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David B. Byrne, Jr. – The Master of Disaster
By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 13, 2017
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 13, 2017
As Governor Robert Bentley's chief legal adviser and consigliere, David B. Byrne, Jr., did a masterful job of leading Bentley into the worst legal nightmare in Alabama gubernatorial history. Beyond Rebekah Caldwell Mason, Byrne was the next most misguided and destructive person in Bentley's inner circle.
Byrne made Bentley feel invincible. He constantly reminded Bentley that he was "The Governor" and "Chief Magistrate" of Alabama. In those capacities, Bentley could do whatever he wanted, said Byrne. He caused Bentley to believe that his executive powers as governor placed him above the law. After all, the Governor enjoyed sovereign immunity from the consequences of his actions, claimed Byrne.
Byrne impressed Bentley by his close personal friendship with former Montgomery U.S. Attorney George Beck, Jr. Byrne used this relationship to place a protective federal law enforcement shield around Bentley while the governor embarked upon a multi-year crime spree in which he misused federal and state tax dollars, campaign funds, and "dark money" to finance his love affair with Rebekah Mason. Beck, who was generally regarded as a weak prosecutor, turned a blind eye to the Bentley-Mason crime spree.
After my exclusive Facebook articles exposed the cozy and inappropriate relationship between Byrne and Beck, the U.S. Department of Justice removed Beck from all aspects of its investigation into the criminal conduct of Bentley, Mason and other co-conspirators. This investigation is ongoing.
Of course, Byrne's flawed legal advice and complicit actions proved to be the undoing of Robert Bentley and his administration. Like Rebekah Mason, David Byrne contributed greatly to Bentley's spectacular and very public downfall.
This is not the first time Byrne has presided over the spectacular collapse of an entire institution and the downfall of its executive officers. On August 14, 2009, federal and state regulators took control of Colonial Bank, a regional banking powerhouse based in Montgomery. The seizure of Colonial's 346 branches and $26 billion in assets made it the sixth-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, the worst of 2009, and the third largest during the credit crisis that plunged the financial markets into turmoil in 2008. Colonial's collapse cost the FDIC $2.8 billion. Colonial shareholders lost billions more in stock value. Thousands of bank employees lost their jobs.
As Colonial's executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary, Byrne was in charge of the bank's legal affairs and regulatory compliance when Colonial failed as a financial institution. Byrne signed off on the legal review of Colonial's regulatory filings with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). He also reviewed and cleared a highly suspect TARP "bailout" funding application that Colonial submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department.
After submission of the bailout application, federal agents raided the bank. They found a $3 billion fraud scheme operating right underneath Byrne's nose. A senior bank vice president in Florida was charged, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in prison for her role in the fraud. Byrne escaped criminal prosecution.
In 2012, Bentley rescued Byrne from the ranks of the unemployed by hiring him to replace R. Cooper Shattuck as his chief legal adviser. This action came after Byrne's wife, Alice Ann Byrne, brokered a deal with Bentley to take care of Rebekah and Jonathan Mason as state employees in exchange for a job for her husband. Alice, who served as the general counsel of the State Personnel Department at the time, practically ran the Department from her position as its chief lawyer. Bentley agreed to this quid pro quo deal.
After Byrne joined Bentley's staff, he and Alice took care of the governor's wishes with respect to Rebekah and Jonathan Mason, as well as Bentley's other favorite staffers. David Byrne cleared the way for Rebekah Mason, who became the governor's lover and partner in crime, to operate her public relations firm, RCM Communications, Inc., while working full-time as Bentley's communications director. Undeterred by state ethics laws, Rebekah conducted RCM's business from the governor's office and used state resources to further her private business interests.
Byrne also led the campaign to punish Bentley's political enemies and critics. Byrne's favorite form of punishment was an "abuse of legal process" technique in which the governor used his Chief Magistrate's position to launch investigations of political enemies and critics, followed by referrals of the matters investigated to state and federal law enforcement agencies, taxing authorities, and/or regulatory bodies.
In my case, the Bentley-Byrne team manufactured false allegations of wrongdoing against me and referred these allegations to U.S. Attorneys in New Jersey and Montgomery, Alabama, the Internal Revenue Service, the Alabama State Banking Department, the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Bank, the SEC, and other licensing/regulatory agencies. Fortunately, my legal background enabled me to minimize the adverse impact of this gubernatorial abuse of process. Others innocent victims of the Bentley-Byrne reign of terror were not so lucky.
Privately, Byrne never thought much of Bentley. He viewed Bentley as an "accidental governor" who had limited intellectual acumen and poor leadership skills. Byrne tolerated Bentley's limitations because (a) he needed a job and (b) he could use his legal adviser's position to easily manipulate the love-struck governor.
David Byrne failed Robert Bentley miserably and repeatedly. The passage of time has shown that Byrne was the Master of Disaster. Like the executive officers and shareholders of Colonial Bank, Bentley has also paid the ultimate price for David Byrne's catastrophic failure as a legal adviser.
Donald V Watkins
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