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Hinds County district attorney Jody Owens, the prosecutor who first brought charges in the Mississippi welfare funds scandal involving Brett Favre, is now under FBI investigation.
In yet another twist in the ever-expanding case, Owens is the subject of a criminal federal bribery probe, according to Front Office Sports.
Jackson, Mississippi mayor Chokwe Lumumba is also named as a subject of the FBI investigation which is said to be in its “late stages.”
Multiple charges are expected to be filed by federal prosecutors against both men.
Multiple council members have also been eyed in the probe, according to one of the sources. On Wednesday, Jackson council member Angelique C. Lee abruptly resigned. Hours later, federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Lee on a single charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. The charge carries up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
According to the indictment, Lee accepted more than $13,000 in cash from two undercover FBI agents posing as Nashville-based real estate developers. One of the agents also spent an additional $6,000 on Lee “at a luxury retail store in the City of Jackson,” according to the indictment.
In May, the FBI raided the Hinds County courthouse office of district attorney Owens as well as a cigar business that he owns in Jackson.
FBI agents reportedly seized “thousands of dollars” that was stored inside a safe in his office.
“Jody Owens’s life has been dedicated to public service, including as an intelligence officer in the United States Naval Reserves, Director of the Mississippi Office of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and presently Hinds County District Attorney,” one of Owens’s lawyers said in statement to FOS. “It is our understanding that the federal investigation does not involve Jody’s service as District Attorney. For the past 15 years, Jody has also been engaged in real estate development. This sort of private business activity is permitted by the law even during the time a person serves as a D.A. For the moment, we have no further comment as we await the outcome of that investigation.”
The FBI bribery investigation is separate from the welfare funds scandal case involving Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre.
In July, journalist Anna Wolfe, who won a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the ongoing State of Mississippi welfare fraud scandal allegedly involving Favre, revealed that she was facing possible prison time after being sued for defamation by the Mississippi’s former governor Phil Bryant.
A week later, Favre’s lead defense attorney was removed from the case by a judge for “for showing a “pattern and practice of delicate deception with ongoing misapplication of this State’s case law.”
And a week after that, Jake VanLandingham, founder of the drug company Prevacus and a business partner of Brett Favre, pleaded guilty to illegally receiving more than $2 million of federal funds as part of the ongoing Mississippi welfare scandal.