By: Donald V. Watkins April 9, 2023 An Editorial Opinion On March 22, 2023, I introduced my readers to James Y. (Jim) Kerr, II. From 2014 to March 31, 2023, Kerr served in four executive capacities at the Southern Company in Atlanta, Georgia: (a) executive vice president, (b) chief legal officer, (c) chief compliance officer, and (d) chief of staff for Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning -- all at the same time. During this nine-year period, Kerr's four job titles and responsibilities effectively made him the “de facto" CEO of the Southern Company. As the chief legal officer of the company from 2014 to March 31, 2023, Kerr led the Office of the General Counsel, which includes the company’s legal, corporate governance, audit, and compliance functions. Kerr's job was to make sure that the Southern Company maintained full compliance with all federal, state, and local laws and industry regulations. As general counsel and chief compliance officer, Jim Kerr reviewed Southern Company regulatory filings like the Form 10-K for 2022 that was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 15, 2023 and served upon various state of Georgia regulatory agencies. Each year, from 2014 to March 31st of this year, Jim Kerr conducted the final review of the company's Form 10-Ks before they were filed with the SEC and provided to state agencies. Jim Kerr also reviewed the Sarbanes-Oxley certifications on the Form 10-K for 2022 (and prior years dating back to 2017) signed by the following company executives: (a) Thomas A. Fanning (CEO) and Daniel S. Tucker (CFO), for the Southern Company; (b) J. Jeffrey Peoples (CEO) and Philip C. Raymond (CFO), for Alabama Power Company; (c) Christopher C. Womack (CEO) and Aaron P. Abramovitz (CFO), for Georgia Power Company; (d) Anthony L. Wilson (CEO) and Moses H. Feagin (CFO), for Mississippi Power Company; (e) Christopher Cummiskey (CEO) and Gary Kerr (CFO), for Southern Power Company; and (f) Kimberly S. Greene (CEO) and David P. Poroch (CFO), for Southern Gas Company. At the time of his review, Kerr knew that various state of Georgia agencies would rely upon the accuracy of the information contained in the Form 10-K for 2022 (and prior years dating back to 2017) to make administrative and regulatory decisions in the best interest of the people of Georgia. As discussed below, the 10-K for 2022 (and prior years dating back to 2017) did not present a fair and accurate picture of the Southern Company's true financial condition. Yet, Kerr advised the individuals who served as the CEO and CFO of the Southern Company and its affiliates, from 2017 to March 31st of this year, to sign the fraudulent financial statements anyway. The Southern Company Got a "Twofer" in Donald M. James Donald M. James is a Southern Company board member, a position he has held since 1999. James served on the Southern Company’s Audit Committee during the period when the company conceived, orchestrated, and perpetrated the massive $27 billion accounting fraud scheme discussed below. James is also a member of the Wells Fargo Bank board of directors, a position he has held since 2000. As a Wells Fargo board member, James and his fellow board members oversaw the bank’s violation of 230 major criminal and civil laws since 2000. Wells Fargo has paid nearly $25.8 billion in fines and penalties because of lax oversight by the bank's its board of directors. In February of 2020, alone, Wells Fargo Bank paid $3 billion in fines and penalties to settle criminal and civil investigations for opening up two million bank accounts without authorization from its customers. This particular crime spree was nationwide in scope and ran from 2002 to 2016. Every presidential administration from George W. Bush to Joe Biden has placed Wells Fargo in the U.S. Department of Justice's "too big to prosecute" program, despite its unrelenting, decades-long crime spree. No CEO, CFO, or board member at Wells Fargo has ever gone to jail for these crimes. Thanks to Donald James leadership on the bank's board of directors, Wells Fargo now holds the record for the longest documented crime spree in the United States. With his service on the Southern Company board, James has the added distinction of presiding over the largest accounting fraud scheme perpetrated by a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company -- $27 billion. The Southern Company got a real "twofer"in Donald James. This power-player has more than 20 years experience in overseeing corporate criminal enterprises at the Southern Company and Wells Fargo Bank. The Southern Company’s Fraud Scheme Duped Georgia State Agencies As discussed in an April 2, 2023, article titled, “Southern Company Fraud Scheme: Is This the Resurrection of Bernie Madoff,” and a March 31, 2023, article titled, “How the Southern Company Cooked the Books in a Massive $27 Billion Accounting Fraud Scheme,” Jim Kerr used his four official executive positions at the Southern Company to run a massive $27 billion fraud scheme right under the nose of Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis. Ms. Willis is a seasoned district attorney with a proven track record of fighting crime -- all crimes. Willis does not have one standard for prosecuting street crimes and another separate, more lenient "forgiveness" standard for prosecuting crimes committed by top executives and board members of giant corporations. Ms. Willis is best known around the nation for leading the voter fraud investigation of Donald Trump's phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in search of 11,780 votes after Trump's defeat in Georgia during the 2020 election. At the Southern Company, Jim Kerr enjoyed the unqualified support of board member Donald James (and a couple of others) throughout the fraud period. Both men are lawyers and close friends. From 2017 to the present, the Southern Company faked the appearance of profitability to pump up stock prices, secure new investors, and obtain additional debt and credit facilities. Additionally, regular shareholder dividends were paid out of borrowed money, rather than retained earnings. In his position as chief of staff, Kerr helped Southern Company chairman and CEO Tom Fanning sneak the accounting fraud pass the board’s Audit Committee and a majority of the company's board of directors without close scrutiny. "Insiders" have identified Donald James as a key participant in helping Jim Kerr get the fraud scheme approved by the board of directors. A Bond of Racial Hostility to Blacks A secret tape recording made during a 2018 phone conversation between Jim Kerr and Kevin B. “K.B.” Forbes, the chief executive officer of CDLU, established that Kerr is a closet racist. Kerr smiles in the faces of black Southern Company executives, employees, and board members, while defiantly refusing to acknowledge and condemn environmental racism against the company's black customers when concrete examples of such racism were brought to his direct attention. Kerr’s unreformed racism is documented in a March 24, 2023, article titled, “Jim Kerr, Southern Company’s Top Lawyer & Chief of Staff, Exposed.” Kerr became the CEO and President of Southern Gas Company on March 31st. Ironically, the Southern Gas Company has a heavy black presence in its workforce. Word of Kerr’s flaming racism preceded his appearance in this new job. As a result, Kerr’s reception at the company has been a bit frosty. Donald James is the retired Chairman and CEO of Vulcan Materials Company, a construction materials company located in Birmingham, Alabama. He joined Vulcan Materials in 1992 and progressed through a variety of management positions at Vulcan Materials before he was named chief executive officer in 1996 and chairman in 1997, positions he held until July of 2014 and December of 2015, respectively. James’ track record of supporting workforce diversity at Vulcan Materials was abysmal. What is worse, James’ negative attitude towards black Southern Company customers (and others) in Birmingham matches or exceeds Kerr’s. Let the Prosecutorial Chips Fall Where They May District Attorney Fani Willis has the prosecutorial skills and courage needed to properly investigate and clean up the fraud and corruption at the Southern Company. Unlike many prosecutors on the scene today, Fani Willis cannot be "bought off" with campaign contributions. What is more, Fani Willis' integrity is impeccable. Ms. Willis has jurisdiction over the litany of state law crimes that were committed by Southern Company executives and a few board members during the company's long-running accounting fraud scheme. Ms. Willis should start with a grand jury probe into the conduct of Jim Kerr, Donald James, and the accounting fraud shenanigans at the Southern Company. The grand jury might want to take a close look at the roles played in this criminal enterprise by board members Kristine L. Svinicki and David J. Grain, as well. After that, let the chips fall where they may.

By: Donald V. Watkins April 10, 2023 An Editorial Opinion The Southern Company is a leading energy company serving nine million customers through its affiliates and subsidiaries. The company provides energy through electric operating companies in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and natural gas distribution companies in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama. The black population in the states serviced by the Southern Company is as follows: Mississippi (37%), Georgia (33%), Alabama (27%), Virginia (20%), Tennessee (17%), and Illinois (14%). Based upon population data and customer usage factors, the black percentage of the nine million customers serviced by Southern Company’s three electric companies and four natural gas companies ranges from an estimated low of 25% to a high of 30%. According to the Southern Company’s Form 10-K for 2022, the company and its regulated affiliates (i.e., Alabama Power Company, Georgia Power Company, Mississippi Power Company, Southern Power Company, and Southern Gas Company) generated $59 billion in operating revenues in 2022. The "cash cows"within the Southern Company system are: (a) the Southern Company, with $29.3 billion in revenues, (b) Georgia Power Company with $11.6 billion in revenues, and (c) Alabama Power Company with $7.8 billion. Of the $59 billion in operating revenues for 2022, an estimated $15 billion, or 25% percent, came from black customers in the Southern Company's six-state service area. In 2021, Southern Company customers in Georgia paid electric bills averaging $134.11 per month. Customers in Mississippi paid electric bills averaging $135.31 per month. Alabama Power’s customers made payments averaging $147.75 per month, according to the most recent available data. Furthermore, Alabama taxpayers guarantee Alabama Power a five percent minimum annual return on the company’s equity. If there is a shortfall in this guaranteed minimum return on equity, taxpayers must make up the difference. Alabama is the only state in the nation that provides a taxpayer guaranteed minimum rate of return on its equity for Alabama Power. When it comes to ripping off its nine million customers, the Southern Company is colorblind. The Southern Company adheres to this cardinal rule: If an electric or gas customer does not pay his/her/its electric or gas bill, the company disconnects the customer from the power