Hello and welcome to Behind the Mic from otrpodcast.com. I'm your host, Austin Vock, and on this podcast we explore the history behind many of Old Time Radio's greatest performances. We jump around from series to series, picking one episode each week, and together we learn about the actors, producers, sponsors, and more before listening to that full episode as it was originally broadcast. If you have feedback for today's show or have a great idea for future podcasts, please send me an email at contact at otrpodcast.com. You can also send me a voice message by clicking the link in the show notes, or if you're watching this on YouTube, just leave a comment down below. A special shout out to Chubby Boy from YouTube who's requested that I feature the episode 3 Skeleton Key from Suspense on a future podcast. I don't want to do two of the same series back to back, but I've made a note of the request and will be sure to cover it in a future episode. I also want to thank everyone who's listened to the first episode. It's been fun connecting with fellow radio fans like yourselves. Today's episode will begin after a brief message from our sponsor. Just a few weeks ago I was listening to an episode of Richard Diamond Private Detective when I heard a line that jumped out to me. The episode I was listening to is called The Hollywood Story and begins with someone coming to see Richard Diamond in his office to get his help on a case in California. And for those of you unfamiliar with Richard Diamond, he lives in New York City. Diamond agrees to take the case, but while on route to California he says to the man, why come all the way to New York for me? We've got some pretty good boys in California. Spade, Novak. Now as I mentioned in my first podcast, Sam Spade is another fictional character that appears on his own radio program. Same with Pat Novak. So what stood out to me as I was listening to this was that this was the first time I'd ever heard what I'd consider to be a connected universe in the land of old time radio. The idea of a connected universe is not unfamiliar to anyone who's read a comic book or been to the movie theater in the last 12 years. It's fairly common to see characters like Batman and Superman appear in each other's comic books and since the release of the movie Iron Man in 2008, Marvel has been raking in billions on this concept as they create movie after movie with iconic characters like Captain America, Thor, and the Incredible Hulk all living in the same universe. In fact, it's been such a success that their most recent movie, Avengers End Game, holds the record as the highest grossing movie of all time after passing Avatar, which has held the record since 2009. Universal Studios even tried to create a dark universe with all of their classic monsters like Frankenstein, the mummy, and the invisible man, but they scrapped those plans after their mummy reboot with Tom Cruise bombed in 2017. I personally find that disappointing as I love the 1999 reboot with Brendan Frazier and Rachel Weiss and I was excited to see a world where all those characters interacted with one another. Now, while it's not uncommon to see this happen in today's pop culture, I've never heard an example of that on the radio. If anyone listening thinks I'm crazy for not noticing this before, please let me know of other episodes that do the same thing. I'd love to listen to them. And since this is the first time we'll be listening to something from Richard Diamond, Private Detective, I want to give a quick series intro before playing the episode. I forgot to do the same last week when we listened to an episode of suspense, so I'll be sure to provide some background the next time we listen to something from that series. Richard Diamond, Private Detective is a radio series featuring radio legend Dick Powell as a wisecracking former police officer turned Private Detective. Episodes typically open with a client visiting a cash strapped diamond and agreeing to his fee of $100 a day plus expenses. It began airing on NBC Radio on April 24th, 1949 and jumped around to various networks and sponsors until its final broadcast on September 20th, 1953. The script for today's episode was originally used on the CBS Radio Network on November 16th, 1951. However, since a recording of that episode is not available, what you'll be hearing today is a second performance that aired on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service, AFRTS for short, on August 23rd, 1953. Please enjoy The Hollywood Story from Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring Dick Powell. Mr. Diamond, Detective Agency. What does the sign say on the door? Diamond, Detective Agency. Now read the second line, please. Recommended wood housekeeping. And the last line, please. Homicides delivered at the rear. That's fine, 20-20 vision. Now if you just hop around on one foot while I classify you in one A, I'll see that you're on the next boat to the Aleutians. Are you Diamond? Are you a prospective client? Yes. I'm Diamond. I charge a hundred a day in expenses. You ever leave Diamond, Mr. Diamond? Occasionally, but I can never get used to the tar and feathers. I'd like you to go to California with me. Oh, just lonesome or have you got a problem? I represent a very wealthy man in Hollywood. He has a problem. A very wealthy man, huh? Millions. I'd love to meet him. I'll arrange it. When can you leave? Well, now that's a bit of a problem. See, close the office, do some packing, take care of a few engagements. So take me at least 13 minutes. Four o'clock now, we can leave LaGuardia by five. You have the tickets already? No tickets are necessary, Mr. Diamond. Mr. Harvey's private plane and pilot are standing by. The gentleman's name turned out to be Cain, Fred Cain from Beverly Hills, California. Obviously representing a client with more than a cozy income. Private plane, private pilot, and worth millions. How cozy can you get? I called Helen, told her I'd send her a starlet swimming pool or something. And by 5.30, I was riding with Fred Cain and Mr. Harvey's private plane headed for sunny California. Comfortable? Oh, I haven't seen furnishings like this since I got lost in the men's lounge at the Waldorf. Great. Later. The time has come, the Waldorf said. To talk of many things. They're right. I represent Mr. George L. Harvey. The big motion picture producer? Yeah. He's being blackmailed. Well, I come all the way to New York for me. You've got some pretty good boys in California. Spade, Novak, of course they haven't got my blue eyes. GL didn't want any local talent brought in on this case. You were quite well known, even in California. Oh, well, I can understand that. GL thought it'd be a good idea to have an outsider helping him, someone who wouldn't be recognized. OK, bless old GL and all his little millions. Now who's blackmailing him? GL will tell you everything himself when we get to California. Fred Cain and I played Jen for the next couple of hours that we didn't talk anymore about GL Harvey and his blackmail troubles. By 8.30, we were somewhere over Kansas and I was getting sleepy, so I turned in. Around 6.00 the next morning, we landed in Burbank. I stepped out to get my first look at beautiful, wonderful, sunny California. And we'll have to run for it. GL will have a car waiting. A car? I'm surprised at GL. I thought, sure, he'd meet us with his private life raft. The car was waiting all right, complete with chauffeur, foot bun, and dingy. We plowed our way through six inches of early morning dew and headed to the Beverly Hills Hotel where I was supposed to stay.  Then we had breakfast and by 10 o'clock, I was standing in the offices of George L. Harvey, Hollywood producer. Glad you're here, diamond. Have a seat. Thank you. I haven't got an old ringer around here, have you? Nasty weather isn't it? It'll clear up. Got to. Can't stand a cover set all week. Schedule's too tight. Cover set. GL shooting a new picture. If the company has some unexpected bad weather and they're shooting exteriors, they have a cover set and they can move into and shoot some interior scenes. Oh. You interested in motion pictures, diamond? Well, I see a few. Right now, I'm more interested in blackmail than styling. Yes. Well, here's the set. Fred here introduced me to a girl about a month ago, Mary Conrad. And now she's got you on the hook. Very much on the hook. Pretty girl. No, more than that. Beautiful. We had about five, six. Well, she's beautiful. We became very well-friendly. Yes. I'm married, Mr. Diamond. My wife doesn't know anything about this. Unless Mary Conrad tells her. Yes, and she's threatened to do just that. Unless you kick through with something. Yes. Money? Yes, 100,000. Oh, that's a nice round sum. Fred should be more careful about the girls he introduces you to. I had no way of knowing, Diamond. I met the girl in Las Vegas. Two weeks later, I met her at a party down here. Just as much my fault. I saw her with Fred and wanted an introduction. And you got her. $100,000. How do you do? Yes. You wanted me to get something on her or to get the evidence back? Well, yes. So why do you don't get into more trouble, GL? You just don't know how to say no. It was pretty obvious that I'd have to meet the blackmailer, so a party was arranged by Fred Cain at GL's beach house and without GL's presence. So I could get acquainted with the beautiful Mary Conrad. GL gave me a $200 retainer and blushed a little when I kissed him on both cheeks. Then Fred Cain sailed me back to the Beverly Hills, where he rented a car for me and told me how to get to the beach home. By eight o'clock that evening, I was driving down the coast highway on the way to Malibu. I couldn't get over it. The rain had stopped. There was a big yellow moon sitting up in the cloud of the sky and a warm breeze was blowing in off the Pacific. I even put the top down. Hello, Diamond. Come on in. Hey, what's with this weather? One minute it's pouring and the next time it comes out like a travel folder. We're just getting into the rainy season. It'll probably stay clear like this for at least a week. Give me your hat, and I'll take you in and introduce you to the guests. Oh, that's what? A New York gumshoe out looking for a blackmailer? Yeah, that's right. You're an agent. Agent? I don't know anything about agents. You like money, don't you? That's my name, swell backwards. Then you're an agent.  