After a brief hiatus, BanBalch.com is back. A lot of news is happening in the background and the Southern Company criminal enterprise appears to be trying to clean up (or cover up) their trail of carcasses and human excrement in their million-dollar campaign of fear and intimidation against innocent families, minorities, and us, the CDLU.
New Balch partners: Diverse as a jar of mayonnaise
Balch & Bingham, the embattled and alleged racist law firm, is still in turmoil as Managing Partner Stan Blanton gloats aboutmake-believe diversity awards while promoting four all-white attorneys as partners this month.
Southern Company CEO Chris Womack has hit, and Alabama Power CEO Jeff Peoples will hit, the magic “mandatory retirement age” of 65 . Insiders claim that Alexia Borden, current Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Alabama Power, will replace Peoples, while Kim Greene, CEO of Georgia Power, will replace Womack.
2024 may be the Year of the Woman.
Speaking of women, Kristine L. Svinicki, the former Chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) who became a Member of the Board of Directors of Southern Company in 2021, may have spurred two investigations at the regulatory body: one by the OIG to see if there has been any form of illegal contact or communication between Svinicki and staff at the NRC. (Svinicki has a lifetime ban.)
We have learned there may be a second probe by the Office of Investigations at the NRC that is looking at outside alleged criminal conduct by Southern Company, including the false claims acts out of Mississippi that were unveiled in November.
Will Svinicki resign in 2024 from the Southern Company Board of Directors?
Finally, we understand through sources in the environmental movement, that allegedly an appeal has been filed by the Energy and Policy Institute to open and unseal David Roberson’s $75 million lawsuit against Drummond Company and Balch & Bingham.
The rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal may happen in 2024, as ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert still sits in federal prison. We will have a lot to write about in the forthcoming weeks and months.
Wishing you, our dear reader, good health and prosperity in 2024!
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.
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.
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.
Convicted pedophile and ex-Balch & Bingham attorney Chase T. Espy is now inmate 04104-510 at the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia, while ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert, convicted of money laundering and bribery in the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal, is inmate 35504-001 at the Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama.
Balch has boasted these last five-years of expanding their footprint in the Southeast, and now the embattled firm can add two convicted felons in Atlanta and Montgomery.
Both convicted felons represented Southern Company, one of Balch’s top clients currently in the middle of a sex and accounting scandal.
With only 2 percent of Balch partners being people of color, the alleged racist law firm’s partners are 98 percent white while their esteemed convicts are 100 percent white.
So desperate to hide their racist and segregationist past, and links to Governor George Wallace and a Ku Klux Klan scandal, Balch recently added their Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer on their professionals list of attorneys and lobbyists, even though she is not involved in any practice area of law nor participates in government relations.
No other Balch officers are listed on the professional pages.
Neither the Chief Operating Officer, Director of Human Resources, Director of Finance, Director of Client and Community Engagement, Chief Information Officer, nor the Chief Marketing Officer.
Could it because that they are all white?
Tokenism. Tokenism of partners. Tokenism of attorneys. And now tokenism of management officers on their website.
How embarrassing!
But then again Balch managing partner Stan Blanton is collecting make-believe awards for diversity and inclusion.
The investigative report comes as Southern Company faces a highly anticipated civil RICO lawsuit, an ongoing SEC probe, an investigative review after numerous complaints were filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency, and alleged investigation(s) by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Donald Watkins writes:
One important fact was never disclosed to the 9 million Southern Company customers who were forced to pay these rate increases: These utility companies used millions of dollars of customer money each year to pay the mistresses and lovers of Southern Company executives and other corporate officers.
What is more, these secret romances, as well as the inherent conflicts of interest related to them, were never disclosed to the Southern Company’s board of directors or to the company’s state and federal regulators, as required by law.
We have all of the fascinating details related to this sex and romance scandal. We will break down this misuse of corporate funds for you.
Stay tuned for an explosive investigative report that will leave you speechless!
The emails and documents we recently received show unequivocally that Blake Andrews, the “confused” General Counsel of Drummond Company, was briefed regularly about the North Birmingham Scheme.
On February 18, 2015, at the inception of the money laundering entity, Alliance for the Jobs and the Economy (AJE), convicted felon and now ex-Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert reached out to Andrews and his underling, Curt Jones, an Assistant General Counsel at Drummond Coal Company.
