JACKSON, Miss. — For out-of-state builders hoping to carry a win to Mississippi’s capital, their pitch was flat.
The metropolis had lengthy been looking for somebody to develop a part of downtown Jackson, and when two males confirmed up expressing their curiosity in late February, City Council member Virgi Lindsay agreed to satisfy with them at an upscale steakhouse in a close-by suburb.
But they’d “no imaginative and prescient,” Lindsay mentioned in an interview, and so they have been brief on particulars. She couldn’t recall whether or not they even provided a enterprise card.
She left the dinner — after having paid for her personal meal, a private coverage that may be a holdover from her days as a newspaper reporter, she mentioned — not anticipating to hitch them at a ribbon-cutting any time quickly.
“I simply thought I’d by no means see them once more, as a result of I simply felt like they have been so poorly ready,” Lindsay mentioned. “I definitely didn’t suspect they have been linked to the FBI.”
Now, Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens, who invited her to the assembly and was current, is accused in a federal indictment filed within the Southern District of Mississippi of taking part in and facilitating a bribery scheme that ensnared the mayor and members of the City Council. The out-of-state “builders” have been FBI brokers. As a part of a sting operation, they sought help from officers in Jackson, the state’s largest metropolis, for a phony resort deal in trade for money and perks like procuring sprees and private safety particulars.
Owens, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and City Council member Aaron Banks have been indicted final month on conspiracy and bribery costs. All have pleaded not responsible. A trial is ready for early January.
A City Council member, Angelique Lee, resigned in August and pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit bribery. Sherik Marve Smith — a relative of Owens who courtroom data say conspired to provide “issues of worth,” together with money funds and marketing campaign donations, to elected officers in trade for his or her help for the actual property venture — additionally pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit bribery. Smith didn’t reply to a request for remark.
No different City Council members have been charged.
The allegations within the federal indictment paint an image of individuals entrusted to public workplace in a metropolis the place roughly 26% of residents reside in poverty being accused of receiving greater than $100,000 in “bribe funds” whereas being whisked away to hobnob on personal jets and yachts.
The bribery scandal is the newest in a sequence of challenges Jackson has confronted in recent times. Last yr residents went with out rubbish pickup for roughly two weeks amid a contract dispute.
That breakdown got here on the heels of a water system disaster that left a lot of the town with out entry to working water for days in 2022. The issues with the water system endured, with residents being requested to boil their water for security amid stories of brown water, leaking sewage and low water strain. The system is now beneath the management of an interim third-party supervisor.
“People are drained; they only need some good things finished,” mentioned Vernon Hartley, a City Council member for one of many metropolis’s poorest wards.
The indictment lays out a roughly eight-month interval when two FBI brokers, posing as builders from Nashville, labored with Owens to safe help they would wish to win a improvement venture within the metropolis.
The undercover FBI brokers arrived in Jackson in July 2023 on the lookout for potential actual property alternatives and have been put in contact with Owens, in line with the indictment.
The metropolis had obtained a multimillion-dollar mortgage from the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2008 for use to pay for improvement tasks within the metropolis’s downtown, and the town struggled to search out anybody to take up the venture all through the years. The metropolis made one other effort in July 2023 to search out builders by issuing a public request.
Owens was campaigning for re-election when the builders flew him and others to Nashville on a non-public jet in October 2023 to debate enterprise alternatives in Jackson.
After that journey, the indictment alleges, Owens boasted to undercover brokers that he and Smith had “a bag of f—— info on all the town councilmen” that allowed him to “get votes authorised.”
A number of weeks later, he would win re-election by a large margin. At his victory social gathering, he advised builders that being the district lawyer was a “half time job” that he used to get leverage for his full time job of actual property improvement, the indictment alleges.
“This is the half time job to get the conversations and the entry. Access equals the opposite sh-t we’re attempting to do,” he mentioned, in line with the indictment.
Owens, whose lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark, mentioned after final week’s arraignment that “cherry-picked statements of drunken locker room banter just isn’t a criminal offense.”
The subsequent day, Owens and Smith negotiated a $250,000 payout to be divided between them and an unidentified particular person, with Owens and Smith receiving $100,000 every for securing help for the builders’ venture, in line with the indictment.
In December, the builders flew Smith, Owens and an unidentified witness to Florida on a non-public jet for a gathering on a yacht. Owens is alleged to have accepted $125,000 in money from one of many brokers on the yacht, in line with the indictment.
Owens boasted about his energy to sway issues, saying, “Everybody wants one thing. Every file involves us. Everybody wants one thing mounted,” in line with the indictment.
Roughly a month later, in a gathering on the DA’s workplace in a room he had dubbed the “warfare room,” Owens gave the builders a heads-up that the town of Jackson can be placing out one other request to solicit builders for a downtown improvement venture that would come with a resort close to the town’s conference middle, in line with the indictment.
The request for proposals issued in July didn’t safe any authorised tasks.
At that time, Owens and the builders’ alleged efforts to safe help for the proposal appeared to select up steam, and Banks, then the City Council president, was introduced into the alleged scheme, in line with the indictment.
