By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 28, 2018 When leadership is divorced from character, it is morally bankrupt. We saw this axiom validated in the cases of German Führer Adolf Hitler, Italian fascist Benito Mussolini, Argentine dictator Juan Perón, Ugandan strongman Idi Amin, Cambodian communist revolutionary politician Pol Pot, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, and the long list of other disgraced despots that earned their way into the dustbin of history. Since Saturday, American President Donald Trump has demonstrated to the entire world that he lacks the basic human decency and character necessary to appreciate and celebrate the life and legacy of Vietnam War hero John McCain’s death. Trump, who dodged the War through a series of five highly questionable draft deferments, refused to praise McCain for his 60 years of dedicated service to America. Yesterday, Trump’s staff finally persuaded him to lower the flag atop the White House to half-staff until McCain is buried. Trump issued a statement recognizing McCain’s distinguish public service only after growing public pressure forced him to do so. Loyal Trump apologists initially sought to join the President in trashing McCain in death. When the tsunami of public opinion made them look as small and petty as Trump, these loyalists retreated into silence and anonymity. Congressional leaders Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell have watched Trump debase the Presidency since assuming office in 2017. Reportedly, they were as shocked and embarrassed at Trump’s actions following McCain’s death as most right-thinking Americans who appreciate and celebrate our military heroes. Ryan and McConnell, who are little more than bootlickers for Trump, refused to stand up to Trump for the way he was impugning McCain and his legacy in death. Fortunately, the American people rose above partisan politics and demanded that Trump and his political lackeys in Washington publically honor John McCain. McCain’s death reminded us of this truism: Adversity does not build character; it reveals character, or the lack thereof. John McCain embodied class and character. Trump has neither. John McCain was an American patriot. Trump is a despot. John McCain earned the nation’s admiration and respect through many decades of unselfish public service. Trump subjects the nation to nothing but endless political wrangling and legal drama. Trump is a political cult figure. He is totally incapable of loving anybody or anything other than himself. Trump’s diehard cult followers do not care if Trump lacks class or character, or not. They love Trump because of his limitations, not in spite of them. Photo: President Donald Trump (left) and Ugandan President Idi Amin.

By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 27, 2018 If the man who holds the office of President of the United States debases and disrespects it on a daily basis, how can we expect others to respect it? We cannot. Trump, who found a way to avoid serving his nation in a military uniform during the Vietnam War, could not muster up the decency on Sunday to praise Vietnam War hero John McCain, who died of brain cancer on Saturday. Trump’s White House staff urged him to issue a press statement of praise for Senator McCain, but Trump was simply too petty and self-centered to do so. Instead, Trump issued a bland tweet of sympathy and prayers for the McCain family. Every time Americans think they have experienced a new low with Donald Trump and his presidency, he takes us lower. Trump has turned the greatest public office on the planet into a non-stop series of Jerry Springer-like shows on lying, adultery, demagoguery, executive laziness, public corruption, duplicitous conduct, and showboating. Trump has forced his Republican colleagues in Washington to embrace his morally bankrupt conduct and accept it as normal presidential behavior, which it is not. Trump publicly belittles and humiliates those Republicans who openly challenge his juvenile antics. Others in the Party and White House are terrified of him. Only those who truly enjoy sniffing Trump’s smelly presidential flatulence can stand to be around him. Photo: President Donald Trump (left) and Senator John McCain (right).

By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 25, 2018 Last week was a nightmare in President Donald Trump’s world. Michael Cohen, his longtime personal attorney and self-proclaimed “fixer”, pleaded guilty in federal court on Tuesday to eight felonies -- five counts of income tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, and two counts of violating federal campaign finance laws. In his guilty plea, Cohen admitted that he made “hush” money payments during the 2016 presidential campaign to legendary porn actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal at the direction of then-Republican nominee Donald Trump. Daniels and McDougal have claimed they had sexual encounters with Trump while he was married to his third wife, Melania Trump. The President has denied these claims. The First Lady has remained silent on this subject. The Trump Organization provided the “hush” money Cohen used to make the payments to Daniels and McDougal. The money was intended to suppress their stories of Trump's adultery and marital infidelity so as to prevent them from influencing the election. Allen Weisselberg, the organization’s chief financial officer, has been granted immunity in exchange for giving federal prosecutors information for the investigation in Cohen’s case. On the same day Cohen pled guilty, a federal court jury in Virginia convicted Paul Manafort, Trump’s former presidential campaign manager in 2016, on eight felony counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, and hiding assets in foreign bank accounts. A mistrial was declared on ten other charges. White House aides expect Trump to pardon Manafort after publicly praising him last week. Last Thursday, it was reported that federal prosecutors have also granted immunity to National Enquirer chief executive David Pecker in exchange for Pecker providing information on the “hush” money deals involving Cohen and Trump. According to a court filing in Cohen's case, Pecker "offered to help deal with negative stories about (Trump's) relationships with women by, among other things, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided." These contractual arrangements are called “catch and kill” deals because the National Enquirer bought the exclusive rights to the stories for the sole purpose of keeping them out of the news. All of this bad news occurred after Trump flame-thrower Rudy Giuliani boldly declared on “Meet The Press” last Sunday that “truth isn’t truth”. This statement summarizes the Trump legal team’s new mantra – nothing is true unless it comes from Trump’s mouth or his daily twitter feed. Even then, Trump’s version of the “truth” is subject to endless mutations. Trump is the “Subject” or “Target” of Several Criminal Investigations It is clear now that Trump is the “subject” or “target” of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation. Likewise, he is the “subject” or “target” of the federal criminal investigation in Cohen’s case. Trump’s complicit conduct as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Cohen case is actually referenced in Cohen’s plea agreement. Trump has personal criminal exposure on several fronts. First, the federal prosecutors in Cohen’s case are focused on Trump’s exposure for violations of campaign finance laws. Michael Cohen, Allen Weisselberg, and David Pecker are key government witnesses in this case. Because Weisselberg and Pecker received immunity in this case, they have already provided prosecutors with the testimony and documents needed to complete their criminal case against Trump for violating campaign finance laws. Pecker has already told prosecutors that Trump knew about the "hush" money payments. Second, the Mueller investigation presents a litany of legal problems for Trump. Mueller has assembled an all-star team of prosecutors to assist him with this investigation. Members of Mueller’s team have taken down international mafia figures, financial fraudsters, terrorists, and former president Richard M. Nixon. Mueller’s investigation became a serious threat to Trump's presidency after former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, was indicted in 2017 for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak regarding the Trump Administration’s plan to lift President Barack Obama’s sanctions on Russia. Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI. Since then, Flynn has been a cooperating witness for Mueller in the Russia investigation. His sentencing has been postponed four times, which means Flynn is singing like a bird. Follow the Russian Mafia Money Based upon the constellation of guilty pleas Mueller has obtained to date and the cooperation federal prosecutors have received from key members of Trump’s inner circle, including White House Counsel Don McGahn, it appears that Mueller’s criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s conduct is focused on three primary areas: (a) financial fraud; (b) money laundering for Russian Mafia figures; and (c) racketeering. These are the areas where Donald Trump has personal criminal exposure in the Russia investigation. Among Trump's many business partners are Russian oligarchs and at least one well-known convicted mobster. One area of focus in the investigation is likely Trump's luxury SoHo Tower in lower Manhattan. Trump’s partner in constructing this high-rise building was Bayrock LLC, a corporation whose primary investors were Russian mining oligarch Tavfik Arif and convicted Russian mobster Felix H. Sater. On March 2, 2017, the Los Angeles Times reported that Sater led a double life as a Trump business partner and a confidential FBI informant. According to the Times, Sater pleaded guilty to a federal charge of racketeering in 1998 for his role in a Mafia-linked $40-million stock fraud scheme. He quickly cut a plea deal and became a secret DOJ and FBI informant in an effort to get a lenient sentence. The court records in Sater’s case were sealed to protect his identity for more than a decade while he worked at Bayrock and participated in various undercover assignments for the FBI. After a court hearing in 2009, Sater was fined $25,000. He was spared jail time and the usual obligation to pay restitution. During her Senate confirmation hearing in January 2015, former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch acknowledged that Sater had secretly worked with federal prosecutors and the FBI for more than 10 years, “providing information crucial to national security and the conviction of over 20 individuals, including those responsible for committing massive financial fraud and members of [the Mafia organization known as] La Cosa Nostra”. According to confidential sources, Felix Sater is at the center of that part of Mueller’s investigation dealing with Trump’s personal conduct. Mueller’s team is simply following the Russian mafia money. After six corporate bankruptcies in the 1990s, Trump’s real estate empire reportedly turned to Russian money for its construction projects in the 2000s. Russian oligarchs and organized crime figures saw Trump's real estate development properties as a wonderful opportunity to get their “dirty” money out of Russia and laundered through sophisticated international financial networks in Europe while on its way to Trump in New York. In September 2008, Donald Trump, Jr., reportedly stated at a real estate conference in New York that: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets… we see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” In 2014, James Dodson, a golf writer and co-author of Arnold Palmer’s memoir, described a conversation he had on this subject while playing a round of golf with Donald Trump and son Eric. Dodson first asked Donald Trump: “‘What are you using to pay for these courses?’ And he just sort of tossed off that he had access to $100 million. So when I got in the cart with Eric, as we were setting off, I said, ‘Eric, who’s funding? I know no banks — because of the recession, the Great Recession — have touched a golf course. You know, no one’s funding any kind of golf construction. It’s dead in the water the last four or five years.’ And this is what he said. He said, ‘Well, we don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.’ I said, ‘Really?’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programs. We just go there all the time. Now that was three years ago, so it was pretty interesting.’” On May 7, 2017, Eric Trump called Dodson’s claim “categorically untrue” and “complete garbage.” Mueller’s plea deals, grants of immunity, and grand jury subpoena power give him the ability to get the bottom of these money laundering claims and denials. Fake News? President Trump routinely dismisses his Russian ties as “fake news”. There is nothing “fake” about Trump’s documented business relationship with Felix Sater, or about Sater’s DOJ status as a convicted racketeer and longtime FBI informant. Russian crime bosses either financed Trump’s real estate projects with laundered money, or they did not. There is nothing fake about the parade of guilty pleas, criminal convictions, and departures among Trump’s inner circle of friends, loyal campaign officials, and former cabinet members. A high number of them have already “flipped” on Trump. Even Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who has his own private lawyer in the Russia investigation, finally distanced himself from Trump last Thursday in a highly public fashion. In response to a Trump tweet that Session “never took control” of the Department of Justice, Sessions pushed back and issued a strongly worded statement saying, "While I am Attorney General, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations." President Trump may be spared a federal criminal prosecution until he is out of office, but his children may not be so lucky. This is particularly true for Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump, who interacted with the Russians while overseeing the family’s real estate empire. Finally, laundering “dirty” Russian mafia money and channeling it through Europe to a Trump company bank account in New York is NOT politically protected activity. It is NOT a Democrat or Republican issue. If this scenario is true, then it constitutes the commission of one or more major federal crimes. Everybody who knowingly participated in this criminal conduct is complicit. Anyone who tries to stop, obstruct, or otherwise impede a criminal investigation into this matter is committing obstruction of justice. Photo: Michael Cohen, Donald Trump, and Paul Manafort has a rough time last week. Things are about to get much worse in Donald Trump's world.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 19, 2018 Last spring, my daughter Claudia Rose Watkins was the team leader of the winning team of international students who competed against 1,031 other cross-cultural teams worldwide in creating a market entry strategy for a firm in Germany.  The 1,032 teams in the competition were comprised of 4,972 students from 152 universities in 37 countries on 6 continents. Today, Claudia was notified that her team won “The 2018-1 X-Culture Best Team” award. Because Claudia was the team leader, she has been invited to speak at the 2019 X-Culture Global Symposium in Canada. Claudia also received a glowing recommendation letter speaking to her ability to manage an award-winning cross-cultural team.  She will be interviewed on live TV next year as part of the 2019 X-Cultural Global Symposium program. Claudia completed a course of study in business and finance this summer at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  She studied economics at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy during the summer of 2017. She will graduate from The University of Alabama in December with a degree in Marketing and Economics and a specialization and certification in global business. Claudia is the second Watkins family member who has studied abroad this summer.  My grandson Levi Seth Watkins, who was the Second Place Winner last November at the Jiansu Cup Chinese Speech Contest at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, won a full scholarship for four-week course of study this summer at Nanjing Forestry University in Jiansu Province, China.  