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.

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 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.

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?

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.

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.