Southern Company ought to be ashamed about this disgraceful act of violence.
Is Southern Company’s longtime consultant Joe Perkins simply out of control? Is the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, who is paid millions by the utility, finally being shown the door by Southern Company?
What would cause an unknown and alleged Southern Company goon to shoot a .22 projectile into a perceived adversary’s bedroom window?
Escalona
The U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Alabama Prim Escalona, U.S. Department of Justice leaders in Washington, D.C., the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI office in Birmingham, investigators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and officers of the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have all been briefed on the retaliatory shooting against K.B. Forbes, CDLU’s Chief Executive Officer.
Forbes met in person yesterday afternoon with the FBI.
“Southern Company crossed a line when they targeted my family in the summer of 2020 and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a forensic colonoscopy of everything associated with my family, including the exportation of a princess bed for my then-three-year-old daughter. Now, what has happened is a criminal threat and an infringement of our Civil Rights. No one, and I mean no one, messes with or threatens my family and young children. Southern Company ought to be ashamed about this disgraceful act of violence,” Forbes declared.
What we do know is that the trigger was pulled behind the fence of Forbes’ home right into his bedroom window. The shot was straightforward and direct.
Trajectory of the .22 caliber projectile
The window that was hit is located several inches above the bedroom floor, but is located about 5 feet from the outside lawn.
The blue arrow in the picture to the left shows the 5-foot drop from the pierced window .
The trajectory of the projectile passed by the playground area in Forbes’ backyard. The shot, unequivocally, was targeted directly at the window, and not a fluke accident or ricochet.
The lots behind Forbes’ home are higher and above Forbes’s lot, so the individual who took the shot would have had to climb down, behind his home.
And why retaliate?
The CDLU has been working with investigators in multiple government agencies regarding Southern Company’s alleged criminal acts, illicit surveillance efforts, and gross misconduct.
Strange’s official act in exchange for $25,000 appears to have been a felony crime, too.
To threaten those who write, talk, testify, or criticize Southern Company’s criminal enterprise, a .22 projectile sends an unwavering message of violence and physical harm, or possible death.
And Southern Company has the audacity to tell The Wall Street Journal that they have “moved on?”
The .22 caliber projectile hit the window and was believed to have been shot from the fence behind Forbes’ home. Four sheriff deputies came to Forbes’ home and federal investigators are being briefed.
The Forbes Family lives in a gated community so the shooting was not random nor accidental.
The area of the bedroom is a play area for his 6-year-old daughter. The path of the projectile was directed at the height of the child’s head.
“Deplorable! Southern Company resorted to hiring the dregs of humanity, and now these misfits allegedly have sent yet another violent message trying to silence our advocacy,” Forbes stated.
Inches from Roberson’s head
In 2021, David Roberson, the ex-Drummond executive, had his car window shot out on Highway 280 as he was delivering documents to his attorney, Burt Newsome.
In 2018, the car windows of Burt Newsome’s wife were smashed and shattered in a targeted burglary allegedly by Southern Company operatives. Caught on video surveillance cameras, law enforcement said the burglars were specifically looking for her vehicle.
Now Southern Company Executive Chairman Tom Fanning and CEO Chris Womack need to be held responsible for the criminal enterprise’s unhinged misconduct. No one at Southern Company can blame Crosswhite who resigned nearly a year ago. No one at Southern Company can blame Joe Perkins or his entities, when Southern Company allegedly still pays him millions of dollars every year to allegedly do what he infamously does.
According to a high-level source in Atlanta, Southern Company allegedly paid Matrix, LLC to spearhead a covert surveillance effort of U.S. Department of Justice officials and prosecutors in Birmingham.
The release of the photos was done intentionally to send a message to Town: Southern Company owns your ass.
Crosswhite allegedly ordered the surveillance program as a member of Southern Company’s Management Council.
Since Alabama Power was never prosecuted or ordered to testify in the North Birmingham Bribery Trial because of alleged corruption and a secret “unmentionable” deal, Southern Company allegedly wanted to keep Town from ever expanding the probe in the future.
Chugging fool!
The photos eventually led to the Town’s abrupt resignation, and his political career was left in shambles.
While Crosswhite was allegedly furious that we published the photos and ordered an all-out, unwarranted attack against us, the CDLU, the Newsome Family, and the Forbes Family, sources claim that Joe Perkins, the founder of Matrix, LLC, allegedly ordered the release to benefit and justify his annual multi-million-dollar secret contracts with Southern Company subsidiaries.
The photos eventually led to the disgraceful resignations of both Town and Crosswhite.
In June, Southern Company admitted to The Wall Street Journal of paying for and conducting surveillance efforts. Last year, numerous news reports outlined the surveillance of journalists in Florida allegedly conducted by Matrix goons.
But the latest surveillance allegations are beyond egregious. They are criminal, worse than blackmail.
Southern Company set up a meeting with Town, and then their paid stooges allegedly took compromising photos of Town drinking cocktails with Crosswhite.
In May, Baker Donelson and American Family settled a $13.1 billion dollar lawsuit involving the surveillance of a family.
Southern Company and its hired stooges at Matrix, LLC engaged in illegal surveillance of the Newsome and Forbes familes.
But there is an enormous difference. The family spied on by AmFam and Baker Donelson were involved in a million-dollar but tangled personal injury lawsuit with AmFam and Baker Donelson.
Surveillance from a distance is allowed in personal injury lawsuits.
