By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on August 3, 2022
BREAKING NEWS ---
In September 2021, former Matrix, LLC chief executive officer Jeff Pitts filed a civil lawsuit against perennial Alabama "dirty tricks" operative Joe Perkins. The lawsuit alleged that Perkins engaged in extortion, ongoing racketeering activities, and the abuse of the Alabama legal process.
Perkins had previously sued Pitts on July 23, 2021 in a Jefferson County, Alabama state court for committing a variety of alleged business torts.
Matrix has provided consulting services for Alabama Power Company, the Southern Company, Florida Power and Light, Gulf Power, Auburn University, Alabama Republican U.S. Senatorial candidate Katie Britt, the Alabama Education Association, and other politically influential clients. Groups affiliated with Matrix have also worked on power company initiatives in Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia.
Working in concert with longtime U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) in Washington, D.C., Joe Perkins and Matrix have used a plethora of clandestine strategies and highly-questionable techniques to capture, control, and compromise state and federal regulators, federal, state and local public officials, Alabama-based news reporters, civil rights and environmental justice groups, state and federal law enforcement agencies in Alabama, and state and federal judges in the state for the benefit of Perkins'/Matrix's clients.
Pitts' Subpoena is a Powerful Weapon in His Turf War with Perkins
The turf war between Jeff Pitts and Joe Perkins is threatening to blow up the career of Alabama Power Company Mark Crosswhite and send a bunch of other people to jail in the process. This war is also expected to force the resignation of at least one more federal judge in the Northern District of Alabama.
On June 29, 2022, Pitts served Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company with a subpoena in Perkins' Alabama lawsuit that seeks six categories of explosive documents. [Click here to read the subpoenas - Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company].
The documents sought shed additional light on a larger story of corporate espionage, greed, and back-stabbing under the Southern Company's corporate umbrella, including: (a) Mark Crosswhite's behind-the-scenes efforts to replace Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning, who is retiring at the end of 2022, (b) why Crosswhite sanctioned Perkins' clandestine "dirty tricks" operations to mitigate Crosswhite's legal exposure in the 2018 Oliver Robinson/North Birmingham Bribery Scheme, (c) former U.S. Attorney Jay Town's sudden, midnight resignation in 2020 after a photo surfaced showing Crosswhite and Town chugging down cocktails in a secret meeting in the midst of the Oliver Robinson bribery scandal, (d) U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon's unexpected resignation on April 6, 2022, (e) Perkins'/Matrix, LLC's campaign to surveil, capture, and control Southern Company board members, top executives, and employees between 2009 and 2020, (f) Perkins' surveillance of key public officials, grassroots groups, and other companies from 2015 through 2020, and (g) Mark Crosswhite's secret efforts to eliminate all potential successors for Fanning's' CEO job.
Pitts' subpoena also threatens to expose the labyrinth of companies, clandestine activities, and nauseating "dirty tricks" that Mark Crosswhite and Joe Perkins believed were necessary for Crosswhite to succeed Tom Fanning.
Shockingly, Fanning was one of the Number One targets of Perkins' surveillance activities. Perkins believed that Fanning engaged in a personal lifestyle in Atlanta that compromised him, if exposed publicly. In Perkins' eyes, this warped belief made Fanning the perfect target for surveillance, manipulation, and/or a forced resignation or retirement.
In the pursuit of the Crosswhite/Perkins scheme to install Crosswhite the next CEO of the Southern Company, some top level executives at Alabama Power Company, as well as a few inside the Southern Company, approved surveillance activities and participated in other nefarious conduct that was financially underwritten by Alabama Power Company and implemented by Perkins and his affiliated companies under lucrative secret contracts and "special work orders" that did not require invoicing or written reports.
Perkins is known to prepare handwritten notes of the kind listed in the subpoena on individuals who are targeted for destruction. These are the individuals who are not susceptible to Perkins' activities to capture and control them.
Tom Fanning sits atop one of the largest producers of electrical energy in the United States. For more than a decade, Fanning has represented this sector on national energy policy. He also served as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and the Edison Electric Institute. Crosswhite envies Fanning and his power.
What's Covered by the Pitts Subpoena?
Pitts is demanding that Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company produce the following documents to his attorneys:
1. All contracts with Joe Perkins or entities owned or related to Joe Perkins including but not limited to Matrix LLC, Perkins Communications, P&K Consulting, and Perkins Property from 2015 through 2020.
2. All records of payments sent to entities owned or related to Joe Perkins including but not limited to Matrix LLC, Perkins Communications, P&K Consulting, and Perkins Property, including monthly retainers or other contractual payments and "special work orders" from 2015 through 2020.
3. All videos, photographs, or other materials derived from any surveillance activities targeting any Southern Company board member, executive, or employees during, but not limited to, occurring in 2009 through 2020.
4. All videos, photographs, or other materials derived from any surveillance activities of public figures, groups, or other companies provided by Joe Perkins or related entities from 2015 through 2020.
5. All communications between Southern Company Executives and Joseph Perkins, Matrix LLC, or any of Matrix's employees or agents from 2015 through 2020.
6. Any other emails, memorandum, letters, facsimiles, handwritten notes, electronic files, text messages, invoices, phone recordings, and all other materials relating to Matrix, LLC, Dr. Joseph Perkins, Canopy Partners, LLC, or Jeff Pitts from 2015 through 2020.
