By: Donald V. Watkins May 10, 2023 BREAKING NEWS --- A Congressional report issued today by the staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability details Biden family corruption by using bank records and other subpoenaed records to document the flow of millions of dollars from Chinese nationals and a convicted Romanian criminal into the bank accounts of Hunter Biden and other Biden family members while Joe Biden served as Vice President and led or influenced the Obama administration’s policy initiatives in these countries. You can read the full 36-page report by clicking here. The House report breaks down the sophisticated money laundering schemes that were used to funnel money into the pockets of Biden family members, who obviously did little or no work for this money. The report uses bank records, White House visitor logs, travel records, photos, and other official documents to establish the Biden family’s pattern and practice of courting business in regions of the world in which the then Vice President had an outsize role and influenced U.S. policy. The reports establishes from timelines and solid documentation that: (a) influence peddling by Hunter Biden and Joe Biden likely occurred, and (b) Hunter Biden and other Biden family members benefitted financially and directly from this influence peddling. So that we are clear, influence peddling by unregistered agents for the purpose of impacting U.S. foreign policy is a crime under various federal statues. The House report is a straight-forward investigative document. The Committee's staff allowed the bank records and other documents to tell the story of influence peddling. The money-trails from foreign nationals and criminals to the Biden family do not need much interpretation or explanation. They pretty much speak for themselves. The House report comes on the heels of a Congressional inquiry into Clarence Thomas’ “pay-to-play” scheme. An April 24, 2023, letter from Sen. Ron Wyden, Chairmen of the Senate Committee on Finance, to Harlan Crow (Thomas’ acknowledged benefactor) seeks the same kind of records used by the House Committee to establish the Biden family's corruption. The documentation laid out by the House staff in the Biden influence peddling scheme is equal to or greater than the published documentation in the Clarence Thomas “pay-to-play” scheme. Numerous publications have used public records to document Thomas' propensity to "sell" his vote on the Supreme Court to conservative advocacy groups, via directs cash payments to his wife or lavish "gifts" to himself. From a law enforcement standpoint, the Biden family and Harlan Crow/Clarence Thomas influence peddling schemes and "pay-to-play" transactions warrant full scale, vigorous criminal investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice. Political party affiliation and positions held in government should have no bearing on whether these criminal investigations occur or the outcomes of the investigations. Likewise, it should not matter about who developed or presented the evidence of criminality in each case. The only relevant inquiry is: (a) whether federal public corruption crimes were committed in each case, and (b) whether the benefactors and beneficiaries of the monies that changed hands knew they were committing criminal offenses at the time? The incriminating documents suggests that the answer is “Yes” in both the Biden and Thomas cases. Whether Attorney General Merrick Garland has the “balls” to do the right thing in these criminal cases remains to be seen. Garland’s track record in fighting public and corporate corruption is abysmal and embarrassing. Garland either condones this kind of public corruption, or he is too weak to fight it.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 14, 2023 An Editorial Opinion On May 1, 2023, Marine veteran Daniel Penny fatally choked Jordan Neely on a New York City subway after the homeless man threatened passengers. On May 12, 2023, Penny was charged with second degree manslaughter charges for Neely’s death. Conservatives see Daniel Penny a “Good Samaritan.” Manhattan District Attorney views him as a criminal. The photo below will be material in deciding this criminal case. Daniel Penny’s chokehold was executed as part of his citizen’s arrest of Neely. Penny was obviously trained in the Marines on how to engage in hand-to-hand combat, including how to administer the chokehold as a deadly force. Did Jordan Neely have training in the use of hand-to-hand combat? Apparently not. What Amount of Force was Penny Authorized to Use in Making His Citizen's Arrest? A citizen's arrest is allowed in New York, but it is subject to certain limitations and conditions. Under New York law, a private citizen may arrest another person if he/she has witnessed a felony being committed, or if he/she has reasonable cause to believe that a person has committed a felony and is about to escape or cause harm. It appears that Daniel Penny had probable cause to arrest Jordan Neely based upon Neely's threats to passengers on the subway train. It also appears that Neely did not banish any kind of weapon (e.g., knife, pistol, assault rifle, baseball bat, machete, etc.) when uttering his threats of harm to passengers. Additionally, two other passengers assisted Penny in making his citizen's arrest. However, there are important limitations to a citizen's arrest in New York. The first and most important limitation is this: Daniel Penny could only use reasonable force to make his arrest of Jordan Neely. Second, New York State passed a law in 2020 that banned police officers from using chokeholds. In making his citizen’s arrest, Danny Penny was not authorized under the state’s citizen’s arrest statute to use greater force than a police officer could have used in making the arrest. Daniel Penny used a category of deadly force that was banned by New York State law, and Jordan Neely died as a result of Penny’s chokehold. Even in the states that permit chokeholds, they are only allowed in certain situations. For example, some police departments may allow police officers to use chokeholds as a last resort when other use-of-force options have failed or when an officer's life is in danger. This was not the case in Daniel Penny’s arrest of Jordan Neely. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' attempt to politicize Penny’s chokehold is nothing more than a cheap gimmick to jumpstart his lackluster 2024 presidential campaign. However, this gimmick is dangerous because it could easily lead to an unwanted and unwarranted rise in vigilantism across the nation. This case will be an uphill climb for Daniel Penny. Sometimes, good intentions have bad consequences. This case is one of those times.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 17, 2023 Part 1, Womack's Long History as a Sexual Predator In 1998, a married Christopher C. “Chris” Womack made an inappropriate sexual pass at businesswoman Rita Vaughn Kennedy in a private lounge at the Tutwiler Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama during an afternoon “Happy Hour.” Ms. Kennedy was the wife of local business icon Ted Kennedy, a friend and political supporter of then-Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. Ms. Kennedy, who was a key Arrington political supporter and owner of an established travel agency in Birmingham, was waiting in the private lounge to have a meeting with Mayor Arrington. When Arrington and I entered the room, Chris Womack was still harassing Ms. Kennedy. Arrington sensed that something was wrong and informed Womack that we needed to begin our meeting with Ms. Kennedy. This was the hint for Womack to leave the room. As soon as Chris Womack departed the lounge area, a distraught Rita Kennedy broke down in tears and informed Arrington and me that Womack had propositioned her for an affair. She recounted the entire conversation while wiping away tears. At the time, Chris Womack served as Senior Vice President of Public Relations and Corporate Services of Alabama Power Company -- a position he held from 1995 to 1998. Elmer Harris was Womacks' CEO at this Southern Company affiliate. Arrington immediately called Elmer Harris on his cellphone and reported the sexual harassment incident to Harris. After Arrington’s call to Elmer Harris, Alabama Power got rid of Chris Womack. Today, Chris Womack, a native of Greenville, Alabama, is the president and CEO-elect of Southern Company, one of the nation’s leading energy providers serving 9 million customers nationwide. Womack is poised to become CEO of the Southern Company on May 24, 2023. From May 2021 to March 2023, Chris Womack served as chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power Company, the Southern Company’s largest subsidiary. He assumed leadership of Georgia Power after serving as executive vice president and president of external affairs for Georgia Power after his return to the Southern Company in 2006. Prior to rejoining the Southern Company, Chris Womack worked on Capitol Hill for the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC. He also served as a legislative aide for former Congressman Leon E. Panetta and as staff director for the Subcommittee on Personnel and Police for the Committee on House Administration. A Propensity for Womanizing Chris Womack married a very accomplished woman named Sabrina A. Shannon. She is a respected professional in her own right. Yet, Chris Womack had a propensity to cheat on Sabrina Shannon. Womack’s reputation as a philanderer was well-known in Birmingham. At Alabama Power, Womack preyed on female subordinates. He was privately warned about this workplace misconduct, to no avail. Throughout the years, Womack sponsored the employment and/or promotion of several women at Alabama Power, in professional and managerial positions with whom he later had illicit affairs. The names of these women are known to us, but we are withholding the publication of them in this article to spare them unwarranted embarrassment. As Womack progressed through the ranks of the Southern Company, so did his womanizing. This was particularly true in Birmingham, Atlanta, Washington, and Houston. Sabrina Shannon and Chris Womack eventually divorced in May of 2014, but not before Womack reportedly developed a special personal relationship with business executive Chloe J. Cromarty, who lived in Houston, Texas. Ms. Cromarty was Head of US Power and Gas Compliance for Mercuria Energy America from January 2015 to May 2021. She has also worked in Regulatory Affairs for British Petroleum (2014). Cromarty served as Vice President for Compliance at JPMorgan (2010 - 2014) and Director of Regulatory Affairs for International Power America, Inc. From 2000 to 2005, Cromarty worked at Georgia Power in Transmission Construction Contracts, State Legislative Affairs, Resource Policy & Planning Transmission. After his divorce from Sabrina Shannon, Chris Womack married Chloe Cromarty in a private ceremony. On April 5, 2023, Womack and Cromarty bought a $4.5 million, 5 bedroom, 7,644 sq./ft. mansion in the Brookhaven section of Atlanta. The home compliments the