The State Auditor issued the following press release. The actual indictment is posted below. Attorney William Gunn filed an entry of appearance for Scott Walker. A hearing will be held on November 8 at 10:00 AM before Magistrate Robert. Walker.
FEDERAL AND STATE CHARGES FILED IN JOINT INVESTIGATION INVOLVING MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF MARINE RESOURCES
Gulfport, Miss – Federal and state grand juries returned indictments this week following a joint investigation into the activities of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (“DMR”) and a $3 million grant issued to the City of D’Iberville, announced U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Davis, FBI Special Agent in Charge Daniel McMullen, Mississippi State Auditor Stacey Pickering, Second Circuit District Attorney Joel Smith and Nineteenth Circuit District Attorney Tony Lawrence. The State Auditor’s Office also issued civil demands totaling more than $1 million.
William W. Walker, 68, of Ocean Springs, Scott J. Walker, 34, of Ocean Springs, Sheila Tina Shumate, 52, of Saucier, and Joseph C. Zeigler, Jr., 66, of Gulfport, have been named in a five-count federal indictment, returned on Tuesday, November 5, 2013, charging conspiracy to commit federal program fraud, federal program fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud and mail fraud involving DMR and the Mississippi Marine Resources Foundation.
Scott J. Walker is also named in a separate federal indictment along with Michael Janus, age 47, of Biloxi, charging conspiracy to commit program fraud, program fraud, bribery in connection with a federal program and money laundering. The indictment alleges that Walker and Janus caused a false invoice in the amount of $180,000 to be submitted to the City of D’Iberville for payment of consulting services.
A Harrison County grand jury returned indictments this week against Sheila Tina Shumate, Leslie Young Gollott, Susan Perkins, Jere Grant Larsen, Jr. and Kerwin Cuevas for multiple counts of fraud and embezzlement which allegedly occurred during their employment with the Department of Marine Resources.
In addition, the Mississippi State Auditor’s Office issued demands against ten individuals as part of this investigation totaling $1,022,308.55. The individual demands are listed below:
William Walker $362,689.14
Joseph Ziegler $258,268.75
Sheila Shumate $127,608.57
Leslie Gollott $117,593.10
Susan Perkins $ 30,959.34
Grant Larson $ 1,342.08
Kerwin Cuevas $108,420.70
Walter Chataginer $ 1,279.85
Kerry Endris $ 13,020.66
Samantha Hebert $ 1,126.36
“The indictments and demands announced today are one step toward restoring the trust of taxpayers, but they do not close the investigation,” State Auditor Stacey Pickering said. “As alleged in the indictments, these men and women abused their positions, stole from the taxpayers of Mississippi, and they will be held accountable for their actions. I appreciate the hard work and cooperation from the local, state and federal agencies involved including our Special Agents, District Attorneys Joel Smith and Tony Lawrence, Gregory Davis, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, and Daniel McMullen, Special Agent in Charge for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
The public is reminded that an indictment is an allegation that a defendant has committed a crime. All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
Here is a copy of the indictment:
Thursday, November 7, 2013
DMR indictments!!! (UPDATED)
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28 comments:
So did the Sun Herald rush this up?
"... these men and women abused their positions, stole from the taxpayers of Mississippi, and they will be held accountable for their actions." This sounds EXACTLY like the Hinds and Jackson BOS... except for the whole "held accountable" part of course.
They missed Greg Deneyer.
And you didn't post my hotty toddy mr potato head poke earlier. Ot wel
They moved up the date of the indictments because of the judges order to release the documents. She still can hold Pickering in contempt but dont think she has the minerals to do it. She knows she screwed up by not seizing them immedietly. lesson learned the hard way.
3;51 Hold tight more to come. A special Hotty Toddy to Ole Ms. Scotty. You have finally arrived at a destination your mom and dad can't pay your way out of. For his next door neighbor and brother in the Repub army, Joe Cloyd, I would like to play "Are you lonesome tonight" by Elvis Presley
Any equity in that JAWA Oxford condo? Not that these folks should have any problem coughing up whatever restitution the legal system orders.
next up: state defendants are absolutely entitled to the documents in discovery. how is Hood gonna produce them with the US Atty saying no dice? potential for rare entertainment here...
For all of the complaining people have done on this site about Stacey Pickering i think he deserves some credit for getting this done. The Sun Herald wanted it on their timeframe, but obviously his office and the FBI knew what they were doing.