grid or gas line. This rule is particularly hard for poor blacks and whites living in the company's six-state service area. The black poverty rates in these states are: Alabama (42%), Mississippi (30.8%), Georgia (21.5%), Virginia (20%), Tennessee (18.8%), and Illinois (17.4%). So, what did the Southern Company do with the $15 billion the company collected from its black customers in 2022? A troubling part of the answer is hiding in plain sight in the 10-K section that discusses the Southern Power Company. Southern Power Funds Scores of White-Owned Private Businesses Southern Power acquires, owns, develops, and manages power generation assets, including renewable energy projects, and it sells electricity in the wholesale market to various electric cooperatives. Southern Power also invests in a lot of companies that have nothing to do with power generation, with the goal of acquiring, growing, and selling its ownership stake in them at a future date for a big cash-out. In other words, Southern Power functions in a venture capitalist role by providing direct cash investment money to startups and existing businesses that have the potential of economically benefitting the Southern Company and its affiliates. See.10-K, at pp. II-106 to 111. Southern Power's business activities are not subject to traditional state regulation like the traditional electric operating companies. This is where, how, and why the Southern Company's black customers get screwed – royally screwed! In 2022, alone, Southern Power used part of the estimated $15 billion that black customers paid to the Southern Company and its affiliates in power and gas bills to fund and underwrite $194 million in Southern Power investments in third-party companies for that year. In 2021, Southern Power invested $803 million in third-party companies and partnerships. In 2020, Southern Power doled out $380 million in its role as a venture capitalist. The Southern Company's 10-K for 2022 lists over 125 private companies/partnerships that received investment money from Southern Power. See, Exhibit 21(a). All of the recipients of this investment capital are white-owned companies. Some of these companies received 100% funding by Southern Power in exchange for the sole Class B shareholding position. Class B shareholding is where venture capitalists nest within small or startup companies. Class A shareholding is usually held by the entrepreneurs who started the companies that get funded. We have found no record where Southern Power made a direct cash capital investment in any black-owned business, anywhere. None. Blacks Have Been Relegated to the Charity Line For years, the Southern Company has relegated blacks to the back of the line -- the charity line -- as its primary means for reinvesting in the black community. Even then, the company and its affiliates only make token awards to black community service groups on an annual basis. On June 28, 2019, I published an article title, “Alabama Power Foundation Awards: Winners and Losers.” The article pointed out this truism (based upon the IRS Form 990 for 2017): “Alabama Power enjoys a protected monopoly status in the state’s utilities industry. Blacks in Alabama make up 26.2% of the state’s population and nearly 25% of Alabama Power Company’s retail customers. Yet, [Alabama Power Foundation] awarded less than 5% (or mere crumbs) of its direct grants to non-profit organizations that serve the needs of the black community." There has been no material change in the percentage of token gifts to blacks in Alabama since my June 28, 2019, article was published. Based upon the Form 990 for 2019 (which is the latest one publicly available), the charitable Foundations for Southern Company and its affiliates continue to hand out mere trinkets to black organizations. For example, the Southern Company Foundation, which distributed $10 million in charitable giving in 2019, blessed the Andrew J. Young Foundation with $25,000 and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights with $50,000. During the same year, the Foundation doled out $120,055 to the Auburn University Foundation, $750,000 to the Grove Park Foundation, $6.5 million to the Georgia Tech Foundation, $500,000 to the Mississippi Aquarium Foundation, $100,000 to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (which is outside of the Southern Company’s service area), and $260,475 to the University of Georgia Foundation. Georgia Power Foundation, which distributed nearly $12.5 million in charitable giving in 2019, gave the Urban League of Greater Atlanta $60,000, Clark Atlanta University, Inc., $100,000, Sexual Assault Support Center, Inc., $2,000, Spelman College $250,000, United Negro College Fund $75,000, and the Morehouse School of Medicine with $120,000. During the same year, the Foundation gave the Chattahoochee Nature Center $50,000, the Georgia Historical Society $125,000, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens $50,000, University of Georgia Foundation $250,000 (to expand the football facility) and $286,380 (for other purposes), Auburn University Foundation $27,126, Savannah Tree Foundation $10,000, Conservation Fund (to save Georgia Gopher tortoises) $5,000, the Woodruff Arts Center $525,000, Georgia Southern University $50,000, and the Georgia Tech Foundation $55,475. The donations from the Foundations affiliated with the Southern Company and its affiliates from 2013 to 2019 make one thing clear: These Foundations invest way more money in improving the living environment and ecosystems of zoo animals, various species of fish in aquariums, tortoises, trees, Georgia historians, fine arts patrons, and historically white colleges and universities than they do for improving the quality of life for the Southern Company’s black customers. For a group of utility customers that funded an estimated $15 billion of the Southern Company's consolidated operating revenues in 2022, blacks were shown absolutely no respect in regards to the company's economic empowerment initiatives and community reinvestment activities. Racism is Deeply Embedded in the Southern Company’s Corporate Culture The numbers don’t lie. The Southern Company’s racism is real. What is more, the racism is quantified in financial documents the company provided to state and federal regulatory agencies and the Internal Revenue Services (IRS). The 10-K and IRS Form 990s dating back to 2013 show a disturbing pattern of systemic racial discrimination within the Southern Company and its operations. If you follow the money, it leads to a protection of white heritage, a promotion of white economic power, and a perpetuation of white societal privilege. This is true whether the focus is on the Southern Company’s capital investments in white-owned companies or the inequitable distribution of charitable gifts on an annual basis. Black executives at the Southern Company privately tell qualified and capable black entrepreneurs that they have no power or authority to change this embedded racism. Many black executives at the company and its affiliates function like highly paid mascots who must “buck-dance” on the public stage for PR purposes. The individual who oversees all black executives in the Southern Company system is James Y. “Jim” Kerr, II. He runs the Southern Company’s plantation as the company’s “de facto” CEO. Jim Kerr is an elitist, racist tyrant who rules over Southern Company black executives and employees with a dictatorial grip. Black executives who are senior to Kerr, on paper, are treated as subordinates. They must do what Kerr tells them to do. Kerr obviously feels that he is their god and master. Jim Kerr’s sidekick is Southern Company board member Donald M. James, who comes to the table with his own checkered past. James is aided and abetted by board members Kristine L. Svinicki, who is dripping and radiating with conflicts of interest, and David J. Grain, a professional grifter who has never said a word about the Southern Company’s mistreatment of its black customers and lack of direct capital investments in black-own companies other than his own. What is worse, Kristine Svinicki is a friend and political ally of disgraced former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The former Alabama Senator threatened to shut down the U.S. Senate if President Barack Obama did not reappoint Svinicki to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012. Sessions’ hostility to blacks is well documented and cost him a federal judgeship in 1986. Even with his March 31, 2023, assignment as CEO of Southern Gas Company, Jim Kerr continues to make all major decisions for these black executives, under the guise of giving them legal advice. On March 24, 2023, Jim Kerr was exposed in a secretly recorded audiotape for the racist who he is. Everything you ever wanted to know, or didn't want to know, about Jim Kerr is revealed in, “Jim Kerr, Southern Company’s Top Lawyer & Chief of Staff Exposed.” There is Hope for Blacks, and Her Name is Fani Willis The only hope that the 2.5 million black customers of the Southern Company have for cleaning up the corruption and rooting out the racism that is embedded in the company lies with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis. She has the prosecutorial skills and courage needed to properly investigate and clean up the massive $27 billion accounting fraud scheme and racketeering enterprise operating at the Southern Company. Unlike many prosecutors and public officials on the scene today, Fani Willis cannot be "bought off" with campaign contributions. Ms. Willis has shunned the perks that the Southern Company and its affiliates routinely make available to public officials (e.g., tickets to sporting events and concerts in venues around the nation, wining and dining in restaurants and bars, free out of town luxury getaways, and other unreported snuggling with the company and its lobbyists). What is more, Fani Willis' integrity is impeccable. Ms. Willis has jurisdiction over the litany of state law crimes that were committed by Southern Company executives and a few board members during the company's long-running, massive accounting fraud scheme and racketeering enterprise. We are preparing a criminal complaint for Ms. Willis’ office. Ms. Willis should start with a grand jury probe into the conduct of Jim Kerr, Donald James, and the accounting fraud shenanigans at the Southern Company. The grand jury might want to take a close look at the roles played in this criminal enterprise by board members Kristine L. Svinicki and David J. Grain, as well. Federal law enforcement action is unavailable to the Southern Company’s 2.5 million black customers because the Joe Biden/Merrick Garland Department of Justice is simply too weak, compromised, and scared to tackle the company's long-running criminal activities and embedded racial problems. Finally, when people show you who they are by their actions and spending patterns, believe them! RELATED ARTICLES: Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis Needs to Probe Southern Company's James Kerr, Donald James Will The Southern Company's "Fake It 'Til You Make It" Scheme Dupe the NRC? How the Southern Company Cooked Its Books in a Massive $27 Billion Accounting Fraud Scheme Southern Company Fraud Documented Deloitte & Touche Audits of Southern Company Under Fire