Both men, according to Gilbert’s email, “expressed interest in participating in the planning/strategy session of the establishment” of AJE.
In our story about the over 20 entities that participated in AJE, we posted the body of the email written by former Balch partner Steve McKinney warning Drummond executives and his staff about emails falling into the wrong hands. Blake Andrews and Curt Jones were included in the header.
In the body of the email, McKinney called the operatives “the Drummond/AJE team.”
Interesting choice of words or a Freudian slip of the keyboard?
A day after McKinney warned Andrews and others about the emails, he drafted another email to Blake Andrews discussing:
1.) a potential AJE contractual agreement with Dr. Kenneth A. Mundt of ENVIRON. The goal was to present “truth squad” work that went counter to the arguments laid out by GASP and the EPA.
2.) and asking Andrews if Balch’s AJE effort was or was not “perfectly on track with the company’s interests and concerns.”
As we reported in 2020 before ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit was sealed in its entirety, Drummond’s attorney foolishly argued that lying to and framing Roberson was ” a legal service.”
We wrote at the time:
Drummond’s attorney threw a hand grenade when he testified at the hearing. This is what he foolishly said:
With respect to the argument that Drummond’s general counsel was not giving legal advice, I think [Roberson’s attorney] just made the argument for me. Their theory is that Drummond’s general counsel formed a legal opinion that this whole plan was illegal and did not tell Mr. Roberson about it, and in fact told him things that would basically make him be the fall guy, I think is their theory. That is — the formation of a legal opinion as to whether something is legal or illegal is the definition of what a lawyer does. So I don’t know that I can state it any better than [Roberson’s attorney] did. That is legal services.
Problem is that Drummond’s General Counsel Blake Andrews allegedly never, ever told Roberson the scheme was illegal.
Roberson’s attorney Burt Newsome rips Drummond’s argument to shreds. From the transcript:
[Drummond’s attorney] did a great job summing up Balch and Drummond’s legal services argument in a nutshell. He just told you because Blake Andrews formed in his head that this lobbying scheme was illegal and decided, I better not pay these invoices to the foundation because I’ll go to jail, then I’m going to — so I’m going to get David Roberson to pay these so he will go to jail, that that was providing a legal service to Mr. Roberson. That is absurd. Blake Andrews making a legal opinion in his head that this is illegal, I better not pay these, I better get somebody else to do it, that’s not giving legal advice to Mr. Roberson. That doesn’t make David Roberson his client. That makes David Roberson him and Balch’s fall guy.
Roberson appears to have been set up as the “Fall Guy” in the North Birmingham Bribery Case.
In court documents, Drummond denied ever having received invoices in Andrews name, an apparent bold-faced lie.
In early 2021, Roberson filed concrete evidence that Drummond Company lied in a court proceeding and that original invoices sent to Drummond from Balch & Bingham were addressed to Blake Andrews, the “confused” General Counsel of Drummond Company.
White lies, damn lies, and fall guys!
Blake Andrews should have been and should be investigated for his participation in AJE and the North Birmingham Bribery Scheme.
Now, in 2023, Andrews should also be probed for his alleged role in which Roberson’s defense attorneys (paid by Drummond) rejected a full-immunity deal for David Roberson back in 2017, allegedly trampling Roberson’s civil rights.
For at least two years, 2017 and 2018, U.S. Attorney Jay Town, Principal Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood, and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions appear to have never allowed a probe of Southern Company or an expansion of the investigation in North Birmingham to happen on their watch.
Southern Company Stooges (L to R) Sessions, Wood, and Town
The anonymous documents we, the CDLU, received included a list of corporate attendees to a luncheon of the Alliance for Jobs and the Economy (AJE) that was held on November 30, 2015.
The AJE, an entity pushed by ex-Alabama Power Chairman and CEO Mark A. Crosswhite, was the organization that laundered over $360,000 in bribes to former Alabama State Representative Oliver Robinson.
Through the emails and documents that we have obtained, over 20 entities were involved at some point with the AJE.
The “lone wolves” theory issued by disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town was a crock.
Southern Company was involved (as were others) and a good prosecutor should have interviewed each and every entity and individual involved, even if their involvement was peripheral.
