Jackson Jambalaya

A plea deal this soon implies that someone is cooperating, to be followed by subsequent indictments, but we will see.

"We are seeking answers as to how this happened and will continue to monitor this matter closely.” (Roger Wicker)

Greed is how it happened, just like all Ponzi schemes.

“Wicker bought into the scheme through what's called the Alexander Seawright Timber Fund I LLC. That company was incorporated in 2010 by Jackson lobbyist Brent Alexander and lawyer Jon Seawright.“


Oh boy.

They sold shares of a Ponzi scheme to a member of the U.S. Senate!?! One of our U.S. Senators fell for this scheme!?!

I suspect the Senator let his guard down because of the cover of legitimacy provided to this scheme by some of the largest corporate defense firms in town.

My dealings with the firms being mentioned have me not surprised at this news. Look at the way these same firms fleece the state of Mississippi, their own clients (through dragging out cases and churning files), and even their associates at those firms (pyramid scheme business model).

This story is one of the most interesting, and least surprising, stories I have read in a while.

WHY DO THESE LAW FIRMS HAVE "BUSINESS ADVISORY" (legalized bribery), LOBBYING (legalized bribery), GOVERNMENT RELATIONS (legalized bribery), and these other "ancillary" business units?

The sweet irony would be if these corporate defense attorneys, scammed by this, get their civil cases sent to forced arbitration. I am sure the attorneys will want their day in court with an actual jury.

The world is full of educated and elected derelicts who, in their best wisdom, seem to think that what sounds too good to be true isn't.
P. T. Barnum said there is one born every minute. I think he was right.
The dumbest people I know are highly educated and in high positions.
Don't believe me? Just stop, look and consider. Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful.

Investing in a ponzi scheme seems like relevant experience for a US Senator content with a 20-trillion dollar deficit.

We are seeking answers as to how this happened and will continue to monitor this matter closely.”

Golly Roger! Someone comes knocking and after some bro bonding offers you returns hundreds of basis points above non-investment grade bond yields and you are still wondering how this happened? It happened because you and your wife apparently bit on it! Possibly this happened because you don't instantly completely comprehend the meaning of the phrase "returns hundreds of basis point above non-investment grade bond yields?"



Helpful hint for neophytes and potential rubes: Replace "hundreds of basis points above non-investment grade bond yields" with "returns much higher than junk bond returns". Next ponder the idea of risk adjusted return and ask yourself why if it (whatever they are selling) was really that profitable (in term of risk adjusted return) it is being peddled in Jackson rather than in the NYC or Basel at some boutique firm. There's a reason they are sharing the wealth in Jackson, and it isn't because they have your best interests in mind.

This man, US SENATOR Roger Wicker, may just indeed be the most ignorant clown that Mississippi has ever elected to federal office.

Last week, he was blowing his horn about being endorsed and fundraising with liberal Democrat trial lawyer, a famous one around Jackson at that (see several not so long ago stories on this site about he and his family), John Arthur Eaves, Jr.

This week, he is conned trying to get rich off of his six figure federal salary by a ponzi-scheme scam artist selling trees!!!

What’s the jail time for one count of wire fraud? His jail time dropped from possible 70 years to significantly less...so who does he plan on throwing under the bus? The recruiters?

What's the point in reducing it down to one count? If they have sufficient evidence, go for the rope.

Wait till the lid gets blown off on the New Market Tax Credit racket running in Mississippi.

When it all comes down you'll find establishment MSGOP insiders smack dab in the middle of this.

Karma. Wicker has been a promoter of the largest Ponzi scheme ever. The $4.2 trillion dollar US budget.

Dude is fixin to throw all the little people under the bus Stickering style!

Bet the Dems are already making tv ads questioning Rogers judgement and there will be subliminal messages with PONZI all in it.

Where did Wicker get all his money? You should have a bunch before investing in timber LLC’s. So I assume he has a bunch. Has he ever accomplished anything outside of politics?

Wicker should have just shut up. There’s an old saying about keeping your mouth shut and looking like an idiot.

Wicker doing a press release about this is stupider than investing in it

Who all can Lamar throw under the bus? The promoters? Who else could there be?

Does anyone have a list of the promoters?