That is, of course, if you compare it to Ebbett's Field during a World Series. GL's house is in the middle of what was known as Malibu Colony. That's a bunch of houses built right out on the sand and surrounded by money. Fred took me around and introduced me as an agent from New York and an old friend. I met everything from producers, writers, and directors to several well-known motion picture stars, one of which had her French poodle with her. And this is Michelle, Mr. Diamond. Say hello to Mr. Diamond, Michelle. Oh, oh! Oops, sorry, great name. And on and on until finally we got around to my objective for the evening. And believe me, I'd enlist three times a week just to go after that kind of an objective. Brunette, about five, six. When she looked up at me, I felt as nervous as a cat in a ukulele factory. This is Mary Conrad, Mr. Diamond, Mary. Hello. Happy birthday of me, the big New York agent. I see some other guests now. Take care of them, Mary. Looks like Fred is paired as well. Well, he knows a good combination when he sees it. Two best-looking people at the party. Of course, I'm prettier than you are. How long have you known Fred?  We used to play stick ball together over in Canarsie. I thought Fred was a native Californian. Well, oh, yes, well, he is. He used to come all the way to New York just for the stick ball. We had quite a team. I'll bet you did. What position did you play? I played left gutter. That's the dirty side of the street. Oh. How about a drink, huh? She showed me where the bar was and we sat down and got acquainted. Then she showed me where the ocean was and we took off our shoes and walked out on the sand. Then we sat down and really got acquainted. Oh, it's nicer out here. I don't like parties much. Well, I like this one. Compromise? Naturally. Thank you. How long are you going to be in California? Oh, I don't know. Depends. Business? Yeah. You're not having much fun, are you? Oh, sure. I'm having a ball. You're lonesome, aren't you? Like 50 miles of dirt road. Let's leave the party. All right. Where to? Well, my car's here and it wouldn't be good to be seen leading together. I'll go first and you'll follow in about five minutes. You can pick me up at my house. Or for Diamond. She gave me her address and told me how to get there. Then we walked back to the party and she left. I gave the high sign to Cain and in five minutes I followed. Mary Conrad's house was on the outskirts of Beverly Hills south of Peacole. There was a long, low, black sedan that I for sure for usually drives parked in front of the house. The same car that picked me up at the airport that morning. And it belonged to GL Harvey. Before I could get parked, the door to the little house flew open and old GL himself came barreling out like a squirrel this tail on fire. GL. Oh, hello there, Mr. Harvey. Diamond, did you get into the studio? I went to your home first. My home? You didn't talk to anyone? Your car wasn't around, so I tried the studio. The cop at the gate wouldn't let me in, so I climbed a fence. Climbed a fence?  You might have wanted to see me. I'd wanted to see you. Don't be foolish. Why not see you? You often come to your office as late at night.  Well, why didn't you stop? I was too frightened. I was scared stiff, I suppose you found her. Yeah, awful, just awful. I'll bet it was. I thought about going home. I thought about a lot of places I ended up here. Did you kill her?  She called me from Malibu, told me to meet her at her house. I got there before she did. She drove up and we went in. It was just awful. You were well in, then what? She turned a living room light on and there was a shot. She looked kind of surprised and I was too stunned for a minute to really know what had happened. Then she just kind of looked at me like she wanted me to help. But then I really got it. I knew she'd been shot. She fell and I rushed over to her. She died right there, lying on the floor, looking up at me like I don't know. There was a gun beside her. It was there, I didn't see it. Well, here it is. Take a look at it. 45, one shot, five. Ever seen it before? No. You know, I could get in a lot of trouble taking this gun from the scene of murder. But I had a hunch it was worth it. I thought maybe it might be your gun.  I don't know whether it is or not. Do you own a 45? Yes, I keep it at the beach house.  Oh, I don't think you did either. You might have wanted to kill her because of the blackmail, but that would be premeditated.  A man who commits a plant killing doesn't leave the murder weapon around, especially if it happens to belong to him. But if you were in love with her, I wasn't. Well, I'm taking that chance. A jealous lover might do a lot of silly things. I have a wife and family. I thought about that, too. I'm not sure the police would pay much attention. If the blackmail got out, you'd have a motive. If this gun turns out to be yours, has your fingerprints on it, that's but sentient. What about the police? I called them and got out. You know where the shot came from? I didn't even take time to think about it. I just ran. There was a heavy snarl of cord right on the other side of the room near the bedroom. Bedroom door was ajar. Bedroom window was open. Killer probably shot her from the bedroom. You ran. He threw the gun in beside the body. What are we going to do? Well, there's one thing that makes me wonder a little. Mary Conrad asked me to come over to her house, too. What do you suppose she wanted with both of us there? I can't imagine. Neither can I. It's certainly worth looking into. Thanks, Diamond. You know, I've had some pretty fair experiences with murder, GL, but like everybody else, I make mistakes. I hope this is not going to be one of them. I gave GL Harvey two instructions. First, find out if he was missing a 45-hour automatic. Second, go on about his business like nothing had happened. And forget that he'd known Mary Conrad other than casually. I knew I was taking a big chance. Being an accessory after the fact could land me in a lot of hot water. But GL just didn't figure as the killer. And if I was right, someone was trying to fit him for a king-size frame. Why? Who? What was the motive? Those were things I was going to have to find out and find them out in a hurry. So while the police were undoubtedly still busy with an identification on Mary Conrad, I got back in my rented car and took off from Alibou. Back so soon? No laughs. You find out anything? Where can we talk? You look like something's wrong. You should see how Mary Conrad looks. Fred Cain took me in the den and we locked out the rest of the party. I told him just what had happened. And he poured himself a long drink. Yeah. You think GL really did it? I want to do some checking on Mary Conrad before I start making any guesses. Now, uh, you said you met her in Las Vegas, didn't you? That's right.  And he didn't know much. He'd met Mary at the Serena Hotel, just ran into her to party. He had seen her several times in the following few days and she had mentioned she was coming down to LA so he'd ask her to look him up. She had, and that was the extent of it. Well, I tell the police. They'll certainly find out who she's been seeing. It'll take them a while to check. Does she have any other friends? He never mentioned any. You met her at the Serena. Was she with anyone? I don't remember his name. You remember the date? It was about a month ago, the last few days I was there. Ah, well, okay. I'm going to take a trip to Vegas and see if I can find out anything more. You must really think GL's innocent. Don't you? Well, yeah. But he certainly had a motive. I don't think GL would kill anyone for $100,000. The thing I can't figure is why anyone would want to frame him. What could they gain by it? I drove back to Burbank, grabbed the late plane for Las Vegas, and about an hour and a half later, I was checking with the desk clerk at the Serena. We went through the lists of guests during the time Fred Kane's last visit. Kane had checked out on the 8th of October. He said he'd met Mary Conrad several days before. I gave the desk clerk her description, but he didn't remember and she hadn't been registered at the Serena. So I started checking every hotel and motor court in Vegas. Ah, bartender, give me a Scotcher or more. You look a little beef, friend.  I just bought one. I understand you're trying to find Mary Conrad. You know her? Yeah. Well, friend, I'd like to ask you some questions. What does work? Depends on how much you know. I know plenty. I will see. What's your name? Not here. I'll get a car outside to take a ride. Okay. Information, please. He slid off the stool and led the way out of the hotel and out across the parking lot. This guy knew I was looking for Mary Conrad. How? Had to be tipped off or he'd been pailing me.  Hey, uh, wait a minute. What's the matter? Where's the car? Oh, right over there. Mm-hmm. The one with the fat guy behind the wheel? Just a friend. Oh, sure, sure. I think we talk right here. He thought about it for a second, glanced over at this fat friend sitting in the car and then back at me. Yes? Right here. Okay. He made up his mind, all right. He grabbed for his right hip pocket and that big gun, but that was as far as he got because I second guessing. His friend took off, staying behind a line of parked cars near the parking lot and far enough away so I couldn't get in a good shot.  He was very dead. Well, I'd held out police evidence in Los Angeles and killed the man in Las Vegas. I was in a spot and only one lead left.  I went through the dead man's pocket and came up with one thing, a $100 gambling chip from the Asa Club's casino. How about using that car of yours? Huh? Don't turn around or you'll get mixed up with a lot of bullets. What do you want? A truck. Keep looking straight ahead like nothing was happening.  I promise you that. What is this? Who are you? I just shot a friend of yours in the Serena parking lot. I've been in my office all night. Oh, sure. Start walking through the door. You'll never get away with this diamond? You didn't know me. Start walking. I own this place, Diamond.   