McWane’s Proctor
From Jim Proctor, Senior Vice President of Legal and External Affairs, at McWane, to Chip Grizzle, General Counsel at Brasfield & Gorrie, from Van Richey, the CEO and President at American Cast Iron Pipe Company, to Joe Howle, the Manager of Environmental, Community, and Government Affairs at Vulcan Materials, each and every individual who had any interaction with AJE should have been interviewed.
Now with a new EPA director, Michael S. Regan, and new leadership at the U.S. Department of Justice, law enforcement should re-open the North Birmingham Bribery Probe and investigate Southern Company’s criminal RICO enterprise, and the other 19 or so entities involved with AJE.
Embattled law firm Balch & Bingham was so wary and preoccupied with the scheme that Balch partner Steve McKinney dispatched an email in April of 2015 warning staff and Drummond executives to be careful about dispersing information in email correspondence since “your emails will not be privileged and it not hard to imagine that they could easily end up in the wrong hands.”
McKinney included a distribution list that included top brass at Southern Company, Drummond, ABC Coke, Alabama Power, McWane, United States Steel and the American Cast Iron Pipe Company.
Balch & Bingham’s Steve McKinney warned that emails could “easily end up in the wrong hands.” We have intentionally obscured email addresses out of privacy.
In an addition to that email, we also received a list of attendees to an AJE luncheon, showing that many leading businesses were invited to participate at the inception of this money laundering entity.
At the lunch was Mike Thompson, the owner of Thompson Tractor who was listed as a director of the AJE in the incorporation documents from the State of Delaware.
Thompson allegedly took Balch & Bingham’s biggest stooge, former U.S. Senator and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, directly to Drummond’s headquarters in 2014 to meet Drummond family members and pick up a $25,000 check.
Mike Thompson
A few days later, Strange signed a letter ghost-written by Balch & Bingham attacking the EPA’s efforts to put the North Birmingham Superfund Site on the National Priorities List and expanding the site to include the City of Tarrant.
An official act in exchange for an alleged $25,000 bribe?
Without a doubt, now is the time to re-open the North Birmingham probe and question all of these business leaders and entities.
The four pages of attendees. We have removed email addresses and phone numbers out of privacy.
The trifecta was complete. With U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Principal Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood, and U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, Southern Company compromised the U.S. Department of Justice with three of their most ardent lackeys in power at the same time.
We, the CDLU, provided documentation in December of 2017 to Jim Kerr, the Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Chief of Staff of Southern Company showing indisputably that Jeffrey H. Wood, a lobbyist for embattled law firm Balch & Bingham, had lobbied on behalf of Alabama Power in the second and third quarters of 2016 specifically about the North Birmingham CERCLA matter.
We provided Kerr with lobbying reports from the second quarter and third quarter of 2016 filed with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives showing he was clearly on Capitol Hill inquiring about CERCLA.
CERLA stands for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the North Birmingham CERCLA matter eventually led to bribery scheme born at the offices of Balch & Bingham and led by Balch-made millionaire Joel I. Gilbert, who is currently serving a 5-year sentence in federal prison for bribery and money laundering.
In January of 2018, during a phone call, Kerr falsely told us that Southern Company was not involved in the North Birmingham Bribery Scheme or the Newsome Conspiracy Case. Both were lies.
When confronted on the call about Jeffrey H. Wood, Kerr was side-swiped and obviously caught unprepared.
At first, Kerr said he wasn’t sure what we were asking, but after repeating the question with reminders, he took 5 seconds to respond with a canned legal answer: “It’s, um… I told you that I looked into the information provided me. We reviewed the information and I have no concerns about anything inappropriate.”
Kerr responded, “We do not see a place to step into [the Robinson scandal].” That rings hollow considering that Wood, Balch’s point lobbyist for Southern, was lobbying on Superfund policy at the time on behalf of Southern. In fact, Wood has specifically recused himself from any matters at the ENRD pertaining to the 35th Avenue site, suggesting that he was specifically lobbying about the site. After [the CDLU] pointed this out, Kerr took a long pause before going full Sarah Huckabee Sanders: “We reviewed the information. I have no concerns about anything inappropriate.”
Jim Kerr goes silent for 5 seconds when asked about Jeffrey H. Wood in 2018.