What the Subpoena Means
Between 2009 and 2020, Jeff Pitts was aware that Perkins/Matrix conducted surveillance activities targeting Southern Company board members, senior management executives, and employees who could potentially succeed Tom Fanning as CEO of the Southern Company. The surveillance activities sought to develop information on any "dirty secrets" that Crosswhite could use to eliminate these company insiders as a competitive threat to his plans to succeed Tom Fanning. The surveillance produced plenty of "dirty secrets" that revealed the human failings or lifestyle choices of the targets of the surveillance.
The surveillance of: (a) public officials in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, and Washington, (b) various professional and grassroots advocacy groups, and other companies enabled Perkins/Matrix to capture, compromise, and control key members of these groups. The groups surveilled are specified in two exclusive articles we published on this website titled, "Alabama Power Co. Paid $2.5 Million to Joe Perkins, 'Without Invoicing," dated December 26, 2021, and "Joe Perkins-Alabama Power Co. Contracts Raise New Red Flags," dated January 18, 2022.
Perkins performed the scope of services in the two secret contracts referenced in the published articles and was paid $2.5 million, without invoicing. In all, Perkins has been paid tens of millions of dollars from a variety of companies affiliated by Alabama Power Company over a two decade period.
The subpoena lists a labyrinth of companies Alabama Power Company and Southern Company used to funnel money to Joe Perkins. They include: (a) Matrix, LLC, which Perkins formed on October 27, 1999 in the Tuscaloosa County Probate Judge's Office at Book 1999, Page 3216, (b) Perkins Communications, LLC, which Perkins formed with Amy Todd Perkins on January 2, 1997, (c) P&K Consulting, LLC, which Perkins formed with former Alabama governor George Wallace's son-in-law and former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Mark Kennedy on October 4, 2000, and (d) "Perkins Property" a/k/a Perkins Investments, LLP, which Perkins formed on August 25, 1998 to purchase, sell, lease & develop real estate. Another Perkins real estate company named Keystone Properties, LLC, which was formed on May 12, 1998 with John R. Chambless and Mark Kennedy, dissolved on August 29, 2007.
Matrix, itself, was conceived in deception by Perkins, using a surrogate named C. Barton Adcox, 1201 Greensboro Avenue, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401. Adcox served as Matrix's initial registered agent and member. Perkins is not listed anywhere in the Articles of Organization for Matrix.
Matrix was formed to provide the same political consulting services and "dirty tricks" as Perkins & Associates, which lapsed into an inactive status during the U.S. Department of Justice's and Federal Election Commission's (FEC) investigations from 1988 to 1992 into Perkins' illegal campaign donations to Roy Johnson's Congressional campaign. Johnson is a Perkins friend and convicted felon.
Perkins never dissolved Perkins & Associates. Instead, he surreptitiously created Matrix to hoodwink the FEC after he confessed to violating federal election laws and agreed to accept a permanent ban on political consulting in federal elections.
Perkins' Apparent Immunity from Federal Prosecution in Birmingham, Alabama
Joe Perkins is the proud "hunting buddy" of Scott Coogler, the Chief U.S. District Judge for the Northern District. Perkins' other "hunting buddy" is U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, who is one of his "dirty tricks" clients.
Shelby is leaving the U.S. Senate in January. He was elected to the Senate in 1986 after having served in various public offices from local prosecutor to U.S. Magistrate to Alabama Legislator.
Shelby has drawn a government salary all of his adult life. Yet, Shelby is retiring as one of the richest Senators in U.S. history. Shelby has not publicly explained how a career government official can become extremely wealthy in public office.
Shelby's accumulation of wealth in public office places him in the distinguished company of Bill and Hillary Clinton. His rags-to-riches story from a modest government salary mirrors that of the Clinton's. On November 14, 2021, I featured Shelby's checkered past in an article titled "Sen. Richard Shelby: A Tangle Web of Lies and Deceit."
Joe Perkins also enjoys an undisclosed relationship with Lloyd Peeples, the Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern District of Alabama. We will disclose the nature and scope of this relationship in an upcoming article and explain why it affords Perkins de facto immunity from federal prosecution in the Northern District of Alabama.
Epilogue
The espionage activities and "dirty tricks" deployed by Perkins/Matrix to help Mark Crosswhite ascend to Tom Fanning's CEO job at the Southern Company were astonishing in nature, breathtaking in scope, and particularly vicious. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover (1924-1972) used a sleazy array of "dirty tricks" to capture and control Washington politicians, including President John F. Kennedy. President Richard M. Nixon used the "White House Plumbers" to carry out his campaign of "dirty tricks" during the Watergate era of the early 1970s.
What Perkins/Matrix did for Mark Crosswhite took corporate espionage and "dirty tricks" to a whole new level.
As publicly-traded entities, Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company have a duty to turn over the subpoenaed documents and surveillance tapes. The private investigation firms that made and retain physical possession of the original surveillance tapes would be wise to transfer physical custody of them to Alabama Power Company and the Southern Company, for subpoena compliance purposes.
Perkins' ability to fool the public with shell games and ghost moves is over. Jeff Pitts is outing his alleged racketeering conduct.
Federal law enforcement officials in Florida are reportedly taking it all in. They already have an ongoing criminal probe into Matrix's clandestine activities on behalf of Florida Power and Light.
The Jeff Pitts-Joe Perkins war is going to get ugly, fast. The only question is how many Alabama Power/Southern Company career fatalities and casualties will occur during this war.
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