Look, you and me can discuss this about getting rough. Out the door and smile. Now, where's the car? Across the street. Now, wait a minute. A couple of your boys are following us. They look a little worried about me. Tell them how happy you are. Go on. Okay. Okay. Watch, boys. It's okay. Me and my friend are just talking some business. Across the street. We're going to take a little drive outside of town where we can have some peace and quiet. Just you and me in the desert. That's good enough. Pull off the road. Look, Diamond. Pull off the road. You know, the cops are going to be out looking for you. That's fine. Eat some answers. Now, hurry.  I don't know what you're talking about. Get out of the car. I'll look. I get out. What's this going to prove, Diamond? You're going to start walking. Straight out into that desert. At the end of a hundred paces, if you haven't told me what I want to know, you're going to get it.  You'll never get away with it. Walk. Now, it's a trouble with you big, tough guys. Get a fellow in a spot and you never figure you might just be desperate enough to shoot his way out of it.  I've got a lot of dough, Diamond. I can get you out of the state and make you rich.  How well do you know Mary Conrad? You were never hurt of her. I've held out police evidence in California and I've shot a man in Nevada. I'm in a tough spot. I'll just about do anything.  I'll keep looking. Who else is mixed up in this? How'd you know who I was? I found out. And you're nearly there. You're bluffing. You got 15 paces to go. You'll never get out of town. You'll kill me in every cop in the state I'll be after you.  I swing a lot away. Well, I don't like your kind of big men. Stop here. How about it? Gonna tell me how you're mixed up in this? Now, wait a minute. This is getting ridiculous. I'm out of opinion. You gonna tell me? Wait, wait. You must be nuts. Supposing I did know something.  Maybe I knocked off somebody. I get the gas chamber. And it shouldn't make any difference to you. It'll be a lot quicker. What do you want to know? Who's Mary Conrad? My girl. Her real name's Mary Langley. Who killed her? Fred Cain. Guy who works for Gerald Harvey. Why? Cain owed me a lot of dough. Couldn't pay it. Gerald Harvey was to go to the gas chamber for killing someone. Cain had become head of the Harvey Productions. Why wouldn't Harvey's wife take over? She'd own it, but Gerald's will states that Cain would run it. How do you fit? Cain promised me a 50-50 split if I'd lay off about the debt. I talked Mary into it since Cain introduced her to Harvey. The old boy went for a hook line and sink her. Then she started blackmailing him. So you'd have a motive for murder? Yeah. She never figured she was gonna get killed. No, she just thought we were gonna milk the old boy with 100,000 and pull out. How did I fit in? Harvey's idea. When Cain told me about it, I figured it wouldn't be bad. You could catch Harvey after the murder. Why don't you make a date with me and then call Harvey? Well, we told her to. Well, you were a private eye working for Harvey's wife. We said that you could be bought and it would be a good idea to catch her with Harvey. So you waited in the bedroom until Gerald came in and you shot her through the gun in beside her. Wait a minute. I didn't shoot her. Cain shot her. Oh, Cain took Gerald's gun from the Malibu house? That's right.  I left Cain at the Malibu house when I went to see Mary. He was there when I got back. Witnesses will swear he was around the whole time. You killed the girl and hopped the plane back here for Vegas. No, no, I didn't kill her. It's over by that rock. Take it easy, Diamond. Go on. Okay. Okay, I shot her. I hid in the bedroom and shot her. But you won't be around to talk about it. Come on.   Oh, for Pete's sake. Now I have to carry him back to the car. Richard Diamond, private detective, who comes to you through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service. Thank you for listening to that episode. If you would like to listen to more Richard Diamond, please visit otrpodcast.com. That's OTR for Old Time Radio and podcast with an S, otrpodcast.com. On the website, you can register for my mailing list and as a thank you, I will send you the links to 14 different podcasts, each featuring every available episode of a popular radio program. In addition, I will send out an email each week when I release a new episode of this podcast so you never miss a single one. If you have enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to subscribe and give it a five star rating and review on the last app of your choice. If you're watching on YouTube, please click the like button down below. Thanks for tuning in.


A great scholar once said all the secrets of the oneness of Allah, the hidden aspects of prophethood, resurrection and imamah, the practical laws of Islam, the core of the teachings of 124,000 prophets and all of creations are founded within the spirit of Imam Ja'far bin Muhammad al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him, respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam, peace and blessings be upon you. Welcome to a new episode of The Teacher of Mankind with me, your host Ahmad Ali. Now the show is dedicated towards analyzing and examining the life of the sixth imam, 8th infallible. The one who has contributed so much to our lives and its contributions did not only affect our lives as Shia Muslims, the lives of Muslims in general, but the lives of every single human living on this planet. A prime example of the major contributions of Imam al-Sadaq, peace be upon him, in our modern fields of sciences, take for example, biology, astronomy, physics, literature, Gnosticism, philosophy, astrophysics, mathematics, chemistry, Islamic law, the spirit of the Quranic commentary. All of these were taught by Imam al-Sadaq, peace be upon him. If you were looking at Gnosticism, the laws of Islam, Islamic law, al-Mufadal and Safan were the students and were taught by Imam al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him. If you're thinking about chemistry and mathematics, we'll look at Jabir bin Hayyan who was a prominent student of Imam al-Sadaq and he's considered today as the father of modern-day chemistry. And through the guidance of Imam al-Sadaq, peace be upon him, Jabir bin Hayyan was able to write 400 books on various topics. If you're looking at their students, you can go look for Zarara and Muhammad bin Muslim who were the students of Imam al-Sadaq and were taught along with 4000 students in the Majid of Kufa. So if you looked at the life of Imam al-Sadaq, peace be upon him, contribution after contribution, major events happened during the life of Imam al-Sadaq, peace be upon him, which we're going to touch upon today or in the next episode. Abu Hanifa, who is considered by many Sunnis as the greatest scholar and the founder of the Hanafi school of thought, was also a student of Imam al-Sadaq, peace be upon him. Now today, over 35% of the Muslim population across the world follow the Hanafi school of thought. And if you were to ask anyone, any Hanafi, who was the teacher of Abu Hanifa? A simple question. Their answer will either be various teachers. I heard one narration say he had 4000 teachers and one of them was Ja'far al-Sadaq, peace be upon him. Now we don't want to get into the authentication of this narration, but if you were to ask this question, who was the teacher of Abu Hanifa? Many of their scholars will not say Ja'far al-Sadaq because they don't want to give any credit, fearing of giving any credit to Ja'far al-Sadaq. And if they do, they're just admitting to the knowledge of Ja'far al-Sadaq. Why would you follow the students and not follow the teacher? Simple. Why would people, if they really knew who Imam Ja'far al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him, why don't they follow the students and forget about the teachers? One of the biggest contributions of our sixth Imam, Imam al-Sadaq, peace be upon him, was in the field of monotheism, Tawheed. One day, an atheist by the name of Abdullah, a very common name in the Arabian Peninsula. But for an atheist, Abdullah is kind of weird because you're the servant of Allah and you're an atheist. However, we don't want to get into the name. This Abdullah, an atheist, came across Hisham al-Hakam who was one of the closest companions to Imam Ja'far al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him. And he asked Hisham, he says, do you believe in God? Hisham with certainty, he said, of course. He says, do you believe that he is the Almighty? Hisham replied by saying, of course he is the Almighty and all powerful and all knowing. The atheist asked Hisham, he says, can he, referring to God, put the whole world inside of an egg without enlarging the size of the egg or diminishing the volume of the world? Hisham was puzzled, what kind of question is this? For the atheists, they have these kind of questions to play with the minds of certain individuals. However, so Hisham said, give me some time so I can think this man, this atheist said, you have from now until the end of the year to give me the answer. Although I know you don't have an answer to that, but I'll give you from today till the end of the year. After that, Hisham ran to Imam al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him. And he narrated, he said, an atheist man came up to me and he asked me this question and I don't have the answer to. And I know out of everyone, you're the one that has the answer to that. Imam al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him, replied to him. He says, how many organs, sense organs do you have? How many senses do you have? He says, Yabna Rasulullah, have five. He says, okay, name them. He says, I have hearing, tasting, smelling, seeing and touching. He says, what's the smallest sense you have? What are we used to look at? It's our eyes, but specifically our retina. The smallest sense that we have is the retina, which we look at people with. So, Imam al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him, says, look around. What do you see? Hisham looked around. He says, I see the sky. I see the huge