Jackson Jambalaya

INDICTMENT POSTED BELOW!!!

D.A. bragged about dope money

$50,000 bribes allegedly laundered to Mayor 

A federal grand jury indicted Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, and Jackson Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks on corruption charges on October 23.  

Mayor allegedly calling to move RFQ deadline while on yacht

 

 The charges are: 

Aaron Banks: conspiracy and bribery

Chokwe Antar Lumumba:  Conspiracy, bribery, Use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, honest services wire fraud, money laundering

Jody Owens, II: Conspiracy, bribery (3 counts), use of an interstate facility in aid of racketeering, honest services fraud, money laundering. 

The defendants will be arraigned at 1:30 in U.S. District Court.   The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Daniel Patrick Jordan, III and Magistrate Judge Isaac.    Attorney Thomas Lufkin entered an appearance for Owens. 

Highlights of the indictments:

* Banks "solicited a $50,000 bribe" in exchange for his vote on Owens and Smith's convention center hotel bid.  Owens made an initial payment of $10,000 to Banks and promised to hire a relative.  Banks' daughter works for the District Attorney. 

* Owens "solicited" $80,000 in bribes for Banks, Lumumba, and former Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee to get his convention center hotel bid approved.   Owens and the "developers" paid off a $10,000 campaign debt for Lee and gave her $3,000 in cash. The undercover agents took Lee on a $6,000 shopping spree at luxury fashion stores.

* Owens accepted at least $115,000 in cash and "future financial benefits" from the developers.  

The Connect 

The story began in July 2023 when an undercover visited Owen's downtown cigar bar because the selection of fine tobacco was highly recommended to him.  The undercover struck up a conversation with an employee and at some point said he was a developer interested in building a hotel for the convention center.  The employee introduced the developer to Owens (allegedly).  

 Owens, Marve Smith, and "others" flew on a private jet to Nashville in October 2023 to meet with the "developers."  The FBI paid for the private jet.  

Owens allegedly bragged about his downtown power as he could get the deal done.  Owens said he "Had a bag of fucking information on all the city councilman" he could use to get votes approved. 

The District Attorney bragged to one undercover at his election night party that being D.A. was a "part-time job."  The full-time job is developing.  This is the part-time job, to get leverage for the full-time job." (#24)

Owens is a Travelin' Man

Owens and Smith met the developers the next day at his cigar bar in the "back room."  The partners in crime "negotiated" an upfront payment of $250,000.  The payment would be split between Owens ($100,000), Smith ($100,000), and Owens' employee ($50,000). 

The Owens trio met with the undercovers in Fort Lauderdale in December.  Once again, they flew on a private jet paid for by the FBI.  Owens and the undercovers hammered out the terms of the bribes on a yacht.  The "developers" gave Owens $125,000 in cash to split among he and his partners.  

The District Attorney boasted in a moment of woeful candor "I'm not trying to overemphasize this, you guys, but my abilito to prosecute people, there's only one me.  So right now, every police agency comes to us. Everybody needs something." 

 The War Room

Owens called his private office the "war room."  He met the undercovers on January 10, 2024 in his fortress of solitude.  Owens said the city would issue an RFQ for the hotel project. (#28)  

The undercovers met with Owens, Smith, and Banks in the back room of the cigar bar.  Owens promised to get $50,000 to Banks from the undercovers.  Owens (allegedly) continued to brag about his bribing prowess to the agents: 

We never give them the asking price. I buy pussy, I buy cars, I buy cows, I buy drugs, whatever. My point is, like [BANKS] need 50, you get 30. He gets installments. That's my game. Some people will overpay and say I'm the guy who needs more and some people will choose who to pay. He wants 50? We'll give him 15 this year and 15 next year.

 Banks later told the undercovers he needed $50,000 as soon as possible when they asked what his price was.  

Hooking Up Hizzoner

Owens introduced Lumumba to the developers at a dinner on February 12, 2024.  Owens assured the Mayor "I've done background checks.  They're not FBI by the way."  (KF Note: Yes, Mr. Owens.  A two-bit D.A. in Mississippi is going to get access to the identities of FBI undercovers.  Um, who hasn't been a prosecutor or criminal defense lawyer?)  