And who wants to bet that the senior public policy man at Baker Donalden is the one who sold it to him? Talk about a conflict of interest and malpractice. BD is in much more trouble than I thought and Alexander and Seawright can probably continue their relationship as cell mates in federal prison. Broke, humiliated and incarcerated.

Alexander's wife runs a non-profit in Jackson. I would start investigating.

Macy- I take it you side with the Dems that Citizens United was a joke- and that political contributions aren't speech?? Calling contributions and lobbying bribery certainly says so. Maybe we should mute our economic and social interests and let the majority of Americans (in CA an NY) decide all of our policies by plebiscite.

Or perhaps they should all be decided in Trump rallies.

Johanna Burkett, a spokeswoman for the law firm Baker Donelson, said Alexander and Seawright are both still employed there. Their investment entities typically listed the law firm as their business address, but Burkett said their activity is "personal business of employees of our firm, and is not a firm matter." Alexander, though a lobbyist, is not a lawyer.

"We are reviewing it and their involvement further," Burkett said. "The firm did not represent Mr. Adams or his companies."

Burkett said Baker Donelson, based in Nashville, Tennessee, couldn't comment further because prosecutors are involved.



LOLOLOLOL

Macy is a perfect shill for the plaintiffs bar.

Wicker participated in the largest ponzi in Mississippi and admitted so. And funniest of all? McD would be sitting pretty right now. But he changed horses midstream.

One can only imagine what will come out about Hyde-Smith after McD swops races again.

Has anyone looked at Wicker's financial disclosure forms to see if this investment was listed and, if so, how much $$$$ the senator invested and if he had any profits? I would be interested to know exactly how long he has been invested in this.

Did wicker go rags to riches like Bennie? If so, how?

It’s super nice to get in and out early on on Ponzi schemes. And smart. But don’t accuse Wicker of being smart.

It's awfully interesting that the two recruiters, Wayne Kelly and Mike Billings, who were constantly coming around to give me their sales pitch now can't be found. Maybe I'll get to visit them during visiting hours.

Oh my gosh! Wicker was involved?? Timber?? What about McDaniel and Tin Foil Hats or toilets that you can plant flowers in as an entryway into your trailer in Ellisville?? We need a special prosecutor.

Imagine the gall of selling a Ponzi scheme to a sitting US Senator. It’ll be shocking if Seawright and Alexander are still employed by Monday.

From the New York Times:

Wicker bought into the alleged scheme through what's called the Alexander Seawright Timber Fund I LLC. That company was incorporated in 2010 by Jackson lobbyist Brent Alexander and lawyer Jon Seawright. Alexander, long one of Mississippi's most highly paid lobbyists, was active when Wicker served in the state Senate before being elected to Congress.

Senate disclosures show Wicker began buying into the Alexander Seawright fund in 2015, putting in between $48,000 and $195,000, based on the asset ranges disclosed. He got back between $5,000 and $15,000 in interest, plus $37,666.67 that appears to be repayment of principal. In 2016, Wicker invested between $63,000 and $245,000. He got back between $5,000 and $15,000 in interest, plus $127,979.16 in principal. Disclosures for 2017 haven't been filed yet.

Alexander and Seawright haven't responded to requests for comment. The criminal charge against Adams says he paid commissions to recruiters, with one unnamed recruiter getting $2.4 million in 2017 alone and another one getting $1.6 million. It's unclear if the recruiters could face criminal charges. They could also face civil lawsuits from investors or securities regulators.

So how long was Wicker in this Ponzi "investment" and how much did he "earn" in ill gotten gains? Adams must have been sure to make sure that politicos like Wicker were receiving their checks regularly.

Riddle me this: If this Ponzi scheme was the brain child and operation of Lamar Adams, why would the Feds strike a deal with him? If Adams was the hooking bull, he's the one you want to take the perp walk and put behind bars. Obviously, the Feds want indictments against others that were involved but not "master-minding" the Ponzi.

Two thoughts come to mind:

1. The Feds don't believe that it was really Adams who was running the show. Based on some of the comments I have seen on other posts about Adams, I find it hard to believe that he is smart enough to pull something like this off. Perhaps Alexander, Seawright and others yet-to-be-named were behind the scheme and Adams was simply the bag man.

2. Someone has an ax to grind with the promoters (Alexander, Seawright, et al), so they don't care who cooked up and ran the fraud; they want certain scalps and are using Adams to get to them.