mansions. I see houses. I see basically everything. He says, the one who has placed all of this into your eye, into your small pupil, he cannot fit the entire world into an egg without enlarging the egg or without diminishing the size of the earth. He says, the creator, what an answer. Let's repeat that answer. He says, if you can fit this entire scene in front of you, the person goes on a very high mountain and looks down at the earth. He sees it so small. He sees the house is so small. Yet all of that, when he gets close to it, they're so huge, but all of that are fitted within the small pupil of the person's eye. He says, if that creator has created you with that sense of putting this entire world into that small pupil, now they've reached the moon and you can look at the earth and see how big it is. And when you're looking at it, you're looking at almost all the earth and you're looking at it with such a small eye. So he's saying, the creator who put that into your eye, he can't put the world into an egg. It's a metaphor. But at the end of the day, the atheist got his answer. But the story, the discussion goes on between Hisham, the atheist. And Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi s-salam. And if you want to continue reading the story, you can refer back to Al-Kafi Volume 3, Chapter 1, Page 159, and you can read the entire story. But hence, we see Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi s-salam, at the end of the day. We have to admit to this. Ahl al-Bayt and specifically Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi s-salam taught in every and contributed to every field of modern sciences today. Because his students taught other students. And each one that was taught opened a new gateway to a new knowledge. InshaAllah, after the break, we will get to touch upon various other contributions of the Imam. But why did I focus on the first part of today's episode? Why did I focus on monotheism? Because Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi s-salam, through the traditions that were transmitted through him, we can find that Imam Al-Sadaq wanted to educate his community because he knew the corruption. He knew that an era of deviation will occur after the Imams. So he wanted to put this through to us. So when a person asks us, we don't just sit there and not know what the answer is. So we can learn and hopefully by the end of today's episode, we can grasp some knowledge through the life of Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi s-salam. So we can get to develop our life and enhance our abilities of knowledge. But we'll continue our discussion, but after the short break, so do stay tuned. I hope that the viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam, hope you, inshaAllah, enjoyed that short report. Although we are commemorating the tragic martyrdom of our sixth Imam, eighth infallible Imam Al-Sadaq, peace and blessings be upon him now. Before the break, we touched upon various aspects and various contributions of the Imam. We talked about the dialogue that went on between an atheist, Hisham Ninhakam was a close companion of Al-Sadaq and Imam Al-Sadaq, where he proved the power of Allah SWT to an atheist who did not acknowledge God and the presence of God. However, Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi s-salam, if we were to examine his life, many questions arise because the knowledge that he disseminated during his time is enormous. You can't just teach 4,000 students and not a single tyrant of the time noticing it. If we looked at the lives of the Imam before Imam Al-Sadaq, we find Imam Al-Baqir was persecuted. Imam Al-Sajjad was persecuted. Imam Al-Hussein was persecuted and beheaded. Imam Al-Hasan was persecuted. Imam An-Talib was persecuted. Farun al-Zahra was persecuted by Allah and Prophet Muhammad. So how did Imam Al-Sadaq disseminate the enormous amounts of knowledge he did? And above all, where did he get his knowledge from? Now overlooking, some people would say that the Imams do not receive divine revelation. I don't want to get into an argument with that. But forget about the fact that Imam Al-Sadaq received revelation. Imam Al-Sadaq, his first from the age of 1 to 11 or 14, he was under the guidance and he was nurtured by his grandfather, Imam Al-Sajjad, alaihi salam. And we all heard of the torture that Imam Al-Sajjad had to go through. And then the remaining 23 years, or the next 23 years after the age of 11 or 14, he was under the guidance of his father, Imam Al-Baqir, alaihi salam. Both of the Imams disseminated knowledge, Imam Al-Sajjad and Imam Al-Baqir. But the knowledge and the amounts of knowledge that Imam Al-Sadaq disseminated was different. Why? And some may say or some may ask the question, was Imam Al-Sadaq better than the rest of the Imams? Because he disseminated so many knowledge and the Imams didn't have the knowledge? No, of course not. The foundation was not laid for the other Imams to disseminate the same knowledge. They had different duties. If you looked at Prophet Muhammad, the duty of bringing Islam. Imam Ali-Ratali, they had the duty of keeping the Muslims together. Same with Imam Al-Hasan. Imam Al-Hasan had to make a stand. Imam Zain al-Abrin had to teach us how to worship Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Until the time of Imam Al-Baqir, where through his name we understand why he's named Al-Baqir, because he splits the knowledge, goes to its deep core and examines it and gives us a solution to questions that really no one can bring answers to. This is the father of Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam. And you wonder where he gets his knowledge from. His dad is the splitter of knowledge and people are still asking how did Imam Al-Sadaq get his knowledge? So hence we can see Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, playing a huge role within the era of Islam or within the religion of Islam as a whole. After the 23 years of guidance and nurture by Imam Al-Baqir, alaihi salam, Imam Al-Sadaq witnessed his father lay the foundation stone of establishing the first school of thought and introducing, a lot of people have this misconception that they think that Imam Al-Sadaq is the first one to establish the first school of thought. It was Imam Al-Baqir. But due to the persecution that Imam Al-Baqir was under, Imam Al-Sadaq continued that. So he witnessed his father establish the first school of thought and introducing the terms of such as jurisprudence and Quranic commentary. A lot of people, a lot of Muslims at that era, they knew how to read the Quran but they did not know the meaning of the verses. When the Quran talks about astronomy, when the Quran talks about how the universe is formed and how the planets orbit and the suns orbit, it's difficult for them back then to understand. Now you can just Google it, Wikipedia has everything. But back then the people did not know, so what did they do? They went to the people of knowledge. Ahlul Bayt, alaihi salam. So through that, Imam Al-Baqir began to disseminate his knowledge. Imam Al-Sadaq learned from his father. After the demise of his father, the martyrdom of Imam Al-Baqir, Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, took on the responsibility of Imam Al-Sadaq. He began to teach, he began to disseminate knowledge and to take the knowledge from his forefathers and dissect it even more and bringing proofs to the existence of God, to the oneness of God. Teaching in chemistry as we mentioned, in physics. At the age of 11 or 12, Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, refuted and rejected the idea of Aristotle, the four elements theory of Aristotle. And he says, how can a man say that this planet has only four elements? Earth, water, fire and air. He says, earth by itself, every single metal within earth is an element alone. Water, air and fire, all of them are a mixture of elements. For a thousand years, up until now, until they have proved that it's different. But for a thousand years, people believed in the four elements theory. They thought that these were the only four elements. Yet Imam Al-Sadaq, at the age of 12, was able to give us which elements formed water, which elements formed fire, what kind of elements, what kind of metals are found within the earth and what kind of elements are within the air that we breathe. At the age of 12, some people refute the idea. But if you go back to the books of tradition, to the narrations, historical books, you will find how Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, at that small age, was able to prove that. And up until now, people are starting to understand what Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, was saying. At the end of the day, if we looked at how Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, refuted and rejected that theory, and how air is a mixture of elements, and those elements give us the ability to breathe. It's astonishing. At the same time, it's disturbing not to see how a lot of people have shifted away from the Najib, alaihi salam, have not really taken the responsibility and learning the lives of each of the Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam. Hopefully, through such episodes, we can raise awareness across the world and bring people closer to the Ahl al-Bayt, alaihi salam, and teach them the ways that Ahl al-Bayt, alaihi salam, taught their companions, and so on, and so forth, until we got the knowledge today. Thank you very much for tuning in. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.


Hello, I am Dr. Poonam Patil working as Medical Oncologist in Manipal Hospital here in Bangalore. 8 out of 10 breast lumps are not cancers. There are four most common causes of breast lumps. First, fibroadenomas which are solid tumours which are seen in most of the young women. Second, cystic lumps, cystic lumps are fluid filled lumps in the breast. There are also most of the times they are benign. Third, fibrocystic disease which is kind of a combination of solid component and the cystic component. Again they are seen in perimenopausal women. It's quite commonly seen. And fourth of course the malignant breast lumps. But most of the times the lumps are not cancers.


