The mayor of Jackson, Miss., a City Council member and the local district attorney have been indicted on federal corruption charges, with court documents unsealed on Thursday detailing a scheme in which F.B.I. agents posing as real estate developers paid tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to city officials.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, a Democrat first elected to lead the state’s capital in 2017, and the City Council member, Aaron Banks, were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges. The Hinds County district attorney, Jody Owens, faces similar charges and was also accused of making false statements. All three men pleaded not guilty on Thursday in their first court appearances.
In the 32-page indictment, prosecutors said that beginning last year, F.B.I. agents assumed the guise of out-of-state developers eager to build a hotel on a long-vacant piece of prime property in downtown Jackson. Working with Mr. Owens as a kind of fixer, the developers offered money to Mr. Lumumba and two City Council members in exchange for their support for the developers’ plans, the indictment says.
It also accuses Mr. Lumumba of accepting $50,000 in campaign contributions as a bribe. Mr. Banks is accused of requesting $50,000, a security detail and a job for a family member in exchange for his support.
Angelique Lee, a former City Council member, resigned her position this year and pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.
The scandal is a blow to the city of 150,000, whose mostly Black residents have struggled in recent years to obtain even basic city services. In 2022, the city’s water system essentially collapsed, leaving homes, businesses, schools and medical facilities with little to no water pressure for days. Last year, residents’ garbage piled up for two weeks as the mayor and City Council feuded over who should get the contract.
“I am very sad about where we find ourselves in our city at this point,” said Virgi Lindsay, the City Council president. The legal process ahead “will be a distraction from the work that we really need to be doing in the city,” she added.
According to the indictment, Mr. Lumumba flew to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in early April with the F.B.I. agents posing as the developers, on a private jet paid for by the F.B.I. He and Mr. Owens met with the developers on a yacht, where they discussed splitting a $50,000 bribe into five $10,000 “campaign contribution” checks to avoid legal scrutiny.
While on the yacht, one of the developers asked Mr. Lumumba to move up a deadline to submit information about the project, the indictment alleges. Mr. Lumumba then made a phone call to a city employee and later confirmed the deadline had been moved, the indictment said.
“Owens and Lumumba understood that the money from the developers was in exchange for Lumumba directing his subordinate,” the indictment said.
In a video posted to the city’s Facebook page on Wednesday, before the indictment was unsealed, Mr. Lumumba said he had never taken a bribe and vowed to fight the charges.
“We believe this to be a political prosecution against me, primarily designed to destroy my credibility and reputation within the community,” he said, adding that he believed the timing before next year’s mayoral election was not a coincidence.
City officials said Thursday that Mr. Lumumba had no further comment.
In the indictment, Mr. Lumumba plays a mostly reactive role, while a blustery Mr. Owens brags about his connections to city officials and the ease of buying their support. According to the indictment, Mr. Owens warned the developers about the need to maintain the appearance of propriety, and appeared to direct them away from any mention of bribery.
“Fund is not the ‘b-word,’” Mr. Owens told the developers at a meeting in February, according to the indictment. “The ‘b-word’ is a bad word. We don’t even say it.”
A lawyer for Mr. Owens said he had no comment Thursday.
The most serious charges facing Mr. Owens and Mr. Lumumba carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, according to court documents. The most serious charge facing Mr. Banks carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
A number of City Council members said in interviews that they remembered meeting with out-of-state developers this year at the behest of Mr. Owens. Ms. Lindsay, whose ward includes the location of the proposed hotel development, said she expected they would bring her some kind of presentation about their vision.
“They had nothing,” she said. “I mean, nothing. I really never thought I would hear from these guys again. Because I just thought they were unprofessional and unprepared.”
Vernon Hartley, a council member, said that when he arrived at an upscale restaurant for a lunch meeting with the developers and Mr. Owens, he was surprised that the purported businessmen had neither business cards nor brochures about their company.
When they offered to pay for his lunch, Mr. Hartley said, he waved them off.
“I said, ‘No, man, I’m right here with the chief law enforcement in the county, and you want to pay for my lunch?’” he said.
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