Seth, who translates many of my international business documents that are written in Mandarin, has been speaking and writing Mandarin for several years.  Seth is the second son of Dustin Watkins and Quan Watkins. Congratulations, Claudia! This is a huge win for your X-Culture team and the Watkins family. Educational excellence always matters! PHOTO:  The 2018-1 X-Culture Best Team award. PHOTO: Claudia Rose Watkins, college student, award winner, and international entrepreneur.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 22, 2018 Yesterday was a hellish day in President Donald Trump’s world. Michael Cohen, his personal attorney and self-proclaimed “fixer”, pled guilty in federal court to eight felonies – five counts of tax evasion, one count of bank fraud, and two counts of violating federal campaign finance laws. This was a stunning development. In his guilty plea, Cohen admitted that he paid "hush" money in 2016 to legendary porn actress Stormy Daniels at the direction of then-Republican nominee Donald Trump. According to media reports, the source of this "hush" money payment was Trump's presidential campaign funds. Trump denies this claim. Phony invoices were reportedly generated and used to facilitate the payments. Daniels has claimed she and Trump had a sexual encounter while Trump was married to his third-wife, Melania Trump. The President has denied this charge. On the same day, a federal court jury in Virginia convicted Paul Manafort, Trump’s presidential campaign manager in 2016, on eight felony counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, and hiding assets in foreign bank accounts.  A mistrial was declared on ten other charges. Yesterday, Trump was still standing by Manafort and praising him as a "good man".  Today, he praised Manafort again for not "breaking" like Michael Cohen. Yesterday's bad news occurred after Trump flame-thrower Rudy Giuliani boldly declared on “Meet The Press”last Sunday that “truth isn’t truth”. This statement, on its face, summarized the Trump legal team’s new and absurd mantra – nothing is true, except what President Trump says. On Sunday, I will provide an in-depth legal analysis on these breaking developments and what they mean for Donald Trump, his presidency, and the ongoing Robert Mueller probe. Stay tuned! PHOTO: President Donald Trump

By: Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on May 12, 2014; Updated and Republished on August 16, 2018 Today’s Bible-thumping, right-wing “Christian” zealots, who spew hatred for gays, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, and anyone other than their own kind, really scare me. What is the source of their intense hatred of other people? It certainly is not the Bible. How can these modern day apostles of hatred call themselves “Christians”? Nowhere in the Bible do the scriptures say we must hate one another in order to serve God. In fact, the Bible tells us in Leviticus 19:17, “Do not hate your brother in your heart." Mankind is our "brother" within the meaning of this Biblical passage. There is not one verse in the Bible in which Jesus berates homosexuality, women, other religions, or other ethnic groups. To the contrary, Jesus loved everybody, unconditionally. He treated men and women with equal respect. This is why Mary Magdalene was by his side at the Last Supper. Jesus was not sexist, racist, narrow-minded, petty, arrogant, hateful, disrespectful, or greedy; nor did he abuse children.  He practiced the religious doctrine of agape love, tolerance, inclusion, and respect for the dignity of men, women, and children. Furthermore, Jesus did not force his religious beliefs on anyone. He certainly could have used his divine powers in this way, but he chose not to do so. Jesus fed the hungry, healed the sick, and clothed the naked. He marched through cities and villages spreading the gospel to anyone who would listen. Jesus took his ministry into the gaming establishments and houses of ill repute. He welcomed all people into God's house. Jesus performed miracles in plain view of the public. He literally walked on water. Jesus was meek and humble. He did not try to impress the curious crowds that gathered to hear him speak by discussing his material possessions. He had none. He did not fleece the crowds for money. He did not use fancy titles to describe himself or big words to convey his message. He did not dress or act like a powerful man. He did not flaunt his divine heritage. Today’s right-wing “Christian” zealots would impose their religious views on everybody, if given a chance to do so. It is not enough for them to freely practice their religious beliefs without any interference from government or competing religions. No, their agenda is to obliterate any separation between church and state and to have only one recognized form of religion – their brand of Christianity. Many of these zealots are running around the country spewing hatred like mini-Ayatollahs. They would turn America into a western version of Iranian theocracy. The ones that scare me the most hold state and local political offices – senator, congressman, state representative, chief justice, sheriff, judge, commissioner, mayor, councilman/councilwoman, etc. These so-called “Christian” officials would discriminate against a vast number of American citizens if our more responsible governmental officials, those who respect the U.S. Constitution’s mandated separation of church and state, did not rein them in. These “Christian” zealots are the most vocal opponents against a pregnant woman’s right to choose an abortion. Yet, unlike Jesus, they would deny food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and adequate educational opportunities to the infant child, as well as the child’s mother. They profess to be pro-life, but they are really not. These so-called “Christians” are merely pro-forced birth. What happens to the infant child after the forced birth occurs does not matter to them. Unlike Jesus, they do very little to provide a humane quality of life for the “least of thee”. Paradoxically, these pro-life “Christian” zealots go out of their way to find newer and faster ways to kill death row inmates, even the innocent ones. They pretend that these executions should be “humane” (whatever that means), but they really do not care how an inmate dies. These so-called “Christians” pushed legislation in the 2014 session of the Alabama Legislature calling for the castration of sex offenders. Thankfully, this legislation died, not because the leadership in the Republican-majority Legislature rejected this Medieval-era practice as barbaric, but because the Legislature simply ran out of time to deal with this legislation during the 2014 session. These “Christian” zealots exhibit the same mob-like mentality the Bible describes at the crucifixion of Christ. I liken them to the blood-thirsty revelers in the crowd who called for the crucifixion of Christ to proceed. For reasons I do not understand, they love killing people in the name of God. For the record, Jesus, who was the Son of God, never killed anyone for any reason. Instead, he chose to die for our sins. Are these right-wing, self-serving zealots real Christians, or are they simply pretending to be Christians? Real Christians love mankind, regardless of a person’s gender, ethnicity, color, nationality, sexual orientation, socio-economic station in life, religious faith, or personal, social and political views. They also protect our children from sexual predators, no matter who they are.  Their love for mankind is genuine and deep. It is never tied to the believer’s version of political correctness. Real Christians respect our individual freedoms, liberties, and choices as law-abiding citizens. Real Christians embrace our differences, as opposed to cursing them. Real Christians search for ways to uplift humanity, as opposed to finding benign ways to neglect it. Real Christians serve God and Jesus, rather than themselves. Finally, Jesus did not erect a mega-church of brick and mortar as a testament to his greatness. His church was wherever people gathered in His name. His church was located within the hearts and good works of ordinary men and women, and this church has stood the test of time for thousands of years. Jesus never made any distinction between the people he served and himself. By today’s right-wing “Christian” standards, Jesus would be an outcast – too liberal, too loving, too meek, too humble, too poor, too caring, too compassionate, too homeless, too eccentric, and too forgiving to fit in with the right-wing “Christian” zealots who despise everything he stood for.  