Practice, you have to do that. Repetition, you have to do that. And accountability, which means somebody has to hold your accountable. Now here's the deal, if I tell you what to do, are you gonna be good at it in the beginning? No, cool. All right, so how do you become good at something? Repetition, practice, that's right. Okay, practice, repetition, good content, and accountability, everybody write that down. Practice, repetition, good content, accountability. All right, listen, there is not any better content than what I've given you, and I guarantee it. I know some of you listened to Sean talk for about 30 minutes, he just gave you the king to the palace to go kill everybody. It was it. That mindset, that mindset's the most important thing in the world, people get sick of it.  I watch you guys at the end of the night give in when nobody's around. By the way, champions are made when the stands are empty. Write that down. That means when no one's watching you, that's who you really are, okay? You're not fooling me. I go around right now, I pull all the year to dates in the room, I know who you are. Okay, some of you guys made 25 grand a month one time, but you're usually about a 10 grand a month guy. Okay, I'm looking for the winners, the people that are gonna be consistent. Those people that are continuing to grow every day are the people that are doing what? Recreating, what's that mean? They're getting better, they're learning new skill every day.  Yeah, we're in growth mode now. Okay, we're not the same anymore. And all of a sudden, guess what happens? Everything changes. So I'm gonna tell you what to do. I want you guys to follow me from A to Z, but you need good content. This is it. Practice, you have to do that. Repetition, you have to do that. And accountability, which means somebody has to hold you accountable. Can I ask you a question? Should somebody hold you accountable that is doing worse than you? No, should somebody hold you accountable that you guys, I want you to do me a favor.  Hey guys, what's up? It's Andy. Hey, I wanted to stop the video real quick and show you I just released my brand new book called The Book of Deadly Scripps. You wanna know how to overcome any objection in the world? You wanna know how to literally pick up the phone and every single time you do, create a hot end market buyer who wants to buy a vehicle.  I don't have this book for sale on the website. If you'll shoot me a text, I'll send you the link so you can buy it. Let's crush it and kill it. This book will change your life. It just got released. Let's get back to the video. This is the answer to a lot of y'all's deals. Who holds me accountable? Now I want you to do me a favor. If you're on my Andy Elliott 365 All Access Training, if you're on that, okay, if you're there, we have Zoom meetings every week. That would be Andy Elliott or that would be Ian Macklin, Evelyn Macklin, Sean Pollard. It would be any of our coaches that are constantly Ryan, Danny, any of us that are constantly always pushing you guys together. Well here's what I'll tell you. Who holds you accountable? I'm gonna ask one question. Is the person holding you accountable, right? What's their credibility? Credibility is a big word to me, okay? Before I do anything with anybody, I just spent 30 grand earlier this year or later last year going to Patrick Bet David of it. I spent 30 grand with him to go down and to just train with him for the day. Guess what? He has a $400 million insurance company. Credibility. Okay, what did I want? Why did I go train with him? I wanted to learn his systems and his processes. That's all I want. I don't need to learn how to close. I know how to close. I'm a bad closer, okay? I'll close anybody. I needed the systems. How many of you guys right now? I'm gonna ask this question.  You have the worst process out there. And some of you, you're closing and you don't have a system in process. And it can just keep going. So as you go to grow, right? Some of you in here, you're managers but like you're not a leader, right?  Guys, what do leaders do? Make leaders. What do leaders do? They don't make followers. They make leaders, okay? Sean Pollard, right? Did y'all hear him speak? Is he a good speaker? He used to not be able to speak. Does he believe in the mission? Does he believe in the company? How do you think he works when no one's around because he believes? That's right. I made that. I'm a good leader. I made him to be a leader. That's it. Why? And I wanna be a leader. I wanna be a leader. I wanna be a leader and create other leaders. You see? Look, dude, everything that we're telling you we're doing in our own life, that's called credibility. Now, I wouldn't even get into money, but I'm just telling you this, I can show you from every sector on how you guys, if you're in the automotive space, that you can change it up from business to business, but in the automotive space, there is a plan from A to Z. But you have to be willing to go all in. Everybody say non-negotiable. Okay? You tie down a schedule. You commit to it and say bye-bye to everybody else in your life for six months other than training because you have to keep getting better. You have to keep testing yourself. How many of you are ready to say bye to everybody for six months?  Let's just see how good you can become. See, if you test yourself like that, you're dangerous. Now we need to know what to do. Okay? I'm going to show you guys. Okay? So, who holds you accountable? Account... Use your accountability partner or what team is and then how credible are they? Okay? If some of you guys right now, you're going back home and I never see you again. I'm just praying that you're tied into somebody that's going to hold you accountable. Okay?  Number one, they always believe in you just so I can be aware. So, I want to share this with you because you guys may get confused. There's a thing called an inner circle. Okay? It's really important that I tell you this because it might accidentally screw you up because you may say, Andy, my manager is my accountability partner. Okay? I'm going to explain this to you. If you come to me right now and you're like, Andy, I want to make a million dollars this year. Okay? I'm going to say, done. Let's go make it. Let's go make a plan. Let's go to war. By the way, it's going to be really hard. You're probably going to want to quit along the way, but if you don't and you'll stay to the task, you'll make it. Okay? And I believe in you and you're going to make it. That is a person you can put in the inner circle. Put my name in there because you're explaining to be what you want and I believe you can get it, but I tell you the truth. A person that cannot be your accountability partner would be this. My general manager is my accountability partner. I say to him, I want to make a million this year. And he says this, come on, man, I think it happened. You're not going to make a million. You know what I'm saying? Get the away from him. Get away.  All right? So maybe he's not a bad person on that end, but if he doesn't believe that you can do it, he can't hold you accountable. And what's his credibility for growing people? If he has good credibility, he's scaling, growing. He's doing better than you or she is. And guess what?  You want it? Okay. Let's do it. Now it's over. So you got to have accountability. You want to build a sales team and learn how to close anybody, anytime, any place, anywhere. This is going to be the event. And by the way, Bradley isn't going to be here like a speaker at most speaking events. He's personally going to be training from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., everything you need to know to triple your income this year. And by the way, this is an event that ain't going to happen again.  We only got 350 seats, so the spots are going to go out fast. Cue me a text message right now,<PHONE_NUMBER>. You don't want to miss this event, shoot a text message right now to<PHONE_NUMBER>. Let's kill it, baby. Let's go.


time of his death, his estate was estimated to exceed 500. Aside from that, I think there is a lot of money out there. Selfish perspective, if you are doing, that's a fact, you know, our spirit's up.


First of all, I want to say as a Tilburg alumna, that it's really heartwarming, and it's not because of the temperature outside, that you are here with so many of you, preferred to be in this very pretty all but without windows. So I really appreciate that a lot. When I teach the Transnational Litigation course in the Global Law Bachelor, I always start my very first session of the course with an explanation to the students what the course is about, and what Transnational Litigation is. And the short answer to that is, Transnational Litigation deals with global problems and with their resolution via private legal order. And that is a nice start of a course because then I have a lot of time I can tell them, and during the course, you'll understand what all of that means. When I say private order, I mean in private relationships, as between you and me as private individuals, as opposed to public as between private you and me on one side and the state on the other, or between states. So what is typical for the type of global problems that we address in the course? And think, when I speak of global problems like the problems of the warming, is one example of the problems we heard today, but also of globally operating cartels, for example. Some of you might have heard of the air cargo cartel, that's the World Wild Cartel, or defective products and services that have been supplied in multiple countries around the world, like in the case with the PW. So what is typical for the resolution of global problems is that although they're global and affect many, many of us around the world, they are being dealt with by national courts. There isn't anything like international criminal, there isn't anything like the national private court, we do have international criminal courts, but we don't have international private courts. So when the national courts deal with those global problems, they need to behave to act actually as global courts, but they don't have global rules, they are applying their national rules on the issues they have before them. So what does this mean and where does that lead to, and those are the kind of questions that we will focus on tonight, together with our academic partners, and I would like to introduce you to them, Deborah Hensler, Professor Hensler was already introduced, and I would also like to introduce you to a new concept at Tilburg, the global digital classroom of which we are very proud. We were awarded last year the Innovation Prize by the Ministry of Education, and the global digital classroom allows us to give, to bring our students in touch with experts around the world that have relevant expertise to the issues we're discussing with our students, and that is, we believe, a unique opportunity and advantage for them, and so I hope has changed since you and I were students, and today we have online, in our global digital classroom, our expert on German civil procedure, that is Professor Axel Haufmeyer from Leuphana University in Lüneburg, and I will wait, I'm waiting for the connection with him. Yeah, here he is. Good evening, Axel. Tanika, thank you for joining me into this, and good evening Tilburg, this is humble calling. Well, thank you very much, we will get in the end of the evening, we'll give points for the various systems in Europe. So, this is what we thought we would do tonight, and how we'll divide the task among ourselves. Firstly, Professor Hensler will focus on the U. S. bit of the Volkswagen puzzle. Then Professor Haufmeyer will contribute the German part, and finally I will try to give you our perspective on this global legal order that now sounds very abstract, I realize that, that's for purpose, but later by the end of the evening, when I hope we all have deserved our drinks, and Professor Hensler and I are big fans of good white wine, you will hopefully know what we