But now, never-seen-before emails delivered anonymously to the CDLU, show that Jeffrey H. Wood indeed was in the thick of the North Birmingham effort to suppress African Americans from having their toxic and contaminated property tested. The population of North Birmingham is 92.5 percent Black.
Jeffrey H. Wood
On May 18, 2016, Wood briefed Joel I. Gilbert about efforts on Capitol Hill, confirming that he was on Capitol Hill specifically about the “EPA’s actions in North Birmingham.”
The hearing on Capitol Hill was an attempt to help the criminal scheme to suppress African Americans by having congressmen allege that EPA employees were overzealous, acting improperly, accessing property without permission of the owner, and overreaching in their conduct.
They even alleged that the EPA was trying to close businesses employing people in the energy sector.
They even provided an unnamed affidavit, the star of the hearing, in an attempt to grill the two representatives of the EPA.
An orchestrated spectacle indeed!
But an hour later, Gilbert, so proud of the efforts on Capitol Hill by Southern Company, sent an email to the top brass at Drummond Coal Company, including “confused” Drummond General Counsel Blake Andrews, and executives from their affiliated company, ABC Coke.
What affidavit?
Southern Company lobbyist Wood was a critical element in the spectacle. He worked with congressional staff to create “talking points” and brought Congressman Gary Palmer “up to speed.”
And the unnamed affidavit, the star of the hearing?
Per the criminal enterprise’s request, the affidavit was not entered into the record nor was the name of the affiant ever released by Congressman Palmer.
An orchestrated spectacle indeed!
Eight months later, Jeffrey H. Wood would be one of the first people to enter the Trump Administration on inauguration day as the acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Wood would work under U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions whose number one lifetime financial supporter as a candidate for U.S. Senator had been Southern Company while his number two lifetime financial supporter was Southern Company’s sister-wife Balch & Bingham, according to Open Secrets.
U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions Top Lifetime Financial Contributors
That summer of 2017, Jay E. Town would be confirmed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.
The trifecta was complete.
With U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Principal Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood, and U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, Southern Company compromised the U.S. Department of Justice with three of their most ardent lackeysin power at the same time.
Is it no wonder that no one expanded the North Birmingham bribery investigation after Gilbert and Roberson were found guilty in 2018?
Is it no wonder that no one investigated the terrorist acts and death threats against Burt Newsome, his wife, and his four young children in the summer of 2018?
Is it no wonder that no one investigated the initial billion-dollar cost overruns at the Kemper Plant in Mississippi and the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia?
Is it no wonder that no one investigated Jay Town who blocked four FBI investigations into the Newsome Conspiracy Case?
Southern Company was too powerful, too entrenched.
These emails demonstrate without a doubt that Southern Company was “up to their eyeballs” in North Birmingham and that the criminal RICO enterprise had three powerful lackeys in the U.S. Department of Justice that appear to have been more loyal to Southern Company than the pursuit of blind justice.
An orchestrated spectacle indeed!
Ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town and ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite enjoying libations before they both resigned in disgrace.
The Form 8-K filing confirms that a federal probe is moving forward.
As we wrote last Thursday, both Southern Company and Florida Power and Light (FPL) appear to be preparing to negotiate “deferred prosecution agreements” with the U.S. Department of Justice.
On January 27, 2023, a criminal complaint was filed with Mr. Kenneth Polite, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, that alleged a litany of violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by: (a) Southern Company, Inc., (b) Alabama Power Company, (c) Matrix, LLC, (d) Joseph W. Perkins, Jr., (owner of Matrix), and (e) others RICO participants who worked in concert with them.
The major goals of the alleged racketeering enterprise were to: (a) target, influence, compromise, corrupt, control, and/or destroy individuals and entities that posed a perceived or real threat to Alabama Power’s monopoly in Alabama as an energy producer and provider, (b) perpetuate Alabama Power’s ironclad control of local, state, and federal elected and appointed officials in Alabama, and (c) protect, expand, and solidify its grip on the political affairs in the state of Alabama.
The complaint also alleges that the named offenders engaged in criminal antitrust conduct against certain Watkins-owned biomass-to-energy businesses that competed on a commercial scale against biomass-to-energy businesses owned and/or controlled by the Southern Company in the same U.S. markets.
The complaint was accompanied by a detailed Proffer of Evidence that named the specific offenders and outlined the nature and scope of the RICO and antitrust conduct that adversely impacted the complainants and caused them severe economic harm.
