By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 17, 2024 Years ago, I learned about a young boy in Jamaica and three young boys in Atlanta who wanted to become airline pilots. They were between 10 and 12 years of age. All four of these boys were from impoverished backgrounds. Each one was teased and ostracized by the children in his neighborhood for dreaming what they were told was an “impossible dream.” At the time, I owned a CJ1 Citation jet. My chief pilot was Jamie Grant, who is the best pilot I know. Jamie and I flew all over the world together. When we flew to Jamaica, I asked Jamie to take the Jamaican kid up in the airplane and teach him how the fly. I wanted him to get the feel and experience of flying a jet. He flew it and flew it well. We did the same thing with the three boys in Atlanta. Jamie gave each boy his own set of pilot wings after he successfully flew the jet. They were extremely proud of themselves. Jamie and I were proud of them, as well! Today, each one of these four boys is a licensed pilot and all of them fly commercial jet airliners. This is why I say, “If you can see it, you can be it."

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 27, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Last Thursday, Marilyn J. Mosby, the former State's Attorney for Baltimore, Maryland, was sentenced to 12 months of home confinement, 100 hours of community service, and three years of supervised release following her conviction on bogus perjury and mortgage fraud charges. Mosby’s supporters view her sentence as some sort of victory.  I view it as a catastrophic failure of justice. For the reasons set forth in this article, Mosby should have been admitted into the federal pretrial diversion program in Baltimore on the front-end of this case. Following her completion of the program, the charges against Mosby should have been dismissed. Mosby qualified for the federal pretrial diversion program, as outlined in Justice Manual, §9-22.100.  Her alleged offenses did NOT involve: (a) the sexual abuse of a child or adult, (b) bodily injury to any victim, or economic harm to any victim, (c) brandishing or using a firearm in the commission of another crime, (d) a violation of the public trust, (e) a breach of national security or an act of terrorism, and (f) her participation in a large-scale criminal enterprise. Nowhere in the government’s 17-page indictment does it allege that Mosby committed a breach of the public trust.  No taxpayer money was involved in Mosby’s case.  Prosecutors conceded that there were no “victims” in the case.  Even though Mosby was a public official at the times referenced in the indictment, prosecutors did not allege that she was acting in her official capacity with respect to any offense listed in the indictment. Similarly situated white offenders with these facts are admitted to federal and state pretrial diversion programs across the nation all day long.  Their cases are dismissed after they complete the program. I presented specific cases evidencing this preferential treatment in my March 22, 2024, article titled, “Unequal Justice Flourishes Within America’s State and Federal Criminal Justice Systems.” This is the same pretrial diversion program that federal prosectuors tried to admit drug addict, gun-possessing, tax evading First Son Hunter Biden into last year in a crooked "sweetheart" plea deal that blew up under judicial scrutiny. The catastrophic failure of justice in Marilyn Mosby’s case is particularly galling because: (a) it occurred during Joe Biden’s presidency, (b) the case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron, a black Biden appointee, and (c) U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby, another black Biden appointee, was the trial judge in Mosby’s case.  None of these of these officials protected Mosby’s right to equal justice. All of them failed her. There is no excuse for the catastrophic failure of justice in Mosby's case. What Caused the Feds to Target and Prosecute Marilyn Mosby Marilyn Mosby led a very public investigation into the arrest, detention, and death of Freddie Gray. She also sought and secured indictments for murder against the police officers who arrested, detained, and killed Freddie Gray.  The ensuing criminal trials did not produce "guilty" verdicts. Yet, Mosby became a hero in Baltimore's black community for prosecuting the police officers who were responsible for Gray's death. This is rarely done. Top law enforcement officials in the Baltimore area were pissed off at Mosby for her aggressive prosecution of the police officers involved in Freddie Gray's death. At the request of Erek Barron, Marilyn Mosby was indicted by a federal grand jury for perjury and making false mortgage claims in January 2022.  She was tried in Judge Griggsby’s court. In September 2023, Mosby was convicted of perjury.  In February 2024, Mosby was convicted of mortgage fraud in a separate trial in Griggsby's courtroom. Marilyn Moseby has consistently denied any wrongdoing in her case. Yet, her innocence did not matter because the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, is infested with political operatives who favor certain special interest groups and criminal defendants while punishing others. What is worse, black elected officials in Congress and in Maryland state government were too weak and politically impotent to prevent the grave injustice that was inflicted upon Mosby in retaliation for her prosecution of the police officers who killed Freddie Gray.  