This is why they scare me. PHOTO: Jesus of Nazareth.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 6, 2018 Ashley Renee Ball is a Cavalier lover who lives in Marquette, Michigan. According to her Facebook page, she is the “devoted mother of five Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.” Ms. Ball describes her professional endeavors this way: “I am a licensed attorney who is dedicated to providing honest, practical, and legally sound counsel to my clients. I entered the legal profession with a desire to help people. I think that you will find that my people-centered approach to the law is different than that of many attorneys. The legal system can be cumbersome and confusing. As a lawyer, I feel that it is very important to help my clients understand the process as we go through it together. Communication is key to the lawyer-client relationship. I encourage my clients to ask questions and contact me whenever they have any concerns. I pride myself on being honest, ethical, and compassionate. My goal is to promote my client's emotional welfare while pursuing their legal interests.” Ms. Ball lists animal law as one of her specialty areas of practice. She was admitted to practice law in Michigan in 2013. Ashley Renee Ball is an ally and supporter of Birmingham, Alabama-based Brittney Wilk, Lisa Thompson and their Cavalier Rescue of Alabama. Yesterday, Ms. Ball decided it was time to publicly bash me. She chose a tread on Brittney Wilk’s Facebook page as the venue for her personal attack. Brittney Wilk, Lisa Thompson, and Cavalier Rescue of Alabama have been the subject of 15 investigative news articles I have published on this website about their infamous “rescue” of Cavaliers in 2014 at an auction in Wheaton, Missouri. Citing a now-debunked January 26, 2017 article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about a September 1, 2016 lawsuit the Securities and Exchange Commission filed against me alleging that I had “duped” athletes into investing in my companies, Ms. Ball went on to declare that “Watkins is a liar, a thief, and has a documented history of mental illness.” This statement was the sum total of Ms. Ball’s defense of the ethical lapses committed by Cavalier Rescue of Alabama in the aftermath of the Missouri “rescue” operation. This time, I did not have to defend myself. Another Cavalier “mother” stepped up and did it for me. This is what Lisa Swoboda had to say: "The smear campaign against Donald Watkins is particularly juvenile. Y’all posted a website that was created by the supporters of a well-connected alleged rapist to smear Watkins for having the gall to report on the travesty committed against Megan Rondini: https://www.donaldwatkins.com/.../megan-rondini-rape-case...  This is the truth about the DeadBeat Donald website: http://themeck.blogspot.com/.../the-deadbeat-donald-smear... It also appears that members of this group are insinuating Watkins was paid to write these articles. He’s already addressed that ignorant statement on his website in the comments section of this article:  https://www.donaldwatkins.com/.../who-is-terri... And as for “tainting the jury pool”, that one is amusing. All the jury has to do is read the evidence showing the proof of what this group did in order to come to a quick, not-guilty verdict. The only information Watkins has used is that submitted to court by the plaintiffs in relation to the “defamation” case. Ashley Renee Ball, I’d read this if I were you: https://www.donaldwatkins.com/.../sec-plans-to-drop-4... Watkins does not back down from powerful individuals who have done wrong which has made him a target of a few influential folks. You also forgot another governmental smear attempt from the FDIC. I’ll save you the trouble of locating it and post the update: https://www.donaldwatkins.com/.../new-judge-assigned-in... He’s beaten the SEC and exposed various other wrongdoings by government officials including the investigation and exposure of disgraced former Governor of Alabama, Robert Bentley who resigned rather than being impeached. He’s not their favorite person. IF you’re familiar with the Sarbanes Oxley Act, Watkins got the first acquittal against the SEC on all 36 counts his client was charged with. It was a case the government very much expected to win. They didn’t. http://archive.fortune.com/.../2005/07/25/8266621/index.htm and https://www.nytimes.com/.../a-style-that-connected-with... The current case you cited was filed by the SEC, NOT his investors, the “charges” are outside the statute of limitations and his investors have not lost any money and are still invested with his company. Sounds like a solid case…. Nice attempt at diversion though and I would suggest carefully considering what you post in relation to the code of ethics of the Bar association of the state of Michigan. In addition, you might stop to think about why you’re denigrating a good, decent person. In addition, every member of his family is also a better citizen than most/all of the denigrators in this thread: https://www.donaldwatkins.com/.../inspiring-educational... If you have any friends or relatives that have an implanted defibrillator you can also thank his brother: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8001897 …. [E]very part of [Watkins’] article is true (just as the articles Watkins wrote about former Governor Bentley were true and led to his resignation). Those FACTS were all obtained from the court documents Wilk et al submitted to the court themselves…. Lisa Thompson, as you well know the information in that UNPAID blog came from the documents y’all submitted to the court as part of the discovery process. If there are any “inaccuracies” (and I’m sure you’re well aware there aren’t any), it would have been due to the fact ya’ll submitted them. In regards to that “close personal friend” of yours that talked to Watkins, I doubt you have any connection with Watkins within seven degrees of separation. Finally, the statement “the word in town, where people actually know him” is so transparent it’s amusing. He doesn’t stay in Birmingham and hasn’t for many years." Thank you, Ms. Swoboda. PHOTO: Ashley Renee Ball

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on August 4, 2018 Last Sunday, I published an article titled, “A ‘Pizza Man’ is Leading the Charge”. On Tuesday, I published a follow-up article on the “Growing Problem of Prosecutorial Misconduct”. Both articles described the degree to which rogue prosecutors have abused the federal grand jury and trial system. As documented in a special series of investigative reports in USA Today, this prosecutorial abuse is rampant, growing, and has been going on for decades. President Donald Trump complains about this problem every day. Yet, he has been impotent in his power to stop it. Last week, Trump publicly begged U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop it. His presidential plea fell on deaf ears. Congress has issued a number of well-documented reports about rogue prosecutors and their chronic abuse of the criminal justice system. Former U.S. Attorneys General like Richard Thornburgh and Janet Reno acknowledged the problem and tried to stop rogue federal prosecutors from using grand juries and trials to implement their narrow-minded political and personal retribution. Reputable versus Rogue Prosecutors Every federal grand jury investigation begins with a prosecutor’s request to a judge to empanel a grand jury. Sixteen to twenty-three individuals serve as grand jurors. From the time grand jurors are empaneled, prosecutors shape the narrative and decide what testimony and evidence will be presented to the grand jury. This is when, where, and how rogue prosecutors “fix” cases in