power couple's new lifestyle. Georgia Power Customers Financed Womack’s Illicit Romances Chloe Cromarty was not Chris Womack’s only special personal relationship, but she is the one who now carries his last name. At least two other special personal relationships were financed with power company money. I am withholding the names of these two women because they have done nothing wrong. Each woman reportedly submitted to a relationship with Womack that she thought was required to advance her professional and business career. One woman is still employed as a manager for Alabama Power Company in Birmingham. Though she is well qualified for her position, she was reportedly offered the job and selected for the position because of her special personal relationship with Womack. Another woman in a special personal relationship with Womack was placed in the Southern Company’s vendor system to provide infrastructure equipment for the installation of powerlines. She works as a diversity partner with major suppliers of the same equipment. Over the years, her business relationship as a Southern Company “pass-through” vendor has reportedly netted her several millions of dollars. It appears that Womack’s conduct with respect to these two women contravened the Southern Company’s Code of Conduct, for the woman who is a management employee, and the Compliance Principles, for the woman in the vendor relationship. It is unclear whether these women would have obtained the professional relationships they currently enjoy within the Southern Company without entering into special personal relationships with Chris Womack. What is clear is that they each felt the need to participate in a special personal relationship with Womack in order to cross that business threshold at the Southern Company. A History of Flawed Leadership in a Corporate Culture of “Southern Male Privilege” I have known Chris Womack for 37 years. I first met Womack in 1988 when he was a campaign aide to Democratic presidential nominee Dick Gephart. He is smart, polished, and likeable. Womack’s perennial weakness in the business arena is his propensity to stalk and sexually harass women who work within his sphere of business influence (as well as those who work outside of the company's orbit), whether they are married or not. This propensity has been mostly unabated since 1988. What is worse, Womack has always managed to finance his sexual escapades using corporate dollars and the perks that come with his executive positions (i.e., private jet rides, access to skyboxes for sporting events and concerts, attendance at private parties and galas, travel to exotic ports of call, etc.). Over the years, millions of dollars of Southern Company money have been spent by Womack to deploy these corporate resources as magnets for lovers, all in violation of company policies and state and federal law governing publicly traded companies. As Chris Womack ascended the Southern Company’s corporate ladder, his appetite for a corporate-sponsored playboy lifestyle increased. Likewise, Womack’s power over women increased, as well. There Are No Checks and Balances at the Southern Company to Reign-In Unethical Conduct, Racism, and Sexism Based on the series of articles we have published on the Southern Company since January 2023, that are no checks and balances at the company to reign-in unethical conduct, compliance violations, racism, and/or sexism committed by top executive officers and board members. The company's existing policies on these subjects are little more than empty words and phrases. Outgoing CEO Thomas A. Fanning is currently embroiled in a "hush money" payment scheme in which Fanning used corporate funds to pay former girlfriend Kimberly A. Tanaka to keep quiet about surveillance activities that Southern Company operatives and their former associates conducted on her from April 6, 2017 to September 22, 2022. These secret "hush money" payments were not disclosed to the Southern Company's board of directors, as required by company policies and applicable state and federal laws governing publicly traded companies. Ironically, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump was indicted on March 30, 2023 on 34 felony counts for his participation in a comparable "hush money" scheme that used his private company's money. The Southern Company's board of directors has taken no adverse action against Thomas Fanning for participating in a "hush money" scheme arranged by James Y. "Jim" Kerr, II. Until March 31, 2023, Kerr was Fanning's executive vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and chief of staff. In fact, the board is prepared to reward Fanning on May 24th with a retirement package with an estimated value of up to $100 million. In 2018, Jim Kerr was caught on a secret audiotape making racially insensitive remarks about the suppression of environmental justice rights of the Southern Company’s 4,000 black customers in the North Birmingham, Alabama communities of Collegeville, Fairmont, and Harriman Park. Kerr was not fired for his dismissive attitude towards these black customers. Instead, Kerr was promoted to the Chairman, President, and CEO of Southern Gas Company. Kerr's chameleon brand of racism and elitist attitude appears to be incapable of reform. Additionally, Lead Independent board member David J. Grain was exposed as a “grifter” who uses his Southern Company platform for his “grifting" activities. We detailed a specific example of Grain’s “grifting” in an investigative report on the Southern Fiber Company. Board member Kristine Svinicki is dripping with conflicts of interest. Svinicki is the former chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who departed office in Washington on January 20, 2021 and joined the Southern Company board of directors on October 18, 2021. Board member Donald James is one of the subjects of a criminal complaint that was filed in April with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis. The other subjects of the complaint are: James Kerr, II, David Grain, Kristine Svinicki, and outgoing CEO Thomas Fanning (who was added to the complaint after we learned of Fanning’s involvement in a secret “hush money” scheme with Ms. Tanaka). Despite the problems highlighted with each of these board members and executive officers, the slate of board members to be reappointed at the Southern Company’s annual meeting on May 24th are mostly the same ones who have failed to reign-in the ongoing racketeering enterprise and massive accounting fraud scheme that have been reported to federal and state law enforcement agencies by multiple complainants. Epilogue On May 24th, the Southern Company is set to install a well-known, perennial stalker and sexual harasser of women as its next Chief Executive Officer. This action comes within 30 days after NBCUniversal fired CEO Jeff Shell for inappropriate sexual conduct on April 23, 2023, and 3M fired Michael Vale for sexual misconduct on May 15, 2023. Vale had just been promoted to 3M’s group president and chief business and country officer three weeks ago. At first blush, the Southern Company's promotion of Jim Kerr, whose "Old South" racism is captured in his own words on the audiotape, and elevation of Christopher Womack, a serial philanderer and sexual harasser of women, seem to be dubious personnel actions for a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 Company. Upon further review, however, these actions reflect the Southern Company's open embrace of a time-honored "Southern Male Privilege." The "enforcer" of the Southern Company's misogynistic and racist corporate culture is Jim Kerr. Through a network of well-placed minions, Jim Kerr oversees Chris Womack, literally and figuratively. Womack's titles at the Southern Company have largely been ceremonial. In recent years, Kerr has functioned as the "de facto" CEO of the Southern Company. Finally, the Southern Company privately brags about its incestuous relationship with the National Democratic Party and its chokehold on Joe Biden's Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Based upon the Southern Company's gross misconduct in the workplace and its financial clout within the halls of state and federal government, the company believes it is a "modern-day untouchable." Only time will tell if this private, internal Southern Company assessment is true. Stay tuned for Part 2 in the Christopher Womack series of investigative articles. It gets much worse.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 18, 2023 COMING SOON--- Southern Company CEO (elect) Christopher “Chris” Womack was not alone in his failed leadership at the giant utility company. Other powerful members of the Southern Company’s Management Council wallowed in ethical lapses, inappropriate sexual relationships, and unchecked displays of elitism and racism, all to the detriment of the company's 9 million customers in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and Illinois. Chris Womack’s womanizing was much worse than what we reported yesterday. The worst example of Womack's inappropriate sexual conduct will be published before he assumes the CEO's job on May 24, 2023. James Y. “Jim” Kerr, II, the Southern Company’s former executive vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and chief of staff to CEO Thomas Fanning, was not alone in his flagrant pattern and practice of "Old South" racism, as captured in his own words on a secretly recorded audiotape. Some of the men in the photo accompanying this teaser are bigger racists. The Southern Company is dripping with ethical lapses among the executives on its Management Council. These lapses truly define the Southern Company's corrupt corporate culture, from top to bottom. We will introduce the management council executives who have abandoned every core value embedded in the Southern Company’s Code of Ethics and Compliance Principles. No one inside or outside of the company is policing their conduct. Some of these Management Council executives are rotten to the core.