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 15, 2023 An Editorial Opinion On April 13, 2023, I submitted a formal criminal complaint to Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis regarding what I believe are criminal offenses under Georgia state laws that were committed within her jurisdiction by several top corporate officers of the Southern Company in Atlanta. Because it is a criminal complaint, I am only publishing the fact that my complaint has been submitted to Ms. Willis and not the complaint itself. Summary of the Allegations Since January of 2023, I have been investigating accounting fraud and other forms of criminal activity at the Southern Company, which is a publicly traded company headquartered in Atlanta. During the course of my investigation, I discovered that certain senior management executives at the Southern Company have not only “cooked” the company’s financial books and records (from 2013 to the present), but they have also authorized, condoned, sponsored (using corporate funds), and/or ratified numerous acts of racketeering, including extortion, bribery, abuse of the legal process, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and coverups of criminal activity sanctioned by the corporation. My criminal complaint is limited to those criminal acts that violated Georgia state criminal laws and that were birthed, nurtured, financed, and/or ratified by top executives and other corporate officers at the Southern Company’s headquarters in Atlanta. The crime spree alleged in the complaint grew and flourish because state and federal regulatory and law enforcement officials presumed that the Southern Company was a respectable, financially profitable, New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company when, in fact, it was not. Furthermore, systemic racism by the Southern Company against its black customers in a six-state service area has infected many of the underlying acts within the labyrinth of criminal activities operated by the criminal enterprise, as alleged in the complaint. The Alleged Criminal Fraud Scheme From 2013 to the present, the Southern Company has engaged in various acts of creative accounting, a/k/a accounting fraud, to create and perpetuate a mirage of profitability. This fraudulent criminal conduct induced the Georgia Public Service Commission to approve rate increases and a litany of construction-related actions pertaining to $21 billion in cost overruns at Units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant (“Vogtle”) in Waynesboro, Georgia. This fraud scheme also induced the Southern Company’s Georgia-based business partners like the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, the City of Dalton (acting by and through its Board of Water, Light, and Sinking Fund Commissioners), and Oglethorpe Power Corporation (an Electric Municipal Cooperative), all of whom co-owned Vogtle, to pay more than their fair share of $21 billion in construction cost overruns at Vogtle. These three co-owners are also unwitting “victims” of the Southern Company’s alleged criminal fraud scheme. The fraud scheme hoodwinked existing shareholders into retaining their shares in the Southern Company by paying regular dividends from borrowed money, rather than retained earnings (as is customary for New York Stock Exchange companies). The fraud also induced (a) accredited investors to buy shares in the company, and (b) certain financial institutions that are licensed to do business in Georgia to lend money in the form of fixed long-term debt and credit lines to the company and its affiliates, including Georgia Power Company. The fraud scheme was documented by corporate “insiders” as early as April 6, 2017. These notes and related documents were reportedly withheld from the Southern Company’s auditors at Deloitte & Touche, LLP. The fraud scheme in this complaint was birthed at Southern Company headquarters in Atlanta, implemented across multiple company subsidiaries, and closely coordinated and monitored by the key Atlanta participants in the schemes. Certain Southern Company executives, including one in Atlanta, reportedly sanctioned, financially sponsored, and ratified acts of intimidation and violence against innocent third parties. Scamming Black Southern Company Customers What is worse, in 2022 alone, the Southern Company received approximately $15 billion of its $59 billion in gross operating revenues from its black customers in a six-state service area (i.e., Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, and Illinois). The company’s black customers account for 25% to 30% of its customer base in this six-state service area. Once this $15 billion was taken into the company’s financial coffers, a portion of it was then used by the Southern Company, acting in a venture capitalist role, to invest in over 125 white-owned businesses (in 2022, alone). Between 2017 and the present, acts of taking money from black customers and investing a portion of it in white-owned businesses, exclusively, evolved into a custom and practice of the company. This race-based investment preference for investing in only white owned third-party companies has never been properly disclosed to the Southern Company’s black customers or to the Georgia Public Service Commission. While the investments are listed in the Southern Company’s annual 10-K filing for 2022 (and prior years) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company’s documented use of a race-based preference for investing in white-owned companies, exclusively, is not disclosed. What is worse, the amount of dollars the Southern Company and its affiliates paid to black-owned businesses for goods and services was so limited, insignificant, and immaterial to its overall operating expenses that it did not even warrant being mentioned in the company’s 10-Ks for 2017 through 2022. James Y. Kerr is the Ringleader of the Criminal Enterprise The complaint identifies James Y. “Jim” Kerr, II, as the ringleader of the Southern Company’s fraudulent conduct and racketeering-related activities. From 2014 to March 31, 2023, Jim Kerr served as an executive vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and chief of staff to Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning (who will be retiring on May 24, 2023). Kerr’s simultaneous assumption of all four jobs effectively eliminated any meaningful “checks and balances” needed to detect, prevent, or report the alleged criminal activity cited in the complaint. It also enabled Kerr to conceal his own role in the criminal activity alleged in the complaint. These multiple executive capacities also permitted Jim Kerr to function as the “de facto” CEO of the Southern Company for many years. For the record, Jim Kerr, acting in his capacity as the Southern Company's General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, has never contacted us and asked for any documentation or other evidence supporting the matters we exposed in our investigative reports so that he could assure the Southern Company's board of directors that all corporate officers had complied with the company's published Code of Ethics. A secret audiotape of a telephone conversation between Kevin Forbes and Jim Kerr in 2018 regarding the Southern Company’s disregard for the health, safety, and welfare of the company’s customers in a North Birmingham, Alabama heavily polluted black neighborhood confirms that Jim Kerr is an “Old School” unreformed racist who did not care whether the black residents in this neighborhood lived or died from the dangerous toxins in the air, ground, and water in and around this neighborhood. The audio recording speaks for itself. On March 31, 2023, Jim Kerr was promoted to the position of CEO of Southern Gas Company, a SEC-registered affiliate of the Southern Company. Despite this promotion, Kerr retains operational control over the alleged ongoing criminal enterprise. The Fraud Scheme was Aided and Abetted by Certain Board Members Jim Kerr was aided and abetted in operating the Southern Company’s alleged fraud scheme and corporate racketeering activities by three members of the company’s board of directors – Donald M. James, David J. Grain, and Kristine L. Svinicki. Donald M. James has been a Southern Company director since 1999. He also served on the board’s Audit Committee during the fraud period. He is a Birmingham, Alabama businessman who also served on the board of directors for Wells Fargo during its 230 major violations of criminal and civil laws since 2000. Donald M. James is a chief ally of Jim Kerr who reportedly enables and supports a culture of corruption within the Southern Company and Wells Fargo. Kristine L. Svinicki joined the Southern Company board of directors in October of 2021. She resigned as Chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) the day before Joe Biden assumed the presidency on January 21, 2021. Svinicki became the NRC’s chairperson after then-U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, who was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 because of his documented history of racism against blacks in Alabama, threatened to shut down the Senate if President Barack Obama did not reappoint her to the RNC. A reluctant Obama complied with Sessions’ demand. To this day, Kristine Svinicki is dripping with conflicts of interest. Despite her conflicts of interest, Jim Kerr cleared Svinicki's appointment to serve on the board. She supported the massive accounting fraud embedded in the 10-K for 2022. David J. Grain is the Lead Independent member of the board of directors. He has been a board member since 2012. Instead of fully and faithfully discharging his fiduciary responsibilities as a Southern Company director, particularly as Lead Independent Director, the company’s long-running, multi-state, racketeering enterprise, and massive $27 billion accounting fraud schemes at Kemper, Mississippi and Vogtle flourished under Grain’s leadership. Meanwhile, Grain used his seat on the board for professional grifting to grow his private asset management firm from $359 million in assets under management in 2012 to $8 billion in assets today. The Fraud Scheme and Racketeering Activities Are Ongoing Despite the publication of my investigative articles, there has been no cessation of the alleged fraud schemes or racketeering activities operated by the Southern Company executives named in this complaint. They have funneled money to various news organizations to isolate and minimize public exposure of their alleged criminal activities. They continue to withhold, suppress, and/or destroy incriminating evidence that documents the fraud and racketeering activities. CEO Thomas Fanning plans to exit the company on May 24, 2023, with a retirement package of up to $100 million that is based on financial benefits and incentives tainted by the accounting fraud. This money needs to be frozen by the board of directors or the District Attorney's Office pending a disposition of the investigation into my criminal complaint. It is a whole lot easier to freeze the tainted funds before Fanning leaves the Southern Company on May 24th than it is to claw the money back after he leaves the company. Newly discovered evidence points to Jim Kerr as the behind-the-scenes "shot-caller" at the Southern Company who secretly betrayed Thomas Fanning in a failed attempt to dethrone