Their pleas to Joe Biden for a presidential pardon have fallen on deaf ears because he does not respect them. Erek Barron and Lydia Griggsby failed Marilyn Mosby, as well.  They allowed their blackness and public offices to be used as a law enforcement platform for sanitizing the government’s disparate treatment of a modern-day COINTELPRO victim. FBI agents and federal prosecutors in Baltimore manufactured a bogus criminal case against Mosby on "bullshit" perjury and mortgage fraud charges.  Federal prosecutors in Maryland have a long, documented, and ugly history of politically-motivated prosecutions.  It is one of the few jurisdictions where a sitting U.S. Attorney (i.e., Thomas M. DiBiagio) was fired by a sitting president (i.e., George W. Bush) for engaging in such prosecutorial misconduct. Nobody in Joe Biden's Department of Justice attempted to stop the impermissible targeting and persecution of Marilyn Mosby.  From Attorney General Merrick Garland on down, they all marched in goose step to lynch her. I am NOT celebrating Marilyn Mosby’s sentence to home confinement.  I am pissed off that she did NOT get into the pretrial diversion program that Erek L. Barron routinely extends to similarly situated white first-time offenders.  As for Judge Griggsby, she could and should have dismissed Mosby's case. Failing that, Griggsby could and should have sentenced Mosby to probation only. No matters who wins the 2024 presidential election, I am committed to doing whatever is necessary, reasonable, and lawful to secure a full and unconditional pardon for Marilyn Mosby. Donald Trump's pardon of former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2017 and Bill Clinton's out-the-door pardon of wealthy fugitive Marc Rich in 2001 showed me that the President of the United States can pardon any convicted federal offender for any reason at any time. Marilyn Mosby is innocent and has been wrongfully convicted of perjury and mortgage fraud. She is a Tuskegee University graduate. I will NOT abandon her.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 25, 2024 An Editorial Opinion On December 13, 2018, I voluntarily surrendered my U.S. passport at the federal courthouse in Birmingham as a requirement of my pretrial release on bond in a bogus criminal "fraud" case brought by local federal prosecutor Lloyd Peeples a month earlier. Peeples, the owner of a pizza store in Birmingham that failed 11 months after it opened, is well-known for his hostile views toward blacks and women. He even sports a skinhead look. Peeples' hostile and agressive actions towards me were motivated, in part, by my award-winning achievements in the field of international business. Despite being the beneficiary of Southern white male privilege since childhood, Peeples could not run a simple pizza restaurant in a successful manner. Peeples's documented history of opposing the rights of black Americans and women to participate in American society as equal citizens dates back to his tenure as a student editor of his college newspaper. For example, in a November 1994 article, Peeples railed against his university’s efforts to create “more programs and workshops about date and acquaintance rape.” He claimed that “courses on women’s studies, . . . . more aggressive hiring of female faculty and administrators, . . . . are going too far.” Peeples complained that “[t]he school should not feel that it has to provide every single thing that women and minorities claim would make them happy.” (Pages 6-7). Peeples' article accompanies an article written by Doug Burns, Ray Craig, and Jeffrey Laborde titled, “White Males: The Label, The Dilemma.” The article’s promotional tag line claimed that, “[t]he civil rights movement has gone astray and has created a very hostile environment for white males.” (Pages 15-18). Peeples' expressed hostility towards blacks and women was a major factor in his selection for a prominent supervisory role within the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama in October 2017. Aided and abetted by others federal law enforcement officials with similar regressive views, Peeples used the power of his office to disrupt my international business operations from November 2018 to August 2022.  Despite Peeples' intense efforts to undermine my ongoing international business enterprises, his attempts were ultimately unsuccessful. In one African nation where I work, Peeples and the criminal case he brought against me were viewed as a modern-day example of colonial-era white supremacy. As such, Peeples' efforts to sabotage my business in that country failed miserably. President Joe Biden has chosen to keep Lloyd Peeples as a senior federal prosecutor, despite his documented hostility towards blacks and women. Peeples, a former First Assistant U.S. Attorney, currently serves as the head of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham. What is more, President Biden also retained Peeples' boss -- Donald Trump-appointed Republican U.S. Attorney Prim Escalona. This move keeps Trump-era federal law enforcement policies in place in the Northern District of Alabama. After a two-year quest to regain my passport and right to travel around the world, I finally received my new U.S. passport yesterday.  I am ready, willing, and able to resume my international business travels.  Although Lloyd Peeples' racial hatred was meant to hurt me, it only made me stronger. This is an exciting time to be working in the international energy business.  