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 19, 2023 During the 1990s, Bryan D. Anderson had a reputation at The Coca-Cola Company for smiling in the faces of black corporate executives, company employees, and public officials, while reportedly calling them “niggers” behind their backs. Anderson, a Georgia native, worked at Coca-Cola as Director of Government Relations (1992 to 2002), Assistant Vice President for Government Relations and Public Affairs (2002 to 2004), and Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Relations (2004 to 2010). During his tenure at The Coca-Cola Company, Anderson reportedly contributed to a corporate culture that was extremely hostile to the company’s black employees. This hostile work environment prompted four black plaintiffs to file a 1999 class action racial discrimination lawsuit against The Coca-Cola Company on behalf of themselves and a class of 2,200 former and current salaried black employees. In general, the lawsuit alleged that Coca-Cola employed racially discriminatory employment practices that limited the professional advancement of black employees. The specific allegations in the lawsuit that are relevant to Bryan Anderson's story in this article appear below: Paragraph 30 of the Complaint: “When a senior-level African-American employee of Coca-Cola moved from Minute Maid to the Company's Atlanta headquarters in 1991, [Coca-Cola CEO M. Douglas] Ivester communicated that the ‘environment’ at the Company ‘isn't very accepting’ and that the African-American employee might hear some racially motivated comments. Ivester went on to say that the Company needed ‘those people’ who might make racist comments.” Sources who were familiar with the case at the time claimed that Bryan Anderson was one of “those people.” Paragraph 32 of the Complaint: “For example, in or about 1996 or 1997, one of the few African-American Assistant Vice Presidents attended a meeting in Atlanta with some representatives of the bottling companies. He was the only African-American at the meeting, but high-level Caucasian marketing executives from Coca-Cola were present. The head of marketing of the bottling company for the state of Alabama introduced himself as the "Grand Cyclops" of Alabama. Despite the obvious Ku Klux Klan reference, no Company employee responded to this outrageous comment at the Company meeting. This type of comment highlights the challenges facing African-American employees who are required to work with the bottlers on a regular basis, and who cannot penetrate the glass ceiling or overcome the glass walls because of the connections between these bottling companies and Coca-Cola.” Sources who knew Bryan Anderson at the time reported that he coddled this brand of racism while working at Coca Cola. Paragraph 35 of the Complaint: “These discriminatory practices extend to Coca-Cola's relationships with ethnic marketing agencies. Upon information and belief, David Weldon, a Caucasian employee who was then the Vice-President of Advertising, told an African-American advertising agency in or about 1997, words to the effect that ‘I don't hire you to do good advertising, I hire you to do black advertising’ and ‘it's not my fault you are black -- it's yours’." Sources close to the Southern Company today say that Paragraph 35 fairly reflects the current views of Bryan Anderson on marketing activities and related expenditures within the company. The Southern Company’s Form 10-K for 2022 appears to corroborate this view, as well. The parties in the Coca-Cola case reached a $192 million settlement that was approved by an Atlanta federal court in June 2001. At the time, the settlement was the largest employment discrimination settlement in the nation’s history. In addition to the monetary relief, the settlement mandated a sweeping overhaul of Coca-Cola’s hiring and promotional practices, performance evaluation procedures, and employee appeals from adverse performance evaluations and personnel actions. The lawsuit and resulting settlement overcame a hostile work environment that was reportedly created, in part, by Bryan Anderson and other white Coca-Cola executives of his ilk. The settlement, itself, transformed The Coca-Cola Company into one of the most progressive work environments for racial minorities (and women) in the 21st century. Today, Bryan Anderson is a Top Executive at the Southern Company Today, Bryan Anderson is Executive Vice President and President of External Affairs for Southern Company. He Left The Coca-Cola Company and joined the Southern Company in 2010. Reportedly, Bryan Anderson brought his negative racial views of black executives, black-owned marketing agencies, and black public officials with him to the Southern Company. We are told that the only blacks Anderson seems to tolerate are the ones he can control and manipulate, regardless of the titles they hold at the Southern Company or offices they occupy in government. We have confirmed that Chris Womack, the incoming CEO of the Southern Company, is one of these controlled blacks. For reasons that some Southern Company "insiders" do not fully understand, Womack has prostrated himself to Bryan Anderson's dominion and control. Bryan Anderson also serves on the Southern Company’s Executive Management Council. The Management Council members appear below. Additionally, Bryan Anderson is responsible for the Southern Company’s branding, corporate communication, public relations, security policy, and additional external affairs functions. Since joining Southern Company in 2010, Bryan Anderson has directed the company’s political, policy, and regulatory activities in Washington. He also manages the company’s Washington, D.C. office. Bryan Anderson’s chief job in Washington is to peddle whatever influence is necessary to ensure that the Southern Company’s 9 million customers have as little consumer protections and environmental justice rights as is possible. The customers of Mississippi Power Company, Alabama Power Company, Georgia Power Company, Southern Gas Company, and the Southern Company’s other service companies pay a lot of money in monthly power and gas bills to support Anderson’s influence peddling in Washington. An estimated 25% of the Southern Company's 9 million customers are black. They paid an estimated $15 billion in 2022 in outrageously high electric and gas bills. Yet, the Southern Company has consistently financed politicians on Capitol Hill who eagerly undercut their civil, environmental, and human rights as a course of conduct. By all accounts, Bryan Anderson is aggressive in his style of influence peddling. No high ranking black executive in the Southern Company, including Chris Womack, dares to cross him. Anderson reportedly views Womack as extremely weak and highly compromised in view of Womack's well-known propensity for engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior with the company's female employees and vendors. Some Southern Company “insiders” liken Bryan Anderson to James Y. “Jim” Kerr, II, the Southern Company’s former Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, and Chief of Staff to CEO Thomas Fanning. Kerr is an "Old South" racist who now serves as the Chairman, President, and CEO of Southern Gas Company. Jim Kerr is the top Southern Company executive who was caught on a secret audiotape in 2018 dissing the environmental justice rights of 4,000 mostly black Alabama Power Company customers in the Collegeville, Fairmont, and Harriman Park communities of North Birmingham, Alabama. Kerr smiles in the faces of blacks, but denigrates them in private. When compared to Jim Kerr, Bryan Anderson is reported to be a smug, Washington-polished, racist on steroids. What Kind of Influence Peddling Does the Southern Company’s Money Buy in Washington? Bryan Anderson’s influence peddling facilitates and enhances the Southern Company’s ability to rip off its 9 million customers, with impunity. Anderson has built an impenetrable political fortress for the Southern Company in Washington. From this fortress, the Southern Company rewards its political friends, attacks its critics, and "captures and controls" the White House, key members of Congress, and various federal agencies (e.g., U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Federal Trade Commission, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Department of Energy, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency, etc.) that impact the company's future. Bryan Anderson uses his puppet-master skills, together with the Southern Company's immense financial resources and entrenched Washington political relationships, to manipulate the federal bureaucracy into advancing and protecting the Southern Company's corporate interests, as dictated by the company to a bevy of greedy politicians and hapless bureaucrats. The Southern Company “buys” or “rents” Democrats and Republican politicians, alike. Typically, these politicians are “for sale” the moment their right hand comes off the swearing-in Bible. From 1987 to January 2023, Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) was the Southern Company’s main “go to” guy in Washington. Whatever the Southern Company needed from Congress, or the White House, or any federal regulatory agency, Richard Shelby was able to get it. This is particularly true with respect to political initiatives that: (a) minimized and/or rolled back consumer protection rights for Southern Company customers, (b) suppressed environmental protection rights for the Southern Company’s black and poor white customers, and (c) “fixed” potential criminal cases at the Department of Justice and SEC involving the Southern Company, its affiliates, and their top executives. Richard Shelby was an original COINTELPRO prosecutor in Tuscaloosa, Alabama during the 1960s who railroaded thousands of black defendants in the local municipal court system in a futile effort to crush Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s civil rights movement in Alabama. As a U. S. Senator, Richard Shelby was always ready, willing, and able to limit or suppress the rights of Southern Company customers, particularly those federally protected rights that benefitted the company’s black and poor white customers. Under Bryan Anderson’s leadership, the Southern Company and its affiliates rewarded Richard Shelby handsomely for flexing his political muscle in Washington on the company’s behalf. Anderson's Washington office funneled campaign contributions, other tangible economic benefits, and a dazzling array of corporate perks to Shelby as a reward for his loyalty and unparalleled political support in Washington. The amount of "gifting" and "love offerings" that Richard Shelby reportedly garnered from parties affiliated with the Southern Company dwarfed the estimated $3 million in undisclosed "gifts" that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas received from billionaire Harlan Crow. Richard Shelby’s motto as a Washington politician was simple: “Too much money ain’t never enough.” Shelby’s ability to get filthy rich from his 44 years as a “public servant” who was living on a modest government salary as a House member and Senator in Washington was rivaled only by fellow Southerns, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Shelby never explained the sources and methods of his wealth creation in Washington. Interestingly, Bill Clinton is one of the operatives in the Southern Company's stable of political "fixers" of criminal cases at Joe Biden's notoriously weak, inept, politicized, and weaponized Department of Justice. Clinton reportedly gets paid $5 million per case to secure non-prosecution agreements from the Department for big Wall Street corporations. These agreements are routinely handed out to big-time Wall Street crooks, no matter which political party is in power. At the Southern Company’s request, Shelby has also used his considerable political “juice” in Washington to sic a blitzkrieg of federal agencies on critics of the company and/or its affiliates. These agencies dutifully complied with Shelby’s requests, as a matter of political courtesy. Federal judges in Alabama who received Richard Shelby-sponsored appointments to the federal bench between 