The named complainants are: (a) Donald V. Watkins, Sr., (b) Donald V. Watkins, Jr., (c) Donald V. Watkins, P.C., (d) Watkins-Pencor, LLC, (e) the Donald Watkins Agency, Inc., (f) DNA Centers of Alabama, Inc., and (g) Highland Virtual Suites, LLC, all of which are/were owned by the complainants during the racketeering conspiracy period.
The criminal RICO complaint could help consolidate the numerous criminal allegations against the embattled utility and its highly paid stooges: Balch & Bingham and Matrix, LLC. Drummond Company (and others) may also be viewed as a possible participant in this RICO scheme.
In another bombshell post, DonaldWatkins.com outlines possible indictments against Southern Company, Florida Power & Light, and Matrix, LLC founder “Sloppy Joe” Perkins, the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics.
On January 25, 2023, NextEra Energy (NEE) and Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announcing that “Allegations of violations of law by FPL or NEE have the potential to result in fines, penalties, or other sanctions or effects, as well as cause reputational damage for FPL and NEE, and could hamper FPL’s and NEE’s effectiveness in interacting with governmental authorities.”
The Form 8-K stated that “FPL’s and NEE’s business and reputation could be adversely affected by allegations that FPL or NEE has violated laws, by any investigations or proceedings that arise from such allegations, or by ultimate determinations of legal violations.”
The violations of law referenced in the 8-K stem from the clandestine “dirty tricks” work Joe Perkins’ Matrix, LLC, performed for these companies.
On the same day of NEE’s Form 8-K filing, chief executive officer Eric Silagy was ousted as CEO of FPL.
In November 2022, the Southern Company ousted Mark Crosswhite as Alabama Power’s chief executive officer, effective on December 31, 2022.
The Southern Company has not issued a Form 8-K filing yet, but may do so after an internal investigation by the Atlanta-based King & Spalding, LLP, law firm centering on Matrix’s “dirty tricks” work for the Southern Company and Alabama Power is completed.
The Form 8-K filing confirms that a federal probe is moving forward. NEE would never risk writing about potential violations of law in an SEC filing unless there was an ongoing probe.
In October of 2021, we learned that a federal probe of obstruction of justice against Alabama Power and Crosswhite had been launched over the North Birmingham Bribery Trial.
In July, we had both phone and written communication with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding the money laundering of over $50 million using 18 tax-exempt entities as foolishly outlined by Sloppy Joe in a since-deleted post on Yellowhammer News, an Alabama Power controlled “news” website.
In addition to the highly anticipated civil RICO lawsuits to be filed in the next 30 to 60 days, the filed criminal RICO complaint and ongoing federal probes are putting insurmountable pressure on Southern Company, knocked against the ropes as spectators anticipate a technical knock-out.
We’ve said it before: there is no such thing as a coincidence in Alabama.
And now the connections to the Southern Company criminal enterprise are solidifying on a case of what some would call attempted murder.
In 2019, we, the CDLU, uncovered the fact that the cop that pulled over Burt Newsome in his staged arrest in 2013 was the son of an Alabama Power executive. The executive was also a long-time client of Balch & Bingham.
Now, with a highly anticipated civil RICO lawsuit in the works, the corruption of law enforcement is getting a deep review.
How many other abuses under the authority of color has Southern Company’s criminal enterprise engaged in?
The CDLU, working with investigators, has found stunning evidence in the near-death, head-on car collision of Burt Newsome. The investigation is currently ongoing.
The accident occurred on September 10, 2020, at the height of the aggressive campaign of terror by Southern Company’s criminal enterprise against Newsome and his family.
Two weeks before the head-on accident, Southern Company paid for a smear site that falsely called Newsome a rapist.
Newsome refused to end the Newsome Conspiracy Case and refused to drop ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit.
Even with all the threats and lies, Newsome was not intimidated.
Was the car accident planned as the ultimate way to end both lawsuits? Death?
Highly unusual, a State Trooper arrived on the scene only minutes after the accident, as if he were a fox in waiting.
The accident occurred on a County Road and in Shelby County only Sheriff Deputies can draft up an accident report; State Troopers are called only when a fatality is involved.
Were they expecting Newsome to be dead?
