Lobbyist pleads guilty in timber sales fraud
Gavel

JACKSON, Miss. — Jackson lobbyist Ted Brent Alexander pled guilty yesterday to conspiracy to defraud investors in a timber deed investment scheme, said United States Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Jermicha Fomby of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Jackson Field Office.

Alexander, 57, of Jackson, Mississippi, pled guilty yesterday afternoon before United States District Judge Carlton W. Reeves to a Criminal Information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Alexander is the third person to be convicted or plead guilty in relation to the scheme. Mississippi attorney Jon Darrell Seawright, 50, of Jackson, pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud investors in the multimillion-dollar timber investment scheme. Previously, in 2018, Arthur Lamar Adams, owner of Madison Timber Properties LLC, was sentenced to 19½ years in federal prison on wire fraud charges in the timber scheme.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of Mississippi, Alexander admitted that between 2011 and 2018, he and his co-conspirator, Seawright, participated in a scheme to defraud investors by soliciting millions of dollars under pretenses and failing to use investor funds as promised.

Alexander and his co-conspirator represented to investors that they were in the business of loaning funds to a “timber broker” to buy timber rights from landowners and then sell the timber rights to lumber mills at a higher price. The co-conspirators promised investors a return of 10% or more over twelve or thirteen months on each unit of invested capital. The men told investors that they were inspecting each tract of land and were vetting each document, deed, and contract in support of their investments. These promises and representations were material in that they were intended to cause investors to believe that their investments were secured by valid assets and to believe that the financial incentives and interests of Alexander and his co-conspirator aligned with those of the investors.

However, according to the U.S. attorney and FBI agent, Alexander and his co-conspirator failed to inspect each property related to the timber rights underlying each investment, and they failed to verify each executed lumber mill agreement related to each investment. Alexander and his co-conspirator made few or no such inquiries, and if Alexander and his co-conspirator had made such inquiries, they would have discovered that the timber deeds, lumber mill agreements, and related documents had been falsified and were not valid.

Alexander and his co-conspirator that they would only profit from each series of the investment if it performed as promised to the investors. This gave the investors the misleading impression that their interests were fully aligned with those of Alexander and his co-conspirator.

In fact, in addition to receiving a predetermined percentage of return on the investors’ funds, Alexander received undisclosed payments of approximately 3% for recruiting investments to the timber investment scheme immediately upon transferring the investment funds to the purported timber broker. Alexander and his co-conspirator did not disclose to the investors: (a) the fact of these payments, or (b) the amount of the payments in relation to the investments made, or (c) the timing of the undisclosed payments to Alexander and his co-conspirator before any repayment was made to the investors.

Alexander will be sentenced on August 21, 2023, before Judge Reeves. Alexander faces a maximum sentence of up to 5 years imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.  Restitution is mandatory under federal law.

This guilty plea resulted from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Criminal Chief Dave Fulcher.

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Larry Adams | Editor

Larry Adams is a Chicago-based writer and editor who writes about how things get done. A former wire service and community newspaper reporter, Larry is an award-winning writer with more than three decades of experience. In addition to writing about woodworking, he has covered science, metrology, metalworking, industrial design, quality control, imaging, Swiss and micromanufacturing . He was previously a Tabbie Award winner for his coverage of nano-based coatings technology for the automotive industry. Larry volunteers for the historic preservation group, the Kalo Foundation/Ianelli Studios, and the science-based group, Chicago Council on Science and Technology (C2ST).