1987 and 2022 openly "railroaded" defendants whom Shelby personally targeted for annihilation in their courtrooms. For example, former Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller accommodated such a request when he railroaded former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (a Democrat) and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in his courtroom during their 2006 trial on phony public corruption charges that were devised, orchestrated, and pushed by White House political operative Karl Rove. Fuller resigned his judgeship on August 1, 2015 after we exposed his August 10, 2014 arrest in Atlanta for viciously beating his second wife, Kelli, in a drunken rage. As it turned out, Fuller was a serial wife beater. A Political Chokehold in Washington Today, Bryan Anderson operates a Southern Company political and marketing apparatus that has a chokehold on Joe Biden and his Department of Justice. This chokehold reportedly allows the Southern Company to control, stall, and/or kill any enterprise-threatening federal criminal investigations by the Department of Justice and/or the SEC into the Southern Company's business affairs and misconduct. The political chokehold is a favorite Southern Company weapon of choice. It is routinely deployed at the federal, state, and local levels of government. The chokehold is why no elected or appointed official in federal, state, or local government will oppose a Southern Company political initiative -- no matter how badly the initiative harms the company's 9 million customers. Finally, the continued presence of Bryan Anderson and Jim Kerr at the Southern Company signals that one of the nation's premier utility companies is a sanctuary for white executives who reportedly harbor furtive racial attitudes towards blacks. Bryan D. Anderson and Jim Kerr are now the self-appointed and proud guardians of this bastion of "Old South" values in a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company. Stay tuned for Part 2 in the Christopher Womack series of investigative articles. It gets much worse for all parties involved.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 21, 2023 An Editorial Opinion On May 24, 2023, the Southern Company is set to install a well-known, perennial stalker and sexual harasser of women as its new Chief Executive Officer. His name is Christopher C. “Chris” Womack. Womack, who was handpicked for the position by outgoing CEO Thomas Fanning, has a legendary reputation inside and outside of the Southern Company as a “womanizer.” This reputation apparently does not matter to Fanning or the company's male-dominated board of directors. In a May 17, 2023, exclusive investigative article titled, “Christopher C. Womack: A Legendary Womanizer is Poised to Lead the Southern Company,” we reported on Womack’s reputation for engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior with Southern Company female employees and contractors, dating back to 1995. Since April of 2023, at least two New York Stock Exchange companies have removed their CEOs for inappropriate sexual behavior. On April 23, 2023, NBCUniversal fired CEO Jeff Shell for inappropriate sexual conduct. On May 15, 2023, 3M fired Michael Vale for sexual misconduct. Vale had just been promoted to 3M’s group president and chief business and country officer four weeks ago. Jeff Shell and Michael Vale are white. Chris Womack is black. Next Wednesday, the Southern Company will ignore Chris Womack’s long history of inappropriate sexual behavior with female employees and female vendors in order to elevate him to the position of CEO. The rules governing inappropriate sexual behavior that apply to white CEOs at publicly traded companies apparently do not apply to Chris Womack at the Southern Company. There is no doubt that Chris Womack is the beneficiary of a new kind of "unspoken" preferential treatment, despite his history of inappropriate sexual behavior. The Southern Company Plans to Implement a New Form of “Wokeness” The Southern Company’s Code of Ethics contains this provision: “We are an equal opportunity employer. We do not tolerate inappropriate conduct, intimidation, harassment, or discrimination on any basis, including race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression.” On its face, this provision prohibits inappropriate sexual conduct in the workplace at the Southern Company. This prohibition is fairly common among New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 companies. On May 24, the Southern Company plans to ignore this prohibition in Chris Womack’s case in order to place him in a position of power over women who are at his mercy. This patently insensitive move is unprecedented in the modern era of corporate governance. Womack’s promotion to CEO appears to usher in a new form of “wokeness," sexism, and preferential treatment at the Southern Company. The Southern Company appears to be ready, willing, and able to lead all New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 companies in making 1990s-era sexism fashionable, once again. A “Pump and Dump” Stock Scheme Lurks in the Background In the midst of Chris Womack's controversial promotion to CEO, there is a "pump and dump" stock scheme that is lurking in the background. The scheme is led by outgoing CEO Thomas Fanning. Apparently, Thomas Fanning, Bryan D. Anderson, and Stephen E. Kuczynski (Chairman, President, and CEO of Southern Nuclear Operating Company) know that something is amiss at the Southern Company. Since April of 2023, these three senior management executives have been dumping shares of Southern Company stock that were “pumped” up in price via creative accounting techniques (a/k/a “accounting fraud”). On April 10, 2023, Thomas Fanning, who made more than $24 million in total compensation for 2022, sold 50,000 shares of Southern Company stock at $71.54 per share for total of $3,577,000. On May 10, 2023, Fanning sold another 50,000 shares of Southern Company stock at $75.16 per share for a total of $3,758,000. On May 8, 2023, Bryan D. Anderson sold 9,491 shares of Southern Company stock at $75.09 for a total of $712,110. On May 10, 2023, Anderson sold 27,426 shares of stock at $75.11 per share for a total of $2,059,967. With respect to both of these transactions, Anderson exercised an option to purchase 9,491 and 27,426 shares of stock at $41.28 per share. The transactions allowed Anderson to acquired the shares and simultaneously sell them on May 8th and 10th for an immediate windfall profit of $320,891 and $927,822, respectively. On April 10, 2023, Stephen E. Kuczynski sold 5,000 shares of Southern Company stock at $71.89 per share for a total of $359,450. On May 10, 2023, Kuczynski sold another 5,000 shares of stock at $74.96 per share for a total of $374,800. Since joining the company on July 11, 2011, Kuczynski has dumped $12,985,287 worth of Southern Company stock. It is clear that Kuczynski is diverting himself of Southern Company stock. The question is: Why? On July 29, 2022, James Y. "Jim" Kerr exercised an option to acquire 25,000 shares of Southern Company stock at $42.16 per share. Kerr authorized the sale of these shares on the same day at $76 per share for a total of $1,900,000. At the time, Jim Kerr was Thomas Fanning’s executive vice president, general counsel, chief of compliance, and chief of staff. Incidentally, the sale of Kerr's stock occurred approximately one month after Thomas Fanning's girlfriend, Kimberly Tanaka, learned for the first time that she had been the victim of an illegal surveillance operation carried out by Southern Company operatives. Tanaka promptly informed Fanning about the surveillance operation. Tanaka also advised Fanning that she planned to sue the company for this invasion of her privacy. To head off a PR nightmare, Fanning and Kerr arranged to pay Tanaka "hush money" with Southern Company funds that were laundered through a third-party vendor in order to buy her silence. The Southern Company's “pump and dump” scheme was not limited to the transactions referenced above. Quite a few senior management employees have sold Southern Company stock within the last six months. The Southern Company's "pump and dump" scheme is similar in nature to what occurred at HealthSouth Corp. (in Birmingham, Alabama) immediately before the company’s stock price crashed in 2003. HealthSouth’s stock price tanked after its chief financial officer reported the company’s accounting fraud scheme to the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission. It’s a Hot Mess at the Southern Company! On May 19, 2023, top executives at the Southern Company met for their Management Council meeting. They were reportedly worried that my investigative articles might be picked up by mainstream media organizations that cover New York Stock Exchange companies. After the meeting, the whispered consensus among many of the Management Council members was that the Southern Company is in one hot mess. Morale at the company is in the toilet. Here is why: First, departing CEO Thomas Fanning is embroiled in the “hush money” scheme referenced above in which corporate funds were used to silence Kimberly Tanaka, a victim of the company's illegal surveillance activities. The surveillance campaign and resultant “hush money” scheme were not disclosed to the Southern Company’s board of directors or approved by the board. We have reported the scheme to Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis. Second, Jim Kerr was caught on a 2018 secret audiotape making racially insensitive remarks about the suppression of environmental justice rights of the Southern Company’s 4,000 black customers in the North Birmingham, Alabama communities of Collegeville, Fairmont, and Harriman Park. Kerr was not fired for his dismissive attitude towards the Southern Company's black customers. Instead, Kerr was promoted on March 31, 2023, to the position of Chairman, President, and CEO of Southern Gas Company. Black Southern Gas Company employees despise him. Kerr's chameleon brand of racism and elitist attitude appears to be incapable of reform. Third, Bryan D. Anderson, the Southern Company’s Executive Vice President and President for External Affairs, was exposed for his history of racially discriminatory conduct in our May 19, 2023, article. Anderson, a top executive at The Coca-Cola Company from 1992 to 2010, was responsible, in part, for certain racist employment practices that forced Coca-Cola to pay a record-breaking $192 million to its black employees in a class action settlement. In 2010, Anderson reportedly brought some of his toxic employment practices with him to the Southern Company. Like Jim Kerr, Bryan Anderson’s chameleon brand of racism and elitist attitude appears to be incapable of reform. Fourth, Lead Independent board member David J. Grain has been exposed as a “grifter” who uses his Southern Company platform for his non-stop “grifting" activities. We detailed a specific example of Grain’s “grifting” in an investigative report on the Southern Fiber Company. Fifth, board member Kristine L. Svinicki is dripping with conflicts of