I look forward to rejoining my business partners in South Africa, Namibia, and Morrocco on my first business trip.  But first, I plan to visit my son and life-coach, Light Watkins, in Mexico. No matter what naysayers may say about you, always remember this truism: God is a Way-Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise-Keeper, and Light in the Darkness. With God in your life, all things are possible.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 25, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Obeying court orders is something ordinary Americans willingly do every day.  After all, we strive to be members of a law and order society. Yet, obedience to court orders means nothing to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his massive army of MAGA patriots.  Likewise, obedience to court orders issued by international courts means nothing to President Joe Biden and his Democratic lackeys. There is not a dime’s worth of difference between the Trump and Biden political tribes when it comes to obeying court orders.  If they like a particular defendant, they say, “fuck the courts.”  If they dislike a defendant, they praise the court orders against him/her/it. This brand of tribal hypocrisy best describes each group’s situational reverence to the rule of law. In my view, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are devoid of a moral compass.  Because Biden is obviously senile, he may not have any compass at all. When it comes to the topic of Israel's campaign of genocide in Gaza, please remember these important historical facts: 1. The United States government and its armed forces subjected 55 million Native Americans to genocide in the pursuit of Manifest Destiny and Indian Removals during the 1700s and 1800s. 2. The United States permitted its colonies and states to subject hundreds of thousands of non-compliant African slaves to genocide over a period of three hundred years. Legal and political systems were created to codify the authority for this genocide.  Nearly two million African slaves died during the Atlantic Slave Trade’s barbaric Middle Passage across the ocean. 3. The United States did not enter World War II to save Polish and German Jews, Gypsies, Gay and Lesbian Germans, Physically Disabled Germans, and Black Germans from Adolf Hitler’s holocaust.  America knew about the holocaust (which began in 1933 and ended in 1945), but did not care enough about the plight of six million holocaust victims to stop it.  America only entered the World War II in response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. 4. Today, political campaign cash and endorsements from Jewish political action committees have made Republican and Democratic politicians alike blind to Israel’s campaign of genocide in Gaza. 5. The only nation that went to the International Court of Justice to stop Israel’s genocide against innocent Palestinians is South Africa.  On Friday, the Court ordered Israel to halt its campaign of genocide in Rafah.  Israel has refused to do so. Biden is supporting Israel's defiance of this court order. 6. Earlier this week, the International Criminal Court began the process of seeking arrest warrants for Hamas and Israeli war criminals.  Biden is opposed to the arrest of Israeli war criminals Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. Once again, the United States government is aiding and abetting genocide.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 24, 2024 Setting and pursing family goals is critical to success in life.  Goal setting ensures the growth and sustainability of each generation of a family. In the Carmichael/Varnado/Watkins family, we have practiced goal setting for six generations.  It has guided our family’s destiny in America since the 1830s.  Goal setting is instilled in every generation. These are the family goals we have already achieved: 1. We have fully documented the Carmichael/Varnado/Watkins family history in America dating back to the 1830s.  This history is taught to every generation of family members. 2. On the Carmichael/Varnado side of the family, every direct family member has attained a college education since slavery ended in America in 1865. 3. Family members in the South registered to vote and voted in elections long before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. They overcame every racial barrier that was erected to prevent them from voting. 4. Family members in the South desegregated institutions of higher education in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. 5. We have established and funded academic scholarships at more than six colleges and universities in the United States. 6. We have invented numerous devices, procedures, and algorithms that are in daily use in medicine and business today. 7. We have established a strong and growing presence in international business. 8. We have provided lifecare in medicine for more than three million people worldwide. 9. We have established and operated multimedia news organizations since 1935. 10. We have headed and accredited many colleges, universities, and public schools. 11. We have pioneered in the civil and women’s rights movements in America. 12. Since 1865, we have always stood up for the “least of these, my brethren,” without hesitation or reservation. These are the family goals currently being worked on: 1. We are working to acquire and own a National Football League team. 2. We are working to executive produce documentary films on important matters of significant public interests to humanity. 