By: Donald V. Watkins
March 14, 2023
Today, BanBalch.com broke an exclusive and explosive article about the meltdown at Alabama Power Company and its parent, the Southern Company over their racketeering and accounting fraud conduct.
Former Alabama Power Company CEO Mark Crosswhite was ousted on November 21, 2022, effective on December 31, 2022. He is now cooperating with federal investigators who are probing the Southern Company's decades-long crime spree in exchange for full immunity.
Here are the highlights of the BanBalch.com blockbuster article:
1. Shortly after the Atlanta law firm of King & Spalding was hired last year to probe the spying on and surveillance of Southern Company Chairman and CEO Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017, Crosswhite had a heated exchange at a high-level meeting with Joe Perkins, the founder of Matrix, LLC and a longtime “dirty tricks” operative on the Alabama political scene.
2. Crosswhite demanded that Perkins come clean and tell King & Spalding the truth about the Fanning surveillance and other alleged criminal acts last fall.
3. Crosswhite was done with Perkins and Matrix. But Perkins, who has “dirt and an embarrassing dossier on every member of the executive team,” barked at Crosswhite, telling him to “pack your bags!”
4. Perkins appears to have orchestrated Crosswhite’s ouster and preserved his million-dollar consulting contracts by aligning closely with Jeff Peoples, and spearheading a campaign of support for Peoples by heavy-hitters from the Alabama political and business community, before Peoples was announced as Crosswhite’s stopgap replacement.
5. Those heavy-hitters reportedly contacted Tom Fanning and Southern Company board members and called upon them to appoint Jeff Peoples as CEO of Alabama Power.
6. Jeff Peoples is a loyal stooge for Joe Perkins.
7. Before his appointment, Jeff Peoples reportedly approved supplemental work orders for Perkins that allegedly covered up nefarious misconduct including the targeting of Burt Newsome and his family. Peoples had served as Executive Vice President of Customer and Employee Services at Alabama Power prior to becoming CEO.
8. Perkins, who has recently been strutting around Alabama Power’s headquarters like he owns it, appears to feel he is “untouchable and the shadow president of Alabama Power.”
10. Last fall, Jim Kerr, the Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel at Southern Company, together with the King & Spalding investigative team, recommended that Crosswhite immediately cancel both contracts with Perkins and his affiliated entities worth over $2.5 million a year. Perkins, whose bruised ego appears to generate out-of-control behavior, is reportedly trying to retaliate against Kerr, who was promoted to Chairman and CEO of Southern Company Gas to take effect the end of this month.
11. Crosswhite is cooperating with federal investigators, outlining all the immoral, unsavory, and criminal acts associated with Perkins and his entities in return for a full immunity deal.
12. Recent documents leaked to media appear to show that Perkins is a habitual and prolific liar, especially his denial that he was not involved with the surveillance of Fanning.
13. Crosswhite could testify about Perkins direct involvement in the surveillance operation. He may also testify to the head-on car accident that nearly killed Burt Newsome. Newsome infuriated Alabama Power when he took on the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal case and ex-Drummond executive David Roberson’s $75 million civil lawsuit against Balch & Bingham and Drummond Company.
14. In addition to Crosswhite’s cooperation, Alabama Power insiders believe Jeff Peoples’ history of creating a hostile work environment for African-Americans and women, his alleged inappropriate relationships with Southern Company employees, and his alleged misappropriated expenditures on party pads, will soon begin leaking out with documented evidence.
More Media Bombshells are Coming
Reportedly, Alabama Power CEO Jeff Peoples had a propensity to spend up to $30,000 per month of the company’s money on party pads and black prostitutes at a time when this utility company was raising rates on its customers. These expenditures were reportedly funneled through one of Perkins’ black subcontractors. None of this corporate misconduct was disclosed in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The corruption flourished at Alabama Power, in part, because the Alabama Media Group accepted money from an Alabama Power-funded media entity to turn its head and look the other way. The Alabama Media Group owns the Huntsville Times, the Birmingham News, and Mobile Press Register. This is the organization that employs investigative journalist/Pulitzer Prize winner John Archibald and columnist Kyle Whitmire.
Archibald was compromised in 2011, when his personal bankruptcy was surreptitiously outed by Matrix/Perkins, thereby undermining Archibald’s credibility to criticize the Jefferson County Commission’s bankruptcy filing that year.
In 2017, Matrix leaked Whitmire’s role as a modern-day COINTELPRO reporter for the Birmingham U.S. Attorney’s office to diminish his effectiveness as a reporter/columist.
Matrix/Perkins controlled the U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham, via its relationship with former U.S. Senator Richard Shelby. In 2017, the once-powerful Senator got Jay Town appointed as U.S. Attorney and Lloyd Peeples hired as Town’s First Assistant. Peeples, who is compromised by Matrix, remains embedded in the U.S. Attorney’s office as the "burrrowed-in"head of the office's Criminal Division.
Finally, Joe Perkins reportedly has a truckload of “dirt” on Jeff Peoples, Tom Fanning, Chris Womack, and other Southern Company CEOs. This is why the Southern Company cannot terminate Perkins’ $2.5 million in contracts, where he receives payments without invoicing.
At the end of the day, Joe Perkins is the "de facto" CEO of the Southern Company, not Tom Fanning or Chris Womack.
Crosswhite going to the Justice Department is pretty much nightmare scenario for all involved with just what has leaked so far.