interest. Svinicki is the former chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission who departed office in Washington on January 20, 2021, and joined the Southern Company board of directors on October 18, 2021. Sixth, board member Donald James is one of the subjects of a criminal complaint that was filed in April of 2023 with Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani T. Willis. The other four subjects of the complaint are: Jim Kerr, David Grain, Kristine Svinicki, and Thomas Fanning (who was added to the complaint after we learned of his involvement in the secret “hush money” scheme with Kimberly Tanaka). Seventh, the company and several of its top executives are the subject of formal criminal complaints and law enforcement reports pending with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, and the Roswell, Georgia Police Department. In general, the complaints alleged that the Southern Company has engaged in a long-running racketeering enterprise, a massive $27 billion accounting fraud scheme, and an illegal surveillance operation. One of the complaints also contends that the Southern Company is unfit to own and operate the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant near Waynesboro, Georgia. Two new units under construction at the Vogtle are currently $21 billion over-budget. Units 3 and 4 at Vogtle still have not been placed into commercial service after a decade of construction work. Epilogue Based upon the totality of facts and circumstances surrounding Chris Womack’s impending assumption of the CEO position of the Southern Company and considering the board of director's willingness to ignore Womack's well-known reputation as a womanizer, we believe that Womack is Thomas Fanning’s handpicked “fall guy” in the company’s massive accounting fraud scheme. No other explanation makes sense for Womack's elevation to CEO. Chris Womack is a deeply flawed Southern Company executive who is awash in: (a) four decades of lapses in professional judgment, (b) numerous violations of the company policy prohibiting inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace, and (c) a litany of personal failings. Yet, Thomas Fanning's handpicked Chris Womack over candidates who were far more qualified and capable than him for the CEO position. At this juncture, the Southern Company's “ship” is more vulnerable to sinking than the Titanic. The only questions are: How many of the company's top executives will survive the "sinking" in a sea of accounting fraud and racketeering activities? And, who will they be? Coming Tuesday: Unveiling Chris Womack's most troublesome special personal relationship.

By: Donald V. Watkins May 23, 2023 On May 24, 2023, new Southern Company CEO Chris Womack will have direct supervision of a female subordinate with whom he claims to have enjoyed a discreet and previously undisclosed close personal relationship. This circumstance is predicated upon Womack’s braggadocios statements to others. This is the Southern Company’s newest quagmire with Chris Womack, a notorious womanizer. Womack has privately communicated his close personal relationship with this woman to multiple people and on multiple occasions. Womack characterized the relationship as a mutual one between two consenting adults who needed intimate attention from each other. Was Chris Womack telling the truth about his relationship with this woman, or was he lying? The Woman at the Center of the Southern Company’s Newest Quagmire The woman at the center of the Southern Company’s newest quagmire is Kimberly Greene, the recently appointed Chairwoman, President, and CEO of Georgia Power Company. Greene succeeded Womack as Chairwoman, President, and CEO of Georgia. Prior to her current position, Greene served for five years as Chairman, President, and CEO of Southern Company Gas. For a couple of years while Kimberly Greene was CEO of Southern Gas, Womack was Chairman, President, and CEO of Georgia Power Company. During this period, Womack and Greene reported directly to Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning. In her new job at Georgia Power, Greene will report directly to Womack, beginning on May 24th. Greene’s 32-year career in energy began in 1991 when she joined Southern Company as an engineer designing equipment for fossil and nuclear power generation stations. She has held executive roles for Southern Company and its subsidiaries as well as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), including chief executive officer for Georgia Power and Southern Company Gas; chief operating officer for Southern Company; president of Southern Company Services; chief generation officer for TVA; group president, Strategy and External Relations, TVA; and chief financial officer for TVA. Greene, a Knoxville, Tennessee native, is a member of the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. She earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering science and mechanics from the University of Tennessee, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a master’s degree in business administration from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Unlike Chris Womack, Kimberly Greene has never acknowledged the close personal relationship that Womack claims he enjoyed with her. Furthermore, we have found no credible evidence to corroborate Womack's disparaging comments about Greene. Based upon the information available to us to date, it appears that Womack lied about having an intimate relationship with Kimberly Green in a misguided effort to impress men with similar shortcomings -- all at the expense of Greene's well-respected professional and personal reputation. What is more, Kimberly Greene is a first-class chief executive officer who has far more objective credentials and successful senior management experience in the utility plant operations side of the power generation business than Chris Womack. Now, Womack and Greene will work together in a Southern Company organizational structure where she must report directly to Womack. That's a quagmire. Womack’s Campaign of Denials After we publicized Womack’s history as a womanizer in an exclusive article published on May 17, 2023, Womack engaged in a campaign of denials in response to inquiries from Southern Company officials and supporters regarding this subject. Borrowing a page from Donald Trump’s 2016 playbook following his embarrassing comments on an “Access Hollywood” audiotape and his “hush money” scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels, Chris Womack has doubled down on his denials of being a womanizer. Southern Company officials knew or reasonably should have known that Chris Womack’s denials with respect to a close personal relationship with the women referenced in my May 17, 2023, article are false. The company's own records show that Womack was forced out of Alabama Power Company in 1998 for inappropriate sexual behavior. Likewise, Southern Company officials should have known about Womack's inappropriate and unwarranted comments about Kimberly Green. When Womack spun a lie about his personal relationship with Kimberly Greene, he disparaged her reputation for no good reason. However, the men who run the Southern Company (i.e., CEO Thomas Fanning, External Affairs President Bryan Anderson, former General Counsel James Kerr, II, and board members David J. Grain, Donald M. James, and John Johns) do not care about Chris Womack's sexcapades, lying, or any other misdeeds. After all, a couple of these men suffer from the same womanizing affliction that has impaired Womack’s personal and professional judgment. Here's the Deal: Chris Womack was handpicked as Thomas Fanning’s successor by Fanning, himself. Womack was appointed to the CEO position by the Southern Company’s male-dominated board of directors. These men can depend upon Womack to blindly allow Fanning to use the Southern Company’s vast business network and many operating platforms for personal “grifting” deals that go far beyond the personal enrichment program Lead Independent board member David J. Grain is currently enjoying. Based upon Chris Womack’s lack of significant executive experience, poor leadership skills, professional shortcomings, and history of womanizing, Thomas Fanning and David Grain are confident that Womack is the perfect CEO/enabler for implementing their personal enrichment agendas. These men firmly believe they can control and manipulate Womack in order to continue their “get rich” schemes. Fanning, whose total compensation in 2022 was $24,006,670, is not content to depart his CEO’s position with a retirement package that is valued at up to $100 million. He wants more -- much more. For the record, Fanning's retirement package requires board approval, which may place those who vote for the package in legal jeopardy. Incredibly, Fanning’s total compensation for 2022 was more than 167 times the median annual pay of $143,500 for a Southern Company employee. This compensation disparity has shocked many rank and file company employees. What is worse, Fanning’s total compensation package benefitted from and is tainted by a massive accounting fraud scheme that is ongoing at the Southern Company. Epilogue On May 24th, Thomas Fanning is slated to be reappointed to the board of directors in a move that empowers him to oversee his future grifting activities. These projects will use the Southern Company's many operating platforms to make Fanning a multibillionaire within three years. A dutiful and compromised Chris Womack is expected to greenlight all of Fanning’s and Grain’s personal enrichment projects. This cozy arrangement is the real reason why Thomas Fanning picked Chris Womack as his successor and why David Grain led the board of directors in approving Womack's appointment as CEO. Within this "Southern male privilege" paradigm, the men who run the Southern Company do not care about complying with the anti-sexual harassment provision of the company’s Code of Ethics, or the elevation of a legendary womanizer to the position of CEO, or the deployable act of bypassing more capable and qualified candidates for the CEO’s position, or anything else, except their own greed. That's the deal!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 26, 2023 An Editorial Opinion I have seen my share of weak, incompetent, and useless U.S. Attorneys General since I graduated from law school in 1973. None of them has been as useless as Merrick Garland. What is more, Merrick Garland always seems to be “missing in action” when his presence is needed the most. Garland Tolerates a Culture of Open Lawlessness Forget about "open borders" at the U.S.