24. More than a month and a half later Chief Judge Walker had still taken no action on the complaint. By contrast, Judge Ninfo went on to engage in even more flagrantly wrongful conduct in another case to which Dr. Cordero was made a party, namely, the voluntary petition for bankruptcy under 11 U.S.C. Chapter 13 of M&T Bank Assistant Vice President David DeLano of all people! (In re DeLano, no. 04-20280, WBNY; C:1431, 1435, 1467; docket at D:496) Consequently, Dr. Cordero filed a judicial misconduct complaint against Chief Judge Walker on March 19, 2004. (C:271) As required by law and Circuit rule, he addressed it to the next judge eligible to become the chief judge, to wit, Circuit Judge Dennis Jacobs.
25. Dr. Cordero brought to Judge Jacobs’ attention not only Chief Judge Walker’s failure to take action on the complaint against Judge Ninfo, but also how his inaction had condoned Judge Ninfo’s misconduct and allowed him to engage even more flagrantly in bias and disregard for the law, the rules, and the facts in the handling of DeLano. A judge mindful of his duty, not only under §351, but also as a member of the Judicial Council, to safeguard the integrity of judicial process and the proper administration of justice would have conducted an investigation, for the DeLano petition and its handling by Judge Ninfo and other court officers and trustees are so egregious as to reveal the force that joins them and links the cases: a bankruptcy fraud scheme.
26. Indeed, Mr. David and Mrs. Mary Ann Delano are not average debtors. Mr. David DeLano has worked in financing for 7 years and as an officer at two banks for 32 years: 39 years professionally managing money!…and counting, for he is still working for M&T Bank as a manager in credit administration (Tr:15/17-16/15). As such, he qualifies as an expert in how to assess creditworthiness and remain solvent to be able to repay bank loans. Thus, Mr. Delano is a member of a class of people who should know how not to go bankrupt.
27. As for Mrs. DeLano, she was a specialist in business Xerox machines. As such, she is a person trained to think methodically so as to ask pointed questions of customers and guide them through a series of systematic steps to solve their technical problems with Xerox machines.
28. Hence, the DeLanos are professionals with expertise in borrowing, dealing with bankruptcies, and learning and applying technical instructions. They should have been held to a high standard of responsibility…but instead they were allowed to conceal assets because they know too much.
29. This means that because of his 39-year long career in finance and banking, Mr. DeLano has learned how borrowers use or abuse the bankruptcy system, and more importantly, how trustees and court officers handle their petitions so that rightfully or wrongfully they are successful in obtaining bankruptcy relief from their debts. Actually, Mr. DeLano works precisely in the area of bankruptcies at M&T Bank, collecting money from delinquent commercial borrowers and even liquidating company assets (Tr:17.14-19). In fact, he was the M&T officer that liquidated the storage containers in which M&T kept an interest to secure its loan to Mr. Palmer. So he knows how the latter was treated by Judge Ninfo in Premier, which gave rise to Pfuntner.