Jackson Jambalaya

Paper shredding and bleachbit in 3, 2, 1... Right?

This *could be* huge.

Will we know where the $30 million went?

If Judge Wingate does not have protection, he may need some. Seriously, I am thankful for him, but he is stepping on a LOT of toes, and I am worried about him.

In plain English, "someone" has a real problem, and if that someone is Chowke, trips on a Florida yacht will be the least of his problems.

Oh, shit. Just when we thought this issue was dead and buried.

Wingate should subpoena Lumumba.

Wow. This is a nightmare for everyone on the list. I’ll spoil it for you. Winston done spent every dime of his cut.

It just keeps getting worse for Chalkline. He must have thought he was already in Kush.

Free the $30 million. Right?

Am I the only one who thinks Wingate is a superb dumbass for waiting until a week after Lumumba was out of office to turn over this rock? He's had the past three years to ask this question.

What jurisdiction does judge Wingate have regarding this? Don’t we already know the City burned the money to cover general fund and water fund shortfalls when issued moratoriums?

He wants all information.

I’m not sure ive ever seen a judge draft and issue a subpoena - ever. Lots of lawyers lining up to milk this thing. Lightfoot is quaking in their alligator shoes about now. They have zero appetite for being under a microscope. Their clients won’t tolerate a scandal.

I've never seen a judge issue a subpoena from the bench. To be clear, the judge would absolutely have the legal authority to do this. But I've just never seen it. Usually subpoenas are issued on request of the parties to the Clerk's office (old school way); or, nowadays, the subpoenas are just signed and issued by the attorneys themselves (updates to the Federal rules in 2013 first allowed for signature by the attorneys without waiting on Clerk's office). But it's always the attorneys who are the ones requesting and/or issuing the subpoenas. If a Federal judge is taking the time to draft out a subpoena and issue it from the bench, then God help those people if they do not comply with that compulsory process. Knowing Judge Wingate, he will bring down the hammer on those people with massive contempt proceedings unless they give him exactly what has been subpoenaed.

How can money from a court action not be tracked, audited, and monitored? Here they are trying to do it from the back end, after all is said and done (and money spent).

Neither Ted nor Judge Wingate have tried to find the truth.

Clarion Ledger
https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/local/2021/07/30/jackson-tries-fix-water-system-siemens-settlement-largely-spent/7832536002/
Summary: $30M to Attorneys; $46M to General Fund, Enterprise Fund, or pay down City debt; $3.5M for sewer repairs; and $10.5 earmarked for water meters and billing fixes.

WLBT
https://www.wlbt.com/2022/06/28/142-million-siemens-settlement-funds-used-prop-up-water-sewer-sanitation-accounts/
Summary: $30M for attorneys; $36.7M set aside for compliance with water/sewer bond covenants; $14.25M transferred to Water/Sewer Enterprise Fund $7M± and Sanitation Fund $7M±. Balance left on June 13, 2022 was $8M±.

The City water/sewer fund and the sanitation fund were both hemorrhaging (w/s still is) and they were behind on everything. That's 95% of the reason that the O. B. Curtis WTP failed later that year and Ted came along to save us.

Ted is just playing dumb about any missing money and the Judge doesn't know any different. Ted has spent $150M from DC plus whatever revenue he can get from water/sewer and he's now operating month to month just like the City was before the failure.

If the Mayor got any money besides the Feds, it would be from lawyer kickbacks and/or garbage contract kickbacks. But I don't have access to any of his Cayman Island accounts.

Good test for the attorney client privilege and criminal activity exception.

Have always wondered if some of that $30m circuitous pathed its way back to one of Rukia's grift fronts and therefore back to the Lumumbas.

Rudy probably got his hands on it too. Better check his pockets before he leaves Jackson.

Where is Chokwe’s subpoena? The main player in all of this. His cut is in an offshore bank account the rumor mill tells me.

THAT is coming. They DID subp the "Office of the Mayor".

Maybe he is a genius for waiting until Choc was out of office. It’s too late to destroy the records, or at least much harder. Maybe Heflin just now figured out where the money went and tipped off the court. Who knows why he waited until now. But he is no dumbass.

What's that word for when you enjoy another person's misery?
Whatever it is, I've got it for Lumumba. That $90 million didn't come close to making the city whole. The taxpayers will be paying the bond debt for years to come.

Idk if Antar was corrupt when he took office or if he was corrupted while in office. It wasn't until early in his second term that I started watching him like a hawk. The city was in freefall; city services were non-existent; and, armed thugs were roaming the streets with impunity and terrorizing the people in broad daylight. It didn't take long to see that Lumumba was the head of the snake.

In the run up to the water system shutdown, he went from salivating over the federal $$ signs in his eyes to sheer desperation when reality began to set in that he would not be part of the solution. He didn't just want that seat at the table, he had to have it. So, as the cavalry wrested it from his grubby hands, he played every paltry little card he had left to sabotage Ted Henifin and try and wear down Judge Wingate. Idk, but it looked an awful lot like a person who had overleveraged him or herself in anticipation of once in a lifetime kind of $$. Or, you know, counted the chickens before they hatched.

@9:14PM, Idk if you're the only one but I doubt you have much company. It's practically crystal clear to me that you issue that subpoena the moment the crook-in-chief is kicked to the curb and has no more official obfuscation leverage. Who would you rather oversee such a document production -- indicted ex-mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba or Mayor John Horne?

