https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/10210487498285888
Stepping on the Toes of the Powerful
Donald V. Watkins
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 18, 2016
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 18, 2016
An old friend of mine called me last week to talk about the Securities and Exchange Commission's recently filed lawsuit against me. He is a former SEC insider who worked for many years in the agency's enforcement division.
My friend did not think the SEC's lawsuit had any merit. Instead, he believed that it was filed to smear my name, hurt my businesses, and keep me distracted for a while. He also confirmed what I suspected – the SEC was using its resources to help a former colleague win his client's private lawsuit against me. This colleague is New York Attorney Robert Heim, a former Assistant Regional Director in the New York City Office of the SEC. His client sued me in 2013 after I had initiated arbitration proceedings against him in a contract dispute. His client's case has been stalled in New Jersey federal court for three years while the Court decides whether arbitration or a court trial is the proper venue for resolution of this contract dispute.
My friend also told me that I had made some very powerful enemies since I have been an online journalist. He took me on a trip down memory lane. I exposed former Montgomery, Alabama federal judge Mark Fuller's wife-beating and serial cheating conduct at a time when the state's mainstream media would not touch the story. Roger Alan Shuler and I broke the story of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley's extramarital affair with First Mistress Rebekah Mason and his public corruption.
I openly supported the ouster of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore for violating his Canons of Ethics. I supported the prosecution of former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard when a majority of the members of the legislature staunchly supported him.
I criticized the glaring conflicts of interest involving Bill and Hillary Clinton and their ties to the Clinton Foundation while Hillary served as Secretary of State. I slammed former Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane for committing perjury and obstruction of justice while serving as the state's top prosecutor.
I publicly questioned why President Barack Obama has not pardoned former Alabama governor Don Siegelman. I criticized him for lecturing foreign leaders about freeing their political prisoners while doing absolutely nothing about America's number one political prisoner.
I reported on the big Wall Street banks and how they routinely break our federal criminal laws. I called them "modern-day untouchable" who go on crime sprees that would make Mafia bosses proud. When they get caught committing their crimes, these banks merely say, "I am sorry", and pay a small fine comparable to a traffic ticket for speeding. No CEO of a big Wall Street bank was charged with a crime after these banks lost $13 trillion dollars in American wealth during the Great Recession of 2008. Instead of going to jail and making bail like ordinary white-collar criminals, the Wall Street banks got bailed out by our government. America is the only nation in the world who protected the bank CEOs whose greed and corruption cause the 2008 global meltdown.
I have been outspoken in pushing much-needed ethics reform in Alabama. I have joined a group that is drafting tough new ethics reform legislation for introduction in next year's legislative session.
Earlier this year, I solved the 2005 murder of Army Private LaVena Johnson on a U.S. military base in Balad, Iraq. For more than a decade, the Military claimed that Private Johnson's murder was a "suicide". It was not. She was murdered by a four-star general and her murder was reported to then President George W. Bush in a classified White House briefing. The general was thereafter forced out of the Army.
According to my friend, I have stuck my journalistic "knife into too many balloons". The SEC's case is nothing more than payback. It is a gross abuse of government power for malicious purposes.
In my book, the SEC that should be probing Wells Fargo's 2 million acts of bank and credit card fraud, as well as the bonuses that were given to employees because of the fraud. There are plenty of cases like the one at Wells Fargo that warrant investigation by the SEC. Instead, the agency has aimed its big guns at me.
Since when did my private-party purchase contracts and loans with stakeholders (who were represented in their transactions by investment banks and independent financial advisors) become more important to the SEC than the wholesale fraud committed at Wells Fargo and other publicly traded banks?
It is obvious to me (and many others) that the SEC wants to silence me. This case is all about chilling my First Amendment right to free speech, especially since my online readership has skyrocketed in recent years.
This is also why Governor Bentley ordered former Alabama Law Enforcement Agency head Spencer Collier to use the federal criminal databases to search for wrongdoing on my part. To his credit, Collier refused to do so. This is why Bentley ordered the State Banking Department to choke the life out of my Birmingham bank through its use of the regulatory bank examination process. My bank survived this abuse and is profitable today.
Industry insiders are stunned by these abuses of power. I am not.
I have been fighting the enemies of freedom and justice my entire life. I survived the Jim Crow era of the 1950s and 60s in Alabama. I overcame the "massive resistance" to desegregation of the 1970s and 80s. Since then, I have successfully fought those who have opposed my ethnic group's inclusion into the fabric of mainstream American life.
Now, I know who the newest enemy is, and why the SEC wants to destroy me. I think my fighting skills are better than theirs. Plus, I knew this enemy, and I have defeated the SEC once before. We will do it again.
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