-Mexican border. That public safety threat pales in comparison to the culture of open lawlessness that Merrick Garland and his fellow eunuchs at the Department of Justice have allowed big Wall Street banks and corporations to enjoy in a carefree manner. These banks and corporations are today's "untouchables," and they know it. These Wall Street companies also operate as financial predators who gouge ordinary Americans every chance they get -- simply because they can. Under Merrick Garland's so-called “leadership,” no one is policing their conduct. Privately, the CEOs who head big publicly traded companies like the Atlanta-based Southern Company view Merrick Garland and his law enforcement team at the Department of Justice as a bunch of “punks.” While sipping bourbon and smoking Cuban cigars at private dinners, these CEOs laugh as they brag about the chokehold they have on Merrick Garland and his Department of Justice. Today, the best opportunity for a career-minded criminal is to embed himself/herself as the chief executive officer of a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company. From this corporate perch, a crooked CEO can direct subordinates to bribe: (a) elected and appointed public officials (with private jet rides, campaign contributions, and consulting jobs for their wives/mistresses/lovers), (b) state and federal judges (with free hunting trips, private jet rides, and luxury vacations), and (c) state and federal regulators (with complimentary skybox tickets to sporting events/concerts and prepaid gift cards for their wives and college-age children) -- all with impunity and without any fear of a federal criminal prosecution. Occasionally, a powerful billionaire can bribe a U.S. Supreme Court justice with millions of dollars in undeclared and unreported “gifts” and “love offerings,” without worrying about any federal criminal investigation or prosecution. Wall Street banks enjoy the freedom to go on nationwide, decades-long crime sprees, without any fear of a federal criminal prosecution. Wells Fargo Bank is the “poster boy” for financial crimes without criminal consequences. Its brazen crime sprees since 2000 inspired Silicon Valley Bank, First Republic Bank, and other publicly traded banks to follow suit. What is more, the ingratiating look on Garland’s face in the feature photo accompanying this article tells us that Hunter Biden has nothing to worry about at Garland's Department of Justice, despite the growing evidence of criminal conspiracy, wire fraud, and tax evasion offenses committed by First Son Hunter Biden and those who acted in concert with him. Why Merrick Garland's Weakness as Attorney General Matters Merrick Garland is totally useless as a federal law enforcement official. He uses a laid-back public persona and somber look at press conferences to mask his impotence and incompetence in the job. This manufactured persona is intended to portray Garland as a mature, seasoned, and experience prosecutor. This fake persona is not working. Today, there is a non-stop frontal attack on the constitutional and civil rights of Americans of color, women, the elderly, children, and LGBTQIA Americans by MAGA politicians across the nation. These politicians have sized up Merrick Garland as an extremely weak man and inept Attorney General. Even though I am NOT a MAGA supporter, I totally agree with this assessment. In my opinion, Merrick Garland was never fit to serve as the nation's top criminal prosecutor or the chief protector and defender of the constitutional and civil rights of the Americans who are most at-risk in this country. Personally, I would never rely on Merrick Garland to defend my basic constitutional and civil rights in any courtroom. Neither should you. Getting Rid of Merrick Garland One thing is clear to me at this juncture: We cannot get rid of Merrick Garland unless we get rid of Joe Biden. Both men are perennial weaklings who appear to be joined at the hip. In the interest of full disclosure: I have never been a Joe Biden fan. Thirty-one years ago, Joe Biden had a chance to kill Clarence Thomas’ nomination as a Supreme Court justice, but he did not have the “balls” to do so. Biden’s failure of leadership as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee 31 years ago has caused tens of millions of Americans of color, women, the elderly, children, and LGBTQIA Americans to lose their constitutional and civil rights in cases where Thomas’ vote on the Supreme Court made the difference. We all know by now that Clarence Thomas is a "run-of-the-mill crook" who has engaged in a "pay-to-play" scheme for 27 years on the Supreme Court bench. Yet, Merrick Garland has NOT opened a criminal investigation into Thomas' vote-selling and tax evasion conduct. I have zero confidence in Merrick Garland as Attorney General of the United States. We cannot expect a man with no backbone to stand up and fight for the rights of the most vulnerable groups of Americans. Merrick Garland has failed himself, and he has failed America. He needs to resign, now!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 27, 2023 An Editorial Opinion Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy was in the news this past week. HealthSouth Corp., now known as Encompass Health, was back in a Birmingham, Alabama state court, once again, to collect money on a $2.9 billion civil judgment that was entered against Scrushy in the aftermath of the infamous HealthSouth accounting fraud scandal. In 2005, Scrushy was acquitted on all criminal charges in a companion criminal case. However, the civil judgment was entered against Scrushy at the conclusion of a shareholder derivative lawsuit four years later. Last week, lawyers for Encompass went to court to chase down a rumor that Scrushy had control over a prisoner’s multimillion bank account. Scrushy denied this claim. Encompass is represented in the post-judgment collection proceedings by the Birmingham-based law firm of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, LLP (“Bradley”). After the civil judgment was rendered in 2009, the law firms of Hare, Wynn, Newell and Newton, LLP, and Bradley were able to quickly collect about $33 million from their post-judgment collection legal activities. No money has been collected from Scrushy in the last 10 years. Encompass has paid Bradley over $100 million for its legal work in the case. As a result, the law firm has gotten rich from this case. Since 2009, the legal work in the case has focused on debt collection activities. Former Bradley Partners Enriched Their Old Law Firm Since 2009, two former Bradley partners have served as general counsel of HealthSouth/Encompass. The first one is John P. Whittington, who was general counsel from 2006 to 2016. Patrick Darby succeeded Whittington as Encompass' general counsel in 2016. He, too, was a former Bradley partner. Rather than engaging Bradley's services for debt collection work in Scrushy's case using the standard 15% contingency fee contract, Whittington and Darby chose to reward their old law firm with an open-ended “fee for services” contract that has enriched Bradley by over $100 million. Bradley is gouging Encompass in the Scrushy case. Despite receiving more than $100 million from Encompass to collect about $33 million, Bradley has not collected one dime of money from Richard Scrushy in the last 10 years. In recent years, the sole beneficiary of Bradley's debt collection work has been the Bradley law firm itself. Encompass is a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company. It's payment of over $100 million in legal fees to Bradley in the Scrushy case has made it possible for the law firm to expand its offices into the Atlanta market -- courtesy of an open-ended gravy train provided by Encompass CEO Mark Tarr, former general counsel John Whittington, and current general counsel Patrick Darby. The Legal Fees Paid to Bradley Have Been Detrimental to Encompass' Shareholders The $100 million or more in payments to Bradley for legal fees in Richard Scrushy's case have been detrimental to Encompass' shareholders for several reasons. First, John W. Haley, the prominent Hare, Wynn, Newell and Newton attorney who won the civil case against Scrushy, reportedly told Bradley attorneys during a post-judgment discovery proceeding, "there is nothing here; we have gotten everything Richard Scrushy had." Haley also called one of Richard Scrushy’s attorneys and told him that he [Haley] was cutting his losses and that he was convinced that they had gotten all they could get from Scrushy. Afterwards, Haley resigned from the case. Bradley, riding the wave of an open-ended "fee for services" contract, pressed on. The individuals who supervised Bradley's unproductive debt collection work and who approved Encompass' payment of Bradley's invoices in Scrushy’s case are John Whittington and Patrick Darby – the two former Bradley partners. The legal fees paid to Bradley have only served to subsidize the law firm. For over a decade, there has been no direct or indirect benefit to Encompass shareholders from the company's payments to Bradley in Scrushy's case. Second, the $100 million or more that Encompass has paid to Bradley could have built three Encompass rehabilitation facilities. Each one of these new facilities would have netted Encompass shareholders at least $10 million per year in free cash flow for each facility for a 50-year period. Third, the $100 million or more paid to Bradley to collect $33 million raises plenty of red flags. Something is amiss here. This matter smells. Furthermore, this Encompass-Bradley payment arrangement warrants an internal review by Encompass's board of directors and an external investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This is the only way Bradley's gravy train with Encompass will come to an end in the Scrushy case. Fourth, Bradley’s “fee for services” contract should be terminated immediately and replaced with the standard 15% contingency fee contract for post-judgment discovery and debt collection proceedings. Fifth, the amount of money Bradley has received from Encompass beyond the 15% standard fee on the $33 million that was collected over a decade ago should be clawed back from Bradley, John Whittington, and Patrick Daniel, via a shareholder derivative lawsuit. Epilogue As it stands today, Encompass has rewarded Bradley with over $100 million in shareholders' money for what some legal observers have characterized as "routine" debt collection proceedings that are normally provided on a 15% contingency fee basis. A law firm that cannot find what it believes to be "hidden" money and assets after has been paid more than $100 million to do so is sorely lacking in high quality legal talent, or it is simply ripping off a client like Encompass. If Bradley truly believes that Richard Scrushy has "hidden" $2.9 billion in wealth somewhere in the world, the law firm should be competent and confident enough to find it on a contingency fee basis. At some point, Bradley needs to demonstrate its expertise in something beyond sucking more than $100 million in shareholder money out of Encompass in one case.