3. We are striving to win the first-ever Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physics that are awarded to African Americans. We are truly a blessed family and we have always shared our blessings with the rest of humanity.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 20, 2024 Today, we learned from President Joe Biden that war criminals fall into two categories -- the “good” ones that America likes and the “bad” ones we don't like. In the feature photo above, the United States government likes the war criminals on the right -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Our government does not like the three "bad" war criminals on the left -- Yahya Sinwar (Head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) in the Gaza Strip), Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, more commonly known as DEIF (Commander-in-Chief of the military wing of Hamas, known as the Al-Qassam Brigades), and Ismail Haniyeh (Head of Hamas Political Bureau). The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for all five war criminals.  Prosecutors found reasonable cause that these five men committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the territory of Israel and the State of Palestine (in the Gaza strip) from October 7, 2023, forward. What is more, our government does not like Russian President Vladimir Putin. He committed war crimes in Ukraine that are are similar in sacle and scope to Natanyahu’s war crimes in Gaza. It seems that the only difference between a "good" war criminal and "bad" one is whether the criminal's American friends and allies have made substantial cash campaign contributions to politicians, from Joe Biden on down. Money is not the root of all problems, but it does seem to erase all morale principles held by American politicians regardless of party affiliation. I strongly condemn all war criminals, without exception.   For me, there is no such thing as a “good” war criminal, especially when these bastards have murdered more than 9,000 Palestinian babies, infants, and children! This category of deaths, alone, is more than three times the number of Americans killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 23, 2024 An Editorial Opinion All week, I have watched President Joe Biden attack Karim Asad Ahmad Kahn, the lead prosecutor for International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Netherlands. Kahn is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for their war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza since October 7, 2023. Kahn is also seeking arrest warrant for Yahya Sinwar (Head of the Islamic Resistance Movement (“Hamas”) in the Gaza Strip, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, more commonly known as DEIF (Commander-in-Chief of the military wing of Hamas, known as the Al-Qassam Brigades), and Ismail Haniyeh (Head of Hamas Political Bureau).. Is Joe Biden's rejection of criminal justice for Netanyahu similar to Donald Trump's attacks on state and federal prosecutors and courts in his four criminal cases? The answer is, "Yes." Donald Trump inspired, aided, and abetted an insurrection against the American government on January 6, 2021.  Joe Biden is aiding and abetting two Israeli war criminals – Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant – who are slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza. Donald Trump is criticizing state and federal prosecutors in Manhattan, Miami, Washington, and Atlanta for carrying out their sworn duties as law enforcement officials. In a similar vein, Joe Biden is openly attacking the actions of prosecutors at the ICC for diligently prosecuting the four Hamas and Israeli war criminals depicted below impartially and without bias. (A third ICC-designated Hamas war criminal is not shown in this photo.) Donald Trump justifies and condones the actions of his MAGA insurrectionists/patriots. Joe Biden supports and defends Netanyahu and Gallant, despite their war crimes and crimes against humanity. Donald Trumo and Joe Biden are fine with ICC arrest warrants for Muslim and African war criminals, as long as they are not U.S. allies. Trump does not view Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, while Biden does. Donald Trump maintains his innocence and says he has done nothing wrong in his criminal cases.  If he wins the presidency, Trump claims he will pardon the insurrectionists/patriots on day-oneof his presidency. In contrast, Joe Biden released a State Department report acknowledging that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Yet, Biden does not want Netanyahu and Gallant tried and punished in accordance with international laws. Donald Trump and Joe Biden hold the view that American allies who engage in acts of murder, torture, and physical abuse against innocent civilians during wartime are "good people" who should be exempt from accountability for their wartime criminal actions. I do NOT hold this view. For campaign cash and political endorsements from powerful Jewish political action committees, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are willing to overlook the undisputed fact that Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant have killed over 9,000 Palestinian infants, babies, and children in Palestine since October 7, 2023.  