have all the other
17 cameras on that drive. So, what the raid does
18 is basically, it allows you to take - say you
19 don't have that scenario, of losing half your
20 cameras - the raid allows you to put, you know,
21 there is a number of drives that it requires to
22 have for certain raid levels.
23 But basically, it allows you to, like,
24 let's say four to six hard drives. It groups
25 those together. So now, you - then the
EFTA00127599
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1 recorder takes the video, the video recording,
2 and starts to spread it out over all those
3 drives, and it basically makes a mirrored copy.
4 So, if one did fail, it still can go back on
5 the other drives, and access the copied files,
6 or the mirrored files.
7 MR. : Now -.
8 MR. : So, how -. It's for the
9 purpose of redundancy, in case you did lose a
10 drive, you're not losing, you know, certain
11 data that was just written on that drive.
12 Because then, you have gaps in the recording.
13 MR. : So, a raid can also be
14 referred to as DVR system. Right? Now, if a
15 DVR system, they have two DVRs. If DVR-2 went
16 down completely, right? It stopped recording.
17 Should it have --
18 MR. : Mm-hmm.
19 MR. : -- stopped recording on DVR-
20 1?
21 MR. : No, because they are two
22 separate They are two separate --
23 MR. : Systems.
24 MR. : -- machines.
25 MR. : Okay. And how would they
EFTA00127600
38
1 have known that the DVR system went down? Was
2 there any alerts that come up in Nice Vision,
3 anything that comes up to them?
4 MR. : Yeah. So, it would. It
5 would normally come up on the -. It's called
6 the AMS, or the Application Management Server.
7 And that's, like, the primary unit that
8 controls the whole video system. And then, you
9 add recorders underneath that AMS. Depending
10 on how many cameras you have. That's how they
11 kind of allocate recorders. So, if you have
12 100 cameras, okay, let's put 100 cameras on
13 this recorder. Let's put 100 more on the
14 second one. So on and so forth.
15 And then, Application Management Server
16 basically allows the users to authenticate and
17 log into that system, from any client in the
18 facility. Or outside if you, you know, if
19 they've managed to network that way. But yeah,
20 the Application Management Server is kind of,
21 like, the gateway to let people in, to view the
22 video. And then, that also manages the traffic
23 of, okay, you want to see this video and this
24 recorder. Okay, you've got, you know, you've
25 got correct credentials. Okay, you're allowed
EFTA00127601
39
1 to view that camera. And then, it sends the
2 feed --
3 MR. : Okay.
4 MR. : -- to their client station.
5 So, yeah. In short, the AMS would normally
6 have alerts, in an application, I believe it's
7 - it's not Investigator - it's called
8 Supervision.
9 MR. : Mm-hmm.
10 MR. : There was five different
11 applications for Nice Vision. Supervision
12 would keep all of the, like, the hardware, and
13 I think most software events, in that
14 application. And I think you could control,
15 basically, if you had pop-ups messages or
16 anything. But as far as if you didn't go to
17 that server physically, and check, from what I
18 know from the Bureau, they did not allow those
19 servers to send email notifications out.
20 MR. : So -.
21 MR. : Because that would have
22 required them to load with an email client, on
23 the server, and then, you know, basically act
24 like it's, you know, someone's account on that
25 server, to send those email notifications out
EFTA00127602
40
1 to other people in the facility there. And as
2 far as I know, up until I left, they didn't
3 allowed that.
4 MR. : So --
5 MR. : So, you had, you would have
6 to go the physical server, to see those
7 notifications. Or you would -. Well, I take
8 that back, because you could go on the client
9 and log into Nice Vision. And then, check the
10 Supervision. But it's not going to send you,
11 like, an email notification.
12 MR. : So, I want to clarify this
13 for this. If you log into Nice Vision, let's
14 say you're reviewing the video footage --
15 MR. : Mm-hmm.
16 MR. : -- if you log in, there would
17 have been an alert, saying that these cameras
18 are not recording?