mean by that. So, before I give the floor to Professor Hensler, very quickly a few facts, because I am not sure to what extent each of you know exactly what happened with Volkswagen, but we think that is helpful to know. So, in a few words, Volkswagen has admitted that about 11 million of its vehicles were equipped with software that was used to cheat on emission tests. What happened was that the Volkswagen software sensed when the car was being tested, and then activated equipment that reduced the emissions. However, the software turned the equipment down during regular driving, increasing the emissions far above legal limits again, most likely to save fuel or to improve the overall performance of the car and its acceleration. Now an international NGO with headquarters in San Francisco was lobbying before European authorities to increase the strictness of European air pollution standards to make them more equal to those in the United States, and California is being known for having one of the most strict air pollution standards in the United States. And it had the idea that it wanted to test European cars from the same manufacturer that are being sold in the United States and in Europe to run the tests on the US cars on one hand and then on the European cars of the same manufacturer on the other, and to show that one the same manufacturer is having better cars in the States and also better, not so good cars in Europe. That way, maybe embarrass the European regulators. I don't know exactly what the theory is, but that was in any event why they wanted to do those tests. So they did the tests, but much to their surprise, instead of having very nice tests what they were expecting on the European cars made for the American market of a certain manufacturer, Volkswagen, they found out that the results of those were far above the legal limits, much more than they were expecting. So that is in some what happened. And Professor Hansler will explain us now the next steps in the Volkswagen saga. So good evening. I'm really delighted to be here. I've spent so much time at Tilburg in the last half dozen years or so at the invitation of Professor Zankova and her colleagues and the dean and the law faculty that I have begun to feel like. This is my second home. Now, usually when I come to Europe as a researcher and a law professor, I am asked to talk about the American system and often I encounter views on how the American system works that aren't in fact accurate. And tonight, I feel we have an opportunity because we're talking to you with colleagues both from the Netherlands and from Germany to give you a sense of how the different legal systems in our three relatively different countries but all Western industrialized democracies that share most of the same values, how we are treating this same problem which we put in this context of wicked problems as was the title of this alumni event. So sometime in the spring of 2014, not that long ago, the competent environmental regulatory authority in California learned that researchers at the University of West Virginia whom Volkswagen who had been commissioned by this NGO that Yonica mentioned, they learned that the Volkswagen and diesel models were emitting fumes that were far above California, my states, pollution standards. Well, this was very curious because in California and in most other US states, car owners must take their cars to be tested for compliance with environmental protection standards on a regular basis. In California, it's every two years, if I don't take my car, I can't get my license renewed and if my car doesn't match up to the standards, I have to take it to the shop to fix it so it will comply and then I can redo my license. So in principle, it should have been impossible for the automobiles that were tested at this point to violate the standards set by the state. So when the California Regulatory Agency learned about this, they began an investigation and it was very soon taken up by our Federal Environmental Protection Agency as well. So as they normally do, these regulators discuss these puzzling findings with the representatives of Volkswagen of America. But Volkswagen resisted the public agency's investigation and indeed they're reported to have denied that whatever might have gone wrong that produced these odd test results, it certainly wasn't anything deliberate. However, on September 18th, 2015, Volkswagen publicly admitted that their engineers had deliberately installed a device in the car's control systems to fool the government's testing equipment. What this meant was that hundreds of thousands of Volkswagen auto owners in the US were unknowingly driving cars that violated their state's anti-pollution standards. So once known, this would have to be corrected. You can't drive a car that violates these standards. The car needs to be fixed, as I said, in order to renew your license. This was a lot of cars. EPA or Federal Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would order a recall of about 600,000 cars. These were cars roughly between the model years of when we're calling correctly of about 2006 to 2000 through 2014. Almost immediately, a very well-established law firm that specializes in consumer litigation and in particular class actions filed the first class action in the United States against Volkswagen charging consumer fraud and violations of the various relevant laws. Now, as some of you probably know, what a class action is, roughly speaking, is a special form as a civil lawsuit in which one or a few people or perhaps organizations come forward saying, we represent a large number of folks just like us. And because there's so many involved, we've created this procedure to deal with cases like this where you couldn't have thousands of people appearing in the court at the same time. Within three days, this firm had filed lawsuits in 20 different states. And it announced publicly that its objective was to bring suits in every state in the US. It said that after it had published a press release that regarded this first suit, it was being deluged with contacts from angry consumers. According to the firm, many car owners said they had purposely bought these VW diesel cars which were marketed under the name clean diesel and paid a premium price of several thousand dollars by comparison to other makers car models in the belief that they were protecting the environment while at the same time achieving superior fuel efficiency. I paid a premium for a Golf TBI because I was promised that it was clean diesel. I was told that the emissions were better than the standard gas automobile. In addition, I was also promised high fuel economy. I now feel I have been defrauded by these claims, wrote one owner. Another wrote, I trusted VW on the performance, handling, efficiency, resale, the historic durability of diesel and the eco-friendliness of this car. I feel completely deceived. I'm embarrassed to drive this car on the road. So some of these statements sound a bit over the top to me and you might wonder as I did since they came from the lawyer whether they are in fact what potential clients said to the lawyer. But I will tell you that I have a colleague on the Stanford Law Faculty who herself offered to represent a class of folks, and owners using almost exactly the same language. She said indignantly she had purchased this car because she thought she was doing something good for the environment at the same time she was getting high performance and good gas mileage. Now normally in the US when a serious flaw is found in a car, you know, a problem with brakes or airbags or whatever, whoever's the relevant regulatory authority will order a recall. And when auto manufacturers pay to fix cars that are recalled, consumers generally have no damages. They haven't lost any money, so they have no grounds and they usually have no desire to file suit. So most of the time recalls don't lead to litigation. The Volkswagen litigation in the US, some of you may believe oh that's just like litigious Americans, it is an incredibly unusual litigation. The wicked problem if you will in the Volkswagen case is that Volkswagen as I understand it has been unable to figure out to this day how to fix these cars so they will comply with our strict air pollution standards in the US for any amount of money that it would be reasonable for them to spend, that is it's doable, okay. But it's doable only with very complicated work on the car that would cost them a lot of money. And of course this is why we assume they installed the seat devices in the first place. They didn't set out to make a car that wouldn't comply with the law. They wanted to market the car in the US and apparently only realized when they were far along in the engineering process that their new diesel cars couldn't meet US environmental protection standards while at the same time delivering high performance and fuel efficiency. So during fall 2015, this is just last year now, 63 class actions, each of which claimed to represent thousands of VW car owners were filed in state and federal courts around the US. So as everybody understood, there was literally no way hundreds of thousands of individual claims could be resolved within any reasonable amount of time. And it would be hugely wasteful to try each of these cases individually. The cost to taxpayers like me for individual dispute resolution in a court would be unreasonable and perhaps even more important, the cost to Volkswagen to defend a vast number of individual claims all over the United States would really be astronomical and unsupportable. So this is exactly the situation that the US class action in fact was designed to address. It's an efficient mechanism for resolving large numbers of claims when they arise out of the same circumstances. But as I told you, during the fall a year ago, there were many class actions being filed. Many lawyers claiming to represent different groups of consumers. So what could you do about that fact? It's not very efficient to have many class actions going on at the same time either. So fortunately, we also have a procedure in the US to address the problem of duplicative litigation. It wasn't invented for class actions. It dates back to 1968. But under the statute passed in 1968, the federal judiciary is allowed to essentially scoop up cases that are duplicative in this sense and to assign all of them together to one judge in one court and put that judge in charge of making all the legal decisions that are necessary as you move a legal case through to disposition. Usually it's the parties who request the use of this authority because they see it as so efficient and that's what happened in the Volkswagen litigation. So on December 8th, the beginning of December last year, 2015, the litigation was in fact consolidated in this fashion for pretrial management in a federal court in San Francisco, California before a judge named Charles Breyer who is noted for his management skills and fairness. And the case was assigned to him because he had that reputation. There's a special panel of judges that decides on these assignments. In January, the New Year dawns, Judge Breyer moves swiftly to put the litigation on a path through resolution. Now under long established federal court rules, he had the authority to set a schedule for the litigation, appoint committees of lawyers to manage different aspects of the litigation and to resolve all of the possible disputes over evidence or what have you that eventually inevitably emerge in this process. But in this peculiar special case, Volkswagen had admitted liability and the facts of the investigation carried out by the public regulators were public. So Judge Breyer made it clear that he expected things to move swiftly, that there was no reason for the lawyers to engage in lengthy process arguing about those facts. The question was how to remedy the harm. So Judge Breyer ordered Volkswagen to submit a plan to the court for fixing the car. That seemed like the normal sensible thing. The point here is people have a