The Newsome and Forbes family were in no shape or form involved in any litigation involving Southern Company.
The Forbes and Newsome children were unfairly and egregiously targeted in a campaign of fear and intimidation by Southern Company stooges. The surveillance was unwarranted and served no corporate purpose whatsoever.
Derelict Board?
And now members of Southern Company’s Board of Directors are under fire for allegedly allowing these surveillance efforts to continue unchecked and out of control.
Was the Board derelict in their duty to protect shareholders and hold management to the utmost standards?
Southern Company’s BOD allowed top management to waste millions on a ridiculous internal probe that admitted to surveillance efforts, but concluded the company did not know who authorized the surveillance or for what purpose. An absolute farce!
The Two Marks
The BOD also is aware that the fraudulent internal probe was conducted in part by a top advisor to disgraced ex-CEO of Alabama Power, Mark A. Crosswhite, the illustrious Mark White, a white-collar criminal attorney at White, Arnold & Dowd.
Southern Company’s Board of Directors has the fudiciary duty to independently look into these matters: the millions spent on Joe Perkins/Matrix LLC in secret contracts, the enormous resources wasted on embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, retainers paid to Crosswhite’s make-believe consigliere Mark White, and most importantly, the expensive campaign of fear and intimidation, including surveillance, of the Newsome and Forbes families.
A Moniz Moment
WIll Board members like Ernest J. Moniz finally wake up and smell the brewing coffee?
Moniz, a nuclear physicist, has a distinguished career, having served as the U.S. Secretary of Energy in the Obama Administration. On Southern Company’s BOD, he serves on the Board’s Governance and Corporate Responsibility committee.
Will Moniz take a moment to look at Southern Company’s corporate irresponsibility? Will he ask, why in heaven’s name did Southern Company spend at least $318,000 to terrorize and defame the Forbes and Newsome families?
Will Moniz scratch his head when he sees that two years after his appointment to the BOD, Southern Company was conducting illegal and unwarranted surveillance of the Forbes family in 2020, and invaded their privacy including finding out covertly that the family had exported a princess bed to Mexico for their then-three-year-old daughter?
Will Smith audit the surveillance expenditures?
Then there is long time Board member William G. Smith, Jr. who joined Southern Company’s BOD in 2006. He is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Capital City Bank Group, Inc., one of the largest financial institutions in the State of Florida. He currently serves as the Chair of Southern Company’s Audit Committee.
Will Smith audit the numerous “special work orders” issued by Southern Company and its subsidiaries to Sloppy Joe Perkins and his affiliated entities?
Will Smith get a breakdown of how much was not spent on “transportation management” services and instead used to engage in covert operations including terrorizing the Newsome family in 2018 with a farwell set of travel bags and outfits?
Smith is a seasoned expert on risk management and he should see the third-party risk caused by Southern Company agents, stooges, and high-paid vendors.
Smith and Moniz, along with the other 13 members of Southern Company Board of Directors, appear to have been asleep at the wheel.
The BOD appears to be more like the cast of Muppets from Sesame Street than leaders of industry.
The BOD at Southern Company must investigate these matters independently.
Southern’s manure pile
Anyone looking into this pile of cow manure will conclude that the alleged agents of doom, Matrix and Balch, and the make-believe consigliere, Mark White, should all be fired and terminated immediately.
Southern Company told The Wall Street Journal in June that they had “moved on” from the surveillance scandal, but they haven’t.
The website smearing and slandering Newsome falsely as a rapist and Forbes as a rapist defender is still up today.
None of the 15 Board members at Southern Company can stick their head in the sand as if this never happened or is not happening.
The federal regulators and investigators, and class action lawyers, are looking into these matters and will hold the absent-minded board members accountable, including Bill and Ernie.
While documents, expenditures, and insiders close to Southern Company’s executive leadership have verifiedand confirmed that the criminal enterprise engaged in surveillance, targeted, harassed, and spearheaded a campaign of fear and intimidation against the Newsome family, the Forbes family, and the CDLU, the key question brought up by federal investigators, regulators, and others is:
Why?
We have learned that Mark A. Crosswhite, the disgraced ex-CEO and Chairman of Alabama Power, was allegedly furious in January of 2020 when we published jaw-dropping photos of him slamming back cocktails with then-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town.
Chugging buddies who were both ousted in disgrace.
Town, being investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice because of the photos, allegedly told Crosswhite of the investigation in April of 2020, and allegedly announced that he would probably resign to prevent a career-ending probe.
Unhinged with the news, Crosswhite allegely spoke to his most-trusted advisors, white-collar criminal attorney Mark White and the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, “Sloppy Joe” Perkins, about the tremendous setback.
Perkins, seeing a way to justify his multi-million-dollar secret contracts with Alabama Power, allegedly began to investigate the CDLU.
The year before, in 2019, a payroll company failed to pay the State of Alabama payroll taxes due from the CDLU because of an internal error.
Although a final assessment was placed against the CDLU, the payroll company eventually paid the payroll taxes and assessments on November 1, 2019.
Perkins used this information to allegedly tell Crosswhite falsely that the CDLU had been given enormous amounts of money compared to previous years to attack Jay E. Town, Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power, and Southern Company.
Crosswhite allegedly speculated that George Soros was funding the CDLU.
Perkins allegedly held up CDLU’s tax assessment and waved it in Crosswhite’s face, stirring up the Godfather and the imaginary Don Corleone of Alabama.