Hey, 7.50 PM,

This article gives some ranges of money that Wicker invested and was paid out of the timber fund(s):

https://federalnewsradio.com/government-news/2018/05/mississippi-senator-confirms-he-lost-money-in-fraud-scheme/

Dan Jordan recused? Wow.

$50-100k based on his 2016 disclosure

To echo the thoughts of a couple of posters above: One of the saddest things to come out of this is that one of Mississippi's senators was scammed by these hucksters and now it is in the national press! He looks like a complete idiot, and the voters of MS look like idiots for sending him to the Hill.

Forget his losses, no way in Hades Roger Wicker gets out in front of this so quickly if he wasn't exposed politically. No way Jose. This must be way bigger than Alexander and Seawright.

@7:50, the reason I was able to drag this out was because he listed it on his disclosure forms, as my story states.
—Jeff Amy.

I bet there have been some very uncomfortable closed-door meetings at Baker Donelson over the past 48 hours.

Pull up the following URLs and keep hitting refresh. See how long it takes before you get a "PAGE NOT FOUND" error message:

https://www.bakerdonelson.com/Brent-Alexander

https://www.bakerdonelson.com/Jon-D-Seawright

Jim Hood whiffs again.

http://archive.thedmonline.com/article/defense-citizens-united

I hope that the above article dispels the false accusation that I am opposed to the majority opinion in the Citizens United case.

KF, thank you for what you do. So much news would not ever be reported if not for you. Keep up the good work (thumbs up emoji).

Ok, Macy. Give us some context synthesizing that and your comments that contributions and lobbying are “legal bribery”.

Wicker didn't send a press release. He responded to press inquiries. The AP broke the story after researching Alexander / Seawright and seeing the fund on Wicker's public financial disclosure. Wicker is not accused of anything, other than making a bad investment.

Now I see why he had to “fly home on business the day of the (MLB All Star) game.” Had to be hard work keeping all this stuff straight.

That sounds great, Macy. Address your accusation that lobbying and contributions are “legalized bribery”.

I think Brent is in real trouble. There's too much smoke here.

Prior to being named a federal judge, Dan Jordan practiced law at Butler Snow. I wonder if that is related to his recusal?

After reading numerous post on various articles listed on JJ, there are two things that definitely stand out:
—-Lawyers in the big Jackson law firms seemingly deserve the common public perception of lawyers being ——-. Good job MS Bar!
—-I am glad not to be a member of the CCJ with its wholesome atmosphere & genuine people. Is that why it is built in a swamp?

I have run out of popcorn reading this thread. running to the grocery now. can’t wait to pop a new bag and tune back in.

Perhaps it’s legalized bribery when ideology doesn’t align. Otherwise- IT’S FREE SPEECH! That’s a great standard.

I said it is legal. Well, except when it is not. My issue is with the blurring of the lines between law firms and the legalized bribery of lobbying, which I am explicitly stating is legal. It doesn't mean I have to love it.

Mike Billings also made the sales pitch that me. But her entire time was spent name dropping The Who’s Who of Eastover. I was turned off.

All y'all wrapped up in BD, which is understandable.

The real story is about five miles north in Ridgeland. If the Feds are serious, they go after Butler Snow with two fingers in the air.

That was an impressive wire. One wire $100,000,000.00.

Adams should serve 70 years and lose everything..... better check his wife out too! You knew about this?

Baker Donelson in all likelihood won't be survive this situation as shareholders will be looking to unload their financial positions before the firm collapses or they jump ship for another law firm. There are a lot of politicians who were hit in this scheme and those individuals will certainly be pulling their government business from Baker Donelson.

Authur Adams immediate and close family have obtained a lot of secret money this last year. Need to check them all out from wife on down!

Pretty sure I can speak first hand about one of the recruiters, Mike Billings. My last conversation with him included 15 minutes of uninterrupted chatter about all the fillers he had injected into his face in Texas to make him look younger. The next 15 minutes consisted of uninterrupted name dropping of everyone who has ever walked the grounds of CCJ....I'm not sure what the last 15 minutes would have consisted of because I couldn't take anymore.