The Crap is about to hit the fan

Do they let you wear stick on clown beards in the Mississippi state prisons?

The way this is supposed to work is of the city settles a case then the council has to authorize the payment of attorneys fees and approve the contract. Maybe that happened but if not then there likely was no settlement and all these claims still exist.

Is this a reality TV show?

Wingate(and others) aren’t so much worried about the $60mil as they are the $30mil gift to his buddies.

Remember the "slush fund" from the Tobacco settlement that Jim Hood controlled who got the money

Does this cause a guilty plea in the other case for Hizzoner?

Bingo!!!

How much did the council members receive after approving the $30 million to some Detroit shysters?

Actually he is. The system is crippled by debt. The city will wind up paying nearly $200 million in the bonds when they could have been paid off.

Feeding the shysters again is all that will happen, and with that said, ASGH!

I bet he did it so Antar couldn't hide behind his office and sweep it under the rug.

Schadenfreude.

July 9, 2025 at 10:37 PM
I meant Wingate should have subpoena'd by name.

Wingate should subpoena from the tax collector all records of the former mayor purchasing real and personal property within a year after the Siemens settlement just to see.

The city of Jackson in no way plans to pay off those municipal bonds. The city simply will refinance the bonds through a political donor and keep kicking the can down the road. If you don’t believe this, you are just plain stupid.

Where is Shad White in all of this. Guess he just goes after low hanging fruit.

Detroit v2.0 The Lumbubbas brought it with them.

I am relieved the lawyers got paid, that would have been really bad if they got stiffed. The funny part is, the judge is trying to hold someone accountable for the money. Good luck with all that.

Also, the Board should now have authorized that $30m payment to the out-of-state lawyers. Do better.

It should show how the $30 million was actually divided up.

"I bet he did it so Antar couldn't hide behind his office and sweep it under the rug. "

It also forces Antar to pay for his defense out of his own pocket instead of using tax dollars for, ahem, "official business".

Not even a peep out of the Barksdalers and their big ass Jackson reporting team.

Your flaw is in assuming there ARE any documents. Do you think Antar was stupid enough to leave a file of such documents on the top, left hand corner of his desk.

The proper word is "youge".

Lil Choke wasn't one to maintain records, audits, financial statements. He forbade or avoided the records that Wingate seeks. The former mayor (in title only) has other grift that should interest the Feds, like his buddy renting a parking lot to the VA for hundreds of thousands. Hopefully the Feds can leverage Lil Choke's additional scams to get his guilty plea and testimony against Hinds DA in bribery case. Jackson should erect a statue to Wingate.

Subpoena Omari, Martin, Rukia, maybe Owens; get the goods on Mayor Lamumba's corrupt pay-back scheme in testimony (because little exists in City Records)
from Detroit Lawyers' Seiman's settlement, then subpoena him after evidence established.

+++++

This is great reporting! I stand with Judge Henry Wingate. He always does MS proud!

@8:45 AM yup Howdie Doodie always seems to be suspiciously quiet whenever there is municipal corruption and embezzlement.

No way any transactions like that would have appeared in his name. I mean, he's stupid but he's not that effing stupid...

Great reporting, Kingfish. Thanks. God bless Judge Wingate. What a blessing this man has been.

This *could be* one of the biggest public corruption cases in American history. Think about it: $90M settlement with no oversight from City Council (or anyone outside the Mayor's Office), $30M carved out for a sweetheart legal fee (again, no oversight), and $60M that appears to have disappeared into thin air - no repayment of COJ liabilities, no tangible improvement in city services. In fact, everything got WORSE after such a large payout. Unfortunately, it's a bit optimistic to assume there is much of a paper trail. Does anyone think that the COJ was actually keeping records? They couldn't even produce an audit for multiple years. I hope I'm wrong but I doubt this dragnet produces a smoking gun - but maybe it smokes out additional participants unwilling to take the fall...

To those saying he’s not stupid, yes he is that stupid. Remember he trusted Jody telling him he’s vetted the FBI agents and took him at his word they weren’t actual FBI agents, yet they were. If he wasn’t stupid, that whole money on the yacht thing wouldn’t have been so out in the open. I bet there’s some puckering going on around the capital city.

M/M Lumumba purchased their current home in tax year 2020.

SOS office also lists 12 businesses with Chokwe, Rukia, and/or Nubia (mother).
CAL Investments formed Oct 2020 with Chokwe A Lumumba as only officer and his home address. NAICS shows “other activities related to real estate”. Dissolved Jan 2024.

The former mayor (in title only) has other grift that should interest the Feds, like his buddy renting a parking lot to the VA for hundreds of thousands.

Bennett's defensive misdirection (away from getting caught in the parking lot scam) was to announce the new Legacy League baseball effort out at Smith Wills.

Been to any games? Heard about any games? Heard anything at all since the announcement? Seen any sob story reporting out of CJ LeMaster?

Can we get back to talking about how Thalia Mara is open for business and going gangbusters?

A forensic audit will be the only way to root out where money went and what the books actually look like. Must my opinion

That is why they need to hire a forensic accountant. I worked for the IRS for 20 years. Plenty of people “don’t keep records” but there is a money trail if you know how to track it.

I envision motions to quash this subpoena and questioning a judges authority to issue a subpoena in This form. Lots of lawyering ahead

Why would the city refuse when it was under ex-mayor?

This needs to be before a federal grand jury with the FBI as the investigating agency. The GJ could then issue subpoenas for the Feebs to serve.