Crosswhite swallowed the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
The Godfather allegedly and foolishly gave Perkins the green light, and Zeke Smith of Alabama Power authorized expenditures of over $300,000 against the CDLU, Forbes, and Newsome on the eve of Jay E. Town’s resignation.
Disgraced, Town fled in the middle of the night on July 15, 2020.
According to internal spreadsheets, Southern Company paid accounting firm Carr, Riggs, and Ingram.
That same July, the accountants allegedly estimated how much CDLU staff were compensated, in order to pay Alabama state payroll taxes of $9,487.50.
The discredited envelope journalists at Alabama Political Reporter (APR) allegedly used the estimate, stating individuals were paid at least $186,000 and maybe as much as $580,000.
The reality is that individuals at the CDLU were paid in 2019 for up to four years of back pay, but the idiots at APR never asked.
APR: tricks for hire.
APR, like the whores of Bangkok, were hired by Southern Company to perform tricks and smear us for $120,000 according to internal spreadsheets and documents.
Three smear pieces appeared in APR that July of 2020, followed by the creation of a vicious website in August of 2020, falsely calling Newsome a rapist.
So why did Southern Company terrorize Newsome’s and Forbes’ young children? Why did Southern Company target, harass, and put these familes under surveillance? Why did they smear them?
Because Crosswhite drank the Kool-aid, thinking George Soros or an environmental group was funding us, the CDLU, to attack Town, Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power and Southern Company.
All of it a lie. All of it bullshit.
And Southern Company still has Sloppy Joe on contract.
A headline story in Law.com rocked the legal community in 2021. A respected law firm came under fire for conducting illegal surveillance and video recording of a woman and her family. Law.com reported:
The long-lived, knotty personal injury case that … ultimately settled for $11 million has spun off yet more litigation, with a new complaint accusing Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, American Family Insurance and a local private investigation company of illegally surveilling and video-recording the plaintiff and her family.
Fittingly, the new complaint seeks big money: more than $13.1 billion and change in punitive damages. Plus attorney fees.
The allegations in the Baker lawsuit are minimal compared to the illegal surveillance, alleged criminal acts, and campaign of fear and intimidation orchestrated by Southern Company and their paid stooges against us, the CDLU, the Newsome Family, and the Forbes Family.
In June, Southern Company admitted that they paid for and conducted a surveillance effort against their Chairman Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017.
The company foolishly told The Wall Street Journal that they did not know who authorized the surveillance effort or for what purpose.
Like AmFam, Southern Company apparently targeted young children.
Southern Company engaged in surveillance of the Newsome twins.
Southern Company paid a vendor to target and harass the Newsome Family, including Newsome’s four young children.
Jeff Peoples, Chief Executive Officer at Alabama Power, signed off on an “extra work authorization” in 2018 paying obscure political consultant “Sloppy” Joe Perkins an additional $39,300 on top of the secret multi-million-dollar annual contracts his firms received.
And what was the $39,300 allegedly for? For “transportation organization management” according to the document, but a blatant lie, Southern Company insiders confirmed.
Newsome’s two boys were followed around by Southern Company goons.
Besides sending a threatening package of travel bags and outfits, Southern Company stooges conducted a surveillance effort against Newsome, his wife, and children.
The Newsomes were followed, spied on, and trailed throughout Birmingham, including to a point where Newsome’s wife saw her car broken into and windows smashed, in a targeted smash-and-run.
A Southern Company goon verbally abused Newsome’s wife at one point.
A stolen credit card obtained from the break in of Newsome’s wife car was used in the purchase of the travel bags and outfits.
Zeke Smith, Alabama Power Executive Vice President for External Affairs, authorized over $318,000 in expenditures during a seven-week period in the summer of 2020 in a campaign of fear and intimidation against the Newsome and the Forbes families, according to anonymously received documents.
Southern Company made Forbes’ girls flee Alabama.
K.B. Forbes, CDLU’s Chief Executive Officer, and his wife and two young daughters were targeted.
The campaign included surveillance and harassment efforts of the Forbes Family.
The terror and harassment included multiple phone calls to Forbes’ wife, one demanding to know her location, another asking if she was at home, and a third offering to “drop off a package.”
Moon and his colleagues at Alabama Political Reporter were paid $120,000 by Southern Company, that was authorized by Zeke Smith, to viciously attack and harass us, the CDLU, the Newsome family, and the Forbes family.
Moon?
Moon apparently was surveilling our headquarters and allegedly drove in front of the Forbes household, where a pick-up truck matching his truck’s description was captured on security cameras.
A judge refused to dismiss the case against Baker Donelson in April of 2022 and it was resolved and settled in May of this year.
In the pleadings against Baker Donelson and AmFam, the complaint states:
[The] Baker Donelson Defendants and the AmFam Defendants hired, retained, paid, directed, instructed, and supervised the Martinelli Investigations Defendants in an unlawful investigation and unlawful surveillance of Plaintiff and subsequently ratified the criminal and tortious conduct….
One thing Southern Company unequivocally knows is that their executives (Crosswhite, Peoples, Smith, etc.) hired, retained, paid, directed, instructed, and supervised Matrix, Balch & Bingham, Joe Perkins, Mark White, and others to allegedly investigate, harass, intimidate, and engage in surveillance of Newsome, Forbes, and the CDLU.
