JACKSON, Miss.—Seven years after sharing his aspirations to make Jackson, Miss., “the most radical city on the planet,” Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba stood in the center of a federal courtroom, facing criminal charges for what federal prosecutors allege was his part in a bribery scheme involving elected officials in Mississippi’s largest county.
The federal indictment, unsealed on Nov. 7, alleges that Lumumba accepted $50,000 in donations to his re-election campaign from two FBI agents posing as real-estate developers in exchange for using his power as an elected official to influence the RFQ (or request for statements of qualifications) process for a multi-million-dollar commercial development project.
Along with Lumumba—the son of community activist Nubia Lumumba and former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba–—he grand jury indicted Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and Ward 6 Jackson City Councilman Aaron Banks.
At the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse on Nov. 7, Lumumba’s co-defendants and their attorneys joined him as they prepared to give their pleas.
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The mayor—whose charges include conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud, racketeering and money laundering—exchanged words with his attorney, Thomas Bellinder, throughout the proceeding.
To Lumumba’s far left stood Banks, who prosecutors charged with conspiracy and bribery. To Lumumba’s right stood Owens, the man whom prosecutors allege led the scheme and whom they charged with several crimes including conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud, racketeering, money laundering and making false statements.
While all three men pleaded “not guilty” to the various charges, Bellinder told the judge that his “client is challenging the sufficiency of the indictment.”
Conversations Filmed, Indictment Says
Federal prosecutors say that between October 2023 and May 2024, Mayor Lumumba, District Attorney Owens and Jackson City Council members Aaron Banks and Angelique Lee were enthralled in a plot to “carry out a bribery scheme to enrich themselves.”
While the indictment includes transcripts of recorded conversations between several of the officials, the text most frequently quotes Owens.
Prosecutors allege that Owens was “ready, willing, and predisposed to engage in bribery at least as early as October
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