him in 2017 and install former Alabama Power Company CEO Mark Crosswhite as the new Chairman and CEO of the Southern Company. The failed coup d'etat attempt was first reported by us on August 3, 2022. We also reported that one or more executives inside the Southern Company greenlighted the coup d'tat, but we did not name Jim Kerr as the "shot-caller" at that time. We do now. Three months after our August 3rd article was published, Crosswhite was forced out of his Alabama Power CEO position. On February 16, 2023, Fanning told Wall Street analysts that Crosswhite "he had some issues he wanted to deal with. It was reasonably clear that he wasn't a contender as a successor here, and I think he decided to retire." Finally, the financial abuse of the Southern Company’s black customers rages on, unabated. This abuse is masked by the Southern Company's token annual donations to black organizations from the charitable foundations affiliated with the company and its affiliates. These donations are mere crumbs compared to what the Southern Company's other customer groups receive each year. No other Southern Company customer group generated $15 billion for the company in 2022 and received mere crumbs in return. From a personal standpoint, the Southern Company's pattern and practice of scamming its black customers galls me the most. It is inexcusable, disrespectful, and insulting corporate conduct in the post-Jim Crow era. What is worse, many black elected officials, educational institutions, and business leaders in the Southern Company's six-state service area have tolerated this kind of despicable corporate conduct towards their own. I DO NOT! Related Complaints Pending Against the Southern Company On January 27, 2023, I was one of several victims who filed a criminal RICO complaint with the DOJ’s Criminal Division against the Southern Company and those persons and entities that acted in concert with them. I invoked my rights as a RICO “crime victim” within the meaning of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3771, the Victims’ Rights and Restitution Act, 34 U.S.C. § 20141 (“VRRA”), and the Attorney General Guidelines for Victim and Witness Assistance. On February 3, 2023, I was also one of several persons who filed a formal complaint with the NRC challenging the Southern Company’s “fitness” to own and operate the Vogtle Nuclear Plant. What is worse, the company's documented shoddy work on Vogtle Units 3 and 4 could turn the project into another Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. Next week, I will publish a series of articles regarding the company’s "unfitness" to own and operate any nuclear power facilities – anywhere. In reporting the alleged criminal activities referenced in this complaint, I expressly invoked my “whistleblower” protection rights under Georgia’s Anti-SLAPP Statute, OCGA § 9-11-11.1. I will report any act of retaliation against me and members of my investigative news team to District Attorney Fani Willis.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 16, 2023 An Editorial Opinion John D. Johns joined the Southern Company’s board of directors in 2015. He is a Senior Advisor at Blackstone, Inc. and the former Chairman and CEO of Protective Life Corporation (2002 to 2017). In 2017, Johns served on the board’s Audit Committee at a time when the cost overruns at the Southern Company’s Vogtle Nuclear Plant Units 3 and 4 were skyrocketing and the company’s accounting fraud scheme was ramping up. I know from my successful legal representation of Richard Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth, that it is entirely possible for subordinates at a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company to conceive, birth, and implement a massive accounting fraud schemes without the knowledge of the company’s CEO or its board of directors' Finance and Audit Committees. On April 6, 2017, one or more Southern Company senior management executives participated in the meeting that was held at an off-site location to devise a plan to attack Southern Company board member “Johnny Johns” (whose real name is John D. Johns) for “Audit Board performance,” while specifically mentioning the “clean coal" plant construction project in Kemper, Mississippi and the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant construction project for Units 3 and 4 in Waynesboro, Georgia. The participants documented the meeting and the Southern Company’s massive accounting fraud scheme in the “Homewood Notes.” In the end, the Kemper project had $4 billion in cost overruns, while the Vogtle project now has $21 billion in cost overruns. The Kemper project, which ultimately cost the Southern Company $7.5 billion, was abandoned in 2021. Whether John Johns, 71, was a knowing participant in the accounting fraud scheme or a mere “material witness” is a question for criminal investigators to determine. What is clear at this juncture is the fact that a massive $27 billion accounting fraud scheme occurred on John Johns’ watch as a member of the board of directors’ Audit Committee. The participants in the April 6, 2017 meeting wanted to “blow the whistle” about "Money going to [Southern Company Services] to prop-up bad decisions by SO [the Southern Company's ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange], according to the “Homewood Notes.” Johns Now Chairs the Board’s Compensation Committee Today, John Johns chairs the board of directors' Compensation Committee. This committee determines and recommends the amount of departing CEO Thomas Fanning’s retirement package, which reportedly is valued at up to $100 million. Fanning will exit the company on May 24, 2023. Sources close to the board of directors have confirmed that John Johns is on-board with paying Fanning this bloated retirement package even though the calculated amount may be inflated and tainted by the accounting fraud scheme. At this juncture, Fanning is pre-occupied with two things: (a) getting out the door with his retirement money in hand on May 24th and (b) curbing media inquiries about why he and his then-girlfriend were the subjects of surveillance in 2017, as reflected in the “Homewood Notes.” According to the "Homewood Notes," a team of Southern Company operatives, with the knowledge and approval of Southern Company Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Chief of Staff James Y. "Jim" Kerr, used a private investigator named "Derreck (sic)" (meaning, Derek Uman) to do "research" on “Kim Tananka (sic),” who was Fanning’s girlfriend (and whose correct name is Kim Tanaka). The participants in the meeting believed that an anonymous complaint they intended to submit to the Southern Company’s board of directors “need[ed] more intel” on Ms. Tanaka. Ms. Tanaka was an innocent third-party who held no position in any Southern Company business entity at the time she was targeted for clandestine surveillance activities. The surveillance was greenlighted by Jim Kerr in the hope of capturing Fanning with another person whom Kerr believed was intimately involved in his life at the time. Jim Kerr, who privately loathes Tom Fanning, was extremely close to then-Alabama Power Company CEO Mark Crosswhite. Kerr believed that Fanning engaged in a personal lifestyle in Atlanta that would compromise and embarrass him, if exposed publicly. Had the surveillance project been successful in its intended goal, Kerr believed that Fanning would have been forced to resign and Crosswhite would been named as his successor. Jim Kerr's attempted coup d'etat failed. It was first reported by us on August 3, 2022. Three months after our article was published, Crosswhite was forced out of his Alabama Power CEO position. John Johns Served as General Counsel of Sonat, Inc. Prior to joining the Southern Company’s board of directors’ John Johns served as general counsel of Sonat, Inc., a diversified energy company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The Chairman and CEO of Sonat from 1979 to 1985 was Henry C. Goodrich, a fellow Birmingham resident, mentor, and friend of John Johns. It is well known in Alabama that Henry C. Goodrich, William Houston Blount (former CEO of Vulcan Materials), and Elton B. Stephens (founder of EBSCO Industries) were the titans of business in Birmingham during the 1980s and early 1990s. They were rich and powerful men. Southern Company board member Donald M. James, another Birmingham business icon, later succeeded Willian Houston Blount as CEO of Vulcan Materials. James is named in the criminal complaint I submitted to Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis on April 13, 2023. Henry Goodrich is the white corporate leader who was tasked with the responsibility for running me out of Birmingham in 1994. At the time, I served as special counsel to Birmingham mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. Henry Goodrich summoned me to a meeting at his private office. He refused to shake my hand when we met and did not look at me when he spoke. In a 30-minute uninterrupted and demeaning scolding, Goodrich told me in brutally frank language that: (a) I was a troublemaker in Birmingham who was disturbing the business community’s “good relations with the colored community,” (b) I was responsible for Birmingham city council hearings on discriminatory lending practices, or “redlining” by metro-area banks, (c) I was the force behind the City’s efforts to increase the volume of city contracts awarded to women and minorities for the procurement of goods and services, (d) I was leading Mayor Arrington astray with my legal work on achieving greater equality in employment opportunities within City Hall, (e) I was making unnecessary waves by suggesting that the City leverage its hundreds of millions of dollars in banking deposits as a tool for encouraging corporate reinvestment in the city’s underserved neighborhoods and communities, and (f) I needed to leave town, immediately. Naturally, I disagreed with Goodrich's warped assessment of my work as Mayor Arrington’s Special Counsel. I thought my nine years of services (as of 1994) had (a) brought accountability and transparency to city government, (b) promoted equal employment opportunities within the executive ranks of city government, (c) made it possible for blacks and women to participate equitably in city contracts for goods and services, (d) sensitized local banks to the unfairness of “redlining” practices, and (e) helped Arrington to move Birmingham forward. I even bragged about my solid personal and professional relationship with Emory Folmar, Montgomery’s ultra-conservative, white Republican mayor and former Alabama state GOP chairman. I was Mayor Emory Folmar's Special Counsel, as well. None of my comments moved Henry Goodrich, who still would not look at me. He ended our meeting by telling me, “I see that talking to you has been a waste of my time. You are Arrington’s “Rasputin.” For students of history, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia. Is John D. Johns Tainted? Is John D. Johns tainted by his Audit Committee work on the Southern Company’s board of directors, as described in the "Homewood Notes"? Has John D. Johns’ professional and personal exposure to Henry Goodrich and Jim Kerr blinded him to (a) the Southern Company’s systemic racism against black vendors and entrepreneurs, as quantified in dollars, and (b) the