Sources claim Newsome’s legal team is putting the final touches on a somewhat similar pleading, preparing to move ahead with a massive lawsuit against Southern Company, Matrix, LLC, and their other stooges, asking for similar damages.
Now, today, Balch has been decimated and only three lawyers remain in Houston, with one of them actually based in Birmingham.
From seven to three.
Balch’s total number of attorneys in the Lone Star State is in the single digits, nowhere near 25 or 30.
What a humiliating debacle!
Cherry-picking the best of the best, Balch’s competitors appear to have ravaged the once prestigious law firm.
As we reported last week, Bradley picked up three of them: Balch’s Houston Office Managing Partner and two top minority attorneys who fled Balch’s Houston office earlier this summer.
Holland
Now we’ve learned that the fourth attorney to dump Balch in Houston was partner J. Eric Holland, who escaped to Duane Morris.
Duane Morris stated in a news release, “Our practice group continues to advance and prosper,” said Brian P. Kerwin, chair of Duane Morris’ Corporate Practice Group. “Eric’s background continues to bolster our fund formation capabilities, which is a powerhouse offering to our clients.”
Competitors appear to be advancing and prospering in Texas, while Balch is not.
Who else at Balch & Bingham is dusting off their resume? What carrots are being offered to other lawyers at Balch’s satellite offices?
The undisputed fact is that the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, the Newsome Conspiracy Case, the Elderly Exploitation Scandal, the Matrix Meltdown, and Southern Company’s “fear and intimidation” campaigns appear to have taken their toll and permanentlydamaged Balch & Bingham’s reputation.
They say everything is bigger in Texas, and indeed, Balch appears to be the biggestlosers.
Balch’s alleged womb to tomb misconduct appears to have devastated the once prestigious, silk-stocking law firm.
None of the hottest stars of the legal profession appear to want to be associated with the embattled law firm Balch & Bingham.
Two former Balch attorneys are sitting in federal prison.
One is serving 5 years for money laundering and bribery and the other is serving more than 8 years for possession of kiddie porn.
Balch was forced to pull former partner Clark Watson out of retirement after Balch’s banking and financial services practice suffered several crippling blows, culminating with the recent exit of 17-year Balch legacy partner W. Brad Neighbors.
Watson back in his earlier Balch days
Watson was a Balch partner until 2015, when he went to work for Samford University, eventually serving as General Counsel. He retired at the end of February.
Coming out of retirement, Watson was hired as “counsel” and takes a leadership role in Balch’s crumbling banking and financial services practice.
Hiring an old, retired white guy also doesn’t help Balch’s “diversity and inclusion” fluff.
Maybe Balch’s Managing Partner Stan Blanton will pay an advertising publication ? to create and help him collect a make-believe award for assisting senior citizens.
From kiddie porn to elderly exploitation, Balch’s alleged womb to tomb misconduct appears to have devastated the once prestigious, silk-stocking law firm.
In Washington, D.C.. seasoned Balch lobbyist Margaret Caravelli, who worked for the firm for eight years, has left.
Balch continues to struggle compared to their competitors.
According to Open Secrets, Balch made a tad over $700,000 in 2022 in federal lobbying fees while competitors like Bradley pulled in over $2 million and Maynard Nexsen collected almost $1.7 million in D.C. lobbying fees.
The numbers speak for themselves.
Balch has lost numerous federal lobbying clients including Southern Company.
McWane is Balch’s biggest federal lobbying client and is paying Balch $30,000 a month or $360,000 a year. McWane spends about $800,000 a year on lobbyists. They should shift the $360,000 to one of their other firms or find another well-qualified firm without the womb to tomb baggage.
After nearly two decades as a top partner at Balch’s Atlanta office, Christopher S. Anulewicz has dumped the embattled law firm. He has joined the law firm Bradley.
We applaud Chris and Teri for making the intelligent decision.
In November of 2017, we wrote about two honorable and respected Balch & Bingham partners who were fighting corruption in Georgia, Anulewicz and Mike Bowers, both based in Atlanta.
Mike Bowers
We asked at the time, “Will the Good Guys Bail on Balch?”
A West Point graduate, Mike Bowers, a former Attorney General for Georgia, as we predicted, dumped Balch in 2020 and left the embattled firm. Bowers moved over toJohnson Marlowe, a respected boutique law firm.
Anulewicz took three years longer but was finally lured away and picked off by Bradley, one of the fastest growing law firms in the Southeast. Bradley has attracted and hired many top-notch Balch partners, including some of their money-making attorneys from the banking and financial services practice.
Rumors are that Bradley wants to buyout Balch, and is in the midst of trying to bring over top partners in Balch’s energy and environmental law practices.
With the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, a highly-anticipated civil RICO action, and the fallout over the Matrix Meltdown and Southern Company’s million-dollar fear and intimidation campaigns, what sound seasoned lawyer would want to be associated with the embattled law firm?
As we prophetically wrote in January of 2020:
Like vultures, the competitors of Balch & Bingham are eyeing specific practice groups and talent at the embattled firm, ready to scoop up veteran partners and money-makers.
Hiring the best and brightest, competitors may begin to target Balch’s satellite offices in other states and pick up some terrific talent….
When the illustrious Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr., General Counsel of Balch & Bingham, vowed in 2017 that he would “fight to the death” before resolving the Newsome Conspiracy Case, he was affirming what Claiborne Seier (above, left) allegedly vowed to Burt Newsome in 2012: Newsome would be destroyed for pursuing a criminal case against Seier’s brother Alfred Seier, who pulled a gun on Newsome.
