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BB&T’s “High-Level Inquiry”
Yesterday, we, the CDLU, received an email from Mark Booz, the Deputy General Counsel of BB&T, a major Southeastern bank based in North Carolina. Balch & Bingham has represented BB&T in the past. He kindly acknowledged receipt of our email dated May 16th and let us know directly that the bank has “conducted a high-level inquiry into your concerns” about Balch. We applaud Mr. Booz and BB&T’s corporate leadership for seriously looking into the matter. In our email to the the corporate leadership at BB&T, we discussed the various scandals, two indictments, and serious allegations surrounding Balch. We wrote, “What…
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RICO Suave
When Southern Company’s CEO Tom Fanning was doing a triple toe loop performance at Southern’s annual shareholders meeting in Pine Mountain, Georgia last Wednesday, anonymous sources tell us that Burt Newsome’s legal team was up the road in Atlanta meeting with the nation’s foremost RICO attorney. This is an enormous development and may indicate that the wolves and vultures we wrote about in January could be investigating in detail the Newsome Conspiracy Case, the alleged corruption of the Alabama judicial system, and the unconstitutional and secretive Star Chamber. Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr., the lead Balch & Bingham partner defending the firm…
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Has Balch Become a Burden?
“Discussing racism and discrimination is not easy, and various people have helped us create a learning experience that we hope will be educational, participatory and make us a better company. We want this to be an open and honest conversation starting with our partners,” wrote Howard Schultz , Executive Chairman of Starbucks, this morning as all Starbucks will shut down this afternoon for corporate discussion and training on bias and racism. Why won’t Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company do the same: have an open and honest conversation about the alleged institutional racism that happened in North Birmingham by their partner:…
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Mississippi Silence
So whatever happened to the federal probe in Mississippi in which Balch & Bingham admitted submitting erroneous billing statements? Anonymous sources tell us that with the criminal case against two Balch partners happening next month, as a matter of protocol, no public information would be released nor any indictments handed down in Mississippi that could spoil the jury pool in Alabama. In other word, all is silent until McKinney and Gilbert are found guilty or aquitted. To our readers, Happy Memorial Day Weekend. We appreciate the sacrifices made by our forefathers that protects our freedom of speech, no matter how uncomfortable…
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With $30,000 Funneled to Smithermans, We Were Right
On August 14, 2017, we foreshadowed what could happen in the future with the post “Will Carole Smitherman be the next Oliver Robinson?” Judge Carole Smitherman is the presiding judge of the secretive and criminal Star Chamber that was formed two weeks after our post was written. Oliver Robinson is the former Alabama State Representative who was indicted in a bribery scheme along with two Balch & Bingham partners and a Drummond Co. executive that allegedly suppressed African-Americans from getting their toxic and contaminated property tested in North Birmingham. We wrote at the time: Will Smitherman allow Balch and others…
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Will Wall Street Stand Up for Inherent Goodness?
In a final 15-page report to Southern Company’s institutional investors and Wall Street analysts sent 24 hours before their annual shareholders meeting, we summarized: Southern Company must immediately suspend its relationship with the embattled law firm Balch & Bingham until the firm conducts a top-to-bottom review of the firm, settles the horrific Newsome Conspiracy Case, and apologizes to the African-American community in North Birmingham. The Newsome Conspiracy Case exemplifies some of the worst legal conduct including alleged criminal obstruction of justice and alleged alteration of evidence. Balch & Bingham’s alleged pattern of behavior in the Newsome case, including the creation…
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Balch & Bingham: The Itchy Elephant in the Room
We now have heard from insiders who believe our work in briefing the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee appears to have indeed spurred the multiple investigations into Black Hall Aerospace a/k/a/ AAL USA, Inc. by the Office of Inspector General of the U .S. Department of Defense, the Military Criminal Investigations Command, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Balch & Bingham had scrubbed their website about the success they had in changing Russian sanctions on behalf of Black Hall Aerospace after we had exposed the fact. In another…
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A Year Later, We Were a First with Special Counsel Mueller
Exactly one year ago, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein appointed Robert S. Mueller III as Special Counsel to the U.S. Department of Justice. When the news broke, we scrambled to get in touch with the Office of “Bobby Three Sticks,” as he is affectionately known in D.C. circles. Communicating with Rosenstein’s office, we were finally told the next day to fax everything through them since Mr. Mueller’s office had not officially been set up yet. On May 18th, we were one of the first groups to send Mueller an 18-page fax that included attached documents, evidence, and website posts.…