This grim death toll is more than three times the total number of Americans who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. After I became old enough to comprehend the events leading up to the post-World War II Nuremberg trials in Germany, I understood that there is no such thing as a “good” war criminal. The deliberate extermination of tens of thousands of innocent infants, babies, children, women, and men from any ethnic group during wartime is NOT okay with me. Money cannot extinguish my conscience or make me blind to genocide. I repudiate and denounce all war criminals, without exception. No war criminal can be my friend, ever!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 21, 2024 An Editorial Opinion As things stand today, Democrats will lose the 2024 presidential election in a spectacular fashion.  They have welded themselves to Joe Biden, a presidential nominee who is old, senile, weak, and ineffective. Biden's political shelf-life has expired, but Democrats are peddling this brand of stale package of presidential leadership anyway. Independents are NOT buying it. What is worse, Joe Biden is giving aid and comfort to two Israeli war criminals – Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant – just to get campaign money from Jewish political action committees in America.  These Israeli war criminals have killed 9,000 Palestinian infants, babies, and children in Gaza since October 7, 2023.  This death toll is more than three times the total number of Americans who died in the horrific 9/11 terrorist attacks. For reasons my circle of independent voters/influencers and I do not understand, Democrats do not have the foresight or courage to dump Biden during their August 19-24, 2024 convention and draft a new presidential nominee who can defeat Donald Trump. We don’t know who is running the Democratic Party or the White House, but we know that it is not Joe Biden. Some say it is Barack Obama. We firmly reject this claim as "bullshit." Donald Trump is NOT a Viable Option Donald Trump is NOT the answer, either.  He is a special brand of political evil.  Trump has single-handedly destroyed the traditional Republican Party. Whatever political principles the GOP had in the past have melted away. Today, the GOP functions much like Kim Jong Un's ruling Party in North Korean. What once was a proud and respected mainstream Republican Party has transmogrified itself into a frightening MAGA cult that closely resembles Jim Jones' Peoples Temple cult in Jonestown, Gayana in 1978. Like Jim Jones, MAGA even has its own Trump-marketed version of the Bible. Exploring Third-Party Options My circle of independent voters/influencers and I are exploring third-party options.  We are NOT drinking Joe Biden’s or Donald Trump’s Kool-Aid. Each one is laced with a different kind of political poison. We are NOT hugging and kissing war criminals, either. There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" war criminal. All of them are despicable human beings who must be reputiated. The American people are so much better than these two deeply flawed presidential nominees. We deserve much better political choices for president. The only major political party that is still capable of giving us a better choice prior to the 2024 presidential election is the Democratic Party, but they must dump Joe Biden first. If the Democratic Party dumps Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in August, my circle of independent voters/influencers across America will revisit the option to channel $50 to $75 million in financial and GOTV support to a replacement Democratic presidential nominee.  If not, America should prepare itself for the return of an angry, mean-spirited, vindictive Donald Trump to the presidency.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 18, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Sean “Diddy” Combs’ violent 2016 beating of CassieVentura, his former girlfriend, at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City in Los Angeles is horrific, sickening, and inexcusable.  The beating was captured on the hotel’s security cameras from multiple angles. The video was suppressed from public view for 8 years because Diddy allegedly paid the hotel $50,000 to obtain the footage immediately after the incident occurred. Yesterday, CNN released the horrific video. Viewer discretion is advised. The hotel failed to report this violent assault to Los Angeles police, even though Ventura is seen talking to the hotel's front desk from the lobby phone on her floor immediately after Diddy's violent attack on her. Diddy has denied engaging in the violent assault on Ventura, as depicted on the video. No one has challenged the authenticity of the video. Black "Celebrity" Privilege If a white police officer was seen on video beating, kicking, and dragging Cassie Ventura, Rev. Al Sharpton, Attorney Ben Crump, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and a host of other Black Lives Matter activists would be all over TV condemning this senseless and violent abuse of a defenseless female victim. With tears in his eyes, Attorney General Merrick Garland would be announcing a federal criminal investigation into the incident as part of a Department of Justice effort to calm the nation. President Joe Biden would invite Ventura, Sharpton, and Crump to the White House to publicly console Ventura and her family. Because Ventura's beating was administered by Diddy, these traditional protectors of female victims of physical abuse are profoundly silent.  