Owens later explained how things worked in his town to the agents: 

I don't give a shit where the money comes from. It can come from blood diamonds in Africa, I don't give a fucking shit. I'm a whole DA. Fuck that shit. My job, as I understand it, with a little paperwork, is to get this deal done, and get it done most effectively ... We can take dope boy money, I don't give a shit. But I need to clean it and spread it. I can do it in here. That's why we have businesses. To clean the money. Right? I don't give a shit. You give us cash, we deposit it and give it back that way. That's easy.

The developers paid Owens (allegedly) another $60,000 in February in the back room.  The payments were to be distributed $25,000 for Owens, $25,000 for Banks, and $10,000 for Lee.  Owens shorted Banks and only gave him $10,000 when he arrived.  Banks also demanded a protective detail (You can't make this up).  The agents spent $1,500 on protection for Banks as well as $4,800 on the hiring of Banks' daughter.

Owens paid off Lee's $10,000 campaign debt to a local printer with laundered funds.  He sold Lumumba's leverage at a meeting on February 28. Owens allegedly said if they did not get the Mayor on their side, he could hurt them through permits and the RFQ by "making it difficult."  

Owens' Dope Money

This paragraph says it all: 

Specifically, OWENS explained that because LUMUMBA would not take cash directly from the Developers, the Developers would need to give OWENS between $50,000 and $100,000 so that OWENS could deposit the cash and get "campaign contribution" checks with those funds from third parties in Mississippi. OWENS emphasized that if the Developers gave LUMUMBA $100,000 in cash, "then everybody goes to jail because we gave over five thousand cash." OWENS went on to say that he kept the money given to him by the Developers in a safe at the District Attorney's Office mixed in with "dope money and drug money and more than a million dollars." OWENS made clear that he did not keep large amounts of cash at home because that money could be directly linked to him, while money kept mixed in with other funds in the District Attorney's Office safe
could not be...

Moving the Deadline

Control of the RFQ process for the convention center hotel project was imperative of the District Attorney and his friends.  The city extended the RFQ deadline from March 12 to April 30.  Owens spoke to a city employee on speaker phone several times with an agent present.  Owens texted Lumumba afterwards, stating the developers learned the deadline was extended and asked how to donate to his campaign.  (Read #47)

Owens planned to hold a fund-raiser for the Mayor in Florida.  He told the developers they would split up $50,000 in donations to the Mayor into checks of "$5,000 or $10,000."  However, he said $50,000 was the beginning and "Lumumba's 'final number' was $100,000.  Owens told the agent of the fund-raising plans.

Banks promised to help move back the deadline at a subsequent meeting.  

Flying to Fort Lauderdale

Owens, Lumumba, Smith, and others flew on a private jet underwritten by the FBI.  A meeting was held on a yacht.  An undercover asked the Mayor (allegedly) to move the RFQ deadline from April 30 to April 10 or 15.  Hizzoner called a city employee and directed the city employee to move the RFQ deadline to April 15. (KF Note: There is your benefit.)  

The developer handed five $10,000 checks to Lumumba in an envelope.  Owens said they are "Missisisppi checks but they're from this group."  The Mayor replied "ok."  (#57)  The indictment states: 

59.   Developer 2 then directly asked LUMUMBA whether the RFQ submission deadline would in fact be moved up. LUMUMBA then checked his text messages and informed the Developers that the city employee he had called had confirmed that the RFQ submission deadline would be moved.

Owens later secured another $50,000 in bribe money.  

The $50,000 in "campaign donations" appeared in Lumumba's campaign account on April 4.  Lumumba (allegedly) in turn wrote himself a check for $9,500 from the campaign account.  He wrote another check for $5,000 out of the campaign account on April 8.  Federal law requires the reporting of transactions over $10,000.  However, transactions just under the threshold can be considered suspicious activity.  

The Strip Club

Since the deal was done, it was time to party and not just party but par-tay.  The boyz all went to a strip club while in Florida.  An agent allegedly gave Lumumba "and others" $5,000 to play with as you know, boyz will be boyz.  

The Bust

The Feds pulled the plug on May 22 as they executed search warrants on Owens' offices.  They discovered a lock box disguised as a book with $20,000 cash in his Hinds County office.  The lockbox had $20,000.  $9,900 was marked bills paid by the undercovers in December 2023.

The FBI also seized the phones of Banks, Lee, Smith, Owens, and Lumumba.