car they can't drive legally. So come up with a plan for fixing it. At the same time, he appointed a small committee of plaintiffs lawyers, which was led by very well nationally known female lawyer from San Francisco who had worked in his court before to lead the litigation. He also appointed the former head of the US FBI to help the parties try and negotiate a plan for some kind of relief or redress as it's generally termed in Europe. So by late spring after lots of delays, VW seemed to be unable to come up with a plan for fixing the automobile. But at the same time, the lawyers informed Judge Breyer that they were moving towards a settlement. Now this case has many other dimensions that there's no time to cover tonight, but I will mention that while this litigation has been moving forward, the US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against Volkswagen for violation of the Federal Clean Air Act, and there's also been action by state justice officials in most of the states. And all of these public enforcement actions, not the criminal investigation, the public enforcement actions that are seeking fines were also assigned to Judge Breyer. At the end of June, on June 28th, 2016, just six months after the litigation was assigned to him, the party submitted a tentative $15 billion settlement, this is the settlement you've heard about or read about, to Judge Breyer for his approval, and it includes offers to buy back cars in specific amounts for specific models of cars and models in years, as well as a cash contribution to an environmental cleanup fund. Now under the US class action rule, whenever a settlement is proposed, class members must be notified and given an opportunity to exclude themselves from this class action so that they can pursue individual lawsuits if that's what they would prefer. That's their right. They could also just decide they don't wanna do anything, but it's also their right. So we call this an upt-out class action because the action of saying, count me out is termed up-tout. Now notifying, imaginative, hundreds of thousands of people that a settlement has been proposed and notifying them of the provisions so they could decide whether it's better for them to stay in or up-tout is extremely expensive. It involves print and broadcast and now today, social media announcements. And so judges over the years have adopted a practice that isn't actually required by the rule of reviewing proposed settlements before notifying the class member. And if the judge feels certain aspects of the settlement won't ultimately gain his or her approval, which is necessary for this kind of action, then he tells the parties they should just go back to the negotiation table. They shouldn't spend their client's money on a pointless process of notifying people of something that he's not gonna approve in the end. One month after the lawyers submitted this proposed settlement for Judge Brier's preliminary approval, which doesn't mean that he will ultimately approve it. It's just he's tending towards it. He did approve releasing it to the class members and starting the period of time that people have to decide whether to stay in or up-tout. Now there's been a lot of negative discussion that at least I as a law professor here when I come to Europe about the up-tout class action regime of the US including criticisms by some that an up-tout regime violates the European Convention on Human Rights because people with legitimate claims caught up, get caught up in a litigation, they don't realize it, they don't understand what's going on and they don't know what's been proposed in terms of the settlement. So if I can make this system work, so I'm gonna just very quickly show you what members of the VW class can find if they go to the webpage of the court. Can you open it? This was the other way we did it. Try this, there it goes. Sorry about that. Okay, so the print on this is small. This is a public website and you would find your way to this public website, all you have to do is Google Volkswagen Settlement. It's also press coverage of the settlement told people how to do this but you can figure it out by yourself. So this is, as it says, the proposed settlement document library. I know you can't read exactly the titles but I wanna show you that there are all of these important papers in the case or all on this website. Obviously I'm not gonna go through all of the links but for anybody who's interested, not just in what's being proposed by the lawyers but what the various federal authorities have ruled, et cetera, all the information is there. Now, and there is in fact a, I don't know if I can find it, but a summary of the settlement, a sort of executive summary that tells you generally what you would get and then directs you to more detailed information to figure out where you might fit into this settlement. And that is actually, that's actually this.  Technology never works as well as everybody claims it's going to. Trust me, you could read the settlement from the webpage. Now, under the US class action rule, after the settlement is announced, time is given not just for class members to opt out but also for others to object to the terms of the settlement. That's why you would wanna go and read the terms of the settlement. And the judge has to hold a public hearing and he then has to consider all the objections that might come forward from anybody's a member of the class. They could appear with a lawyer or without a lawyer. They could write him letters or appear in person. And only after he's considered all of those objections can he approve the settlement if he feels that it's fair, reasonable, and adequate. And if the settlement is approved, and this settlement has not yet been finally approved, if it's approved, it will bind everybody who did not choose to opt out. The people who did not opt out no longer have the ability to proceed individually. Now, under our rule, the judge also has to approve the attorney's fees, these plaintiff's attorneys who you've all heard are so greedy in the US. And under our rule, the judge actually awards these fees. And most federal judges are quite comfortable exercising this authority and fairly frequently, they will award less money than the attorney's request. So after the announcement of the VW settlement, there was media speculation that the plaintiff's attorneys were gonna ask for several billion dollars in fees, apparently on the notion that some people had that the lawyers would ask for a percentage like 20%, 25%, or 30%. So Judge Breyer asked the lawyers to inform him of what the thinking was with regard to fees, which of course Volkswagen will also have to pay. And they filed a statement in court and because the system's not being responsive, I'm not gonna take the time to show it to you, but it is also on this website in which the lawyers say, and it's a legal commitment because they filed it in court, that they expect to ask for $324 million of fees and about $8 million in expenses. Now that's a lot of money, but if you quickly do the math, you will see that that is about 2% of the money that VW is now offering to pay the consumers. And actually the fees don't come out of the fund, VW pays them in addition to the fund. By August 30th, 2016, that is just a few weeks ago, 210,000 class members out of the estimated 475,000 had registered to receive benefits from the proposed settlement and most of them are going for the buyback. And the final hearing on the settlement, which will, as I said, be public, is scheduled for mid-October this year. Now, Yannicka asked me to describe to you the consumer class actions in the US, but that's far from the only legal problem that VW faces in the US. I already mentioned that there are official actions by 40 states, that the Department of Justice is pursuing a criminal investigation. But VW's troubles do not end there. As a result of this mess, VW's net income dropped by about $6 million in 2015 and their share value dropped dramatically. So last January, as he was organizing these consumer cases, Judge Breyer was also assigned several class actions that had been brought by shareholders. But under US law, investors cannot sue VW if, because VW shares were not traded on a US stock exchange. They can only sue VW as shareholders if they bought a very specialized form of stock. It's called an American deposit receipt and it's not frequently used in the US. And so there are just a few US pension funds that actually purchase those shares and they have filed suit. And Judge Breyer represented a leading US securities firm, a different firm called Bernstein-Litterwitz to represent them. So I want you to remember this name because it's going to appear again in the story Yannick is going to tell you about that developments here in the Netherlands. But before that, I'd like to turn to my colleague, Professor Axel Hofmeier, who is going to tell us what's going on in Germany, which as Volkswagen's home country has become the center of the global shareholder litigation. Yes, thank you very much for inviting me to this interesting conference about wicked problems. And indeed, the Volkswagen scandal is a wicked problem, not only for Volkswagen, but for Germany. Why is that? Because Volkswagen obviously was an icon, I would say, of the German industry and the perception of the German public has now changed very much. And not only the perception of Volkswagen has changed, but also the perception of the German relation to the US legal system, I would say. Professor Hensler mentioned already the typical US class action that is triggered and viewed as problematic from a European viewpoint. But now when we read here in Germany in the newspapers that the US customers that are affected by the scandal under the settlement that you just described that they will get maybe up to $10,000 as compensation or many other benefits, including the right to give back the car, this has gotten many German customers to think, well, what do we get? Do we get anything? Now, the legal structure is different, of course, and the emission standards in Germany are much lower than in the US, but nevertheless, there was a legal problem here too with these defeat devices with which Volkswagen cheated. So this really puts the German consumer as disadvantage, but we have no class actions. So every individual consumer has to sue on his own, but that's rarely done. I think we have now 60 or 70 individuals sued by consumers and the legislator has not yet reacted. There was in the beginning, there was a talk of maybe we should also have some system under which consumers will be able to collectively protect their interests, but now there is some, I would say, it's very quiet on this front, so to speak, and we have this legislative that does nothing and maybe the legislator has seen that Volkswagen would give similar benefits to its German or even European Dutch or other European customers in the same amount that the US customers are getting, this would be a very serious economic problem for the existence of this icon German car manufacturer. But let me turn now really to the shareholder claims because these are, in fact, at the moment being litigated in Germany, the shareholder claims are based on laws against the misinformation of the capital markets. Volkswagen is a publicly traded company and the Volkswagen shares are part of many investment portfolios of many individuals, but also institutions around the globe. And so these investors now have a claim possibly because they argue that they may have bought the Volkswagen shares too expensive if they had known or if the market in general had known that Volkswagen is cheating the authorities in the US and in Europe and is cheating its customers as it has been described. If the market had known that, then the Volkswagen share would have been at a much lower rate. So there's this huge loss suffered by investors around the globe through the scandal and through the fall of the Volkswagen shares price. And in Germany, we have a special litigation tool that has been