To me, their loud silence regarding Diddy’s violent attack on Ventura is more sickening than the beating itself. Their collective silence amounts to hypocrisy on steroids. Condemnation of Diddy’s Violent Attack I strongly condemn Diddy’s violent attack on Ventura.  I have zero tolerance for the physical, sexual, and/or the emotional abuse of women, children, and the elderly.  I do not recognize any “celebrity” exception to this viewpoint. Diddy is lucky that Ventura is not related to a person who practices the administeration of private justice whenever there is a failure of the public justice system.  The administration of private justice is often swift, effective, and impactful.  The outcome in private justice cases is not influenced by judicial philosophy, the backbone of a prosecutor (or lack thereof), courthouse politics, political party affiliation, or campaign contributions to judges. Regardless, Diddy can expect to see this horrific video again in a courtroom if Merrick Garland has the balls to indict him on federal conspiracy, racketeering, sex trafficking, drug dealing, money laundering, witness tampering, and related offenses.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 12, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Florida A&M University (FAMU) thought it had hit the jackpot when The Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust donated $237 million in Batterson Farms Corp. shares of private stock to the university last month.  The “Gift Agreement” between FAMU and the Trust was publicly announced at the university’s commencement ceremony a week ago. A copy of the Agreement may be viewed here. FAMU President Larry Robinson signed the Agreement for the FAMU Foundation (for the benefit of FAMU). Gregory Gerami signed the Agreement for the “Gregory Gerami Family Foundation,” which is not a named party to the Agreement.  It appears that nobody signed the Agreement for The Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust, even though the Agreement says Gerami represents the Trust. The entire transaction is likely a tax fraud scam (in progress) that works as follows: 1. The scammer targets a financially unsophisticated university that unwittingly aids and abets his/her tax fraud scam. 2. The scammer makes a donation of millions of shares of stock in a private company to the targeted university. 3. The university is required to provide the donor with a completed IRS Form 8283 for “Noncash Charitable Contributions” that acknowledges its receipt of the "gift" and complies with the applicable instructions for this tax form. 4. Section B of the Form 8283 requires the donor to provide detailed information on the donated property, including: (a) the date it was acquired by the donor, (b) how it was acquired by the donor, (c) the donor’s cost or adjusted basis in the property conveyed, (d) the amount claimed for this charitable deduction, and (e) other relevant information. 5. The scammer is required to get a qualified and capable appraiser to sign the "Declaration of Appraiser" section of the Form 8283.  This declaration states as follows: "I understand that a false or fraudulent overstatement of the property value as described in the qualified appraisal . . . . may subject me to the penalty under section 6701(a) (aiding and abetting the understatement of tax liability) . . . .". 6. Once the "Declaration of Appraisal" has been signed, the university must formally acknowledge and attest to its receipt of the noncash charitable contribution. It is not known whether The Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust, Gregory Gerami, and FAMU completed an IRS Form 8283 for this $237 million "gift" or whether FAMU even submitted a completed and properly signed Form to the Trust. Likewise, it is not known who, if anyone, appraised the fair market value of the "gifted" stock in Batterson Farms at $237 million for the purpose of completing the required Form 8283. If The Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust and/or Gregory Gerami obtained actual possession of a completed and properly signed Form 8283 from FAMU, then this tax document could provide the Trust with ostensible evidence that 14 million shares of Batterson Farms Corp. stock held by the Trust had $237 million in phantom value. Armed with a completed Form 8283 that is signed by FAMU, The Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust, Batterson Farms Corp., and/or Gregory Gerami could use this IRS "gifting" document to generate, derive, facilitate, and extract tangible economic value for themselves from their ownership of the remaining shares in Batterson Farms by engaging in a variety of multimillion dollar transactions. It is not clear who concocted this suspicious tax scheme for The Isaac Batterson Family 7th Trust, Batterson Farms Corp., and Gregory Gerami, but it almost succeeded. FAMU's gross negligence aided and abetted the scheme. Only intense media scrutiny stopped the scheme from succeeding. It is clear that FAMU's due diligence on this $237 million "gifting" transaction was woefully inadequate. Furthermore, whoever signed the "Declaration of Appraiser" section of the Form 8283 (if it was signed) is in big trouble. It is highly unlikely that Batterson Farms Corp., could have generated anything close to $237 million in legitimate shareholder value by the time the "gift" was made to FAMU in April. After all, Batterson Farms is a small business that began farming operations in 2020 during the onset of the two-year-long COVID-19 pandemic. Sources close to this situation expect a federal criminal tax fraud probe into this $237 million "gifting" transaction. Finally, on September 18, 2023, the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture declared that FAMU was owed more than $1.9 billion by the state of Florida because of systemic underfunding over the last 30 years.  