For such wealthy affluent people that the JAWAWAs claim to be, they can't seem to pay the property taxes on this Oxford CONdo. Living the good life on borrowed time is what they have been doing. From the D'Iberville deal to all of the other schemes conconcted in the back room at the Columns 132 in Biloxi this new Col. Reb Dixie Mafia crime family has just crashed.
I'm slow. What's a JAWAWA?
4:57, couldn't agree more.
agree with 5:42...please explain
A JAWAWA is a child produced from the union of Jambalaya and Kangaroo.
JAWA=JaWa Investments LLC
https://business.sos.state.ms.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?537629
Officers & Directors
Name Title(s)
Michael W Janus 461 Carmargue Lane P O Box 4147 Biloxi MS 39535
Scott J Walker 104 Temple Terrace Ocean Springs MS 39564
Member
Michael W Janus 461 CARMARGUE LANE
BILOXI MS 39531
Manager One
Scott J Walker
3003 PASCAGOULA STREET
PASCAGOULA MS 39567
More about the JaWa Investments LLC principals (aka the JAWAWAS):
http://www.sunherald.com/2013/01/26/4430383/oversights-disclosed-in-3m-bp.html
PROPERTY DETAIL
OWNER JAWA INVESTMENTS LLC
LEGAL UNIT C301 HIGH COTTON CONDOS
http://www.deltacomputersystems.com/cgi-lrm5/LRMCGI02?HTMCNTY=MC04&HTMBASE=C&HTMKEY=MS360030921201200&HTMODB=&HTMPGM=&HTMPFL=&
That had me laughing! Good sport!
How does one go about paying county taxes on a property but not city and school? Also, I know enough about Oxford real estate to know that anything with a Van Buren address is going to be pricey. Can I stay there this weekend since I'm a taxpayer and more than likely taxpayer funds purchased said condo?
The balls on these guys. Looks like even in the middle of July, when he knew the heat was on him, Bill Walker was paying his attorney with money from his non-profit slush fund.
>>>>The balls on these guys. Looks like even in the middle of July, when he knew the heat was on him, Bill Walker was paying his attorney with money from his non-profit slush fund.<<<<
If you spend it before they take it, they can't take it! Good thing that auditor was on the job and getting all that money back from the conprofit boat boofoo.
5:42 A JAWAWA is half Janus,half Walker but full Hotty Toddy Snotty living in High Cotton or just hanging at the Columns 132 making deals. When Scott Walker and Michael Janus formed JAWA and the bond they have most who know them realized time was short and trouble was around the corner. They both wanted to be big players without hard work. Sort of reminded us of aggressive Chiwawas(Spelled wrong on purpose),all bark and no bite. That is where JAWAWAs came from. Fits them well
What bothers me most about this story is that it's a continuation of the culture of corruption that exists in Mississippi in state government.
Whether it is Magnolia Venture, the meat plant, or the rather obvious boondoggles like the gas plants and Richton schemes and Magnolia Venture's fraternal twin, it continues on.
The legal community carries much of the blame. I watch judges who are incompetent or corrupt on allow lawyers to get by with delays and questionable ethical practices like paper dumping and withholding discovery documents . Lawyers who should be sanctioned for filing frivolous suits are never punished.
Being held in contempt is little more than an on the record tongue lashing while those who seek justice go broke waiting for justice that never comes.
The divorce laws now make it nearly impossible for women with children to end up any way other than financially devastated even when the husband/father is wealthy. Fake bankruptcies and hiding funds is easy when judges don't/can't read and understand financial documentation. Hiding money is too easy. Lawyers are allowed to run up billing hours by filing groundless motions. All this is especially awful in a State supposedly concerned about children and families.
Too many years of a pass for Ole Miss Law School grads and keeping out lawyers from other schools is still taking a toll on justice.
This is another mess than NEVER should have happened.
at least they don't have to pay the money back that Pickering demanded.......Robert Graham (aka, the legend) never did.
What about the Williams family? No indictment for them? Maxwell?
The Williams family? Who?
Scott's other business partner- Gentry Williams
the state auditor found overtime theft and use of public facilities to run a business in the city of jackson public works department and chose not to prosecute. politics decides who pickering goes after.
You can look into the money provided to Williams for the development of the Old Lafont Inn site in Pascagoula,Ms.to answer the questions about how Scott Walker and Robbie Maxwell got involved. If you look at the state indictments of DMR people it really does not add up to much. All of this time and money spent by Pickering's office to pick the very low hanging fruit leaves one to wonder WTF is he doing? Shumate is the only one in this group that can point to many others and she will.
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