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 29, 2023 An Editorial Opinion Only after I began researching the decades-long racketeering enterprise and massive $27 billion accounting fraud scheme at the Atlanta-based Southern Company in a series of articles published between January 27 and May 23, 2023, did I realize that ripping-off publicly traded companies has become the newest hotbed of criminal activity. Encompass Health’s payments of over $100 million to the Birmingham, Alabama-based of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, LLP (“Bradley Arant”) to collect $33 million on a $2.9 billion civil court judgment against former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy solidified my belief in this regard. The payment of more than $100 million to collect $33 million on a civil debt made me realize that no one is safeguarding the financial interests of shareholders in these publicly traded companies. The executive officers in charge of these public companies can waste, mismanage, pilfer, and/or steal hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate funds each year, with no worries at all. Show Me the Public Money and I Will Show You Who is Stealing It, and How They are Doing It The amount of market value and cash held in publicly traded companies is obscene. What is more, the CEOs of these companies make over a hundred times what their employees get paid in annual salaries. In the Southern Company’s case, for example, former CEO Thomas A. Fanning’s total compensation for 2022 was more than 167 times the median annual pay of $143,500 for a Southern Company employee. The total market capitalization of the U.S. stock market was $40,511,838,800,000 (rounded off to $40.5 trillion), as of December 31, 2022. The market value is the total market cap of all U.S. based public companies listed in the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ stock market or OTCQX U.S. market. In 2022, publicly traded companies were sitting upon $5.8 trillion in cash, according to Mitchell Petersen, a finance professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. In contrast, the U.S. government’s budget for the fiscal year that began on October 1, 2022, and ending on September 30, 2023, is $6.2 trillion. The state of Alabama’s budget for 2022 was $35.5 billion. The city of Birmingham’s budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1, 2022, and ends on June 30, 2023, is $517 million. On any given day, the aggregate amount of market value. liquid assets, and cash held in these publicly traded companies dwarfs the annual money appropriated to these three government entities. Yet, nobody is paying attention to how the corporate executives of public companies in America mismanage, pilfer, and/or steal this public money -- not the U.S. Department of Justice, nor the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, nor the Federal Trade Commission, nor state attorneys general, nor state securities commissions. Nobody is watching these Wall Street crooks, and they know it. As a result, many of the top executives of these public companies are looting them in displays of unparalleled greed and corruption. The unreported and undisclosed “insider” deals among the executives and board members of publicly traded companies have mushroomed to epic proportions and are limited ONLY by the imagination of the greedy executives who run these companies. Unlike government agencies, there are virtually no private oversight groups or public “watchdog” organizations guarding this Wall Street money. Executives at public companies, along with many of their board members, are feasting off this abundance of corporate cash like there is no tomorrow. The Department of Justice Refuses to Prosecute Crooked Wall Street Corporations and Their Top Executives There is virtually no federal law enforcement activity with respect to New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 companies and other publicly trade companies. Their executives are mostly immune from federal criminal prosecution, as well. Starting with the Barack Obama administration, these public companies were deemed “too big to prosecute.” This gave them the freedom to do as they pleased. Instead of prosecuting Wall Street crooks, the Department of Justice has focused on the prosecution of street criminals and small-time politicians like former Alabama state representative Fred Lee Plump, Jr. Plump was charged on May 23, 2023, with one count of participating in a $400,000 federal wire fraud conspiracy and one count of obstruction of justice. Plump pled guilty on the same day. Prosecutors and defense attorneys call criminal cases like Plump's “low hanging fruit.” Ninety-nine percent of the criminals swept up in these cases plead guilty. Those who go to trial are usually convicted. On May 27, 2023, we broke the story of how Bradley Arant has ripped-off Encompass Health for more than $100 million in legal fees since 2009. As expected, there has been no criminal investigation into this rip-off scheme by federal prosecutors because Encompass Health is a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company and Bradley Arant is considered a “blue-chip” regional law firm. Furthermore, Lloyd Peeples, who heads the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham, is a former Bradley Arant law partner. Peeples has never prosecuted a New York Stock Exchange/Fortune 500 company for any crime. Lloyd Peeples has given Wells Fargo Bank, which operates in Birmingham, a prosecutorial "pass" for the bank's nationwide crime spree and 230 major violations of laws since 2000. Since 2009, two Bradley Arant partners have served as general counsel of Encompass and its predecessor, HealthSouth Corp. The first one was John P. Whittington, who was general counsel from 2006 to 2016. Patrick Darby succeeded Whittington as general counsel in 2016. Darby was a Bradley Arant partner, as well. Rather than hiring Bradley Arant on a standard 15% contingency fee contract for Encompass Health’s debt collection work on the court judgment in Richard Scrushy’s case, Whittington and Darby chose to reward Bradley Arant with an open-ended “fee for services” contract that has enriched their old law firm by over $100 million. Despite spending more than $100 million to collect about $33 million on the Scrushy judgment, the firm has not collected one dime of money from Richard Scrushy in the last 10 years that can be credited towards the Encompass civil judgment. In recent years, the only beneficiary of Bradley Arant’s debt collection work in the Scrushy case has been the Bradley Arant law firm itself. Whittington and Darby placed their old law firm on the gravy train of a lifetime -- at the expense of Encompass Health's shareholders. So, what is former Bradley Arant law partner Lloyd Peeples doing about this situation? Peeples has turned a blind eye to this rip-off scheme. He is part of Birmingham's "Good Ol' Boys" network. Remember, Lloyd Peeples’ only hands-on experience in running a business involved a failed pizza restaurant he owned and ran for 11 months prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2017 after his pizza business crashed. What is Prim F. Escalona (U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama) doing about the Encompass Health-Bradley Arant rip-off scheme? Absolutely nothing. After all, Ms. Escalona is a Donald Trump “laissez-faire” holdover appointee who is poised to serve throughout President Joe Biden’s presidency for reasons that no one can explain. Meanwhile, these Birmingham federal prosecutors are pounding their chests and salivating over the guilty plea in Fred Plump’s $400,000 wire fraud conspiracy case. Not one of these prosecutors has exhibited the courage needed to investigate and prosecute the Encompass Health-Bradley Arant $100 million rip-off scheme. The SEC Has Been Asleep at the Wheel for Decades As was the case with the infamous Bernie Madoff fraud scheme, the SEC has been asleep at the wheel with respect to the Southern Company's racketeering and massive $27 billion accounting fraud case and the Encompass Health-Bradley Arant $100 million legal fees rip-off scheme. Bernie Madoff was a New York financier who executed the largest financial fraud crime in history, via a sophisticated Ponzi scheme. Madoff defrauded thousands of investors out of at least $64.8 billion over the course of 17 years. On December 11, 2008, FBI agents arrested Madoff and charged him with one count of securities fraud. The SEC had previously conducted multiple investigations into Madoff's business practices, but the Commission had not uncovered the massive fraud. In 2000, financial analyst Harry Markopolos filed a “whistleblower” complaint with the SEC that was ignored. It wasn’t until five years later, in 2005, that Markopolos was able to convince the SEC of Madoff’s financial crimes. On March 12, 2009, Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies and admitted to turning his wealth management business into a massive Ponzi scheme. Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and required to forfeit $170 billion. He passed away in prison on April 14, 2021. Like the Madoff case, the SEC has paid no attention to Bradley Arant’s brazen $100 million rip-off of Encompass Health in connection with its judgment collection work in the Richard Scrushy civil case. Why would it? After all, the agency, itself, was scolded by a federal judge in a May 7, 2003, published opinion for its egregiously violations of Scrushy’s constitutional rights. It does not appear that the SEC gives the 10-Qs and 10-Ks of Encompass Health, the Southern Company, and other publicly traded companies anything more than a cursory glance. Furthermore, no honest and competent SEC enforcement official would condone Bradley’s $100 million rip-off of Encompass Health. Epilogue There is no indication that the federal law enforcement establishment is willing or prepared to take on big-time Wall Street crooks or a law firm like Bradley Arant. Attorney General Merrick Garland is retired in the job he was given as a consolation prize for not getting the U.S. Supreme Court seat that Obama promised him. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is busy learning how to walk without stumbling. The SEC’s Enforcement Division staff is an embarrassment to itself and the Commission. The Division consists mostly of lawyers who are too washed up to go into private practice. If deferential and ingratiating federal judges did not show these government lawyers preferential treatment, the Division would likely lose nearly all of its enforcement cases. Within this sad paradigm, the pilfering and theft of corporate money from the coffers of publicly traded companies will continue to skyrocket. This cookie jar replenishes itself, it is wide-open, and no one is stopping this kind of pilfering and theft of shareholders' money.