ALABAMA BLACK HOLE

Two months ago I appealed to the Special Prosecution Office for the Alabama Attorney General, Clark Morris. The letter below was accompanied with a 100 plus page bound copy of information and evidence relative to the complaint. Copies were also given to The Alabama Bar, Governor, Judiciary, and Ethics Commission to name a few others.

As of today not a single reply from any agency. The Attorney General and the Alabama Bar and the Ethics Commission are all covering up the allegations against Ethics Executive Director Tom Albritton.

Why? Because Alabama is a black hole of political and white collar crime. If lawyers, judges, bankers and the executive director of ethics are allowed a pass on their actions of “Self Dealing”, by all responsible state agencies. Then the cover-up is as bad as the crime.

The second reason why Alabama is a black hole of corruption is the lack of media attention. Why ? the same reason why, it is ignored by the state, political connections. Lagniappe Mobile broke the story and no news agency in the state did any significant followup, other than Lagniappe.

Think about the fact that the Executive Director Tom Albritton is traveling the state giving “Lessons in Alabama Ethics” while he and his lawyer, judge and banker buddies “self serve” themselves from a trust, in their care.

In any other State this would be front page news until Mr. Albritton resigned. Not in Alabama the unholy alliance between politicians and media just make the Black Hole even darker.

Attorney General of Alabama August 21 2022

Mr Steve Marshall

C/O

Clark Morris

Office of Special Prosecutions

Ref: Complaint against the Executive Director of Ethics, Thomas Albritton

Dear Mr. Marshall

Thank you for giving me a few minutes, before and after, your speech to the Baldwin County Republican Women’s event in Fairhope. This is the second time I have had the pleasure to speak with you, both times the subject was concerning public corruption. I am following up with your suggestion of forwarding my information to Clark Morris, Special Prosecutions.

I first would like to emphasize that I have contacted the Governor, Ethics Commission, Alabama Bar and your office, July 16 2021. When these efforts fell on deaf ears, we filed a Writ of Mandamus. The Mandamus failed to get a hearing.

I own and manage a not for profit consumer organization, The Ripp Report.com, a podcast, Backstory Podcast, and three Facebook sites. These are all not for profit. The one issue we are constantly addressing is political corruption. We try to follow protocol when filing complaints, when that fails we use the Court of Public Opinion. The Ripp Report has existed for over 18 years. Around 1974 my father founded the first consumer association in Alabama, Alabama Consumers Association which he operated until his death in 1993.

I am optimistic that a through understanding of the facts will lead to a proper investigation. This particular case already has one lawsuit filed against the trust in question, trustees and Regions Bank. I know of two more lawsuits being considered. These lawsuits are going to produce damaging discovery and reveal much more than we know now.

I stress that the complaint against Mr Albritton will only gain legs and will negatively affect the Ethics Commissions already dismal reputation. It will also be another black eye of corruption for Alabama.

I will not be given the Ethics Commission or Bar the package that I have enclosed. I will however notify them of my correspondence with your office and my intent to expose the unethical behavior of the Ethics Commission and Alabama Bar.

Please consider this a NEW complaint, a SPECIFIC complaint against Mr. Albritton. The original complaint referred to past cases that Mr. Albritton and his dubious partner Cynthia Raulston refused to investigate. These complaints implicated Lawyers, a Judge, Council President, councilman and a mayor. They all got a pass from the Ethics Commission.

I was naive to think any justice would come from either the Ethics Commission or the Alabama Bar. They had no intention in doing their job, in fact all indications were that they deliberately excused the bad behavior of those involved.

The Alabama Bar ignored the original complaint and simply accepted Mr. Albrittions written explanation. Please be sure to read how Mr. Albritton uses the law to excuse his actions. It is a pitiful three page excuse by the Executive Director of Ethics. The Alabama Bar, like the Ethics Commission provides cover for corrupt elected or appointed officials, it does not hold anyone accountable.

Recent articles about the Bar and the 17 ethics violations being filed against it’s former Executive Director demonstrates the level of corruption within. Of course the director, Mr McCallum avoided any criminal charges. In addition to this the Alabama Bar came up with the concept of the “two year bump”. Attorneys using the Alabama Bar to pad their retirement. So why would anyone trust the Alabama Bar?