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Mueller’s Wide Discretion and Balch & Bingham
The Office of the Special Counsel will maintain the independence to investigate Jeff Sessions’ closet allies. We wrote a post last year that the Office of the Special Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice has the power to investigate “any crimes that he might discover.” Paul Manafort, the indicted former Trump campaign manager, has argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein had exceeded his authority. A federal judge rejected the argument yesterday. According to The Washington Post: Manafort’s attorneys have argued that Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein acted improperly when he appointed Mueller in May 2017 to…
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Part 6: More Money to Smitherman’s Husband
State Senator Rodger Smitherman’s filing is so sloppy, it mentions Judge Carole Smitherman’s campaign on the cover page. Was that a Freudian slip of the keyboard? [Update October 8, 2019: According to investigators, this was not a third donation. The $5,000 donation was from November of 2017 but Senator Smitherman appears to have concealed the donation by not reporting it until April 8, 2018. Edits below are in purple.] Sloppiness. Just sloppiness. With over 250 days of a secretive, unconstitutional Star Chamber presided by Judge Carole Smitherman, the Newsome Conspiracy Case is under seal. However, we did learn that NEWPAC,…
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Southern Company CEO’s Faux Pay Cut
Yesterday, it was announced that Southern Company is considering a faux “pay cut” to embattled CEO Tom Fanning: reducing his annual compensation from $15.8 million to $15.7 million, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle. What a joke! But then again, what can you say about Fanning and friends? While Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson was fighting the repugnant alleged acts of racism in Philadelphia, Tom Fanning and his team stuck their heads in the sand. Balch & Bingham, their sister-wife, alter-ego law firm allegedly engaged in unscrupulous, criminal, and racist conduct. Fanning’s own General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer Jim Kerr…
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Balch’s Website Scrub Spurs Multiple Probes
We learned late last week that the two parties at Black Hall Aerospace a/k/a AAL USA, Inc. Soviet-born Oleg Sirbu, the alleged owner who lives in Dubai, and military veteran Paul Daigle, who serves as CEO, have settled their civil case. The question now is: what will criminal probes find? We learned two-weeks ago that the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense is looking into the matter, and have now also confirmed that the Military Criminal Investigations Command is also investigating. Balch & Bingham successfully changed Russian sanctions for the firm and then scrubbed their…
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A year later, Balch Partners Headed to Criminal Trial
Today marks one year since Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Archibald and Kyle Whitmire of the Alabama Media Group broke the story about the Oliver Robinson bribery scandal. Now for an update. The indicted Balch & Bingham partners, Steven McKinney and Joel I. Gilbert, lost a preliminary court fight, and will head to a criminal jury trial next month. Bloomberg reported this week: A jury will decide whether a corporate executive and two Alabama lawyers bribed a state legislator to head off a company’s Superfund liability, a federal court in Alabama ruled May 4. The defendants allegedly sought to forestall potential…
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Will Marathon and Northern Star Provide a Voice?
With Southern Company apparently violating its own compliance policy while being engulfed in a grave third-party risk crisis because of their sister-wife relationship with Balch & Bingham (only two weeks before their annual shareholders meeting), we reached out yesterday to two of Balch & Bingham’s most profitable D.C. lobbying clients for 2018: Marathon Petroleum and Northern Star Generation. We outlined the indictment of two Balch partners, the suppression of African-Americans in North Birmingham, the false arrest of Burt Newsome, and other alleged unsavory conduct by the silk-stocking law firm. Similar to our message to other Balch clients last June, we…
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Stupidity at its Highest
Today marks the one year anniversary when Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr., the lead attorney and Balch & Bingham partner in the Newsome Conspiracy Case, lied about us, the CDLU, in a motion to seal all future depositions. Stupidity at its highest, Schuyler demonstrated unequivocally that he did not know us and gave us, an outside party, instant credibility. Since 2001, our organization has spurred three U.S. Congressional hearings, and numerous local, state, and civil rights investigations. We have worked closely with law enforcement, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the U.S. Treasury Department to…