a criminal justice system that President Trump has proclaimed as “rigged”. Trump knows this subject better than most because his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, was a former prosecutor and highly respected federal appeals court judge. Reputable prosecutors present all pertinent evidence to grand jurors, whether favorable or unfavorable. Rogue prosecutors will only present evidence that paints the “targets” of the investigation in the most unfavorable light possible. Grand jurors rarely demand all evidence in the prosecutor’s possession on a potential charge, whether favorable or unfavorable. Reputable prosecutors willingly present exculpatory evidence that favors the “targets” of the investigation. Rogue prosecutors are notorious for withholding exculpatory evidence from grand jurors. I witnessed the withholding of exculpatory evidence first-hand in my case. For example, prosecutors never disclosed to grand jurors that I worked for my companies and their stakeholders full-time for 12 years without taking any of the salary they authorized for my CEO position. Likewise, prosecutors never disclosed that my direct investment in these companies exceeded the aggregate investment of all other stakeholders combined. Furthermore, prosecutors never told grand jurors that every financial transaction they characterized as “fraudulent” was specifically authorized in binding corporate governance documents (that were written 8 years before I became CEO), all of which these stakeholders agreed in writing to honor. Instead, the rogue prosecutors in my case painted me as a "crook" who invested no money in my companies and who used stakeholder money for personal expenses. They knew this portrayal was false and misleading, but did not care. Reputable prosecutors open a criminal investigation based upon credible evidence that there is probable cause a crime has been committed. Rogue prosecutors target their personal or political enemies and search for ways to manufacture a crime from bits and pieces of information about the targeted individual. Because of the enormous amount of time prosecutors spend in the presence of grand jurors in a tightly controlled environment, grand jurors typically give all prosecutors “presumed” credibility and generally follow their lead. Grand jurors almost never question a prosecutor’s personal background or personal and political animus. In my case, this allowed a lead prosecutor with extremist views toward women and minorities to hijack the grand jury process. A couple of members of the multi-agency law enforcement team working on my case share this prosecutor’s extremist views on women and minorities. The most frequently used tool for controlling the narrative prosecutors present to a grand jury is the use of pre-grand jury interviews. Prosecutors prefer this tool because they do not want to be surprised by what an un-coached witness might say in front of a grand jury that they have worked for many months to rubber stamp their prosecutorial recommendations. The pre-grand jury interviews typically occur in the presence of one or more prosecutors and several law enforcement agents. This show of force is designed to overwhelm and intimidate potential witnesses. The pre-interview is never transcribed on a verbatim Q&A basis. Instead, the witness’ interview statements are captured in the form of notes taken by one of the agents present. These notes are not shown to the witness to check the accuracy of what is written by the agent. If the witness deviates in the grand jury room from the summary of testimony captured in the agent’s notes, the witness is then exposed to a felony charge of lying to a federal agent. This potential jeopardy makes the witness more than eager to please prosecutors by giving coached and enhanced testimony to the grand jury. This occurrence has happened in my case on multiple occasions. The pre-grand jury interviews give reputable prosecutors an opportunity to discover any exculpatory information the witness may have and present this information to the grand jury. Rogue prosecutors tend to avoid unscripted questions and answers in front of the grand jury that may lead to the disclosure of exculpatory testimony and evidence. They are primarily interested in the persecution and abuse of targeted individuals, not a search for the truth and the fair administration of justice. Reputable prosecutors tend to stay within the scope of the matters presented in the original investigation. Rogue prosecutors roam the landscape like marauders looking for any legal theory they can use to justify their continued pursuit of the “targets” and the fabrication of unwarranted criminal charges. In my case, after their “securities fraud” case collapsed, prosecutors tried to build a criminal case around a flimsy “bank fraud” theory that flies in the face of permissible transactions under recognized exceptions to applicable banking regulations. Even the tainted FDIC, which has been collaborating with the rogue prosecutors in my case, has been unable to succeed with its factually weak and baseless administrative charge on this subject. Reputable prosecutors use the grand jury subpoena power in good faith to develop testimony and secure relevant documents on the matters under investigation. Rogue prosecutors use the grand jury subpoena powers to maliciously carpet-bomb the “targets” of their investigation, as well as all of their known business associates, friends, and family members. Reputable prosecutors never engage in forum shopping for a so-called “friendly” trial judge. Rogue prosecutors engage in forum shopping as a course of conduct. Reputable prosecutors never cheat to win. Rogue prosecutors cannot win an indictment or trial without cheating. Reputable prosecutors bring integrity to the criminal justice system. Rogue prosecutors bring dishonor to the Justice Department and their profession with their lawlessness and self-serving pettiness. They exhibit a character flaw that makes them a clear and present danger to society. They also represent a new wave of COINTELPRO-era government agents. Stopping Rogue Prosecutors Sunshine is always the best disinfectant for ridding our society of rogue prosecutors like the ones in my case. This is why I shine the bright light of the free press on their misconduct. Prosecutors who cheat to win generally do not have the litigation skills and courtroom experience needed to prevail in a criminal case at trial. I have encountered and defeated prosecutors like the ones in my case on countless occasions during my career. Sooner or later, these prosecutors must enter the gladiator arena where litigation skills, trial experience, defense strategies, and exculpatory evidence matter. This is where, when, and how the rogue prosecutors in my case will be stopped. PHOTO: First Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Lloyd C. Peeples is the lead prosecutor in my case. He was running a Homewood, Alabama pizza parlor in 2017, when U.S. Attorney Jay Town hired him for the job. Peeples is the author of published feature articles in a right-wing news magazine that reflect an extremist view on women and minorities.