company's pattern and practice of suppressing the environmental protection rights of its black customers? Is John D. Johns the reincarnation of Henry C. Goodrich's "Old South" spirit and attitude? Was John D. Johns aware of the massive accounting fraud scheme that was documented in the "Homewood Notes"? Is John D. Johns going to let Tom Fanning walk out the door with a $100 million retirement package that may be tainted by a massive accounting fraud scheme, or will Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis freeze Fanning's money pending a determination by her office as to whether it is "clean" money? Is John D. Johns a “material witness” or “target” in any criminal probe? Jim Kerr's Chameleon Act In closing, after we exposed Jim Kerr's racism on a secret tape recording, Kerr tried to change his image within the Southern Company. Below is a photo Kerr posted on his LinkedIn page last week showing him snuggling with black Southern Gas Company employees in Atlanta in a phony display of camaraderie. Prior to our publication of the secret tape recording of Jim Kerr's unguarded racism, the multitude of his LinkedIn photos -- for years -- showed Kerr with white employees, executives, and patrons of the Southern Company. Jim Kerr is the ultimate chameleon. He is capable of changing his clothing, physical appearance, and surroundings, but not his racist attitude towards blacks. Trust Kerr at your own risk. The list of Southern Company executives and rank and file employees whom Jim Kerr has betrayed since 2014 is long and distinguished. Just ask Thomas Fanning, or Mark Crosswhite, or the Southern Company employees who were royally screwed after NextEra Energy bought Gulf Power Company in 2019 whether they trust Jim Kerr. When people show you who they are by their words and deeds, believe them!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 17, 2023 On June 21, 2022, Oglethorpe Power Company filed a lawsuit against Georgia Power Company in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. Georgia Power is a wholly owned affiliate of the Atlanta-based Southern Company. This "Preliminary Statement" in the complaint tells us everything we need to know about Georgia Power and the Southern Company: “This case arises from Georgia Power’s refusal to honor the deal it struck with Oglethorpe and accept responsibility for Georgia Power’s share of massive cost overruns in the construction of nuclear power-generating Units 3 and 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant (“Vogtle Units 3 and 4”). For years Oglethorpe has paid for its share of billions of dollars in cost overruns for Vogtle Units 3 and 4, with Georgia Power’s assurance and agreement that if cost overruns reached a certain point, Georgia Power, who is responsible for construction of the project, would step in and take responsibility. Now that the cost overruns have reached that point and beyond, Oglethorpe has called on Georgia Power to stand by its commitment. Instead of honoring that commitment, however, Georgia Power denies it and seeks to shift still more cost overruns onto Oglethorpe. This complaint is brought to hold Georgia Power accountable for its promises.” Oglethorpe, which owns 30% of Vogtle Units 3 and 4, discovered for itself that Georgia Power is a cheater that reneges on written contracts. At the time Oglethorpe filed its lawsuit last June, the company did not know that Georgia Power's parent company, the Southern Company, was running a massive accounting fraud scheme and racketeering enterprise that victimized Oglethorpe and many other innocent people and entities. Here is what the Vogtle cost overruns looked like when Oglethorpe filed its lawsuit against Georgia Power for breach of contract, bad faith, and stubborn litigiousness. "VCM" is a reference to "Vogtle Construction Monitoring" reports. The Southern Company's Mismanagement of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 Has Been a Nightmare for Oglethorpe Today, the Vogtle construction project is $21 billion over the original cost estimate of $14 billion. The two reactors under construction are nearly six years behind schedule. Contractor delays, shoddy workmanship, rework projects, the inability to complete tasks on time, and the bankruptcy of reactor designer Westinghouse Electric Co. have more than doubled the project’s costs. The Southern Company's mismanagement of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 has been a nightmare of epic proportions for Oglethorpe. Georgia Power is a for-profit corporation that has repeatedly exercised its ability to push its Vogtle project cost overruns to the shareholders of the Southern Company and the customers of its affiliates. Oglethorpe, by contrast, has no shareholders. Instead, Oglethorpe is a not-for profit Georgia electric membership cooperative that provides power to 38 members that are also not-for-profit electric membership cooperatives. These cooperatives, in turn, provide electricity to more than four million rural homes and businesses in 151 of 159 of Georgia’s counties. The people bearing the burden of Oglethorpe’s share of Georgia Power’s cost overruns for Vogtle Units 3 and 4 are the rural Georgians served by Oglethorpe and its member cooperatives. The passage of time has revealed that the Southern Company is nothing more that a slick and polished Wall Street corporate "thug." The company is faking profitability until it can place Units 3 and 4 into commercial service. In the interest of justice, I have decided to provide Oglethorpe with access to the Southern Company documents it needs to amend its pending lawsuit to: (a) add the Southern Company as a second defendant, (b) add fraud and racketeering claims against both defendants, (c) and add a request for triple times Oglethorpe's actual losses, plus punitive damages against Georgia Power and the Southern Company. Eversheds Sutherland, LLP, which represents Oglethorpe in its lawsuit against Georgia Power, has been my principal corporate law firm in Europe and Africa since 2012. I will make sure that Oglethorpe gets everything it needs to win its "David versus Goliath" battle against Georgia Power and the Southern Company.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 18, 2023 In 1979, a partial and costly meltdown of a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania taught the American public, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the owner/operator of this nuclear power plant five critical lessons: 1. The construction of a nuclear power plant must be mistake free and subject to heightened inspections of every detail during the construction and operational phases of the plant. 2. Quality control of the project, from conception to power production, must be consistently outstanding. 3. Mismanagement of the project leads to catastrophic consequences. Due to radiation contamination, it took 14 years to clean up the meltdown at Three Mile Island. 4. Life within a 20-mile range of the nuclear power plant accident will change forever, as was the case with Three Mile Island. Radiation from a nuclear power plant meltdown is a catastrophic event. It makes contamination from a train derailment (like the recent one in East Palestine, Ohio) look like an overturned garbage can at a picnic. 5. The NRC and its decision-making process must be free from the political influence peddling that has permeated Washington, D.C. and spread like a cancer in every other agency of the federal government. Investigations into the Three Mile Island mishap revealed that the meltdown occurred because of lapses by the owner, operator, and NRC in quality assurance and maintenance, inadequate operator training, lack of communication of important safety information, poor management, and complacency. The NRC vowed that the Three Mile Island lapses would never happen again. Is the Construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 Plagued by Poor Management and Shoddy Workmanship? Georgia Power Company (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%), the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%), and the City of Dalton, Georgia (1.6%) are the four owners of the two new reactors – Units 3 and 4 – that are being built at the existing Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Waynesboro, Georgia. The construction of Units 3 and 4 was originally estimated at $14 billion and was projected to be in service in April 2016 and April 2017, respectively. In April 2023, the total cost of construction climbed to $35 billion. The owners now estimate that commercial operation will not begin until later this year -- more than seven years behind schedule. Southern Nuclear Operating Company, an affiliate of the Southern Company, is the licensed operator for these Units. From the beginning of the Vogtle project, Georgia's Public Service Commission (PSC) designated a team of staff personnel and outside consultant nuclear engineers and construction management experts who monitor the cost, schedule, and management of the Vogtle project. The members of the staff team present testimony to the Commission every six months that addresses the current state of construction and whether Georgia Power’s current cost and schedule estimates are reasonable. The testimony filed by the staff team documents the cost and schedule history of the Vogtle project, as well as the reasons why project costs have skyrocketed and schedules have slipped so significantly. The best summary of the troubles plaguing the construction at Vogtle Units 3 and 4 is presented in a January 2022 article written by David Schlissel, Director of Resource Planning Analysis at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) titled, “Southern Company’s Troubled Vogtle Nuclear Project.” The IEEFA examines issues related to energy markets, trends, and policies. The PSC’s team of nuclear experts has repeatedly identified the serious consequences that pursuing unrealistic schedules at any cost have had on the project at Vogtle. Some of these include: A culture of production over quality A culture of poor inspecting or non-inspecting of work High personnel turnover and absenteeism Significant work backlogs High first-time component testing failure rates, and Need for extensive rework and retesting The shoddy workmanship and potentially catastrophic failures at the construction site fall within the five categories of instruction that are covered in basic high school industrial arts classes (e.g., Industrial and Engineering Drafting, Industrial Materials, Power and Energy, Information Industry, and Automation). Here are three examples of these failures: 1. Approximately 8% of the cabling that had been used in the construction needed to be recut/replaced, resulting in additional delays and costs to the project. As a result, approximately 500,000 linear feet of cable – equivalent to about 95 miles – had to be replaced. 2. Bolts that had been originally tightened had not been inspected at the time. So, each of those had to be loosened and then retightened to the specific torque value. 