Top money-making attorneys and legacy partners have left Balch these past 5 years, apparently destroying specific practice groups.
Yet, Balch stupidly appears to slap itself on the back for “beating” Newsome in an unconstitutional and secretive Star Chamber.
Mark A. Crosswhite, the disgraced ex-CEO of Alabama Power, foolishly bit the forbidden fruit when the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, Joe Perkins allegedly told him falsely that we, the CDLU, had received enormous amounts of resources to attack Southern Company and its subsidiaries.
The $2 million grant the CDLU received in 2019 (which had nothing to do with Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power, Matrix or their competitors) caused them to defecate rainbows. ?
The grant was related to our two decades of healthcare and consumer protection advocacy.
But the smear artists, hired whores, and envelope journalists did not care.
The lie worked and Southern Company foolishly spent millions in surveillance efforts, fear and intimidation tactics, and a smear campaign against us, the CDLU, and Newsome.
Some of these acts included criminal misconduct and felonies.
Crosswhite, the “most powerful man in Alabama, ” was ousted in November.
And now another alleged conspirator has died.
Another carcass joins the disgraced pile of stooges, cronies, consultants, and fools who drank the Kool-aid or bit the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Balch-landia.
The enormity of Southern Company’s alleged wrongdoing is unprecedented.
Now that two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Archibald has pealed back the alleged blatant corruption of the Alabama judicial system by the Southern Company criminal enterprise in regard to the ridiculoussealing of the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, the Office of Investigations at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission can finally tell the commissioners to place the Vogtle Nuclear Plant into receivership, with a third-party administrator.
The Office of Investigations “develops policy, procedures, and quality control standards for investigations of licensees, applicants, their contractors or vendors, including the investigations of all allegations of wrongdoing.”
Southern Company paid contractor and vendor Matrix, LLC, and its founder “Sloppy Joe” Perkins millions, with no need of invoicing, to allegedly investigate, target, spy on, and harass potential enemies and innocent children.
Southern Company, its subsidiaries, and vendors and contractors are out of control and appear to be involved in a large web of wrongdoing and deception.
Both disbarred attorneys at one point represented Southern Company. The bribery and money laundering were tied directly to the original North Birmingham Bribery Trial in 2018.
Now look at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant. The Plant is operated by Southern Nuclear Operating Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company.
Vogtle costs “have more than doubled to north of $31 billion after taking seven years longer to complete than projected,” according to a report Monday by the Georgia Recorder.
The cost overruns and delays appear to show “intentional deception and criminal concealment” to investors, ratepayers, and regulators.
Millie Ronnlund
The Compliance Officer and General Counsel at Southern Nuclear is Millie Ronnlund, the former Balch & Bingham partner whose husband, Robert M. Ronnlund, was the attorney accused of engaging in alleged obstruction of justice and the alteration of evidence in the Newsome Conspiracy Case.
“The [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’] Jacksonville District hired Durham, N.C.-based PowerSecure Inc., a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co., via a sole source time-and-materials contract for repair and restoration of Puerto Rico’s power grid following Hurricane Maria in 2017. The Corps’ contract was initially worth $1.3 million. After several modifications, its value reached $523 million, according to a 2019 U.S. Dept. of Defense Inspector General audit.
“U.S. Justice Dept. officials alleged that PowerSecure violated the Truth in Negotiations Act, which requires that government negotiators have access to cost or pricing data when developing a proposal for a sole-source contract, as well as the False Claims Act, which makes contractors liable for defrauding the federal government, by knowingly failing to disclose pricing data related to labor and equipment costs on another post-hurricane restoration project it had taken in Florida and Georgia earlier in 2017.”
In December, Southern Company’s wholly owned subsidiary agreed to pay the federal government $8.4 million to resolve allegations that it improperly withheld pricing data.
Southern Company made 400 times than originally planned.
The concealment of pricing data confirms what we correctly foreshadowed in 2022: criminal concealment has been a consistent element involving Southern Company and their stooges, vendors, and contractors.
Wrongdoing? The enormity of Southern Company’s alleged wrongdoing is unprecedented.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the irrefutable evidence, the documentation, the chronological timeline to put the Vogtle Nuclear Power plant into receivership and end the criminal RICO enterprise known as Southern Company.
Southern Company: Don’t mess with my mommy or salami!
An employment matter? That is a large spoonful of human waste.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist John Archibald has ripped the legal mockery and lies of a Southern Company stooge blocking access to ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit against embattled law firm Balch& Bingham and Drummond Company.
Southern Company’s criminal racketeering enterprise is in full-throttle, on overdrive.
You want to know what happened when a former coal company executive – one convicted in the bribery of former Alabama Rep. Oliver Robinson – sued his powerful bosses and their powerful lawyers for putting him in that bind?
Of course you do. So do we.
But don’t hold your breath. Even in those polluted neighborhoods that started this thing. Finding basic facts – even the status of the case – is like, well, like finding a body in a Walker County coal mine.
Because a Jefferson County judge says “this is not a public issue.”
Despite the First Amendment. Despite Alabama open records laws. Despite appearances and the stench emanating from Judge Tamara Harris Johnson’s court.
“You just have to take my word,” she said.
Take her word?
Let’s look at the record.
