Evidence points to Southern Company operatives' ties to ugly incidents, including the nearly fatal vehicle crash involving Alabama attorney Burt Newsome

Site of the Burt Newsome vehicle crash.

Documents provided to law enforcement and regulatory agencies serve as evidence that operatives for Southern Company have engaged in a string of dubious conduct against targeted individuals -- and this includes a vehicle crash, which appears to have been staged -- that nearly killed Birmingham-area attorney Burt Newsome.

The evidence contradicts claims in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal article that Southern Company has no idea how a surveillance campaign developed against former CEO Tom Fanning and his one-time girlfriend, Kim Tanaka -- and that the company has "moved on." A post today at the Ban Balch blog, which operates under the CDLU public charity and advocacy group, suggests Southern Company is not about to "move on" from an intimidation campaign against those it perceives as enemies. K.B. Forbes, CEO of the CDLU, writes today under the headline "On Fire! Southern Company Criminal Misconduct Allegations Escalate and Solidify."

Focusing on the targeting of Burt Newsome, who had engaged Southern Company and associated entities in a number of court battles, Forbes reports:

Southern Company operatives and consultants appear to have engaged in criminal and unsavory acts against unwitting victims, innocent children, and perceived enemies of Southern Company.

Spreadsheets and work orders provided to law enforcement and regulators list some of the unsavory acts.

Three specific acts were criminal felonies:

1. In September of 2020, Burt Newsome was injured in a head-on vehicle crash. He was gravely injured and nearly killed. Some even claimed the act was an alleged act of attempted murder by Southern Company. Evidence from the crash allegedly links known vendors of Southern Company to the law-enforcement agents at the scene.
   
2. A few days after Newsome’s near-death crash, a Southern Company stooge attempted stupidly to impersonate our executive director, K.B. Forbes, and his then-eight-year-old daughter in two attempts to illegally obtain banking information from his regional bank in Alabama. The criminal suspects had private, confidential information, including full bank-account numbers.
3. In November of 2020, Burt Newsome, still recovering from his car wreck, discovered that a law office checkbook was stolen from his office. The weekly cleaning crew disconnected the security camera and stole the checkbook, allegedly bribed by Southern Company operatives.

The nastiness does not end there. Forbes spells out more:

Other alleged acts by Southern Company operatives include:

• The smashing of the car window of Burt Newsome’s wife at a gym in which her purse was stolen. Law enforcement alleged she was targeted. Video surveillance of the incident shows the suspects driving around,  apparently specifically looking for Mrs. Newsome’s vehicle.
• In 2018, the sick operatives tied to Southern Company who sent the Newsome family a threatening package: Five pieces of luggage and numerous clothing outfits. There were ten outfits for mom and the four Newsome children. Was Newsome going to be injured, killed or murdered?  Or were the wife and children going to “disappear” on a permanent vacation?
• In the summer of 2020, Southern Company allegedly and foolishly decided to target, harass, intimidate, and terrorize the Hispanic family of CDLU’s CEO, spending big bucks to do so, and gathering intelligence and detailed personal information about the family. The terror and harassment included phone calls to the Hispanic mother demanding to know her location, asking if she was at home, and offering to “drop off a package.”

Given that history, should anyone believe Southern Company is set to "move on"? Forbes isn't buying it:

What a hot mess!

Claiming that a million-dollar internal probe did not find out who authorized a surveillance effort conducted against ex-Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning and his then-girlfriend in 2017, Southern Company looks like a sack of lying fools at best or a bunch of incompetent imbeciles at worst.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal report appears to solidify and escalate the criminal-misconduct allegations against Southern Company, and shows an epic hole in their compliance, regulatory, and oversight executive team.

It is unlikely Southern Company has “moved on.”

This is just the beginning.

A pattern of deception, deep lies, secret surveillance, intimidation, unscrupulous behavior, and harassment are all tied to Southern Company.

From the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, how can Southern Company be trusted?

Top executives at Southern Company appear to have lied repeatedly, consistently, and habitually.

Pointing again to the targeting of Burt Newsome, his wife and children, his business, a minority family, and others, Forbes raises this question:

Will Southern Company officials attempt to say once again they did not know who authorized these acts and why?

All the while, Southern Company continues to pay embattled law firm Balch & Bingham and Joe Perkins, the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, millions of dollars.

What a hot mess! A scurrilously hot mess!