By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on January 28, 2023
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.
Matrix is the Focus of Media, Law Enforcement Investigations in Florida and Washington
The Watkins complaint was filed two days after NextEra Energy (NEE) and Florida Power & Light (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 violations of law referenced in this Form 8-K stem from the clandestine “dirty tricks” work Joe Perkins' Matrix, LLC, performed for these Florida companies. Some of this work is described in a December 22, 2022 article I published titled, “Joe Perkins and Matrix in Deep Trouble” and a December 19, 2022 article Nation Public Radio published titled, “In the Southeast, power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics.”
In “Dirty Secrets: The Joe Perkins Files,” I detailed additional "dirty tricks" Joe Perkins and Matrix performed for Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company in the state of Alabama.
On December 26, 2021, I revealed that Alabama Power had paid Perkins $2.5 million, without invoicing. I also published two of Perkins' secret contracts with Alabama Power, which covered the period from January 1, 2018 to July 31, 2019. Perkins has carried out "dirty tricks" operations for Alabama Power for nearly two decades.
On January 18, 2022, I published an article that identified all of the red flags with the Perkins-Alabama Power contracts.
Matrix promptly carried out an act of retaliation against me for publishing the Alabama Power Company contracts.
The “dirty tricks” scandal that has engulfed NEE, FPL, Perkins, and Matrix in Florida pales in comparison to the scope and depth of “dirty tricks” Perkins and Matrix have performed for Alabama Power and the Southern Company in Alabama and Georgia. The array of people implicated in the Alabama scandal and related criminal probes has been mind-blowing for investigators.
Legal observers who are familiar with the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama criminal investigations expect to see federal indictments in this growing multi-state racketeering scandal in the near future.
The Watkins Complainants are RICO/Antitrust “Crime Victims”
The Watkins complainants invoked their rights as RICO and antitrust “crime victims” within the meaning of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3771, the Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act, 34 U.S.C. § 20141 (“VRRA”), and the Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance. Under the VRRA, a “crime victim” is a person that has suffered direct physical, emotional, or pecuniary harm as a result of the crimes committed by the named RICO/antitrust offenders.
The complainants have requested that the Department of Justice solicit their views as “crime victims” on major case prosecutorial decisions such as dismissals, plea negotiations, pretrial diversion for individual wrongdoers, and non-prosecution agreements for Alabama Power, Southern Company, and Matrix, in accordance with the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, VRRA, and Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance.
Finally, the complainants request that the Department of Justice in Washington: (i) immediately open a criminal investigation into this matter; (ii) methodically review the investigatory findings derived therefrom, and (iii) determine what legal action, if any, is warranted and appropriate with respect their complaint.