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 22, 2018 Courage used to be one of the hallmarks of effective leadership. The men and women who built America into the greatest nation on the planet were courageous enough to look beyond personal gain and reputation preservation when leading this nation. Today’s public officials are mostly "cheerleaders" for political demagogues who have divided us into hardcore political tribes. In the last few decades, that courage seems to have been replaced by cowardice, tribalism, and media posturing. The cowardice can be found in leadership positions all around us. It penetrates the psyche of leaders from every race, gender, party affiliation, or geography. It seems as though our so-called "leaders", whether in government, educational institutions, churches, political bodies, or corporate America, are first concerned about themselves. They only think of us when elections are looming and, even then, they only give us lip service. Today’s leaders are restricted by the need to be liked and revered whereas leaders of the past were willing to take personal risks to be effective. But, gone are those days. Gone are the days of courage that we saw in 1976 when Governor George Wallace and Attorney General Bill Baxley forced a reluctant Alabama Pardon and Paroles Board to issue a full and unconditional pardon for Clarence Norris, the last known surviving Scottsboro Boy. In 1931, Norris and eight other Scottsboro Boys were falsely accused of raping two white women on a freight train traveling through Paint Rock, Alabama. The evidence showed that the Scottsboro Boys were completely innocent of this crime. The U.S. Supreme Court saved the Boys from the death penalty on three occasions. Today, many pardons are handed out to cronies who symbolize the political values of the pardoner(s), whether these cronies are innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted, or not. Gone are the days of courage that we saw in 1993, when a governor like Jim Folsom, Jr., removed the Confederate flag from atop the Alabama state capitol because it was offensive to black Americans. Today, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey does not care if her state's blatantly impudent symbols of the old Confederacy offend black Americans. She is far more concerned with placating the hard-right members of the Alabama Republican Party than she is with promoting racial unity within her state. Gone are the days of courage that we saw in 1976, when a courageous district attorney like Jimmy Evans conducted a proper grand jury investigation of the police shooting of an unarmed black male in Montgomery, Alabama and charged the officers involved with felony crimes. Today, district attorneys across America use grand juries as political cover to mask their cowardice as prosecutors in these high-profile cases. They are far too concerned about what will happen to their political careers if they do the right thing and criminally charge police officers who wrongfully kill unarmed citizens. Gone are the days of courage that we saw in the 1970s, 80s and 90s when white and black ministers would join hands across America to combat society’s blatant neglect of our poor and defenseless fellow Americans. Today, too many of our ministers, both black and white, seem content in their efforts to build “tabernacles to the sky”, as service-minded churches are increasingly displaced on the religious landscape by personality-based ministries that merely seek to glorify their often immoral and compromised pastors. Gone are the days of courage that we saw in the 1990s when corporate leaders would spearhead positive quality-of-life changes for the good of the larger community. Today, corporate leaders seduce, capture, and castrate our elected and appointed officials, effectively rendering them eunuchs and/or political pack mules that serve the narrow and selfish corporate interests. Wall Street, for example, now regulates our U.S. Congress, which is supposed to be regulating Wall Street. Even the Justice Department is openly subservient to Wall Street. If you are a low-level bank teller who embezzled a thousand dollars from a local bank, federal prosecutors will nail you to the wall. If you are a CEO of one of the Wall Street mega banks that caused $13 trillion in American wealth to be lost during the Great Recession of 2008, federal prosecutors have already declared you as “too big to prosecute”. They recently gave Wells Fargo a prosecutorial pass even though the bank admitted to fraudulently creating two millions bank accounts for the sole purpose of surreptitiously generating banking fees from unsuspecting customers. Gone are the days of courage when President Ronald Reagan (a) confronted Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev about tearing down the Berlin Wall and (b) held the Soviet Union accountable for undermining the spread of democracy around the world. Today, President Donald Trump worships Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is a former KGB officer and cold-blooded murderer, like he is a "god". Meanwhile, Trump is determined to build his own "Wall" on the Mexican border. Today, our national government leaders in Washington routinely lie to Americans about everything. They have also abandoned and humiliated America’s traditional allies for no good reason. Additionally, they have gleefully sold us out on nearly every quality of life issue that matters because they can do so without fear of political repercussions. Today, many leaders claim to be “pro-life”. Yet, they eagerly cut funding for vital programs that benefit the health and safety of poor infants, children, and adults. In many cases, they treat children of color and poor kids worse than they treat their own dogs and cats. Today, our leaders openly salute military veterans and wave American flags in their presence. Yet, they deny these heroes adequate healthcare for their emotional and physical war wounds and decent housing opportunities when they return home from the battlefields abroad. This should NEVER happen to a military veteran. Everywhere we look, courage has been replaced with cowardice and selfishness. Gone are the great leaders of yesterday. Today’s leaders are mostly small-minded partisans who have giant-size egos. They eagerly serve the narrow special interests of big-money groups while neglecting the rest of us. They represent the “me first” generation whose “damn the rest of you” attitude that has effectively replaced the dedicated public and corporate service that lifted mankind. This is the new class of American leadership. Gone are the days of courage. PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump sucking up to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 2018 Helsinki Summit.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 31, 2018 After I published an article Sunday titled “A ‘Pizza Man’ is Leading the Charge”, I received a flood of private and public feedback from readers across the nation who expressed genuine shock at the degree to which federal prosecutors have abused the grand jury and trial system. In reality, this abuse is rampant, growing, and has been going on for decades. The prosecutorial misconduct described in Sunday’s article is not an aberration. As a former prosecutor myself who has handled major felony cases, I know that exposing prosecutorial misconduct while it is in progress is the best way to curb it. Nobody is Holding “Rogue” Federal Prosecutors Accountable In 2010, prosecutorial misconduct in the federal criminal justice system was the subject of an in-depth series of USA Today investigative articles. With help from legal experts and former prosecutors, USA Today spent six months examining the work of federal prosecutors and reviewing legal databases, department records and tens of thousands of pages of court filings. The following are highlights from USA Today’s impressive body of investigative articles on this subject: 1. Judges have warned for decades that misconduct by prosecutors threatens the Constitution's promise of a fair trial. In response, Congress enacted a 1997 law aimed at curbing these abuses. 2. USA Today documented 201 criminal cases in the years that followed in which judges determined that Justice Department prosecutors -- the nation's most elite and powerful law enforcement officials -- themselves violated laws or ethics rules. 3. In 49 of the 201 cases documented by USA Today, the defendants were either exonerated or set free after the violations surfaced. 4. In case after case during that time, judges blasted prosecutors for "flagrant" or "outrageous" misconduct. They caught some prosecutors hiding evidence, found others lying to judges and juries, and said others had broken plea bargains. 5. The transgressions USA Today identified were so serious that, in each case, judges threw out charges, overturned convictions or rebuked prosecutors for misconduct. 6. USA Today found a pattern of "serious, glaring misconduct," said Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman, an expert on misconduct by prosecutors. "It's systemic now, and … the system is not able to control this type of behavior. There is no accountability." 