Banks is alleged to have advised a developer at a gathering with Owens on Jan. 11 that “fifty grand as quickly as doable would assist” throughout a dialogue about his help for his or her venture, in line with the indictment. The subsequent month, Banks accepted $10,000 in money from Owens, it alleges.
Reached by telephone Monday, Banks, who’s charged with two felony counts, mentioned, “I’ve nothing to say.”
In February, Owens organized a dinner to introduce Lumumba, the mayor, to the builders. The indictment alleges that in introductions, Owens mentioned, “I’ve finished background checks. They’re not FBI by the way in which,” and that he went on to elucidate their improvement curiosity to the mayor.
After the dinner, Owens promised the builders he would get them three extra votes, along with securing Banks and Lumumba, in line with the indictment. He went into element about tips on how to funnel funds by way of marketing campaign finance accounts and defined tips on how to first “clear” the cash, the indictment mentioned.
“I don’t give a sh-t the place the cash comes from. It can come from blood diamonds in Africa, I don’t give a f—— sh-t,” the indictment quotes Owens as saying. Owens mentioned his job was to “get this deal finished.”
“We can take dope boy cash, I don’t give a sh-t. But I would like to wash it and unfold it,” Owens mentioned, in line with the indictment.
At least one different dinner amongst Owens, the builders and a council member would happen, in line with courtroom data. In late March, builders gave a bag of $3,000 in money to Lee, then a member of the City Council, in line with the indictment. The subsequent day, she would spend greater than $6,000 on luxurious items utilizing one of many agent’s bank cards, in line with the indictment.
In August, Lee pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit bribery. She has not but been sentenced. Lee’s lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark, and a name to a quantity listed for Lee was not returned.
Owens labored with the builders to concoct a plan by which he, Smith and Lumumba would journey to Florida for an additional assembly on the yacht, the place Lumumba would obtain $50,000, in line with the indictment. They organized for the cash to be paid in 5 $10,000 “marketing campaign contribution” checks in trade for Lumumba’s transferring again the deadline for the event proposals, in line with the indictment. The builders agreed to pay him one other $50,000 later, the indictment mentioned.
During the journey, Lumumba was recorded calling a metropolis worker with directions to vary the deadline for proposals, in line with the indictment.
A spokesperson for Lumumba declined to remark.
The similar day, in line with the indictment, Owens, Lumumba and the brokers went to a venue recognized solely as a “membership” in courtroom paperwork. Owens is alleged to have made $5,000 in money accessible for Lumumba to spend there, whereas Lumumba is alleged to have instructed one of many builders “to pay money to workers of the membership for Lumumba’s profit,” in line with courtroom papers.
In late May, the FBI searched Owens’ workplace on the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office beneath a warrant. During the raid, they discovered {that a} ebook titled “The Constitution of The United States” was truly a lockbox, in line with the indictment. Inside, officers mentioned, there was $20,000 in money. Almost half of it was traced by way of serial numbers to funds the builders had given Owens, in line with the indictment.
The indictment alleges that Owens had advised builders earlier that he saved “dope cash and drug cash and greater than 1,000,000 {dollars}” within the workplace protected to keep away from the chance of retaining it in his house.
Owens mentioned in an announcement that he was absolutely cooperating with their efforts.
At least three City Council members have confirmed to NBC News that Owens invited them to conferences with builders in January and late February.
On the day Owens and the builders first met with Banks, they’d lunch with one other council member, Hartley, Hartley mentioned.
Hartley mentioned in an interview that he declined their supply to pay for his meal at Walker’s Drive-In, a restaurant usually frequented by Jackson’s enterprise class and well-known for seafood and different Southern fare. As with Lindsay, the main points of what they hoped to do in Jackson appeared scarce to him.
Hartley mentioned Owens had mentioned the builders had an curiosity in studying about his ward. The assembly itself, although, was lackluster, he mentioned.
Ashby Foote, the council’s sole Republican, advised NBC News he joined the group for lunch on the Capital Club on Feb. 29.
The restaurant’s location, the nineteenth ground of the downtown Capital Towers constructing, was a primary one. Its home windows ignored the property builders had their eye on.
Foote mentioned that there was no formal presentation throughout the meal and that the businessmen talked “in generalities.”
But one factor stood out.
“They mentioned, ‘How does Jackson work?’ I believe, or one thing to that impact, or ‘How do issues get finished in Jackson?’ or one thing to that impact,” Foote mentioned. “I didn’t actually reply the query.”
He initially seemed on the assembly as “a nothing burger.”
Normally, you would possibly a minimum of get a enterprise card, Foote mentioned. He was annoyed. He didn’t catch their names, however he did write down the identify of their group, the Facilities Solutions Team.
“It by no means occurred in my wildest desires they have been undercover for the FBI,” Foote mentioned.
Now, the City Council is grappling with the aftermath of the newest developments, alongside routine issues of governance.
“After the parade is gone,” Hartley mentioned, “we nonetheless have to wash up the mess.”
The first council assembly because the indictments is scheduled for Tuesday.