3. In 2022, there were some 26,000 electrical Inspection Records that had not been completed. While the work had been done, the inspection records weren’t complete at the time. The only explanation provided to the PSC for this faux pas was this: “someone didn’t do their job.” The NRC has never knowingly allowed an ongoing criminal enterprise like the Southern Company to own and operate a nuclear power plant in the United States. Unlike the U.S. Department of Justice, which declines the prosecution of certain "too big to prosecute" criminals (e.g., Wells Fargo Bank, Hunter Biden, JPMorgan Chase, The Boeing Company, etc.) because of their political and financial connections to the White House, the NRC has a track record of independently protecting the public safety across-the-board, without exception. Is History Repeating Itself? On February 10, 2012, the NRC issued the Southern Company, acting through Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear Operating Company) a combined “Owner/Operator” license for Units 3 and 4. It appears that the careless circumstances that caused the meltdown at Three Mile Island are repeating themselves at Vogtle Units 3 and 4. The Southern Company has shown that it places production over quality. The Boeing Company did the same thing with its brand new 737 MAX airplanes that had back-to-back fatal crashes in 2017 and 2018, within a year of being placed into service. These crashes resulted in the deaths of 346 passenger and crew member deaths and the loss of $20 billion in sales and $50 billion in re-engineering and remedial work. Rather than doing the work right, the Southern Company has embarked upon a program of substituting influence peddling in Washington for proper work at Vogtle. They have disregarded the higher construction and performance standards set in the aftermath of the Three Mile Island meltdown. This is obviously why Kristine L. Svinicki was appointed to the Southern Company board of directors within 11 months of her resignation as Chairwoman of the NRC in 2021. It is also why Ernest Moniz, former U.S. Secretary of Energy (2013 to 2017), was appointed to the board of directors in 2018. The Vogtle project feels like a marriage between the worst aspects of Three Mile Island and the defective engineering, assembly, and production of Boeing’s original version of the 737 MAX deathtrap. The Southern Company’s documented criminal history and its cavalier attitude about the quality of the construction at Vogtle Units 3 and 4 adversely impacts public safety. It also renders the company no longer “fit” to hold the combined license for Vogtle Units 3 and 4. There are scores of utility companies that are capable and qualified to own and operate Vogtle, including the Tennessee Valley Authority, Constellation Energy Generation Company, Entergy, Duke Energy, Old Dominion Electric Coop, NextEra Energy, and Florida Power & Light. Any one of these companies can take Georgia Power’s place in the ownership group. Given Oglethorpe’s pending litigation against Georgia Power for cheating in its allocation of the cost overruns among the co-owners, Oglethorpe might welcome a new co-owner of Units 3 and 4. Fulton County DA Fani T. Willis and the NRC are the Public's Last Line of Protection Today, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis, who has received a criminal complaint in her office against the Southern Company for a massive $27 billion accounting fraud and racketeering enterprise, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has a complaint challenging the Southern Company’s “fitness” to participate in the Vogtle project as an owner/operator, are the only two independent government agencies with the integrity, resources, and ability to (a) reign-in the Southern Company’s lawlessness, and (b) protect the public safety from runaway criminal conduct. The other federal agencies in Washington, with portfolio responsibility for regulatory and law enforcement oversight, have been hopelessly compromised by influence peddlers and Washington “insiders.” Part 2 in this week's series of articles on Vogtle nuclear power project will focus on why the Southern Company is inept and unfit to own and operate this facility. Stay tuned!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 19, 2023 An Editorial Opinion At the Southern Company board of directors’ special meeting on April 17, 2023, CEO Thomas Fanning rallied the troops to remain publicly united in the face of two separate criminal complaints (i.e., alleging a massive accounting fraud scheme and racketeering conduct under state of Georgia criminal statutes and federalcriminal laws) and one complaint with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (alleging that the Southern Company is “unfit” to hold its Owner/Operator’s license for Units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Waynesboro, Georgia). Fanning encouraged the troops to circle the wagons around him, as it has done since construction cost overruns started at the company’s coal gasification plant in Kemper, Mississippi ten years ago. Even though the Southern Company has not been profitable in years and is living off of borrowed money, the board of directors maintained and perpetuated its “fake it ‘til you make it” front by declaring a $0.70 per share quarterly dividend. The dividend was a 2.9% increase from its last quarterly dividend of $0.68. Like the previous dividends in recent years, it was paid from borrowed money, instead of earnings. It was the 22nd straight quarterly consecutive dividend increase -- which is a red flag, in and of itself. A Wall Street Version of Harry Houdini Fanning is one board meeting away from walking out the door with a retirement package valued at up to $100 million. His last meeting is scheduled for May 24, 2023. Fanning is the only CEO of a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company that built a brand new $7.5 billion energy production facility – the Kemper project in Mississippi -- that was $4.5 billion over budget and so defective that it had to be demolished in 2021 before the facility was ever placed into commercial service. Yet, Thomas Fanning was not fired. Like the great escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer Harry Houdini, Fanning escaped a firing. Fanning has mismanaged construction costs at the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4, which was originally estimated to cost $14 billion dollars, to the point that they have skyrocketed to $35 billion dollars today. Units 3 and 4 were originally scheduled to be placed in service in April 2016 and April 2017, respectively. The Southern Company’s construction of Units 3 and 4 has been so shoddy and so mismanaged that there is no concrete date when these two defective nuclear power Units will pass final inspection and be placed into service. The Vogtle construction project has been compared to Three Mile Island – the only U.S. nuclear power plant to experience a meltdown and closure. This project is to the nuclear power industry what “lemon cars” are to the automobile manufacturing industry, except a meltdown at Vogtle would be a catastrophic Three Mile Island level event in-waiting. Yet, Fanning has not been fired. His Houdini magic still works on his board members, a couple of whom privately question whether Fanning is a Bernie Madoff “con man.” Instead, with a Jim Jones-like power of persuasion, Fanning has duped a majority of his board members into believing that a CEO of a historically unprofitable publicly traded company who has lost $28 billion on three defective construction projects during a ten-year period is doing such a great job that he actually deserves an retirement package from the company of up to $100 million. I do not share this view, and I am not alone. There are "insiders" in the executive suite of the Southern Company's headquarters in Atlanta who share my view in this regard. Fanning's retirement package constitutes corporate irresponsibility and recklessness in the first degree. Between today and May 24, 2023, I will be working to encourage the Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney’s Office to freezing Thomas Fanning‘s exit package until District Attorney Fani T. Willis has had the time to properly investigate the criminal complaint that was filed against Southern Company executives with her office on April 13, 2023. Fanning's exit package is tainted by the massive $27 billion accounting fraud scheme at his company. Freezing Fanning's $100 million retirement “payout” is a better option than trying to claw it back after Fanning exits the company.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 20, 2023 In January 2023, the Southern Company started up Vogtle Unit 3 near Waynesboro, Georgia to perform criticality testing. The Unit started vibrating and the testing had to be shut down. Incredibly, the construction team failed to install the support systems specified in the original engineering plans and specifications to prevent this disastrous circumstance. This vibration incident was a failure of basic engineering work, which was not detected in real-time because of a failure of basic project management. An embarrassed Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning was forced to announce this construction-related problem and the required remediation work during his February 16, 2023, earnings call with Wall Street analysts. Since 2017, Bechtel, which is headquartered in San Francisco, California, has been performing the construction work at Vogtle Units 3 and 4. It is an engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) company. Bechtel should have caught this construction mistake long before the testing occurred. Southern Nuclear Operating Company, an affiliate of the Southern Company, is responsible for managing all aspects of Bechtel’s construction work at Vogtle Units 3 and 4 to ensure that the work conforms to the approved engineering plans and specifications for the project. Unfortunately, they were asleep at the wheel, again. The list of major construction-related mistakes that Southern Nuclear Operating Company has missed on the project management checkoff sheets for Vogtle Units 3 and 4 is staggering and dangerous. Vibrations or shaking during testing of nuclear power plant equipment and systems can be caused by a variety of factors, including structural issues, equipment malfunction, and/or issues with the power grid. Unbelievably, both Bechtel and Southern Nuclear Operating Company missed the engineering checkoff during construction for the installation of the required support systems to prevent the Unit from vibrating. This mistake is analogous to installing a motor in a new car without installing motor mounts to keep the motor from vibrating and tearing loose from the car frame over time. This is the kind of mistake that leads to a catastrophic event if it occurs during Vogtle’s commercial operations. This construction mistake is the best example of why an affiliate of the Southern Company -- Southern Nuclear Operating Company -- should never have been allowed to oversee the construction work of a Southern Company-owned nuclear power plant and never been permitted to self-certify the completion of EPC engineering and construction work at the heightened performance levels established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after 1979. An Inherent Conflict with Potentially Deadly Consequences It is an inherent conflict of interest for the Southern Company to police its own construction work on a nuclear plant. This conflict has potentially deadly consequences on an unimaginable scale. At Vogtle, this