The accident report by the State Trooper is completely inaccurate and photos taken at the scene prove that the accident report was deliberately misleading.
The accident report’s attempts to show that the person who hit Newsome was simply making a left turn and that Newsome hit him straight up. That is false.
Newsome was driving a blue Volkswagen Jetta and the other driver was driving a green Ford Explorer.
Newsome saw the person appearing to come straight at him and Newsome made a defensive move and swerved to his left just beyond a yellow “suicide” lane. However, the driver of the other vehicle then turned to his right and appears to have gunned it towards Newsome.
The other driver’s wheels are turned to the right and appears that he was driving straight, not turning at all to his left.
The accident report attempts to imply that the accident happened as Newsome was entering the intersection. It did not.
A photo taken at the scene clearly shows that the entrance and center of the intersection is clear. You can clearly see the yellow “suicide” lane
Looking westbound, Newsome was driving eastbound (towards the camera).
The side-by-side graphic below shows what the state trooper filed and what would be a more accurate visualization of the accident where the wheels of the Ford Explorer were actually turned to the right. In addition, the accident report attempts to show that Newsome (Car #2) was going straight and then moved to his right, a falsity. The opposite is true.
The State Trooper attempted to prevent photos from being taken. A photo taken from another angle of the accident shows that the Ford Explorer’s left tire is also facing to the right.
When you look at the photos and compare them to the accurate visualization, the state trooper’s report is definitively inaccurate and wrong.
But more troubling than the photos and inaccurate if not false accident report is the narrative provided by the state trooper.
In the narrative, the trooper states that the driver of the green Ford Explorer stated, “as he was going to make his left turn another car in front of him was making a right turn on County Road 11, and he did not see vehicle #2 behind the non-contact vehicle and as the non-contact turned right he was turning left and vehicle #2 entered the intersection and struck him.”
That is absurd and impossible!
You cannot turn right going westbound or you will end up on a mound of dirt.
Even if a car coming in the opposite direction was turning to the right, there is a dedicated right turning lane.
Nothing would be obscured.
Mark White
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.
White is a white-collar criminal attorney who represents Alabama Power and attended the North Birmingham Bribery Trial every day, according to court observers.
The business associate also appears to be linked to the individual(s) who allegedly filed the false police report in 2013 that led to Newsome’s staged arrest in the Newsome Conspiracy Case by the son of an Alabama Power executive.
Investigators are digging deep into the relationships between the state trooper, White’s business associate, and the driver of the green Ford Explorer who allegedly works at Norfolk Southern, a Southern Company transportation provider.
Burt Newsome is an Iron Man and has vigorously fought back against the corrupt judicial system and co-conspirators. After the accident, he rehabilitated himself and has successfully grown a respected law office with more clients, more victories, and precedent-setting decisions.
Investigators are asking, since Newsome would not give-in, did Crosswhite order the final solution? Was Mark White stupid enough “to follow orders?”
This is an ongoing investigation, and we will provide further updates.
A simple case of breach of contract and misrepresention was sealed in its entirety. No minors, or victims of sexual assault or domestic violence were involved.
So why was the case sealed then?
Because the case was tied to Southern Company, its subsidiary Alabama Power, and/or sister-wife Balch & Bingham.
Observers have been stunned by the sheer control that Southern Company has over judges and the judicial branch in Alabama.
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
With the numerous documents, financial records, and insurmountable evidence of Southern Company’s criminal enterprise, now the greasing and corruption of the judicial branch of Alabama is under scrutiny.
The simple case of breach of contract and misrepresention is ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit against Drummond Company and Balch & Bingham.
No developments in the case are currently available because of the gag order, sealing of the case.
And the motions to seal the case were made shortly after disgraced ex-Alabama Power CEO Mark A. Crosswhite was subpoenaed to testify.
Known as the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial, the case caused uncontrolled panic by Alabama Power, Drummond, and Balch before it was sealed.
And why does Southern Company seal a case?
So they can cheat and hide high crimes and misdemeanors.
Look at the Newsome Conspiracy Case where Southern Company’s attorneys at Balch & Bingham sealed the case in its entirety, known as a secret Star Chamber.
The entire case was “won” on a counterfeit order that even Balch admitted was counterfeit.
The counterfeit order was embarrassingly affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court after contradicting an earlier, split-decision.
