Balch & Bingham partners are accused of bribing former state lawmaker to oppose Superfund plan
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Two environmental partners with Balch & Bingham have been accused of bribing a former Alabama state lawmaker to oppose a Superfund priority cleanup of property linked to their corporate client.
Partners Steven McKinney and Joel Gilbert are accused in a federal indictment along with Drummond Co. vice president David Roberson, report the Associated Press, the Am Law Daily (sub. eq.), AL.com and the Montgomery Advertiser.
McKinney was chair of Balch & Bingham’s environmental and natural resources practice, and Gilbert was part of the practice. The charges include bribery, honest services wire fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to defraud.
Drummond had hired Balch & Bingham to represent it against actions by the Environmental Protection Agency. As part of the representation, Roberson and the lawyers developed a strategy to oppose EPA plans to expand a Superfund site and make it a cleanup priority, the indictment says.
A Drummond subsidiary had been notified it may be partly responsible for the high levels of arsenic, lead and other chemicals on the property. The cost to the company could have been in the tens of millions of dollars, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege Roberson, Gilbert and McKinney paid former Alabama State Rep. Oliver Robinson $360,000 through a consulting contract with the lawmaker’s private foundation in exchange for his opposition to EPA actions. The money partly came from corporate contributions–including from Drummond–to a tax-exempt corporation created by Roberson and the lawyers called Alliance for Jobs and the Economy.
Robinson, a former UAB basketball star, pleaded guilty earlier this month to bribery, AL.com reported.
In advance of the indictment Gilbert declared his innocence in a statement released by his lawyer, Jack Sharman. The statement said Gilbert didn’t bribe anyone and the case should never have been brought.
“A lawyer with a reputation for honesty and integrity, he did what is routine for good counselors to do for corporate and individual clients every day—he engaged a consultant through a written contract to perform real and lawful services,” Sharman said.
The consulting contract, entered into on behalf of Drummond, called for the foundation to help with a grassroots effort to understand what the EPA was doing, and to address factual inaccuracies and faulty science, Sharman said. “The consulting contract at issue is both lawful and common,” he said. The full statement is here.
Roberson also maintained his innocence in a statement released by Jones Day. The grand jury only heard one side of the evidence, and Roberson expects to be acquitted, the statement said.
Balch & Bingham said in a statement that both partners have been placed on an indefinite leave of absence.
“While we note that Mr. Gilbert has denied the charges and vowed to vigorously defend himself, and expect Mr. McKinney to do the same, the charges allege actions that, if proven to be true, are contrary to the ethical values that guide our firm’s attorneys and staff,” the statement said. “We take these issues very seriously. We are continuing to cooperate fully with government authorities because, in part, we believe strongly that our firm is not implicated more broadly in the alleged conduct. … We will continue to ensure that all of the firm attorneys and staff, across our footprint, fully understand and are adhering to the highest standards of legal and ethical compliance.”