7. As of September 2010, the Justice Department paid nearly $5.3 million to reimburse the legal bills of defendants who were wrongly accused. It has spent far more to repeat trials for people whose convictions were thrown out because of misconduct, a process that can take years, although the full price tag is impossible to tally. 8. The violations USA Today documented go beyond everyday missteps. In the worst cases, say judges, former prosecutors and others, they happen because prosecutors deliberately cut corners to win. 9. Judges have seen those abuses, too. "Sometimes, you get inexperienced and unscrupulous assistant U.S. attorneys who don't care about the rules," said U.W. Clemon, the former chief judge in northern Alabama's federal courts. [Editor’s Note: Clemon, himself, was the victim of prosecutorial abuse in 1996 while he was a sitting federal judge in Birmingham. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno personally put an end to this abuse in Clemon's case] The Problem Persists I am not the only one who realizes that the Justice Department is infected with “rogue” prosecutors who are accountable to no one. In the USA Today articles, Richard Thornburgh, who was attorney general under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, candidly admits that "[t]here are rogue prosecutors, [who are] often motivated by personal ambition or partisan reasons.” President Donald Trump tweets about this problem on a daily basis. In my case, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Lloyd Peeples commenced a federal grand jury targeting me for investigation within weeks after taking office. This grand jury was empaneled to review claims in a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission allegedly that I “defrauded” professional athletes who invested in my international waste-to-energy businesses. Peeples started his own investigation after highly respected federal prosecutors in New Jersey, who are specially trained in economic crimes, reviewed the same allegations during a six-month grand jury investigation and closed their case in 2016 after finding that I had committed no wrongdoing. The Constant Shifting of Focus in Search of a Crime When the SEC announced earlier this month that it was dropping two-thirds of its baseless allegations of “securities fraud” (with the remaining one-third hanging on in court by a thread), Lloyd Peeples shifted the focus toward manufacturing a criminal case around certain Regulation O allegations in a FDIC investigation that resulted from a 2013 order former Alabama governor Robert Bentley gave to former Alabama Bank Superintendent John Harrison to run me out of the banking business. I wrote about this gubernatorial order in “Surviving Hatred in Alabama”. As an accommodation to the Alabama Banking Department, the FDIC trumped-up baseless allegations that accused me of violating Regulation O with respect to a loan Birmingham-based America Bank made to one of my business partners and a loan that was made to one of my sons. Regulation O governs bank loans to executives and directors of the bank. I was chairman of the bank at the time these loans were made, but I had no role in the loan intake, underwriting, or approval process. Additionally, I complied with all known business affiliation disclosure reporting requirements, before, during, and after my bank charter was issued. For the past five years, the FDIC has steadfastly refused to recognize that the loans in question fell squarely within the well-known, published exceptions to Regulation O. The FDIC has recognized the exceptions to Regulation O for similarly situated bank officers and directors at other regulated banking institutions. My request for equal treatment irritated bank regulators. After all, Alamerica Bank holds the only full-service bank charter ever issued to an African-American owned bank by the Alabama Banking Department. Lloyd Peeples, who obtained a bank fraud conviction in 2009 on Helen Phillips (the former president of First National Bank of Shelby County), believes he can fabricate a similar bank fraud case against me. Not so. Phillips took out a loan in the name of her housekeeper and attempted to hide it from bank auditors. In my case, the bank loans in question were made to qualified applicants on the basis of their individual creditworthiness and the proceeds were used for “goods”, “services”, and “property” within a pre-existing, bona fide business relationship, as authorized and permitted in the exceptions to Regulation O. None of these facts were hidden from bank examiners. To the contrary, I presented all of these facts and pertinent documents to bank examiners to support my entitlement to the codified exceptions in Regulation O. The FDIC’s Disparate Treatment Finds a Welcoming Home in Peeples The FDIC’s administrative proceeding against me has stalled. The administrative law judge originally assigned to my case has been removed and a new judge has been assigned. Interestingly, the bank examiners assigned to my case never analyzed the documentation I offered in support of my entitlement to the exceptions in Regulation O. In their first interview with me about this matter in 2013, the FDIC and Banking Department examiners presented me a doctored version of Regulation O that completely removed the permitted exceptions to the regulation. They also spoke to me in an arrogant, nasty, and derogatory tone. My protest of this inappropriate treatment fell on deaf ears within the FDIC and Banking Department. At the time, I did not know that the FDIC’s internal emails described my request for equal treatment under Regulation O’s permitted exceptions as “buffoonery”. For the reasons described in “A ‘Pizza Man’ is Leading the Charge”, the FDIC’s disparate treatment of me found a warm and welcoming home inside Lloyd Peeples’ U.S. Attorneys office. Peeples initially told my attorneys that he had no interest in the FDIC matter because Alamerica Bank suffered no loses from the loans in question. One of the USA Today investigative articles reported on a Virginia case that was also referred by the FDIC to federal prosecutors. This case is strikingly similar to my situation. Richard Holland, Sr., and Richard Holland, Jr., were investigated and eventually prosecuted in federal court for allegedly hiding evidence that a small bank they ran in Windsor, Virginia had made improper loans to developers. This was not true. In contrast to the long FDIC and DOJ investigation, the Hollands' trial ended abruptly. After the government rested its case and before any witnesses testified for the defense, U.S. District Judge Henry Coke Morgan stopped the trial and acquitted the Hollands. It was the first time the judge had ever pre-empted a jury. "There's no credible evidence … that either of these defendants are criminals," Morgan told jurors. In a written order, he called the case "all smoke and no gun." After the acquittals, lawyers for the Hollands filed a claim under the Hyde Amendment (a 1997 law that requires the Justice Department to reimburse attorney’s fees and costs for wrongly prosecuted defendants) for repayment of their in legal fees. Morgan ordered the government to pay them $912,000, saying "the lack of evidence of criminal intent was so obvious" that the prosecution had been "vexatious" and amounted to harassment. Peeples is repeating the same misconduct found in the Holland case. This conduct is vexatious and amounts to harassment, but Peeples does not care because he is playing the game with taxpayer's money. At some point, President Donald Trump and/or U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions must take charge of the Justice Department and put an end to rampant prosecutorial misconduct. “Rogue” federal prosecutors are growing in numbers; they are out of control; no one is holding them accountable; and they are ruining the professional reputations of respectable federal prosecutors. PHOTO: Former U.S. Attorney Richard Thornburgh was the 76th U.S. Attorney General. Thornburgh, a former Republican governor of Pennsylvania, served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He candidly admits that "[t]here are rogue prosecutors, [who are] often motivated by personal ambition or partisan reasons.”