The tongues they were a-wagging in the District tonight. No love lost for Adams, but Alexander is the real story. Several believe the Feds are going after him the hardest. Several at my table were pitched to by him and said he was a pretty despicable guy. In fact, you could auction off a ride-along or front row seats to his upcoming perp walk and probably pay back half the people he robbed.

My partner and I sat next to Brent and another promoter pitching their spill very hard at River Hills one day. It was a used car sales pitch at its finest. To think that professional business people, including a US Senator, would fall for the steaming pile of crap we heard them selling is unreal.

And someone better warn him they don’t have tanning beds and Botox at the ready, even in Federal prison.

9:47 is correct. Apparently Alexander/Seawright only had about 1-2% of the $100 million. Sources say Butler Snow had somewhere between $40-80 million. Shiz is about to hit the fan in Ridgeland, and it ain’t over Costco! Try to find their Wealrh Management branch on their website riight now. Oops, you can’t. It’s disappeared in the last 48 hours. Maybe that’s why they are frantically trying to raid some other large law firms in town by ponying up big bucks for any lawyers they think will jump ship and bring in an extra client or two. Guess how long those taking the bait will last... My guess is Billings is somewhere down in the Caymans right about now and won’t be sailing back to US waters anytime soon. Biggest winners in this shooting match will be the securities fraud lawyers hired to represent BD and BS!
PS - Wicker is an idiot.

From his online profile at Presidio: Michael D. Billings serves as the Managing Director at Presidio Wealth Management LLC. Mr. Billings has been Strategic Advisor of Butler Snow Advisory Services, LLC. since February 23, 2012. Mr. Billings serves as a family office manager for a Dallas family. Mr. Billings works with Butler Snow Advisory Services, LLC wealth management group in Dallas, and is responsible for developing and maintaining investment relationships with high net worth families and individuals. For the past 10 years, Mr. Billings serves as Trustee for a Dallas family. He has years of experience in a business development, consulting and advisory capacity to a number of large companies in the Dallas, Texas area. Mr. Billings received his Bachelor of Science in business administration from Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi and he attended Law School at the University of Mississippi.

If someone is successful in Mississippi, watch out. They’re probably a crook or a liar

Lamar Adams and family can say goodbye to the big house country club, his wife can go back to Indianola and baby sit! I feel like he will be strip of everything but his underwear! This has been going on since early 2000s. He deserves no slack.... inside information confirms he is snitching on everyone! Keep watching it will come out!

He (Adams) was trying to bilk the states of Louisiana and Kansas out of hundreds of thousand dollars ... even filled bankruptcy .... a cheat, thief and loser all the way around?

Is there any way to actually get a victim/investor in this scheme to speak on here anonymously just to tell his/her side of the story? I'd like to just hear how it went down.

What a bunch of dumb asses..... Lamar Adams? LOL he would screw his own mother out of money and property!

This is a fun, early-morning thread to read through. With the exception of me, every poster is either...

1) A federal magistrate speaking on the condition of anonymity,

or

2) A criminal investigator on his laptop sitting at an outdoor picnic table at Shuckers.

Well, maybe

3) A 34 year old who passed the Mississippi bar who hopes his soft resume will get him a corner office with a view of 55 north from seven floors up. And can barely pay his Madison mortgage and wife's tennis lesson fees.

A simple search of the Madison County Tax Assessors website shows multiple homes for Lamar and other members of his direct family. While on the surface his children all have jobs, I’m willing to bet daddy subsidized their lifestyles to a certain extent. If that is the case, there seems to be a discrepancy between type, cost and number of homes with income for his children. Vicki Lynn certainly knew about her husbands dealings. The question I have is: did his children and they turned a blind eye because daddy was subsidizing their lifestyle?

At 5:58 am. OF COURSE THEY KNEW!! Everyone else that knew them knew he was dirty too.

People keep saying how could anybody be duped by this moron ... well when u got the two financial arms of the two biggest firms pushing your product that is a pretty good front .. especially when BS is all powerful in the state

But...Back to Wodger Wabbit - Where did Wicker get this kind of readily disposable money? Or, did he, like Bennie Thompson, just suddenly become wealthy when he slid into office?