In December of 2020, Alabama Power was in sheer, uncontrolled panic about the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial.
Allegedly using the enormous weight of their racketeering enterprise, resources, and agents, Southern Company heavily fought back.
On Wednesday December 13, 2020, Alabama Power and Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite objected to discovery and intent for deposition requests by Roberson.
That same day in Drummond’s pleading before the Alabama Supreme Court calling for a stay on discovery and depositions, Alabama Power and Crosswhite are mentioned as an example of the “burden and expense” the rebirth was causing.
Assisted Tackler McKinney
On Sunday, December 17, 2020, unheard from since the summer of 2018, Steven McKinney, the former Balch & Bingham partner who was indicted but acquitted in the North Birmingham Bribery Criminal Trial, came out of obscurity and retirement; and objected to discovery and intent to deposition requests, giving his old comrade Crosswhite an assisted tackle.
Trying to obscure their panic, Mark A. Crosswhite, the former Balch partner and now ex-CEO of Alabama Power, had his team of attorneys at White, Arnold, & Dowd, led by white-collar criminal attorney Mark White, file an avalanche of hard-copy, paper court pleadings at the courthouse in office, over the counter, that same week.
The two Marks offered a 22-page pleading asking for a protective order in part because of us, the CDLU and this website, BanBalch.com.
Alabama Power whined that we outlined correctly that Alabama Power, Mark Crosswhite and “an all-star reunion show”would be subpoenaed in the rebirth of the North Birmingham Conspiracy Case.
Judge Johnson eventually succumbed to the enormous pressure of the racketeering enterprise and blocked the discovery and deposition of Crosswhite, Alabama Power, and anyone tied to Southern Company in January of 2021.
Stooge Luther Strange
In February of 2021, we reported about the written testimony from the case in which Roberson answered to a list of admissions provided by Drummond. Roberson outlines an alleged bribery scheme involving ex-U.S. Senator Luther Strange and Drummond in which Strange, then-Attorney General of Alabama, was allegedly bribed to sign letters opposing the North Birmingham EPA clean-up effort.
Two days after our report that struck a raw nerve, Josh Moon, brain amputee of the discredited Alabama Political Reporter and alleged CDLU stalker, published a report apparently on behalf of Southern Company that viciously attacked us, the CDLU, about the $2 million grant that we had received in 2019, falsely alleging it was tied to attacking Balch & Bingham, the sister-wife of Southern Company.
Spreadsheets showed the $120,000 payoff to the envelope journalists at Alabama Political Reporter.
Southern Company’s criminal racketeering enterprise had authorized the payment of $120,000 to Alabama Political Reporter (APR) in August of 2020 to allegedly defame and smear us through July of 2021.
Shortly thereafter in March of 2021, Judge Tamara Harris Johnson sealed the entire case for what appears to be solely for the benefit of the Southern Company criminal enterprise.
Johnson created another Star Chamber so that Southern Company’s criminal enterprise can lie, cheat, and manipulate the system just like they did in the Newsome Conspiracy Case.
Now over two years later, the Energy and Policy Institute, according to Archibald, filed to intervene and open the case up. The Alabama Media Group filed brief in support of opening the case.
But Judge Johnson wants to keep the alleged corruption, bribes, and set up of the “fall guy” hidden.
Archibald writes:
Johnson has ordered the case sealed, lock, stock and coal-smoking barrel. Court dates are invisible on Alacourt, the state’s online court record system, and elsewhere. Even headings of past and scheduled hearings are stricken, because Johnson says it’s none of your business.
“This is not a public issue,” she told lawyers this week.
Why?
“It is strictly an employment matter,” she said.
An employment matter? That is a large spoonful of human waste.
Setting up an executive as a fall guy and sending him to federal prison is not an employment matter.
The reality is the Southern Company criminal racketeering enterprise appears to have been involved in the North Birmingham Bribery Scheme since day one.
Bowden
The alleged brainchild of the scheme was Matthew Bowden, the late Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Alabama Power, who curiously died two weeks after Roberson, Gilbert and McKinney were indicted.
Bowden wanted to discredit GASP.
North Birmingham appears to have been a side-show, a distraction to the real objective: squashing the tiny environmental group GASP before the Birmingham group could start probing the Miller Steam Plant, one of the biggest greenhouse polluting, coal-burning plants in the nation, according to news reports.
Jim Kerr, then-Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel of Southern Company lied to us in 2018, when he claimed that Southern Company was not involved in the North Birmingham Bribery Scheme.
Kerr tried to ignore the alleged racist act of suppressing the poor African Americans of North Birmingham from having their toxic property tested. Kerr had the audacity to dismiss the racist scheme, telling the CDLU, “I don’t accept your proposition or your hypothesis.”
Five seconds of silence
North Birmingham’s population is 92.5 percent African American.
When confronted about why Balch lobbyist Jeffrey H. Wood was on Capitol Hill at the height of the bribery scheme inquiring about North Birmingham on behalf of Alabama Power, Kerr was silent for five seconds before regurgitating a canned legal answer.
Kerr was caught blind-sided, with his legal pants on the floor. Kerr appeared to have been protecting the criminal enterprise, and looked the other way.
Southern Company Executive Chairman Tom Fanning and current CEO Chris Womack also have looked the other way and let Crosswhite, Alabama Power, Mark White, Balch, embattled political consulting firm Matrix, LLC, and Matrix’s founder, “Sloppy Joe” Perkins run out of control.
