Mike Espy wants to pretend the shady kickbacks and bribery scandals that forced his resignation from the Clinton administration are long-settled history. But Fox News reports that this year Mike Espy made at least $10,000 working for a company that illegally paid bribes to Mississippi’s Corrections Commissioner in order to score lucrative contracts with the state prison system.
No surprise that the king of illegal kickbacks, Mike Espy, would be counted on their payroll.
In case you missed it…
Mississippi Democrat Senate hopeful under fire for work for company that had to pay $2.5M to settle bribery case
Fox News
Lukas Mikelionis
November 22, 2018
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mississippi-democrat-senate-under-fire-for-working-for-company-that-had-to-pay-2-5m-to-settle-bribery-case
Mississippi Democratic Senate hopeful Mike Espy is facing ethical questions over his work for a company that paid $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit concerning bribing of officials in a bid to score lucrative contracts with the state prison, the latest revelation of the Democrat’s troubling associations.
Espy, who’s facing Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Nov. 27 runoff election, declared in the latest financial disclosure nearly $10,000 income from Global Tel Link, a controversial prison phone company.
The company had to pay out $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit after Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood sued the company in 2017 for allegedly being responsible for bribes paid by their agents to then-Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps.
The commissioner was sentenced to 20 years for taking at least $1.4 million in kickbacks and bribes from various companies, and awarding them with more than $800 million worth of state prison contracts.
Prison consultant Sam Waggoner also pleaded guilty to bribery in 2015 and testified that Global Tel-Link paid him and he funneled part of the money to Epps.
Last year, Epps, Waggoner and Global Tel Link were subject to a federal class-action lawsuit. The company was accused of keeping the inmate calling service contract without competitive bidding and is charging exorbitant fees far exceeding market rates, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
The exact nature of work Espy, a former lobbyist and U.S. agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton, provided to the company remains unclear. The Espy campaign didn’t respond to Fox News’ request for a comment.