Before the actual events and behind the scene motivations of CamGate can be fully understood, one needs to comprehend the inner workings of Alabama’s political system and the players pulling the strings. The course of events leading up to the wire taps, investigations, and ultimate indictments are starting to surface. Here are a few I find interesting…..
1st is an Article in the Tuskegee News dated October 21st. In short, the writer suggests a lobbying/consulting group has been used by the Auburn Athletic Foundation to launder cash ultimately ending up in the hands of players/player families. Robert Geddie was a partner in the firm Fine-Geddie until his indictment and arrest in October. According to the Department of Justice, (Geddie) was nailed for allegedly working with the state’s major gambling interests to influence and/or buying votes favoring proposed gambling houses. The indictment was based primarily on intercepts (wire taps) of cell phone and land-line conversations with those now rumored to have facilitated the PFP scheme. This is an amazing read.
Adding fuel to the fire are the ties between former Colonial Bank Chairman Bobby Lowder (Bank of $26Billion failed August, 2009), Milton McGregor (Dog Track, Bingo, and Casino Owner), and Pat Dye (former AU Football Coach). These were the three largest shareholders of the now defunct Colonial BancGroup, a mortgage brokerage, commercial banking, and mortgage warehousing firm based in Montgomery, Al. McGregor was indicted about the same time as Geddie. Wire-taps were the backbone behind the indictments, but it has been speculated by most the FBI overheard conversations between McGergor, Rane, Dye, and coaches talking about the PFP schemes that are speculated at Auburn. What most are saying is that the FBI just stumbled into the PFP planning while gathering the voter fraud and political corruption evidence. Notice how the 1st person the FBI supposedly questioned regarding Cam and his Father was John Bond. Next, they’re going to Kenny Rodgers (this Tuesday). Speculation is the Feds are gathering the bits and pieces from the MSU camp (which can be proven or substantiated with the wire tap tapes they have between all of these AU Boosters) before interviewing those on the AU side, possibly to “box-in” those suspects either in perjured testimony or extortion charges relating to this PFP scheme. Once they are able to turn the smaller players, the FBI will turn any plea agreements reached against the real targets, in very much the same fashion as the Edwin Edwards and William Jefferson cases.
Think about it for a minute. The FBI could care less about college football unless it involves organized gambling or extortion. They were, and still remain after evidence of voter influence, mis-appropriation of bank funds, extortion, embezzlement, the ultimate goal being to gain as many assets as possible to offset the FDIC losses incurred from the Colonial failure, while punishing those behind any illicit schemes.
Remember TMZ’s report and why the FBI was involved in the 1st place. They implied the FBI was more interested in efforts to shop multiple players around, not just a single player (extortion). This was again confirmed Friday, November 12th when John Bond stated the reason for the FBI’s questioning was that "They don't want people selling kids to colleges." This ties into the AgentGate BS all of the governing bodies came unglued about earlier this summer. One editorial out of Mobile included this little gem the other day - With Milton McGregor involved in this as an Auburn booster watch out. The FBI has listened to every phone conversation from his office in the past year. He is the dirtiest multi-millionaire in Alabama.
Fast forward to this past Thursday, November 11th. The NCAA meets with Auburn officials supposedly to discuss the previous two weeks news reports. Upon conclusion of that meeting, the “We’ve done absolutely nothing wrong, Cam is Innocent, this is a Witch Hunt” being spewed by both the University and the Athletic Department; suddenly changed to “No Comment.” Auburn quickly lawyered up with an experienced NCAA Compliance Firm. They also hired a longtime NCAA investigator which acted as a consultant when Albert Means and Alabama went down in 2001-2002. What is interesting here is the relationship between McGregor, Geddie (Lobbyist), and an election for State Supreme Court Judge. Here’s what was posted on BOL about the relationships between everyone.
Finebaum participated two years ago in a Paul Finebaum Roast to benefit an organization called "The Children's First Trust Fund" I am not sure if I have the name correct. A lot of sports celebrities and very powerful people were at this roast. This organizations top donor was Quincy's 777, which is McGregors Casino. This organization was incorporated by the Chief Justice of our Supreme Court in Alabama, Justice Sue Bell Cobb. The money from the tobacco lawsuits go into this trust fund and it is about 50-60 million a year. If I were an FBI agent that amount of money would make me look. Sue Bell Cobb ran a campaign for Chief Justice that cost about 13 million dollars which was the most expensive state run campaign for a supreme court seat in the history of the US compared to one other in Texas. However Alabama only has 4 million people so why is controlling our supreme court so important? Now go back and look at why Milton McGregor was indicted. (He is accused of buying legislative votes on the gambling bill) People in this state are so stupid that they think Bob Riley, our governor, has a political agenda against Milton and that his indictment was just about bingo gambling. People in this state are so stupid that they have no idea what is really going on here. Link to the roast is below with a list of their donors. Notice Quincy 777 (Milton McGregor) is at the top of the list. Now lets look at the Law Firm Auburn hired, Lightfoot, Franklin & White in Birmingham. Look back to link that tells who all the powerful donors are and scroll down to the bronze donors and see if you see what law-firm you see listed there. Oh my...it's Lightfoot, Franklin, & White. Now let's take a look back to our organization, "Alabama Children First" and ask ourselves what that once great humanitarian Adolph Hitler said. "if you do it in the name of children you can get away with murder”
Another BOL poster suggested, after reading the post noted above that “Someone needs to be looking into the allegations of the AU Boosters using this Children’s Fund Foundation to fly players, players parents, boosters, around to and from games, events, and other University functions.”