19 MR. : Yes. If you -. Yeah.
20 MR. : Now --
21 MR. : Normally. I don't -. Now,
22 I don't know if there would have been a pop-up.
23 I would say, to be safe, you would have to
24 actually go into that Supervision app. So,
25 like I said, there was multiple apps, and most
EFTA00127603
41
1 of the time, from what I see, you've got -.
2 So, there is a control app that's normally for,
3 you know, you can play back video and see live
4 video in that application.
5 And then, there is an app called Site
6 Builder, and that's basically letting you set
7 up the site. But the Supervision app would be
8 where you check on the status of, okay, if your
9 recorder is offline, if you've got a bad hard
10 drive, things like that. So, that's where you
11 have to go, to see that. So, I don't know if
12 they had pop-up alerts on there, and you, like
13 I said, I think you could set those up to pop-
14 up on your machine. But again, that would
15 dependent if you're logged in to Nice Vision.
16 And you have those pop-up alerts turned on.
17 Otherwise, you would have to log in, go to that
18 application, and look at the list of alerts --
19 MR. : To see it. Okay.
20 MR. : -- to see what was going
21 on.
22 MR. : Or, if they tried to review
23 video, they would realize the fact it was not
24 recording.
25 MR. : Right. That's the other
EFTA00127604
42
1 way.
2 MR. : Okay.
3 MR. : Well, that goes back to,
4 I don't think that you actually ever answered
5 this question. I think we got kind of
6 diverted. Was --
7 MR. : Sorry.
8 MR. : -- you were talking about
9 the half of the video that were on the one
10 server, if that server went down, would have
11 that other server, then, captured it? Where
12 you're saying the mirrored it. Would have they
13 have captured that video, that, you know, the
14 server went down on 7/29/2019, the other server
15 is good. Would those videos have been saved
16 somewhere, if they were still a live feed was
17 going?
18 MR. : Okay. So, you're saying,
19 if the server two went down, but server one
20 stayed up, you're asking, could you retrieve
21 the video from server two on server one?
22 MR. : Correct.
23 MR. : No. Because you have to
24 have a redundant server backup.
25 MR. : And they didn't, in this
EFTA00127605
43
1 case?
2 MR. : No.
3 MR. : All right. So,
4 regardless if they pulled the drives when it
5 was being rebuilt on the 10th, if the server
6 went down on the 29th of July, nothing would
7 have -. They wouldn't have been able to
8 extract anything from 7/29 to August 10th,
9 anyway.
10 MR. : Yeah. If the whole server
11 went down. Yup.
12 MR. : Okay.
13 MR. : And just to clarify, I think
14 my understanding is, when the FBI got in there
15 on Saturday morning - -
16 MR. : Mm-hmm.
17 MR. already had pulled
18 out two drives.
19 MR. : Okay.
20 MR. : And he was rebuilding it.
21 MR. : Okay.
22 MR. : So, if they walked in, and if
23 — let's just say FBI followed the proper
24 protocol, they shut it down properly, they
25 pulled it down. And is it possible, when
EFTA00127606
44
1 went to replace the drives, when he
2 replaced the drives, he could have wiped out
3 whatever was saved on the drives?
4 MR. : If - yeah - it just depends
5 if they showed if they were bad. So, or if
6 they were totally, like, wiped. And non-
7 retrievable.
8 MR. : All right. Because I
9 thought
10 MR. : (Indiscernible *00:39:07).
11 MR. : -- what you were saying -
12 --
13 MR. : Sorry. Go ahead.
14 MR. : -- was that was
15 rebuilding them --
16 MR. : Yeah.
17 MR. : -- and that's what he
18 should have done, was to replace those drives,
19 but then, the FBI pulled the ones that he was
20 replacing. Is that not correct? That he was
21 rebuilding.
22 MR. : I don't know if they pulled
23 the drives, or if they pulled the whole
24 recorder out.
25 MR. : They pulled the whole system.
ℹ️ Document Details
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11b2655a1bbaf6e1e2092505dbf979dd0e4328bee88250110f4003fd918a2ddb
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EFTA00127564
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62
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