Because her husband, Alabama State Senator Roger Smitherman received over $30,000 in legal bribes contributions from Southern Company linked PACs and donors at critical junctures during the case. Senator Smitherman even sat in on the secret Star Chamber hearings of the Newsome case when no one outside of the case was supposed to be in the courtroom.
Crosswhite’s inappropriate relationship with disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town helped Alabama Power to be “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial and allegedly prevented a broader investigation after the convictions, that could have led to indictments of Southern Company employees.
Except for Regions Bank in Birmingham, Alabama has no Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state.
Why?
Because of the high risk of a failed and compromised legal system.
What company CEO would want to deal with a corrupt and bias “system of justice” controlled and manipulated by a corrupt few in Jefferson County and Montgomery?
The rule of law and the people’s court sadly does not exist, but RICO actions against Southern Company and its criminal enterprise can bring an end of an era of uncontrolled corruption and flagrant miscarriages of justice.
The signed documents we have received anonymously, on top of the financial records, are truly earth-shattering. They appear to confirm Alabama Power/Southern Company’s alleged criminal enterprise.
In September we wrote:
Crosswhite more than ever is unfit to serve. He appears to show unwavering loyalty to Balch, Matrix, Mark White, and a web of non-disclosure agreements, blank checks, front groups, pay throughs, and secret contracts instead of Fanning or Southern Company.
Southern Company must cut the ropes with this alleged posse of deplorable and disloyal actors, who appear to be bald-face liars. Terminate Balch. Terminate Matrix. Terminate Sloppy Joe. Terminate White. FireCrosswhite!
Now that Crosswhite has been ousted, Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning needs to clean house starting with “Sloppy Joe” Perkins and his obscure political consulting firm, Matrix.
Why would Peoples, Alabama Power Executive Vice President of Customer and Employee Services, be involved in such alleged acts? Why would a utility company entangle themselves in an alleged criminal enterprise including terrorizing innocent children and families?
The mid five-figures given to Sloppy Joe is on top of the over $2 million paid to Perkins and his entities yearly allegedly without the need for an invoice.
Although described as involving “transportation,” the obscure and vague contract appears to affirm the alleged dirty-deeds tied to Matrix.
Transportation services and trade secrets seem to be synonymous with high crimes, dirty-deeds, and acts of terror.
With Alabama Power allegedly spending hundreds of thousands through Matrix to allegedly smear Newsome falsely on a website as a rapist in July and August of 2020, there is not much left to stretch when looking at the alleged crime of attempted murder against Burt Newsome that occurred on September 11, 2020.
He was gravely injured and nearly killed. Some even claimed the act was an alleged intentional act to silence Newsome, who is the lead attorney in ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit against Alabama Power’s sister-wife Balch & Bingham, and Drummond Company.
The other driver allegedly works for Norfolk Southern, a long-time business partner of Alabama Power and Drummond.
The photo appears to show oddly that the other driver in the green Ford Explorer, who made a left turn in front of Newsome, turned right when Newsome attempted to swerve around him.
Currently, the Roberson case is under seal in a secret Star Chamber. The sealed proceedings could be hiding, obscurring, and consealinghigh crimes and criminal misconduct.
Ironically, one of the highest campaign contributors to the judge presiding over the Roberson case is the illustrious Andrew “Andy2K” Campbell, who incredibly represents Sloppy Joe, Matrix and Balch. (Campbell donated $3,000. Maybe he should now be called Andy3K.)
Before the case was sealed, Alabama Power and Crosswhite were in sheer panicand vigorously fought to have protective orders approved.
The rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Trial appears to be a grave threat to Alabama Power.
Before the case was sealed in 2021, was Alabama Power trying to intimidate Newsome?
Everything we, the CDLU, have received is being turned over to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including “Sloppy Joe’s” trade secrets.
Fanning must terminate the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, Sloppy Joe, and clean house.
The Crosswhite era is over, and the posse loyal to him needs to be removed like a bad cancer.
Josh Moon, who we, in 2020, originally thought had amputated his brain for Balch & Bingham, appears to have foolishly made the ultimate sacrifice for Alabama Power possibly through their paid stooges at the obscure political consulting firm Matrix.
Moon, who was dumped as a regular columnist at the Montgomery Advertiser in 2016, has worked at the discredited Alabama Political Reporter (APR) ever since.