The FAMU officials who facilitated Gregory Gerami’s highly suspicious "gifting" scheme have made no effort to collect payment from the state on this legitimate $1.9 billion debt.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 18, 2024 An Editorial Opinion It takes five minutes to read the amateurish April 26, 2024, non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that Gregory Gerami used in connection with his "gift" of $237 million in shares of Batterson Farms Corp. stock to the Florida A&M University Foundation. The "gift" was announced with much fanfare at FAMU's May 4, 2024, Commencement. The NDA was publicly released yesterday.  [Click here to read the full NDA]. The First Red Flag The first red flag concerning the NDA is found on the second line of the first paragraph.  There is no full physical address listed in the NDA for Gregory Gerami or Batterson Farms, which are referenced as the “Disclosing Party.”  There is a full street and city address listed for the Foundation, which is referenced as the “Receiving Party.” Section 8 of the NDA imposes mandatory obligations on the Foundation to “notify the Disclosing Party immediately upon discovery of, or suspicion of, (1) any unauthorized use or disclosure of Confidential Information by Receiving Party or its Representatives; or (2) any actions by Receiving Party or its Representatives inconsistent with their respective obligations under this Agreement.” How would Foundation officials “notify” the donor of a Section 8 breach of the Agreement when the NDA, itself, provides no full address for doing so? If emailing was an acceptable way to notifiy the donor of a breach of the NDA it would have been stated as such in the NDA. The Second Red Flag The second and most glaring red flag is found in the last sentence of the NDA’s second paragraph.  This sentence states: “The Parties are aware that the Receiving Party is a Direct Support organization, as set forth in Section 1004.28, Florida Statutes, and is bound by the requirements of confidentiality set forth in Section 1004.28 (5) Florida Statutes.” Here is Section 1004.28(5) of the Florida Statutes. Subsection 5(a) is what matters: As specified in Subsection (5)(a), donor anonymity (when requested) is limited to the non-disclosure of the donor's "identity" in FAMU's publicly available annual audit reports. Nothing in the statute prohibited any Foundation official from discussing Batterson Farms' “gift” with the Foundation's board of directors or the FAMU’s board of trustees at any time. Furthermore, Section 1(b) of the NDA expressly authorized the Foundation to disclose information that is “required to be disclosed by law or regulation.” As the “Receiving Party” and a public charity, the Foundation had a legal duty to issue Batterson Farms Corp. a fully competed and properly signed IRS Form 8283 for its $237 million “gift.”  The Form 8283 for Batterson Farms' publicly annnounced "gift" is information that would normally be reported on the Foundations IRS Form 990 for Tax Year 2024. All Form 990s are public records. Based upon the plain language of the NDA, information about Batterson Farms’ act of "gifting" $237 million shares of stock in the company to the Foundation never fell into any zone of confidential information.  It could and should have been shared with the Foundation’s board of directors and FAMU’s board of trustees, from conception to completion. This did not happen. The Third Red Flag The NDA has numerous typographical errors.  This is the third red flag. It is obvious that a layperson prepared the NDA using a legal documents template from an Internet site like LegalZoom.com, or RocketLawyer.com, or ChatGPT for Legal Documents. It also appears that no qualified and capable attorney for the Foundation or FAMU board of trustees reviewed the NDA before it was signed by the Foundation's Executive Director -- who resigned this past week. For all practical purposes, Gerami's purported NDA is a worthless piece of paper. Epilogue By law, the Foundation's board of directors is the corporate body for this charitable entity.  Likewise, FAMU's board of trustees is the corporate body for the University. Any NDA that purports to restrict or exclude the members of these two FAMU-related governing boards from obtaining prior knowledge of, or information about, a “gift” to the Foundation lacks validity and is NOT binding or enforceable. Finally, the $237 million Batterson Farms “gift” was an interstate scam (in process).  FAMU and the Foundation should immediately report this scam to federal law enforcement officials in Tallahassee for investigation and prosecution, if warranted.