conflict of interest has produced endless lapses in quality control, major deviations from the original Front End Loaded (FEL) plans and specifications, shoddy workmanship, compromises in safety, poor and inadequate project management, inadequate communications between Bechtel and Southern Nuclear Operating Company, and complacency. These lapses were supposed to be prevented at future nuclear plant construction sites after the meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. On the seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale, Three Mile Island is rated at Level 5 – Accident with Wider Consequences. After the meltdown at Three Mile Island, the NRC announced that it would no longer depend on self-certifications of owners/operators to address these categories (and others) of critical matters at nuclear power plants. Critics have argued that this system of self-certification has allowed the Southern Company to cut corners and prioritize capping costs over safety. This, in turn, has led to design flaws and failures that could produce another Three Mile Island disaster. Moving Forward At this juncture, the NRC has two options to protect the public. The first option is a shutdown of the “lemon” nuclear plant. This is not an attractive option because it punishes the Southern Company’s three innocent co-owners -- Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%), the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%), and the City of Dalton, Georgia (1.6%), who hold the majority interest in Units 3 and 4. Georgia Power Company, a Southern Company affiliate, owns 45.7% of the Units. The second and preferred option is for the NRC to pause its final approval of the Vogtle project until there has been an independent inspection and thorough review of: (a) all FEL plans and specifications, (b) all EPC construction work, (c) all identified flaws in the construction, (d) all remedial work and documentation of work completion, (e) all operational systems, safety systems, protocols, operating manuals, and personnel training, and (f) a qualified, capable, and independently chosen monitoring panel of nuclear experts are in place. The review must be done by a team of experts picked by the NRC. Considering the troubled history of the Vogtle project and the Southern Company’s ongoing history of construction-related mistakes, the NRC should afford the Southern Company absolutely NO input in selecting panel members. The company’s only obligation should be limited to cooperation with the monitoring panel and paying the NRC the cost of this quality control measure – for the life of the project. Finally, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must be guided by this basic principle when dealing with the Southern Company – believe what the company has done on the Vogtle construction project, and not what the company says it will do -- after it has been caught recklessly cutting corners on the project.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 21, 2023 I have been a political Independent since 2001. I am a registered voter in California. As an Independent, I am free to make an individual choice on who I want to support for president in the 2024 race. I will NOT be supporting Joe Biden’s re-election bid for these ten reasons: 1. Joe Biden is too weak, inept, and senile to be president, again. He falls down all of the time, figuratively and literally. A senile person cannot adequately represent the political interests of my group of Independent voters. 2. As Chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee in 1991, Joe Biden had a chance to kill Clarence Thomas’ nomination to service as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, but he did not do it. This single error in judgment has inflicted immeasurable suffering on tens of millions of women and Americans of color. Additionally, Clarence Thomas' lack of ethics as a Supreme Court justice has diminished the Court's stature and integrity, forever. 3. Women and Americans of color have lost more legally protected rights under Joe Biden than they have under any president since the "Redemption Era" commenced in 1870. 4. Joe Biden does not fight to win any political battle. He only fights to get his adversaries to the negotiating table, which is where he gives them everything they want. I would never have Biden negotiate a commercial transaction or deal for me in the private sector. Nobody respects him. 5. Joe Biden left Donald Trump’s appointed U.S. Attorneys in office in southern states like Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee for way too long. Some of them are still in office. As a result, the Department of Justice in these states is still carrying out Trump's old political agenda. 6. Joe Biden has perpetuated a warped “too big to prosecute” policy in the Department of Justice with respect to indicting and prosecuting New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 companies and their CEOs for criminal activities. This policy reinforces a two-tier system of federal criminal justice – a forgiveness program for privileged Wall Street crooks and a “throw the book at them” program for everybody else. 7. Joe Biden embarrassed himself and America with the way he hastily withdrew American troops from Afghanistan. Biden also left Americans behind in Taliban-controlled territory to fend for themselves. This failure of leadership is inexcusable. 8. Joe Biden picked the weakest Attorney General in U.S. history in Merrick Garland, who appears to be "lost in the job." Nobody pays attention to Garland because he is a toothless tiger. Biden’s selection of Garland as Attorney General has contributed to the vicious attack on existing legal rights for women and Americans of color. For the first time since 1964, our children and grandchildren will enjoy fewer legally protected rights than we did. 9. Joe Biden has not done nearly enough to protect school children and church-goers from gun violence. I am not interested in any president who offers “thoughts and prayers” but is too impotent to place a political chokehold on members of Congress who block gun reform legislation. 10. Beyond showering them with pleasant sounding “lip-service,” Joe Biden has done absolutely nothing for Native-Americans. They were the original Americans. Furthermore, they were here in 1820 when the border between the U.S. and Mexico looked like this: At this juncture, I do not have a preferred candidate in the 2024 presidential race. I just know my choice will not be Joe Biden. After 30 months of watching Joe Biden’s pathetic performance in office, I know he is a “loser.” In my organization, I fire “losers.” It’s not personal. It’s business!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 22, 2023 An Editorial Opinion If things go according to plan, Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning will depart from the Southern Company on May 24, 2023, with a “retirement” package of cash, bonuses, stock options, and other incentives with an estimated value of up to $100 million. This payout is the biggest and boldest heist of fraud-tainted corporate funds by a New York Stock Exchange /Fortune 500 company in two decades. It is also Thomas Fanning’s last “con job.” Fanning has led the Southern Company in a massive accounting fraud scheme that has ballooned to $27 billion over a 10-year period. The company has been faking profitability since 2017. For years, the Southern Company has paid dividends from borrowed money rather than earnings. Its total fixed debt and credit lines of $63 billion far exceeds its self-reported $59 billion total gross operating income in 2022. The company’s physical plants and hard assets are inflated in value, given the nature of these assets, their age, and their challenges in meeting today’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction state and federal requirements. The Southern Company’s financial future is tied to new operating income that it expects to generate from Units 3 and 4 at its Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant near Waynesboro, Georgia when they are placed into commercial service. Because of shoddy construction work, basic engineering failures, and poor construction management, these units are seven years behind schedule and $21 billion over budget. The Southern Company was forced to demolish a brand new $7.5 billion coal gasification facility in Kemper, Mississippi in 2021 because of the same failures the company is experiencing with Units 3 and 4 at Vogtle. Rather than firing Tom Fanning for losing the $28.5 billion on two showcase construction projects, the Southern Company elected to engage in an ongoing accounting fraud scheme to create a mirage of profitability and success. This mirage has kept its stock prices artificially high and has allowed the company to borrow money that it otherwise would not be entitled to receive, in the absence of the accounting fraud scheme. The Southern Company and Its Top Executives are the Subject of Three Criminal Complaints Since January 27, 2023, the Southern Company and several of its top officials have been the subjects of at least three separate criminal racketeering, accounting fraud, and antitrust complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). One such criminal complaint was filed by my son and me. On April 13, 2023, a criminal complaint was filed with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis against several Southern Company officials for violations of Georgia criminal laws for the same acts of racketeering and accounting fraud. While the federal and Fulton County complaints are pending, the Fulton County case appears to be the most promising. Unlike U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who is weak, inept, too often “missing-in-action,” and not respected by anybody in the prosecutorial profession, District Attorney Fani Willis has demonstrated her courage, strength, professionalism, preparedness, and intellectual acumen as a lawyer and tough district attorney who can't be bought off. Reportedly, the Southern Company laundered $5 million through a Washington, D.C. law firm for the purpose of paying former president Bill Clinton to quash any federal law enforcement action by the Department of Justice into the racketeering conduct and accounting fraud scheme alleged in the pending complaints. Southern Company officials privately brag about how they have Merrick Garland and his DOJ Criminal Division under their control. Freezing Fanning’s Tainted Retirement Payout Protects the Public Interest In 2003, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) froze all of HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy’s cash and assets eight months before he was indicted on 85 felony counts arising from a $2.7 billion accounting fraud scheme at the company. Scrushy’s cash and other assets were frozen from March 2003 until we defeated the SEC in May 2003 following a hearing on the government’s motion to make the asset freeze permanent. In 2005, Scrushy was acquitted of all criminal charges, while 14 HealthSouth subordinate executives pled guilty to perpetrating the $2.7 billion fraud scheme. Fortunately, District Attorney Fani Willis has the opportunity and means to get the Securities Division of the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office to file a regulatory enforcement complaint in state court against the Southern Company and its board members for an injunction to freeze the payment of Fanning’s retirement package, pending her office’s investigation into the companion criminal complaint. The Securities Division of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger regulates securities activity statewide. The Division protects against investment fraud and promotes financial literacy. Freezing Fanning's cash and assets is a lot better than trying to claw this tainted money back after he leaves the Southern Company on May 24, 2023. This law enforcement action would protect the public interest and safety.