Fanning authorized and Womack supported an internal investigation about the secret surveillance in 2017 of Fanning and his then-girlfriend, Kim Tanaka, that concluded with no conclusion. An utter farce!
Millions of investors’ resources at Southern Company were wasted on personal vendettas and efforts to defame an innocent man falsely as a rapist. In addition, the company foolishly terrorized innocent children.
As we have documented, law enforcement, including the former U.S. Attorney who resigned in disgrace in 2020, were compromised and appear to be agents of Southern Company’s RICO enterprise.
Upcoming civil RICO cases, derivative lawsuits, and federal probes may finally expose the truth, and force a deep, forensic investigation into all the criminal shenanigans, including the ex-parte communications between Judge Johnson and the criminal enterprise that has eroded the Alabama judiciary.
Take our word for it!
Ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and ex-Alabama CEO Mark A. Crosswhite chugging together.
Escalating a highly-anticipated civil RICO lawsuit, a high-level source who was once part of the inner-circle of disgraced ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite alleges that the order to destroy innocent victim Burt Newsome came from the top.
Crosswhite allegedly was doing a favor for an elite Mountain Brook friend that falsely blamed Newsome for financial woes after a successful collection effort was made on behalf of a financial institution that Newsome represented.
The alleged Alabama Power/Southern Company criminal enterprise was not only involved in intimidating, smearing, and destroying perceived enemies of Alabama Power, but also to allegedly helpfriends of friends or distant acquaintances retaliate or seek revenge that had no corporate purpose whatsoever.
The expenditures against Newsome make no sense and have no fiduciary purpose for the wholly owned subsidiary of a publicly traded company, Southern Company.
The agents of doom were allegedly embattled law firm Balch & Bingham and the obscure political consulting firm Matrix, founded by the OompaLoompa of Alabama politics, the diminutive Joe Perkins, both of whom have earned millions a year from Alabama Power.
The demand to destroy Newsome included using the color of authority.
Columbiana Police Chief Jeffrey Bowers, the cop-son of former Alabama Power Vice President of Environmental Affairs Willard L. Bowers, allegedly was told in 2013 to “hide in wait” for Newsome who had a scheduled court appearance in Columbiana, the county seat of Shelby County, sources claim.
Bowers, then a police officer, participated in the staged arrest of Newsome in May of 2013. (In 2019, a nervous Bowers foolishly claimed that he had only “held” Newsome for sheriff deputies.)
The mugshot of Newsome was then sent to bankers via email the following Saturday afternoon by a Balch & Bingham partner in an alleged attempt to defame and cripple Newsome’s reputation and law practice.
The ongoing investigation has not only found that the accident report was severely inaccurate and at times false, there is now solid evidence of connections between the state trooper and a known business associate of Mark White, themost trusted advisor of disgraced ex-CEO of Alabama Power, Mark A. Crosswhite.
J. Mark White
We have since learned from investigators that the state trooper allegedly lived across the street from the business associate of Mark White. The street is narrow, practically one lane, and on trash day, the neighbors may have spoken face to face.
Investigators claim the business associate was allegedly affiliated with White and Stover Innovations, LLC, now defunct. Mark White was a principal member of the LLC, listed by his legal first name John.
Southern Company last month told The Wall Street Journal that the utility has “moved on” from scandal after conducting that half-baked internal investigation which concluded with no conclusion.
However, the smear website that they paid for, defaming Newsome and us, the CDLU, is still up and live.
Southern Company spent over $40,000 in a seven-week period creating and publicizing the site. Zeke Smith, Vice President of External Affairs at AlabamaPower, approved the expenditures that had no corporate purpose whatsoever.
Spreadsheets confirm that Southern Company wasted investor resources on a personal vendetta.
WIth Southern Company acknowledging that clandestine surveillance operations were conducted by the company, documents confirming that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in less than two months on a campaign of fear and intimidation against Newsome and the CDLU, and a reliable source now claiming that orders to “destroy Newsome” came from the top, the alleged act of attempted murder against Newsome can no longer be dismissed.
Southern Company’s insidious, egregious, and immoral misconduct using vendors like Balch, Matrix, and White apparently hasn’t changed.
Instead of distancing themselves, or firing the unholy trinity, Southern Company continues to pay White and the agents of doom millions.
Boiling in hot water
Chris Womack, the CEO of Southern Company, is now boiling inhotwater for not leading the company in a new, ethical direction.
Womack, like Jim Kerr, the former Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel at Southern Company, appears to be covering up the alleged misdeeds and criminal misconduct of Crosswhite and others.
While Southern foolishly claims that they have “moved on,” news about the call to “destroy Newsome” comes coincidentally as Newsome is “moving forward.”
Newsome has recently hired a major and seasoned civil RICO law firm that will fund a massive legal effort against the utility.
Southern Company for years looked the other way and allowed their most profitable subsidiary Alabama Power and their “unholy” vendors run free, like outlaws in the Wild West.
No longer feared or respected, Matrix and its founder, “Sloppy Joe” Perkins appear to have imploded, lost major clients, and become the laughing stock of the chattering class.
The nail in Matrix’s coffin was Florida Power and Light that declared, “We regret ever having associated ourselves with [Matrix.]”
Children were targeted, terrorized, and caused to cry in fear by Southern Company. And for what fudiciary duty to shareholders ? None. Zero. Zilch.
