Jay Town and Mark Crosswhite
Alabama Power Company has reached an agreement to indemnify Birmingham law firm Balch & Bingham for financial losses it might incur due to an ever-growing list of unsavory activities -- apparently beginning with the North Birmingham Superfund bribery scandal and perhaps going back further -- according to a report at banbalch.com.
For starters, let's establish what indemnify means. From Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
1 : to secure against hurt, loss, or damage; 2 : to make compensation to for incurred hurt, loss, or damageSo Alabama Power CEO Mark Crosswhite wants to provide a financial cushion for the ethically challenged law firm that helped launch his rise to power? That raises all kinds of questions, such as:* Will Alabama Power ratepayers essentially be subsidizing Balch & Bingham every time they slip their monthly power-bill payment in the mailbox?* Will black power-company customers be forced to help float a law firm with apparently racist and white supremacist actions in its background?* The Alabama Public Service Commission (PSC) holds regulatory power over Alabama Power. What do PSC commissioners think of this? Did they have a say in it?* What about the Alabama Legislature? Have legislators signed off on this? If so, what do their constituents think of it?* Does the reported indemnity plan mean Balch -- and Crosswhite see serious financial setbacks in the firm's future?
All of these questions arise as Crosswhite appears set for a promotion. K.B. Forbes, publisher of banbalch.com, questions whether Crosswhite is fit to serve in the position he already holds, much less getting a promotion:
Rumors are flying that Southern Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Tom Fanning is retiring next year.
And Alabama Power CEO and Chairman Mark A. Crosswhite is allegedly telling bourgeois insiders that he has the lock and key to the C-Suite at Southern Company, Alabama Power’s parent company.
Crosswhite is unfit to serve.
He worked as a top partner for alleged racist and embattled law firm Balch & Bingham before taking the revolving door to Alabama Power.
Instead of distancing himself from Balch, Crosswhite appears to be embracing his former employer, even allegedly subsidizing the firm with lucrative business as Balch is hemorrhaging from alleged unsavory and criminal scandals engulfing the 99 year-old firm.
Now unsubstantiated rumors say Alabama Power and unknown related entities have indemnified Balch and others for their alleged criminal, racist, and egregious misconduct.
Hiding behind non-disclosure agreements and now allegedly million-dollar indemnity deals, the Crosswhite scandal smells like raw sewage.
What does this say about Crosswhite's leadership? It isn't pretty, Forbes writes:
For Crosswhite, protecting Balch & Bingham appears to be more important than protecting poor African-American children.
Institutional investors and the Southern Company Board of Directors should not take these rumors lightly.
Sources close to Balch and Alabama Power say the jaw-dropping photos of Crosswhite chugging back cocktails with disgraced ex-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town allegedly rocked “the most powerful man in Alabama.”
The alleged secret deal to keep Alabama Power “unmentionable” during the North Birmingham Bribery Trial is now an enormous stain not only for Town but also for Crosswhite.
And the photos appear to confirm an inappropriate meeting allegedly at the height of the criminal trial.
In addition, Alabama Power’s blood money tied to the January 6th insurrection was a decision allegedly made exclusively by Crosswhite.
Most significant is the sheer panic Crosswhite had with the rebirth of the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal where he and his legal counsel Mark White fumbled the ball.
With a federal RICO lawsuit coming, more scrutiny from federal investigators, and heightened interest from U.S. congressional leaders, the Crosswhite scandal will undoubtedly make institutional investors nervous.
Southern Company seems to have developed a protective coating of Teflon over the years. But that might not be the case for Crosswhite and Alabama Power, Forbes writes:
Wall Street has consistently supported Tom Fanning, regardless of the billion-dollar Vogtle and Kemper boondoggles.
Crosswhite is a completely different story. The sent of raw sewage surrounds Crosswhite.
The decades of alleged shenanigans involving actors, AstroTurf campaigns, alleged corruption, hidden bribes, and staged arrests have taken their toll.
Now with alleged secret indemnity agreements, an alleged hidden deal to be “unmentionable” during a federal criminal trial, and millions spent on an alleged racist law firm, Crosswhite’s future appears to have been terminated.