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 17, 2024 An Editorial Opinion The street gangs, drug dealers, and career criminals who control the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, have now found powerful new allies in the international drug trafficking and national street gang world. They have aligned themselves with powerful, hardcore, extremely violent international drug cartel kinpins and national street gang leaders. Inside the growing underworld of international drug cartels and national street gangs, the leadership cadre of these criminal enterprises realize that Birmingham’s public safety platform has totally collapsed. Policing is crippled to the point of paralysis. Today, Birmingham has 300 fewer police officers on the streets than the 900 sworn officers authorized by, and funded in, the city’s annual budget. International drug cartels and national street gangs also know that Birmingham city officials have no effective plan to combat violent street crime. The entire city is viewed as a soft target for drug trafficking, drive-by shootings, and VICAR murders. Criminal prosecutions of street gang members and drug kingpins are virtually non-existent in Birmingham. The city’s residents are essentially unprotected from this gang violence. Birmingham’s elected officials are bossed by powerful special interest groups and corporate businesses that fund their campaigns during election season. The actions taken by these captive city officials are controlled by political forces that are beyond the reach of voters in the city. As long as the surging street violence is confined to black-on-black crime within this predominantly black and shrinking city, these special interest groups do not care about the explosion of street violence and endless stream of murder victims in Birmingham. Today, international drug kingpins and national street gangs view Birmingham as a launchpad for expanding their lucrative drug trafficking enterprises and associated gang violence to Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Mountain Brook, and other suburban communities surrounding Birmingham. Along with their planned expansion of drug trafficking territories will come a surge in violent carjackings, VICAR murders, witness tampering, armed robberies, and mass shootings in what used to be considered “safe” suburban neighborhoods. Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Mountain Brook, and other suburban communities must brace themselves for an invasion of gang-related racketeering activities, drug trafficking, and street violence perpetrated by international drug cartels and national street gangs on a scale they have never seen before. From a law enforcement standpoint, the Birmingham-metro area is not prepared today for the scale and scope of the invasion of drug trafficking, gang-related activities, and violent crimes that these sophisticated international and national criminal enterprises have in mind. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in Jefferson County, Alabama simply do not have the experience or expertise to effectively combat hardcore international criminal enterprises. Historically, law enforcement agencies in Alabama have used their resources to further ultra-conservative political agendas in the state that disadvantaged women, poor people, and blacks, from the "cradle to the grave." Combatting serious crime was a secondary function. The war zone of violent criminal activity that is known today as "Birmingham, Alabama" will spread to metro-Birmingham and its surrounding suburbs fairly soon. The strategic alliance between international drug cartels, national street gangs, and local Birmingham gangs has already been made. The execution of this territorial expansion will be swift and violent. Prison sentences and death on the streets mean nothing to these hardcore criminals. In fact, the leaders of these cartels and gangs often run their criminal enterprises from prison. Much of the expected surge in violent crime in the metro-Birmingham area will be driven primarily by the trafficking of the potent synthetic opioid known as Fentanyl. The target market for today's Fentanyl sales is suburban Birmingham. The collapse of policing in Birmingham has paved the way for the easy expansion of Fentanyl trafficking into the suburbs. There is not a federal, state, or local prosecutor in Birmingham who is qualified and capable of defeating these international and national criminal enterprises. Local law enforcement agencies can barely handle run-of-the-mill street crimes like shoplifting, burglary, drug possession offenses, assault and battery, public corruption, homicides, and low-impact white-collar offenses. Prim F. Escalona, the U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, is a Donald Trump-holdover who has zero experience prosecuting criminal cases. No hardcore, violent, street criminal fears her. Danny Carr, the District Attorney for Jefferson County, spends nearly all of his time giving speeches, accepting awards from community groups, and taking photos for social media. Violent street criminals pay absolutely no attention to him. Steve Marshall, Alabama’s Attorney General, spends his waning days in office trying to score cheap political points with the state's MAGA crowd, often on the backs of women, poor people, and blacks in the state. Marshall does not have the time, interest, ability, or courage to combat and defeat international drug kingpins and national street gangs. We can usually find Steve Marshall in the entourage of supporters that attends the out-of-state criminal trials of high-profile Republican defendants. The deluge of violence in the streets of Birmingham will also flood the streets of Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Hoover, Mountain Brook, and other suburbs over the next few years. Suburban homeowners must get ready for it, along with the attendant devaluation of their property values as a result of this out-of-control and extremely violent criminal activity.