Southern Company had the testicular fortitude to foolishly tell The Wall Street Journal that “it has no idea who ordered the [surveillance] operation or why” of Southern Company’s Executive Chairman Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017.
Observers unanimously agree that Southern Company appears to be lying to and intentionally misleading the public.
The million-dollar internal probe’s conclusion is now seen as a farce.
Why?
Because the most trusted advisor and confidant of Mark A. Crosswhite, the ex-CEO of Alabama Power who resigned in disgrace last November, was one of the key “investigators” of this buffoonery.
Mark White
Mark White, a white-collar criminal attorney from White, Arnold, & Dowd, was seen everyday at the courthouse during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial in 2018 and allegedly cut the deal with disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town to keep Alabama Power “unmentionable” during the corruption trial.
According to the Wall Street Journal, White, Arnold & Dowd was involved in Southern Company’s internal probe that concluded with no conclusion.
White is not admired by some in Birmingham, and a few years back, a U.S. Department of Justice official in Washington, D.C. made some derogatory (but prophetic) comments about the fellow that frankly stunned us at the time.
In 2020, White showed his foolishness. He filed an avalanche of hard-copy, paper court pleadings on behalf of Alabama Power and Crosswhite in ex-Drummond Executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit at the courthouse in person, over the counter, as if it were 1950 not 2020. The delay and “hiding the goods” tactic failed since the clerk immediately scanned and uploaded the paper pleadings.
Southern Company may claim they do not know who authorized the surveillance of Fanning and for what purposes, but we do know who authorized and which individuals were involved in the campaign of assault, intimidation, defamation and theft against the CDLU, Burt Newsome, K.B. Forbes, the Newsome family, and the Forbes Family.
Like David Copperfield, Southern Company wants to make these embarrassing million-dollar expenditures simply disappear with a half-baked internal probe, while “hiding the goods.”
Between 2018 and 2020, children were targeted, terrorized, and caused to cry in fear by Southern Company.
And for what fudiciary duty to shareholders ? None. Zero. Zilch.
And that, our dear reader, is why Southern Company appears to have “covered up and swept the criminal misconduct under the rug.”
Womack’s problem now.
Crosswhite’s problem has now become new Southern Company CEO Chris Womack’s problem, even though his spin doctors claim they have “moved on.”
Investigators from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Wall Street plaintiff attorneys for investors, and major civil RICO litigators are currently digging, probing, and preparing, sources affirm.
The anonymous spreadsheets and documents that we received show that Southern Company executives Zeke Smith and Jeff Peoples were involved in authorizing expenditures to scare and terrorize young children.
And no matter how badly Southern Company wants to “move on,” the evidence is rock solid. Even the laughable internal probe, with no conclusion, affirmed that millions were wasted by Southern Company.
Top executives at Southern Company appear to have lied repeatedly, consistently, and habitually.
What a hot mess!
Claiming that a million-dollar internal probe did not find outwho authorized or why a surveillance effort was conducted against ex-Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017, Southern Company looks like a sack of lying fools at best or a bunch of incompetent imbeciles at worst.
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal report appears to solidify and escalate the criminal misconduct allegations against Southern Company, and shows an epic size hole in their compliance, regulatory, and oversight executive team.
No one believes Southern Company has “moved on.”
This is just the beginning.
A pattern of deception, deep lies, secret surveillance, intimidation, unscrupulous behavior, and harassment are all tied to Southern Company.
From the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, how can Southern Company be trusted?
Top executives at Southern Company appear to have lied repeatedly, consistently, and habitually.
Southern Company operatives and consultants appear to have engaged in criminal and unsavory acts against unwitting victims, innocent children, and perceived enemies of Southern Company.
Spreadsheets and work orders provided to law enforcement and regulators list some of the alleged immoral acts.
Three specific alleged acts were criminal felonies:
In September of 2020, Burt Newsome was injured in a head-on accident. He was gravely injured and nearly killed. Some even claimed the act was an alleged act of attempted murder by Southern Company. Evidence from the crash allegedly links known vendors of Southern Company to the law enforcement agents at the scene.
A few days after Newsome’s near-death crash, a Southern Company stooge attempted stupidly to impersonate our Executive Director, K.B. Forbes, and his then-eight-year-old daughter in two attempts to illegally obtain banking information from his regional bank in Alabama. The criminal suspects had private, confidential information including full bank account numbers.
In November of 2020, Burt Newsome, still recovering from his car wreck, discovered that a law office checkbook was stolen from his office. The weekly cleaning crew disconnected the security camera and stole the checkbook, allegedly bribed by Southern Company operatives.
Other alleged acts by Southern Company operatives include:
The smashing of the car window of Burt Newsome’s wife at a gym in which her purse was stolen. Law enforcement alleged she was targeted. Video surveillance of the incident shows the suspects driving around allegedly specifically looking for Newsome’s vehicle.
In the summer of 2020, Southern Company allegedly and foolishly decided to target, harass, intimidate, and terrorize the Hispanic family of CDLU’s CEO, spending big bucks to do so, and gathering intelligence and detailed personal information about the family. Theterror and harassment included phone calls to the Hispanic mother demanding to know her location, asking if she was at home, and offering to “drop off a package.”
Will Southern Company attempt to say once again that they did not know who authorized these acts and why?
All the while, Southern Companycontinues to pay embattled law firm Balch & Bingham and Joe Perkins, the OompaLoompa of Alabama politics, millions of dollars.
