The mayor of Mississippi’s capital has pleaded not guilty to charges of a bribery scheme, saying he will “continue to handle the business of the city.”
The case has also led to indictments of a former city council president and a district attorney.
After he left Jackson’s federal courthouse, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he would remain in office despite the allegations.
“I am not guilty, and so I will not proceed as a guilty man,” Lumumba said. Currently in his second term as mayor, he announced in October that he planned to run for another term.
Lumumba’s allegations also involve Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and at least two city council members, former President Aaron Banks and Angelique Lee, helping developers get approval for a possible hotel project near the city’s convention center. Lee resigned from her city council seat and pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to commit bribery charge against her in August.
The city has been trying to build the hotel near the venue for nearly two decades, with a multimillion-dollar loan from the Department of Housing and Urban Development being taken out in 2008 to get the project up and running. The hotel had a completion date of June 2025, according to the court documents.
Undercover FBI employees posing as developers from Nashville, Tennessee, were in contact with the Mississippi officials trying to build the hotel. From such intel, Owens is alleged to have sparked bribery payments with Lumumba, Banks, and Lee.
According to the indictment, Owens, a Democratic prosecutor who owns a cigar bar in Jackson, was approached by one of the “developers” in August 2023 about possible real estate opportunities in the city. Owens told the “developers” he had “a bag of f***ing information on all the city councilmen” that allowed him to “get votes approved.”
The charges he is facing include one count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, a count of lying to federal officers, three counts of federal program bribery, and honest services wire fraud and money laundering.
Lumumba is facing five charges, including one count of money laundering and one count of federal program bribery. Banks, a Democrat representing the city’s 6th Ward, has been charged with one count of federal program bribery, one conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, and honest services wire fraud and money laundering. He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Thursday.
The indictment alleges that Owens and Lumumba took a private jet to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in April, “paid for [by] the FBI on behalf of the developers.” Smith pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge in October.
Authorities claim that during the trip, Lumumba accepted $50,000 “concealed” as five $10,000 campaign donations while on a yacht. The payment from developers was exchanged along with a request that the city move up the deadline for proposals for the hotel project. The authorities alleging the deal say they have the interaction recorded on audio and video. The indictment also has screenshots from the recording.
Whereas Banks was not on the Fort Lauderdale trip, it is still alleged that he requested $50,000 in exchange for his support and that he received an envelope of at least $10,000 in cash from Owens.
“Banks and Owens understood that the money was being paid in exchange for Banks’ future vote(s) to approve the Developer’s proposed development project,” the indictment says.
In a news release, the Justice Department said Owens is accused of accepting $115,000 and the “promise of future financial benefits.”
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“I don’t give a s*** where the money comes from. It can come from blood diamonds in Africa, I don’t give a f***ing s***,” Owens said at one point, the indictment alleges. “I’m a whole DA.”
The city’s 2025 mayoral elections open on Jan. 2, 2025, and a trial has been set for Jan. 6, 2025, ensuring an interesting election season for Lumumba’s reelection campaign.