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 23, 2024 Coming This Week--- This innocent woman is at the center of one of the biggest corporate espionage scandals in the 21st century. To be clear, this woman did nothing wrong. What the Southern Company did to her, however, was outrageous. We will bring you her story this week. We will tell this story using audiotapes, photographs, and documents. Now is the time!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on April 24, 2023 On September 22, 2022, Kimberly Tanaka finally had enough of the Southern Company’s corporate surveillance program that had turned her life upside-down since 2017. Tanaka called police to a location in Metro-Atlanta to report a “stalking incident.” While visiting AFPI Global Investigations in Atlanta, Tanaka and her private investigators found a GPS tracking device with a magnet under her car. She was livid. Officer R.C. Hulon (ID #754) responded to the call. After interviewing Kim Tanaka, Hulon generated a police report (Case No. 2209-000894) for the Roswell, Georgia police department. The relevant section of the full report is excerpted below. Kim Tanaka told Officer Hulon that she worked at a fitness gym and that some of her clients were "VIPs." She further advised Hulon that “she believes they are trying to get to one of those VIPs through her.” Tanaka was advised that the matter would be turned over to the Criminal Investigation Division. Investigator C. White (ID #121) was assigned to the case. Office L. Davidson (ID #779) was assisting the investigation. The GPS device was taken into evidence. Kim Tanaka was Caught Up in a Planned Coup D’etat at the Southern Company Kim Tanaka was right when she told Officer Hulon that the culprits were trying to get to one of her VIP clients, by all means necessary. What is more, Tanaka was not the only innocent victim of the espionage operation. In April of 2017, Kim Tanaka was the girlfriend of Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning. That year, certain Southern Company executives in Birmingham, who were aided and abetted by James Y. "Jim" Kerr, II (who was the Southern Company's executive vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and chief of staff to Fanning at the time), were plotting to overthrow Fanning and install Alabama Power Company CEO Mark Crosswhite as the new CEO of the Southern Company. Kerr, a close friend and corporate ally of Crosswhite, greenlighted the surveillance operation against Kim Tanaka. Had the planned coup succeeded, Kerr would have had his pick of any CEO position of his choosing at a Southern Company affiliate. The coup plotters believed that Fanning engaged in a private lifestyle in Atlanta that would make him vulnerable to a forced resignation if they could document graphic evidence of this lifestyle and expose it to the company's board of directors and public. Kim Tanaka is the woman referenced in the April 6, 2017 “Homewood Notes” as “Kim Tananka.” She is the woman the coup d’etat plotters (Crosswhite and Kerr), their espionage vendor (Matrix, LLC), and private investigator (Derek Uman, founder of Clear Capture Investigations of Gainesville, Florida) “needed more intel” on. The coup plotters got plenty of “intel” on Kim Tanaka. They also spied on Sarah Louden Novascone, who became Fanning’s wife in 2018. In April of 2017, Kim Tanaka was an innocent party who held no position in any Southern Company business entity. Without her knowledge or consent, Tanaka was targeted for a blitzkrieg of clandestine surveillance activities, all of which were financially sponsored by the Southern Company. The Espionage Program that Targeted Kim Tanaka was Quite Extensive After the April 6, 2017, meeting documented in the “Homewood Notes,” Southern Company’s coup d’etat executives and their espionage crew went to work on Kim Tanaka. These operatives publicly claimed to have expertise in “audio intercept,” “methods of entry,” and “executive exfiltration.” Beginning in May of 2017, the espionage crew hired Kristen Hentschel, a Florida-based free-lance field producer for ABC News and “several PR firms in different states, non-profit organizations and private companies to investigate stories, interview subjects and provide information and materials and footage to whomever she is working for.” Hentschel was paid to develop a close personal friendship with Kim Tanaka, a professional and very credentialed fitness trainer at an Atlanta area gym. Even though Hentschel was living out of state, she succeeded in becoming one of Tanaka’s best friends and confidants. They even vacationed together. In this audio clip with a female investigator, Kristen Hentschel describes Kim Tanaka’s reaction upon learning about the Southern Company's surveillance of her for the first time in June 2022: Tom Fanning, who cut off all telephone contact with Tanaka in late 2017, desperately tried to reach her after she contacted Fanning via email about a call she received from a Bloomberg News reporter (Josh Saul) who was in the mix with the spy operatives who planted Kristen Hentschel within Tanaka's friendship circle. Remarkably, Fanning confessed to Tanaka, via a reply email, that he knew about the surveillance, but he did not say when or how he learned about it. Tanaka refused to accept Fanning's repeated phones calls to discuss the matter, but she saved his voice messages in which he pleaded with Tanaka to call him back. Kristen Hentschel is the former mistress of How To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, whom she claimed fooled her into believing he was leaving his then-wife years ago. At the time, she went by the name of Kristyn Caddell. National Public Radio Busted Hentschel in December 2022 This is how National Public Radio described the surveillance activity on Kim Tanaka in a December 21, 2022, article titled, “She was an ABC News producer. She also was a corporate operative:” “Hentschel's work stretched beyond Florida politicians and news conferences. This past June, fitness instructor Kim Tanaka was sitting poolside at an upscale hotel in Atlanta when a reporter for Bloomberg News called with a startling question: Did Tanaka know that she had been spied on five years prior? Tanaka's boyfriend during that period was Tom Fanning, the CEO of energy giant Southern Company — a direct competitor of Florida Power & Light. The couple broke up in late 2017. The reporter, Josh Saul, laid out the material he'd obtained in a leaked Matrix dossier, which included private information about her, Tanaka recalls. ‘It made me feel mad. Definitely violated. And anxious,’ Tanaka says. Bloomberg never published a story. A private investigator confirmed to AL.com this year that he had surveilled Tanaka and Fanning five years ago for Matrix….. But there was another shocker in the dossier. It didn't just contain old information pertaining to Tanaka — it contained recent and sensitive information about Fanning's wife, whom he married after breaking up with Tanaka. To Tanaka, it meant the spying had continued as recently as this year. A friend was sitting alongside Tanaka in June as she took Saul's call: Kristen Hentschel. In late 2021, Hentschel had hired Tanaka at an Atlanta gym to be her personal trainer, even though there's no record of Hentschel living in Georgia. The two became close, even vacationing together. Another former Matrix operative, Paul Hamrick, had also hired Tanaka as his trainer the same week as Hentschel, according to emails reviewed by Floodlight and NPR. Tanaka says she told Hentschel and Hamrick private details found in the dossier and doesn't know if they or someone else spied on her. Hentschel remains a good friend, Tanaka says, and a lot of fun. Floodlight and NPR have not been able to independently verify whether Hentschel or Hamrick were hired by Pitts or Pitts' new firm to monitor Tanaka or whether they monitored Tanaka. In a note sent this summer to an associate, Hentschel wrote she was still working for Pitts.” In the aftermath of the NPR article, we have: (a) unearthed the role that Jim Kerr played in the coup d’etat, (b) discovered the continuing nature and scope of the Southern Company's espionage and surveillance program, (c) exposed the Southern Company’s use of mainstream media connections like Bloomberg News’ Josh Saul, and (d) discovered the “hush money payments" the Southern Company has made to multiple victims in its espionage schemes and racketeering enterprises. Matrix's owner, Joe Perkins, and the company's former CEO, Jeff Pitts, parted ways in December of 2020. The timeline of events in this article runs from April 6, 2017 through December of 2022. On March 13, 2023, an attorney for Kristen Hentschel asserted that the NPR article was defamatory and demanded a retraction. NPR has made no retraction to date. The Southern Company’s “Hush Money” Payments to Tanaka Were Never Reported to State or Federal Regulators, or Law Enforcement Officials After learning that she was the victim of a Southern Company surveillance program, Ms. Tanaka threatened to sue the Southern Company for violating her right to privacy. Tom Fanning and Jim Kerr promptly resolved Tanaka’s legal claims. However, they did so in a clandestine manner and in amounts that evaded the company’s reporting requirements on its 10-Q and 10-K regulatory filings. Instead, the payments to Kim Tanaka are/were laundered through a Southern Company vendor. These payments are the subject of an upcoming article. In addition to Kim Tanaka, Kristen Henstchel received “hush money’ payments, as well. Again, the money was laundered through a Southern Company vendor to avoid detection. When former president Donald J. Trump laundered “hush money” payments through Attorney Michael Cohen to porn actress Stephanie Gregory Clifford, a/k/a Stormy Daniels, those payments got Trump indicted on 34 felony counts in a New York state court. Trump used his private corporation's money for his "hush money" payments. In Kim Tanaka's case, the Southern Company, a publicly traded company, reportedly used ratepayer money for its "hush money" payments. I plan to amend the criminal complaint I filed on August 13, 2023 with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis to add a claim of “hush money” payments using Southern Company funds without proper authorization and disclosure. We are continuing our investigation into this matter to determine whether board members knew about the “hush money” payments, approved them, and failed to disclose these payments on the company’s 10-Qs and 10-Ks in order to conceal the corporately sanctioned and financially sponsored espionage program that terrorized innocent victims like Kim Tanaka. Stay tuned!