Attorney General Jim Hood issued the following statement.
Attorney General Jim Hood announced today that his office recovered $26,612,188.22 in Mississippi taxpayer funds after settling 11 civil lawsuits filed in February 2017, against multiple government contractors doing business with the Mississippi Department of Corrections during the Epps bribery scandal. The lawsuits accused these contractors of using so-called “consultants” as conduits to influence then-Commissioner Christopher Epps, through bribes and kickbacks, to award and retain MDOC contracts.
“These settlements effectively disgorged these corporations of their ill-gotten profits and then some,” General Hood said. “I have a duty to protect the integrity of the public contracting process, as well as vindicate the rights of the state when it is the victim of public corruption and other wrongful conduct. We filed these lawsuits because I was determined to hold these corporations, both out-of-state and in-state, accountable for their wrongful conduct.”
“Today, and throughout this litigation, we have sent a significant warning to corporations pursuing public contracts with the state that this office will not tolerate corporations taking advantage of Mississippi taxpayers. Corporations contracting with the state, whether through direct employees or outside consultants, must uphold their corporate ethical responsibilities to ensure our laws are followed. Corporations have a duty and a responsibility not only to properly hire, train, and supervise their employees, but also any outside consultants they elect to hire.”
General Hood reminded companies and their employees that if they are doing business in Mississippi and a public official approaches them in a way that makes them uncomfortable about a business-related issue, that action needs to be reported immediately to authorities.
The settlement amounts paid by these government contractors are as follows:
(1) Management & Training Corporation $5.18 million
For-profit operator of correctional facilities
(2) Cornell Companies, Inc. (GEO Group) $4.55 million
For-profit operator of correctional facilities
(3) Wexford Health Sources, Inc. $4.00 million
Correctional health care provider
(4) Keefe Commissary Network, LLC $3.10 million
Commissary management services
(5) C. N. W. Construction Company $3.10 million
Construction
(6) Global Tel*Link Corporation $2.50 million
Inmate telephone communications
(7) Branan Medical Corporation $2.00 million
“Drugs-of-abuse” testing products
(8) Sentinel Offender Services, LLC $1.30 million
Offender tracking and monitoring provider
(9) CGL Facility Management, LLC $750,000.00
Correctional maintenance services
(10) AdminPros, LLC $32,188.22
Medicaid eligibility services
(11) Guy E. “Butch” Evans $100,000.00
Insurance
(12) Health Assurance, LLC Bankruptcy
Correctional health care provider
Thursday, January 24, 2019
AG Recovers $26 Million in Epps Scandal
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
23 comments:
$868 Million worth of contracts should never have been lost in the first place which happened on Pickering and Jim Hood's watch. Wonder why....
Who was Hood's assistant AG assigned to Epps at the time? This level of agency head has an asst AG assigned to them on call night and day.
I don't see Teresa Malone's name on that list and she's right here in Hood's back yard.
Hey Jimbo, remind us who busted the "public corruption"?
From the State of Mississippi AG Handbook
What to do when political/government corruption and bribery takes place. Do Nothing.
What to do when political/government corruption and bribery takes place AND you are caught by the Feds or the media.
Step 1. Fake outrage and shock.
Step 2. Swear that you will get to the bottom of this and hold those responsible.
Step 3. Collect a small percentage of the money lost then beat chest and claim victory for the taxpayer.
Step 4. Find a scapegoat to serve some time in jail while the real money players pay a small fine while continuing to do business with state government.
Step 5. Set up press conference and media tour to showcase the great accomplishments fighting crime in MS.
I don't know much about how this works, but, what did the AG NOT do that he could or should have done? He doesn't audit expenditures or monitor contracts or review a list of vendors.
That sound like an Auditor's job. And perhaps the Auditor discovered the problem initially, and, being a republican, decided to keep Hood out of the loop and involved the feds.
Damn good thing Feel Brant was kept out of the loop. He woulda put Santa Cruz and the 'backdoor boys' on it and mucked it up for sure and Epps would still be sitting under that chandelier.
Teresa Malone is walking around free as a bird, She plead GUILTY over 2 years ago, and her sentencing has been put off because of her health, but she can run all over Flowood and Cartage like she hasn't done any thing wrong. I must say JAMIE FRANKS must be one hell of a lawyer to keep her out of prison, while everyone else is in prison and severing there time.
How much did the AG’s friends get for settling this case? Rumor is a local attorney got big bucks.
Exactly who appointed Epps and raved about his performance??
Second the question from 8:06. How much of that $26m went to Hood’s cronies, ahem I mean private attorneys who paid Hood to play?
"Severing there time" at 7:11. I am so tired if ignorant ass rednecks that can't spell or engage in proper English.
9:25 - So. Quit your whining and find something important to get outraged over.
Exactly who appointed Epps ...
Democrat Ronnie Musgrove.
...and who was the primary man paying the bribes...imminent Rankin County Republican Cecil McCrory. In fact, most of these are his “customers”. Amazing the handful of people indicted in this were able to do so much between the half dozen or so of them. Amazing how we have these massive scams in this state and every investigation reaches a certain point and just “poof”, yep got everybody. All you folks go home, just your standard one politician and a couple retired ones scamming hundreds of millions of dollars...moose at the front should have told you.
And Haley and Phil happily kept him on board because of the "great" job that he was doing.
Boys this happen while Republicans were in control.
Pretty ridiculous that Jim Hood would accuse a company of wrongdoing related to the Epps/McCrory scandal and hold his hand out for a ransom payment after the company had already been investigated, cleared of wrongdoing, and allowed to keep its contracts with the state.
"I am so tired if ignorant ass rednecks that can't spell or engage in proper English."
IF What? Did you complete your sentence?
Not to disparage the $26 million recovery, but if Hood had not opposed a False Claims Act last year, which would have provided for treble damages, the State of Mississippi could have recovered over $75 million. I think the $26 million is just the single-dollar damages. Of course, if we had a False Claims Act, a judge would have to approve all those attorneys' fees.
Nobody investigated these companies. AG wannabe Mike Hurst was too busy filing his qualifying papers to run for AG back in 2015 to look at the companies closely. He was happy to announce the indictment again Epps and run with that news as a basis for his unsuccessful AG race.
Cecil McCrory and Tate Reeves are positing a lot today. I thought Tater was on the Coast?
11:37 - They got wifi on the coast now.
Normal MSGOP corruption low information voters will still vote for'em...
Post a Comment