We have consistently asked, what is Balch hiding? And the same is true in Mississippi.
When we began our effort to have Balch & Bingham change their alleged unscrupulous and unprofessional conduct in the Burt Newsome case, who would have thought a $360,000 bribery scandal, a Russian sanctions website scrub, and interest from the Special Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice would escalate our fight into a national matter?
Now comes a new FBI investigation that involves Balch out of Mississippi.
The Sun-Herald reports:
“Two Mississippi women — a state agency director and a private contractor — called the shots in the aftermath of the largest oil spill in the nation’s history, drawing the scrutiny of the FBI.
“Before the state reached a final settlement with BP, the company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster of April 2010, both women left their respective positions with the agency leading the efforts, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
“In the three years since Director Trudy Fisher’s resignation, federal investigators have looked into DEQ’s activities under her leadership. The probe looks at contracts granted by DEQ in an attempt to determine whether Fisher personally benefited from them, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the investigation, including several people who have been interviewed by the FBI.
“Under Fisher, private contractor and attorney Amy Whitten reaped nearly $2 million in DEQ contracts, either directly with the agency or through subcontracts with law firm Balch & Bingham.”
We have consistently asked, what is Balch hiding? And the same is true in Mississippi.
The Sun-Herald notes:
“Fisher announced her resignation in May 2014. This came just one week after her agency’s wholesale redaction of public records came under fire during a Hinds County Chancery Court hearing. DEQ blacked out hundreds of pages of Balch & Bingham and Whitten invoices totaling roughly $6 million. Purchases included first-class airfare for Fisher and Whitten at $1,774 per ticket in July 2012, as detailed on an invoice from Whitten to Balch & Bingham.”
Time for a forensic audit by the FBI.