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 31, 2023; Updated on June 1, 2023 An Editorial Opinion Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell wrote an editorial opinion which was published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on May 19, 2023, that blasted a new Bar exam (NextGen) developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The new exam is scheduled to roll out across the nation in 2026. Ostensibly, Justice Mitchell’s views represent those of his brethren and sisters on the all-white Alabama Supreme Court, since none of them has publicly distanced themselves from his anti-black editorial rant about the new NextGen Bar exam. Justice Mitchell claimed the new Bar exam will put “considerable emphasis on examinees’ race, sex, gender identity, nationality and other identity-based characteristics.” Mitchell, who possesses no academic or professional expertise in the psychometric principles involved in the construction, small-scale feasibility trials, content validation, large-scale testing, and cut-score algorithms for standardized tests, asserted that “[t]he idea seems to be that any differences in group outcomes must be eliminated—even if the only way to achieve this goal is to water down the test.” Interestingly, Justice Mitchell has never felt compelled to speak out against the all-white makeup of the 9-member Alabama Supreme Court, the 5-member Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, or the 5-member Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in a state that is 26% black. Mitchell is apparently very comfortable in this all-white appellate court paradigm. Mitchell Makes No Mention of Alabama’s Traditional “Diploma Privilege” for White Law School Graduates Justice Mitchell, a member of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society, seems to be obsessed with the possibility that greater numbers of black lawyers might be admitted to the Alabama Bar Association under the new Bar exams, which he wants to delay by 5 to 10 years. Nowhere in his WSJ editorial does Justice Mitchell acknowledge the fact that the state of Alabama operated with no Bar exam, whatsoever, for graduates of the University of Alabama’s law school until 1965. White University of Alabama law school students (and white graduates from other accredited law schools) were admitted to the Alabama Bar Association under a “diploma privilege” upon their graduation from law school, pursuant to Title 46, § 26, Alabama Code (1940). Title 46, § 26, was amended in 1961 so that the "diploma privilege" would ".... apply only to graduates of the law department of the University of Alabama who, having been students there on or before August 31, 1961, graduate therefrom on or before August 31, 1965, and to no others." Title 46, § 26, Code 1940 (1973 Supp.). Of course, the University of Alabama was all-white until Vivian Malone and James Hood desegregated the undergraduate school under National Guard protection in 1963. The University's law school was desegregated in 1969. One of the University’s best known “diploma privilege” graduates is former U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, who received his undergraduate degree in 1957 and law degree in 1963 from the all-white University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. After graduating from law school, Shelby lived and worked in Tuscaloosa as a prosecutor for the city (from 1963 to 1971) and a U.S. magistrate for the Northern District of Alabama (from 1966 to 1971). In his law enforcement capacities, Shelby was a direct and willing participant in the FBI's COINTELPRO program in the Northern District of Alabama. Between 1963 and 1971, Shelby aggressively used his law enforcement positions to railroad thousands of blacks in judicial proceedings conducted by all-white, like-minded trial judges in Tuscaloosa city's and the Northern District's criminal justice systems. The Racial Animus of Bar Exams in the South When blacks, Hispanic-Americans, Native-Americans, Asians, and other underprivileged minority students began attending law schools across the South, resistance to the desegregation of these all-white law schools arose. Alabama and other Southern states began eliminating the “diploma privilege” and imposing a “bar exam.” As stated by the Speaker of the South Carolina Senate, the purpose of the bar examination was “to bar Negroes and undesirable whites” from becoming lawyers. The “bar exam” became a means to ensure racial disparity. It is painfully apparent that the drum major of the new movement “to bar Negroes and undesirable whites” from becoming lawyers in Alabama is Justice Jay Mitchell, who was elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2018. Before serving on the Supreme Court, Justice Mitchell was an attorney with Maynard, Cooper & Gale (now Maynard Nexsen). He has never been known as a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Justice Mitchell was born in Mobile, the hometown of former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He grew up in South Alabama and in Homewood. Mitchell received his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Birmingham-Southern College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and served as president of the student body. Ironically, the city of Birmingham, which is 69% black, is presently considering a $5 million loan to bailout a financially destitute Birmingham-Southern College so that it can produce more state government leaders like Jay Mitchell and his band of Federalists. Justice Mitchell holds a Master of Arts from University College in Dublin, Ireland, and received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. Epilogue Ironically, no official of the Alabama Bar Association or the Alabama Lawyers Association has distanced himself/herself from Justice Mitchell's racist commentary. Likewise, neither organization has challenged the all-white makeup of Alabama's appellate court system. Justice Jay Mitchell epitomes the renaissance of an all-white Alabama state government, once again. His WSJ editorial says out loud what his colleagues on the Supreme Court bench say in private conversations. Alabama has returned to the “Good Ol’ Days” of the White Citizens Council (now known as the state Republican Party) and an all-white appellate court system. In fact, here is what the Alabama Supreme Court looked like when I graduated from the University of Alabama's law school in 1973. So, where is the racial progress on the Alabama Supreme Court in the 50 years since I graduated from the University of Alabama's law school in 1973? Show it to me because I can't see it.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 2, 2023 An Editorial Opinion My mother, Lillian Bernice Varnado Watkins, said, “when people show you who they are, believe them.” She also told me that “birds of a feather flock together.” I also believe a picture is worth a thousand words. This brings me to Tom Parker, the 71-year-old Chief Justice of the all-white Alabama Supreme Court in a state that is 26% black. At a time when courageous leaders in the South and around the nation were removing public displays of statues, flags, and other memorabilia that enshrined slavery-era Southern politicians and Confederate soldiers, Tom Parker was busy distributing miniature Confederate flags to those who gathered at the funeral of the last Confederate widow in Alabama. The photo above depicts a smiling Tom Parker relishing his Confederate flags at the funeral. In addition to the Confederate flags Parker is holding in his right hand, he also proudly displays a Confederate in his suit coat pocket. Parker appears to be mighty happy with his fist full of Confederate flags at this event. In the photo, Parker is sandwiched between two white supremacists. One of them is Leonard "Flagpole" Wilson, a board member of the Council of Conservative Citizens. Wilson earned his nickname in 1956 when he was a key figure in violent demonstrations against the admission of Autherine Lucy as the first black student at the University of Alabama. Leading chants of “Keep ’Bama white!” while swinging chimpanzee-like from a flagpole, Wilson led riotous UA students through two terrifying nights of racial unrest. Confederate flags flapped near Wilson in the wind as he regaled the mob with racist jokes, exalted white civilization, and urged student resistance to Autherine Lucy's admission. The mob responded by chanting "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Autherine's got to go!" An intoxicated fellow UA student jumped up and down on a car, while its frightened black occupants cowered inside. The mob pelted Autherine Lucy and university officials with eggs and descended on the president's mansion to demand her removal. The University responded by subsequently expelling Lucy for "causing a riot." Wilson’s segregationist activies didn’t stop there. He later became a prominent member of the White Citizens Councils of the 1960s. On the other side of Tom Parker is Mike Whorton, who was reportedly a leader with the League of the South. Whorton is described in a 2004 WSFA 12 News article as the state leader of the League of the South, a group the Montgomery, Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center describes as a white supremacist hate group. Whorton has denied membership in this group. Tom Parker has also been criticized for attending a party in Selma, Alabama commemorating the birthday of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan. The party was hosted at "Fort Dixie" by Pat and Butch Godwin, operators of Friends of Forrest, Inc. The couple is also reported to be involved with the League of the South. Parker told WSFA 12's Eileen Jones, "I know these guys [Leonard Wilson and Mike Whorton] and I have never heard anything like [expressions of racial hatred] come out of their mouth." After WSFA busted Tom Parker by showing him the photo of him dripping with Confederate flags, Parker admitted distributing the miniature Confederate flags at the funeral. However, Parker claimed that his act of distributing the flags was a manifestation of his appreciation of southern heritage, and not racism. Tom Parker claims he has always appreciated Alabama's dual heritage, the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. Parker also claims that he helped with race relations from the time he was student body President at Lanier High School up until the date of the WSFA article (October 14, 2004), when Parker says he organized a group of black and white ministers to improve their working relationship. However, Parker’s actions and judicial rulings as a Justice on the Alabama Supreme Court have aggressively undermined each constitutional and civil right that blacks enjoy under the First, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Alabama Constitution (as amended), and Alabama state statutes. Parker's judicial rulings against black criminal defendants, including juveniles, are similarly hostile and awful. What is more, Tom Parker has not lifted a finger to address or change the all-white makeup of the Alabama Supreme Court. Today, the state's Supreme Court looks just like Parker's Confederate heroes envisioned it would look if their agenda of white supremacy prevailed. Tom Parker, a Montgomery native, is also a staunch opponent of equal rights for women and LGBTQIA Americans. Tom Parker is the elected Chief Justice of the all-white Alabama Supreme Court. It is fantasy to belief that any black litigant in Tom Parker’s Supreme Court will get a fair hearing from this Old South, “died in the wool,” Confederate patriot who hides his engrained “southern heritage” beliefs and ideals underneath his black rob. Tom Parker’s supporters call him a "conservative." I see him as an "Old School" racist.