Ok for you folks who are slow .. Roger Wickers investment was only several $100,000 dollars .. we will say $200,000 for easy math but go pull the information several people have posted it .. if Roger who is his 60s has made anywhere from $75,000 to $200,000 over the last 30 years it is not far fetched to believe has several hundred thousand to invest at this stage of his life

The Wicker's have always had some money. They aren't fabulously wealthy, but he's a second generation prominent attorney. Those guys usually do pretty well. Like a lot of upper middle class, Roger earned some and inherited some.

The way the BS is set up as a money making machine is a legal conflict of interest.

Roger Wicker and his wife owned income-producing real property investments (like hotels) long before he became a US Senator. He and his wife are entrepreneurs and job-creators. His only shortcoming is he made a bad investment in this case. It is certainly embarrassing to him that this happened, but there is no reason to disparage a person for making a flawed investment.

Just Gonna Leave this Here

http://www.msnewsnow.com/story/1435898/couple-launches-south-magazine


Looks like the magazine targeted the same demographic as the ponzie scheme. Hmmmm.

remember jimmy hoffa, president of the teamsters union and manger if the teamsters pension fund? there was a guy with alot of lawyers , yet he never paid a legal fee. heres why. his lawyers would bring him certain clients who wanted to borrow money. if hoffa thought the client was a good credit risk he would make the loan out of the teamsters pension fund. the lawyer that brought in the client would then be paid a "finders fee". thats basically what is going on here with lamar adams playing jimmy hoffa, these big law firms bringing clients to lamar adams/jimmy hoffa and roger wicker as the client. what makes it even worse though is that at least hoffa had a real pile of cash to loan, but adams has nothing but a con job.

Warren Buffet and Donald Trump were approached by Bernie Madoff. Both rejected him. Buffett said that there was "nothing there" and Trump said it was a "rigged game". Madoff was far superior to the local folks as a con man and yet these billionaires gave him the boot. Not everybody checks their brains at the door when fantastic returns are offered. If it sounds too good to be true it is NOT true.

read page 19 of A TIME TO KILL and read how john grisham describes a "street lawyer". i know , i been one for 30 years helping working people out of one jam after another and im damn proud of it. grisham goes on in the novel to describe the ivory tower law firms as a bunch of arrogant, harvard yard jerks , and they are. they act like they piss hugo boss cologne and crap chocolate fudge and when they walk down the street, their feet dont even touch the ground. i would suggest that the rouge and e. b. martins, the preferred clothiers of this crowd, run a sale on calvin klien underwear, cause a few of them are crapping their chocolate fudge in their shorts as we write.

5:43. Did....ahem...your law school have grammar tutorials?

5:43pm gets it right. the preamble to the us constitution says all men are created equal but all lawyers are not.

roger whicker fell for a scam like this? the same guy up in the us congress that is running the country? god save us.

Inside info confirms Mr Adams is singing to save his ass..l may be too late he has screwed a lot of folks for 30 years.

Wicker lived across the street from Alexander when he was a legislator. They've known each other for a looooooooong time.

KF, No, Wicker did not live across the street from Alexander during his state Senate days. But, they were good friends and Wicker often visited Alexander and his wife for dinner and social time in their Belhaven residence. Wicker was Chairman of Public Health in the Senate and Alexander had numerous medical industry clients, so there was a natural lobbying relationship, which developed into a personal friendship evidently.

Roger Wicker and Brent Alexander have been “friends” for about 25 years. So, you screw your long-time friend, who just happens to be a United States Senator, and now you sit back and wait to see what happens. If Wicker was scammed, just imagine the other legislative members, staffers and the like who were also fleeced. And fleeced by the senior policy advisor at BD. Alexander always thought his light shone brighter than those around him. Now that light will be a spotlight in an interrogation room. I don’t think the man is built for federal prison, but he should have thought of that before he robbed his friends blind. What a douche.

Heard there were a ton of heavy hitters in Dallas who were duped into this.

I’m sure someone is doing the research on this as we speak, but I would be very interested to see what each of our state and federal elected officials’ disclosure forms show. I am confident many of them have some “timber” disclosures. I would start with Hob Bryan.

Seawright has been making the rounds this weekend assuring everyone he had no idea that this was a Ponzi scheme. Cue the gag reflex in 3...2...1...

to 8:52pm,,may 4.......oh lord ,its the speech police after me yet again. this aint english class baby, its the real world. something that you will never understand.