McGregor, Geddie, and the rest were arrested on October 4th, 2010. Cam signed with Auburn December 31st, 2009. If the wiretaps were the basis for their arrests and Cam was one of the PFP players noted, the dots must be starting to become connected. The Following link is to the actual indictment filed by the US Attorney. In it are details about the date of the calls, the substance of those conversations relative to the case against the defendants.
Again, this thing now seems to go way beyond PFP schemes, and it appears the fed’s goal is to build the ultimate case against Bobby Lowder. Here is what is being said about Lowder’s tie in to all of this.
This goes way beyond Cam. They say the FBI, while monitoring the Bingo mess in Montgomery and also investigating the misappropriation of TARP funds by Colonial Bank, uncovered many, many things. Such things include guaranteed winning slot machines for AU players at Milt’s (Colonial Board member, AU Booster) Casino, unmarked ATM cards issued to AU players from Colonial Bank (Bobby Lowder-AU Board Member and Booster; Pat Dye-Colonial Board member, AU employee and Booster), forgiven loans to families, friends, donors, etc. If true, big time jail time, loss of SACS accreditation which means expulsion from the SEC, huge financial implications for AU, removal of Dye’s name from the field and so on. This also explains why the AU President wanted to sit Cam last Saturday, but was overridden by Lowder, Dye, Jacobs, Rane and McGregor
The FBI must have overheard discussions about players on tape while the FBI was building their case against those arrested. It was reported the Department of Justice in July began notifying various politicians, reporters, lobbyists and others that their conversations may have been picked up during wire-taps. The phone taps occurred during a 13 Month period starting mid-2009, just about the same time as the total collapse of Colonial BancGroup was taking place. Late 2009 – early 2010 would have been when recruiting was at it’s height, and money and deals (if this pay for play scheme was in fact in full operation) had to have been discussed every day. This was also just before the Legislative Session would have been in discussions/ negotiations regarding Sweet Home Alabama (Res 44), the states gambling and casino bill. Here is another poster from “Tidesports”, the Bama Scout.com affiliate similar to “Tiger Rag”…
"I previously posted an unsubstantiated rumor I read somewhere that Milton McGregor, the owner of Victoryland dog track, and according to recent articles an Auburn BOT member, was involved in the Newton saga as the conduit for the cash. According to the story, the FBI had wire-taps of McGregor because of this gambling conspiracy, and on those wire taps were conversations that took place between McGregor and Cecil Newton. The timeline fits as the FBI arrested McGregor in October, 2010 and according to MSU, the Cam shopping didn't start until late November, 2009. Is McGregor stupid enough to continue his role in the pay for play deal for Auburn even after he knew the Feds were watching? I don't know. But it's funny that you find this article after I saw the allegation that Milton McGregor was the money man for Auburn. It would be real convenient and easy to launder money and hide it with an operation like Victoryland that handles huge amounts of cash on a daily basis.
Another thing your article alluded to that was commonly known, but never said out loud was how Bobby Lowder became so powerful in Auburn athletic circles. Ole Bobby controlled the purse strings. If you were an Auburn BOT member and you wanted your business to continue to have funds readily available, you played ball with Bobby and did what he wanted or Colonial Bank would find a reason to make your business dealings difficult i.e. they would slow down or cut off the money. And they ALL did business with Colonial as you can see. I'm sure he sucked them all in with sweet deals and promises then when he got his hooks into them, they either did what Bobby wanted or Bobby would get nasty.,
As a point of reference, here’s a partial list of AU’s BoT when all of this was supposedly going down: Link: http://www.auburn.edu/administration/trustees/former.html
Bobby Lowder
John CH Miller, Jr
Earlon C. McWhorter
Jimmy Rane
Paul Spina
Recognize any Names/Faces? Now look at the Colonial BancGroup Board of Directors the last full year of operation, as noted in the April, 2008 Annual Report for the fiscal year end December 31, 2007.
Bobby Lowder
John HC Miller
Jimmy Rane
Paul Spina
(Montgomery, Al. Bank Chairman)
Milton McGregor
Pat Dye
Very easy to see why the Tuskegee News was so interested in the relationship between Lowder and the other Auburn Board members.
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