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 25, 2018 In “Surviving Hatred in Alabama”, I described how former Alabama governor Robert Bentley ordered state government agencies to target me for destruction after online journalist Roger Alan Shuler and I exposed Bentley's marital cheating and public corruption scandal with his lover, Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Bentley was also the Chief Magistrate of Alabama when the order was given. Yet, he provided state law enforcement officials with no evidence that Shuler or I had engaged in any wrongdoing. To his credit, then-Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Chief Spencer Collier refused to open the criminal investigation on me that Bentley requested. Bentley's June 23, 2018 deposition testimony in Collier's wrongful termination case affirms this fact. Unlike Spencer Collier, John D. Harrison, then-Superintendent of the Alabama State Banking Department, went along with a separate Bentley order to place my Birmingham-based independent bank and me under heightened regulatory scrutiny. Working in concert with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”), the State Banking Department launched a full-scale, coordinated "Blitzkrieg" investigation of Alamerica Bank and me that has been ongoing for five years. To provide political cover for this illegal regulatory activity, the State Banking Department encouraged the FDIC to take the lead in trying to run me out of the banking business. As an accommodation to the State Banking Department, the FDIC trumped-up baseless allegations that I violated Regulation O with respect to a loan the bank made to one of my business partners and a loan that was made to one of my sons. Regulation O governs bank loans to executives and directors of the bank. I was chairman of the bank at the time these loans were made, but I had no role in their application process, underwriting, or approval. For five years, the FDIC has steadfastly refused to recognize that both of these loans fell squarely within the well-known, published exceptions to Regulation O. The agency has recognized the exceptions to Regulation O for similarly situated bank officers and directors at other regulated banking institutions. Furthermore, the FDIC’s internal emails describe my request for equal treatment under Regulation O as “buffoonery”. Earlier this year, I formally answered the FDIC’s allegations and denied all of the charges involving the Regulation O, while asserting my affirmative defenses to the charges. I also objected to the process used by the FDIC to select the Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) who was assigned to my case, which has indefinitely stayed on June 27, 2018 at my request. In "Surviving Hatred in Alabama", I predicted that my case would likely have to start over in light of a June 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the process used by federal agencies like the FDIC and SEC for selecting and assigning ALJs was unconstitutional. I was right. This afternoon, my legal team received a “Notice of Reassignment” from the Hon. Christopher B. McNeil, the new ALJ who has been assigned to my case. ALJ McNeil issued an Order today declaring, “the parties are entitled to a fresh reconsideration of all prior actions by the prior assigned administrative law judge” and modifying the Stay Order to provide each party with a fair and reasonable opportunity to seek reconsideration of all prior actions of the original ALJ. Alamerica Bank is one of only nineteen African-American-owned banks in the United States. Within this group, Alamerica is the only one that state and federal regulators are actively trying to collapse (without any success to-date). Industry insiders recognize that this regulatory abuse is driven by personal animus and political motivations of certain top FDIC officials. Despite the sustained efforts of state and federal bank regulators since 2013 to harm Alamerica Bank and me, the Bank’s regulatory capital ratios at the close of 2017 exceeded the 13.3% national average and were among the best in the banking industry. For the record, no judicial body has ever found that I have violated any state or federal banking industry rule or regulation. John D. Harrison, the former Superintendent of the State Banking Department, announced on June 23, 2016, that he was retiring, effective on June 30, 2016. Harrison gave no reason for his abrupt retirement announcement. Governor Robert Bentley resigned in disgrace after pleading guilty to ethics violations on April 10, 2017. PHOTO: Administrative Law Judge Christopher B. McNeil

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on July 12, 2018 On September 1, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filed a lawsuit against several of my private companies and me alleging that the named defendants defrauded professional athletes and other investors out of $6.1 million dollars. The Commission claimed that much of this money was spent on personal expenses like alimony, past due taxes, payments to an ex-girlfriend, and credit card bills. The complaint also alleged that the defendants falsely claimed that Waste Management, Inc., a large, international waste treatment company, was seriously considering acquiring Masada Resource Group, LLC, and its affiliated companies in a multi-billion-dollar transaction. This morning, an Atlanta-based SEC attorney handling the case sent the defendants’ attorneys the following email: “After talking this over internally, we intend to seek permission from the [Commission] to drop the charges for which we did not seek summary judgment to save resources.  It will take 8 weeks or so for us to make the recommendation and have it acted upon by the Commission....". Just like that, $4 million in baseless “fraud” claims regarding the Masada-Waste Management transaction went out the window. Ironically, Masada made thousands of pages of documents relating to the Waste Management transaction available to the SEC in June 2014. Yet, no one from the Commission took the time to review these corporate records at Masada's headquarters in Birmingham. Instead, the SEC decided to spend thousands of manhours and millions of dollars over the last four years dragging my name and reputation through the mud over these now-abandoned "fraud" allegations. The SEC attorney’s email reference to the “summary judgment” relates to a June 28, 2018 court ruling that an Atlanta federal judge gave to the SEC regarding three loans from former NBA player /Hall of Famer Charles Barkley. It was a “gift” ruling that is based upon clearly erroneous factual findings and conclusions of law. The defendants have formally asked the judge to reconsider this ruling. The Barkley loans totaled $2.1 million out of the original $6.1 million in alleged “fraud” claims. These loans were approved transactions between a company stakeholder and Masada. Barkley was represented in the loan transactions by investment banking giant Raymond James. His adviser approved of the terms and conditions in the promissory notes. Barkley has never initiated any litigation on his own in connection with these loans. He remains a stakeholder in the businesses at issue. In ruling for the SEC on the Barkley loans, the Court completely disregarded my authority in the corporate governance documents to borrow money from Barkley and to expend these funds for the benefit of Masada and its affiliated entities/persons. Additionally, the Court ignored the undisputed fact that Charles Barkley’s financial adviser handled the due diligence, documentation, and subsequent communications with me for each one of the loan transactions in question. Interestingly, neither the SEC, nor the Court, has ever claimed that Masada is not an ongoing international business enterprise, or that Barkley has lost any money in connection with this waste-to-energy venture. In fact, Barkley increased his economic interest in the company by making the loans. To project a false appearance that the Barkley loan proceeds were used for personal expenses, the Court cited a couple of transactions involving payments to my ex-wife and ex-girlfriend from the Barkley loans. In these transactions, the Court completely ignored the undisputed facts that: (a) my ex-wife is a Masada creditor who is entitled to periodic repayments; (b) my ex-girlfriend was a Masada vendor whose residence was used to house Masada executives, strategic partners, and business associates from around the United States while they worked in Atlanta for the company; (c) the Masada Operating Agreement authorized me to make payments to creditors and vendors in the regular course of business, including those individuals with whom I had a personal relationship; and (d) Barkley received the increased economic participation that he requested in exchange for making the loans (which said increase he retains to this day). Every transaction cited by the judge in the “gift” ruling was specifically authorized in the Masada Operating Agreement. In his 2007 economic participation agreement, Charles Barkley expressly agreed to honor all of the terms and conditions in the Masada Operating Agreement. For reasons that cannot be explained by the undisputed evidence in the case, the judge freed Barkley from this commitment. Legal observers are stunned that the SEC has spent the kind of time, money, and resources it has devoted to this case. The lawsuit has now boiled down to $2.1 million in loan transactions between a private company and one of its longtime stakeholders. At this juncture, the Commission has turned itself into a loan collection agency for Charles Barkley. During the past four years, the SEC has spent more money in developing and pursuing this lawsuit than the face amount of the Barkley loans. This case demonstrates the power of "runaway" federal officials. They can and do abuse their power when other agendas are in play. PHOTO: The Securities and Exchange Commission's Emblem.