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Bombshell: Indicted Balch Partner Gilbert Still on Balch Payroll
Infuriating other attorneys at the once prestigious firm, FEC filings show that Joel I. Gilbert, the indicted Balch & Bingham partner who allegedly funneled $360,000 in bribes to disgraced former Alabama State Representative Oliver Robinson, is still on the payroll at Balch & Bingham as of December 30, 2017. After being indicted on September 28, 2017, Gilbert donated, what appears to be four automatic payroll withdrawals, on October 16, 2017, November 16, 2017, December 22, 2017, and December 30, 2017, to Balch & Bingham’s federal political action committee. The contributions total $388.42. When Gilbert and Balch partner Steve McKinney were…
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Thank You to Our Readers
We would like nothing more than to unplug this site if and only if Balch & Bingham would settle the Burt Newsome Conspiracy case and apologize to the North Birmingham African-American community. Our educational advocacy project simply started with the Newsome conspiracy case and has mushroomed into numerous unsettling matters concerning the once prestigious, silk-stocking law firm. Google analytics tells us we have over 17,000 unique users who visit our site regularly, some on a daily basis. We thank you for your readership. Google also tells us that our number one post of all time is about the unconstitutional and…
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Black Hall Aerospace and Oleg Sirbu
[Paul Daigle, Ex-CEO of Black Hall Aerospace Indicted 11/17/2020. Read Update here.] We received an email from Paul Daigle of the Russian-linked aerospace company Black Hall Aerospace, Inc. a/k/a AAL USA, Inc. Last March, Balch & Bingham scrubbed all website references to successfully changing Russian sanctions on behalf of the aerospace company just weeks after we exposed Balch’s connection to Black Hall. Daigle wrote: “I am the majority owner of Black Hall Aerospace and, based on some of your posts, I believe you have been given some misleading and flat-out false information about Black Hall Aerospace. I left the U.S. Army as…
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Star Chamber Cash?
The blackout and secretive proceedings of the unconstitutional Star Chamber remain sealed and unknown almost six months later. No one close to Balch or working at Jefferson County can tell us what is happening in the Newsome Conspiracy Case—not even Judge Carole Smitherman’s most trusted acquaintances. Silence. Darkness. Secrecy. Although the parties could be in the middle of jury selection or settlement talks, the only thing we have found is what looks like smelly corruption: first time contributions and other political cash to Judge Smitherman’s husband, State Senator Rodger Smitherman. Then again, it could be all a coincidence. Rodger that!
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Alleged Racism and Age-Discrimination in Vincent
The CDLU met with residents of Vincent, Alabama who allege adamantly that Balch & Bingham lawyers (and their public relations stooges) spearheaded the strategic purchase of farm land and the fast-as-lightening re-zoning of said land, and oversaw the lucrative transactions for a client called White Rock Quarries, starting almost a decade ago. The outrage they allege is that only white land owners were approach for land purchases while African-Americans were not; worse many of these African-Americans were older, senior citizens, descendants of slaves. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice from May, 2012, Wanda Threatt, an African-American resident…
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Indicted Balch Partner Letter Explodes
A letter written in late 2014 by Joel Gilbert, an indicted Balch partner and one of the alleged masterminds of the Oliver Robinson $360,000 Bribery Conspiracy, appears to be now blowing-up. In the two-page dispatch to GASP, an environmental and health advocacy group based in Birmingham, Gilbert demands “statements showing the sources of the organization’s income….” The tactic is reminiscent of the 1960’s when segregationists and other racists demanded lists of supporters from the NAACP and other Civil Rights organizations to intimidate, and instill fear in those supporters. Since those dark days of racism, public charities are and have always…
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Balch’s P.R. Fluff Won’t End the Fallout
As the exodus of money-making Balch partners made headlines in the past two weeks, Balch’s public relations department dispatched what looks like deceptive, inaccurate fluff. On January 24th, Balch wrote in a news release, “Balch & Bingham LLP is pleased to announce that BTI Consulting Group has recognized the firm as a leader in client service in its Client Service A-Team 2018 report….” Not! BTI didn’t recognize the firm; BTI recognized one of Balch’s stellar partners, Gregory C. Cook, who was nominated by a professional services firm for his outstanding client service. 56 firms were recognized by BTI for having multiple outstanding…