The Bar also played games with my attorney Harry Still. He had his law license canceled for a short period of time by the Bar. Continued education was the excuse, however Mr Still had completed the classes in question. It disrupted our efforts in pursuing the complaints we filed and cost Mr Still clients in the interim of his license being re instated. I believe he is filing a bar complaint in reference to the deliberate actions the bar took against him.

The Ethics Commission is equally internally corrupt. Mr. Albritton and Cynthia Raulston have targeted some individuals while covering the tracks of others. Be prepared for further legal action against both from issues unrelated to Mr Albritton’s complaint. A clear pattern of bad behavior by both is glaring.

Cynthia Raulston contacted me around Jan of 2022 by telephone. I was a bit surprised by her call because I had been unrelenting in my complaint against Albritton. The call lasted almost 45 minutes during which Raulston acted more like a wife defending her husband than an attorney with ethics. She

was persistent in trying to talk me out of pursuing any complaint against Albritton. She defended his “self serving” of the trust by saying anything related to the trust had expired by a statue of limitations. That Albritton as trustee of the Mabel Amos trust was within the bounds of the trust to accept the scholarships, the other two trustees and Regions Bank approved. She insisted that Mr Albrittons children had not been awarded any scholarships since his appointment to the ethics commission in 2015. That is not what the records show.

Towards the end of the conversation I asked Cynthia if Mr. Albritton had filled out an economic statement prior to his appointment. She said he was not required to and gave an excuse about his appointment. Of course this was totally inaccurate and indeed Mr. Albritton had filled out an economic statement. He failed to disclose on his filing that indeed he was a trustee to a multi million dollar trust and he had enjoyed 120,000 dollars of spared family expense, by the scholarships his former law partners and trustees awarded to his children. Cynthia Raulston ended the conversation by explaining what a good man Mr. Albritton was and any future complaint I filed would receive special attention.

My personal interpretation of the conversation was that Mr. Albritton and Cynthia Raulston were covering each other butts. The recent articles involving the complaints against the Montgomery police officers and the harsh rebuke by the Attorney General furthers my suspicions that Raulston and Albritton work in concert with one another beyond the scope of the ethics commission.

In the mist of all of the above, the Ethics Commission is now in conflict with the Attorney Generals office related to exculpatory evidence. What could be more unethical than with holding evidence that may prove the accused is innocent?

Please read the article Self Dealing, Lagniappe june 30 2021, the link, and article, is provided in the package of information. Not only did Mr Albritton hide his duties as a trustee of a multi-million dollar trust on his economic statement. He as trustee along with the other trustees and Regions Bank in 2014 made alterations to the handling of the trust. They began to list the schools receiving the scholarships not the students by name. This clever little trick hides who is actually getting the scholarship. Circuit Judge Ben Bowden a former law partner of Albritton received 45,000 for his kids scholarships. Other law partners of Albritton have also received scholarship money.

Discovery in civil and possibly federal court is going to be very revealing. It will expose the depth of corruption surrounding the trust and Regions Bank, who has charged over a million dollars in fees for managing the trust.

Mr Albritton also may have violated several IRS sections, 4941 {d} description of “self Dealing”. There is also the question of IRS taxes that may have been due but not paid by the recipients of the scholarships. These issues of course come under the purview of the IRS.

Mabel Amos was Alabama’s first female Secretary of State who also served as recording secretary for six governors. She established the trust with the intention of helping kids with strong academic history but lacking the financially capability to afford a state college education. Mr Albritton and several of his cronies that received the scholarships sent their children to out of state schools. These are children of privilege from so called prominent family’s.

In 2010 oil was discovered on Mabel Amos land producing 80 million dollars in oil and gas with the potential of 20 more million in the future. The Mabel Amos trust was flush with cash and ripe for picking. It is disgusting that lawyers and Regions Bank took this opportunity to Self Serve themselves and tarnish the Mabel Amos Trust that was intended to assist children with money for education.

In laymen terms Albritton along with the two other trustees and the Bank are stealing from needy children to provide their privileged children an education. Let that soak in.

This is a classic example of why Alabama is known as the most corrupt state in the United States.

It should be apparent that I will use every resource at my disposal to expose the blatant corruption within the trust and UN-ethical commission and shameless trustees.

Francis Paul Ripp

CC:

Governor Ivy

Ethics Commission

Alabama Bar

Attorney Harry Still

Attorney Greg Morris

Attorney Tommy Gallion

Court of Public Opinion.