designed about 10 years ago for these kinds of mass shareholder claims and it's called the Capital Markets Model Case Act in German, the Kapitalanliga-Muster-Verfahrens-Gesetz abbreviated as Katmuck and under that name, it's become quite famous, at least in the legal world. Okay, so we have this Capital Markets Model Case Act. Please note that this is not a class action. It is just a tool that has been designed to deal with this multitude of claims. Just what Professor Hensler described as being not desirable, a waste of resources that thousands of individuals come to the court with essentially the same problem. That's exactly what happens in Germany at the moment because this Capital Markets Model Case Act still requires that every investor that claims, claims to have a claim needs to file its own individual suit, just an ordinary suit with the court. And so at the moment, we have several hundreds of suits that being filed in the court of Braunschweig, which is the competent court for the headquarters of Volkswagen. And the value, that's very interesting, that the total value of these suits is between three and four billion euros. So that is really a very big, at least in monetary terms, a very big litigation that's going on there. And it will then be continued probably for many years, depending on the strategy employed by the parties. And the questions, for example, did the Volkswagen Board know what was going on in the US? These questions will all be litigated in what is called the Model Case. Now, what is interesting, coming back to global wicked problems, is that these claimants here that bring these cases to Braunschweig, Germany, are almost completely institutional investors, big investors. Yes, they're also individuals, small investors, but this big sum, as I said, three billion euros, that's not your Joe Smith little investor guy, but these are big institutional investors, including many household names. For example, Allianz, a big German insurance company, has filed suit. And many, many investors from all around the globe, pension funds from the US, banks, from all kinds of countries, they have all filed a suit. And why do they do that? Because normally filing a suit in Germany, especially with this kind of money, these kinds of amounts in controversy, is very dangerous for the cost risk. Under the German rules, you run a very large cost risk, but nevertheless, these investors have decided to file suit. And I think that's for two reasons, mainly. One is now the development of the discussion of the fiduciary duties, or the duties that the management of such a fund has. If there are possible claims in the amount of millions, then they cannot just let them sit on the table. They must do something about it in the interest of their own customers, their own investors behind them. And the second reason is the amount of financing that's available today that has also at least in Germany changed a lot. Today, almost all of these suits are externally financed. So the cost risks do not lie with the plaintiffs, but with some other institutions that have taken the risk and then may get a share of the profits if the case is successful. So all of the main players here, the German law firms that do this, for example, the law firm of Needing and Bart has teamed up with a big US law firm that's called Robinskeller-Rotman, just to give you examples. And the German law firm of Tilb has teamed up with Grant and Eisenhofer, another German, it's going to be a US law firm, and they are also funded by an institution that's called Claims Funding Euro. And then there's another US law firm, but they have created offices in Germany. It's called Quim de Manuel, and they are funded by a funding institution that originally comes from Australia, Bentham, it's called, and so on. Many of these corporations, and that just shows that this is really an international problem that is organized on a global scale, but is now played out in this little town of Braunschweig, Germany, for reasons of competence of the court. Well, we don't know how these cases will turn out. It will be a very long, possibly a very long litigation, depending on Volkswagen strategy, but I think it's fair to say that even now at this stage of the proceedings where the model case has not even yet begun, what has been done now in August was that the court in Braunschweig has made what is called the reference decision, that is it has identified the common problems that are identical to all of the hundreds of plaintiffs and has referred these problems to the higher court, but there the procedure hasn't even begun. So we will see what comes out of it and how this wicked problem is being treated by the German courts in the future. Well, so much from Germany here, and now back to you, Janneke. Thank you, and we're almost there. We almost deserved our drinks. So we heard a little bit piece of the US part of Volkswagen. We got the German description and some of you might be thinking, okay, this is all very interesting, but where is this global private legal order that they were announcing in the title? How are we construing it? Well, you might be surprised about the answer and the answer to how could Volkswagen bring an end to this because we don't have enough time for tonight, but you should know there are similar actions going on in Italy, France, in Belgium, in Canada, in Austria, virtually everywhere, and it will take years and years and years and a lot of billions and billions to resolve all of that. So is there a way, since we don't have an international private court, is there a way to bring this to an end? And the answer is yes, there is. And the answer is it's here, in the Netherlands. And what do I mean by that? Well, the Netherlands is the only jurisdiction outside the United States. Not just in Europe, but outside the United States, and not everybody's side, that introduced this special provision in 2005 that allows company like Volkswagen to bring an end to obtain a global peace in cases like this by settling with representative organizations, representative interest of consumers or investors, depending on which part of the dispute they wanna bring to an end, and to submit it for approval to the Amsterdam Court of Appeal. And the Amsterdam Court of Appeal can declare it binding on opt-out basis. You can opt-out, so everybody is part of the group unless they opt-out, and that has happened already in similar cases like the WK's, twice. So, what does this mean? In Europe and in the Netherlands, we rely in such situations when we want to resolve such global dispute, but even mass disputes, less global, national or international, we rely on non-profit organizations. Non-profit organizations could be ad hoc stichtingen, foundations, or long-standing ones like the VEB, I'm sure many of you know them, are consumable. So, in anticipation of the defendant, here, VW, reaching the state of mind of wanting to bring this to an end, to a global peace and to resolution, here are all those Dutch ad hoc non-profit organizations and non-profit entities lined up for a beauty contest to become VW's true, preferably one and only, I think, negotiation partner for global resolution. And please note, and here is the Dutch polar culture, this provision can only be invoked if VW wants to bring this to an end. They cannot be forced to come to Amsterdam. So, I did a very quick research. I'm not promising that I'll be able to show you what I've prepared, these are just very quick links, but I'll do a try. And I found five, at least five, there might be more, but I found at least five non-profit associations. And four out of the five had websites which I think is telling in English, because they're Dutch foundation, so I wouldn't have all in English. I wanna show you the first one. Okay. This is a bit better than of Professor Hesler, but we're in front of it, so I'm not sure. So, please mind the banner. Why do only Australian car owners get away with considering the state of limitation? Only for Americans? So, they obviously disagree with the fact that just American consumers are getting something, right? So, this is this interesting part when Professor Hesler and I studied the Musk Lanes that we bump into these very interesting observations that in this globalized world where we have information technology we all have the same problems and issues as consumers. Yes, we do have different national legal rules, but we do believe we are alike. We do believe why are the Americans getting a resolution? Why aren't we getting one? We're all the same consumers of VW, right? We're all shareholders of VW. Why are we treated differently? So, this is a very interesting issue. The other interesting issue what I came across when I was studying those foundations for today's presentation is that if you look at their funding, who is behind them? So, I went to the other one. So, that is one of the other foundations. It says, the foundation is founded, I'll light it up, and advised by Labaton Sukharov a premier American securities anti-trust consumer protection law firm. And then, I went to the other one. Let me click this one. And then, I went to the other one. And then, I sew, a little bit better, that's five. Bernstein did, which you remember, the lead plaintive of Professor Hansler's story in the securities, is providing, is behind, is financing the costs and supporting this foundation. And then, I found this one. And it says, behind it is the global justice network of internationally operating lawyers, including many of which in the United States with experience in dealing with these type of cases. And what I also found interesting, so those were all ad hoc associations, just for you, background information, it isn't strange that they have to be financed because such associations has to apply with the so-called claim code, the self-regulation for governance of such foundations. And according to the claim code, you need to have a board and supervisory board and composed of experienced people, so you have to have a lawyer, so obviously that is something that needs refinancing. What I also found is our, I'm a bit nationalistic in that respect, own VEB having nowadays, they are not any more national retail investor association. They are nowadays international, European, they're becoming more ambitious foundation and I can't help but I'm always interested, I wanna know, how did they do those things? They have only membership fees, et cetera, who is behind the VEB? If you do research as long as we do, since 2000 together, since 2008 and by now, that the VEB has been involved in collective settlements in the previous years where they negotiated a very nice fee for themselves, which they can use to support and do subsequent actions. So, if you would have more time or a very nice scheme to show you all this network, to reveal this network of private, more or less visible network, that is becoming a more and more sophisticated and entrepreneurial private actors as opposed to institutions entrusted with some sort of state authority or adjudicative power who, despite of the scattered national legal regimes, work together and maybe also in competition with each other to establish or construe this global private legal order because we don't have anything like that. So that is what we found fascinating, that we have this global legal problem, we have all those public institutions and when we deal with the underlying disputes and claims, they are national and we rely on private actors to do what state institutions need to do. So here is, oh please let's open, so a whole lot of questions about the role of national courts, about transparency and good governance, about the strength of those private networks, about the alternatives maybe to this way to go forward. But maybe we agree that this is actually not such a bad idea and we, nothing, don't touch it, don't fix it if it's not broken. And I would like to leave it here and I would like to thank Professor Halfmeyer who sacrificed his family evening to be with us. And I want to thank you. Thank you.