The anonymous financial documents we received show that APR allegedly received $120,000 plus other pay-throughs from Alabama Power in 2020 to allegedly publish smear pieces on us, the CDLU.
But Moon went one step deeper in the rancid manure: he allegedly stalked and harassed the CDLU.
Now photographic and video evidence from August 2020, shows Moon showing up to our then-corparate headquarters, demanding from the receptionist at the office copies of CDLU’s 990 tax filings.
Problem was it was the receptionist for the business next door. CDLU had shut down our offices in March of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moon builds up courage in his black pick up in CDLU’S parking lot
Possibly so ashamed of acting like a Bangkok whore for Alabama Power, Moon waited about 15 minutes in the parking lot before building enough courage to enter the building.
Moon left a fake name (Bill) and a phone number that was one digit off from his real cellular phone number when the receptionist offered to get his request to us.
What an idiot!
In 2014, while at the Montgomery Advertiser, Moon wrote about the controversies surrounding reducing coal-burning emissions, stating at the time:
I am almost convinced that our state leaders could hear a business proposal for dumpingtoxicwaste directly on the Gulf beaches and their first question would be: “Uh, yeah, what’s the earning potential on that?”
Moon also ironically discusses the paid, partisan websites bought by power companies similar to how APR was allegedly “bought” with a generous six-figure “advertising” budget:
That’s why every time this issue is discussed on the partisan websites, which also are bought by power companies, there’s always an image of the black-faced coal miners pausing momentarily from the day’s work.
But by the fall of 2020, Moon appeared to have bent down on his knees for Alabama Power. Discussing the enormous controversies concerning toxic coal ash ponds, Moon states:
However, when you look at the actual, real-life options for this stuff — and I can’t believe I’m going to say this — but the plan from Alabama Power seems to be a fairly good one.
Dumpingtoxic waste 750 yards from the Mobile River is part of Alabama Power’s plan, and Moon can’t even believe his own words of support.
What a sell-out!
So what caused the 180° change? Money? Financial stress? Economic needs?
Journalism in general has seen massive layoffs, liquidations, consolidations, and buy outs. Many former journalists have gone to the private sector and left journalism behind.
In 2019, Moon attempted to become a real estate agent.
When he began allegedly stalking us, the CDLU, we found that he had no listings at Next Move Realtors and by September of 2020 Moon had let his real estate license lapse, according to state records.
Moon appears to have failed as a realtor.
The Google Maps image of the real estate office in 2020 cleary captured what appears to be Moon’s black crew-cab pick up truck in front of their offices. The truck looks identical to the one parked in our parking lot, where Moon waited for about 15 minutes.
Same crew-cab truck?
Not only was Moon allegedly stalking our corporate headquarters, he appears to have driven in front of the home of our Chief Executive Officer, K.B. Forbes, according to an image captured by security cameras. Although blurred by movement, the vehicle, a black crew-cab pickup, looks like Moon’s pickup truck. Because of threats, Forbes and his family were at a secure location in Mexico at the time.
Moon’ s alleged stalking and harassment was a futile exercise.
All of CDLU’s 990 tax returns are available at guidestar.org or the Nonprofit Explorer at Propublica.org. And the public can request a copy and the CDLU is required by law to provide a copy within 30 days.
Moon must have known this.
Moon as a teenager with a thick mullet and a functioning brain.
Even just a few days ago, we got our third request in three years from a woman, originally from Alabama, who now lives in California, requesting a copy of our 990. She has been the only one to do so in the past decade. No one else has.
Moon appears to be too arrogant to ask for the 990 himself.
So why in heaven’s name did Moon appear at our offices in 2020?
To provoke fear? To intimidate? To harass? To stroke his ego?
Or was he performing a failed “happy ending” during his dismal career as an alleged Bangkok whore for Alabama Power?
And he dare calls himself an “investigative journalist.”
The named complainants are: (a) Donald V. Watkins, Sr., (b) Donald V. Watkins, Jr., (c) Donald V. Watkins, P.C., (d) Watkins-Pencor, LLC, (e) the Donald Watkins Agency, Inc., (f) DNA Centers of Alabama, Inc., and (g) Highland Virtual Suites, LLC, all of which are/were owned by the complainants during the racketeering conspiracy period.
chief executive officer, effective on December 31, 2022.
