JACKSON, Miss. \u2014 The mayor of Mississippi\u2019s capital said Thursday that \u201che will continue to handle the business of the city\u201d after he pleaded not guilty to charges related to allegations of a bribery scheme that have also led to the indictments of a prominent district attorney and a former City Council president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flanked by roughly two dozen supporters on the steps of a federal courthouse in downtown Jackson after his arraignment, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said he would remain in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am not guilty, and so I will not proceed as a guilty man,\u201d said Lumumba, a Democrat who is in his second term and last month announced plans to run for a third term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The allegations stem from what federal prosecutors have described in court documents as an effort also involving Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and at least two City Council members to help developers get approval for a proposed hotel project near the city\u2019s convention center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city\u2019s efforts to get a hotel near the venue, which included taking out a multimillion-dollar loan in 2008 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, stretch back almost two decades. It faced a June 2025 deadline to complete the project, according to the federal indictment outlining grand jury charges against Lumumba, Owens and Banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recent \u201cdevelopers\u201d from Nashville, Tennessee, in contact with local officials and seeking to build the hotel were actually undercover FBI employees, according to the indictment, which was unsealed Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Owens is alleged to have \u201cfacilitated\u201d inappropriate bribe payments to Lumumba, former City Council President Aaron Banks and Angelique Lee, who resigned from her council seat and pleaded guilty in August<\/a> to conspiracy to commit bribery, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the \u201cdevelopers\u201d approached Owens, a Democratic prosecutor who also owns a cigar bar in Jackson, in August 2023 about potential real estate opportunities in Jackson, according to the indictment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Owens later told both \u201cdevelopers\u201d that he had \u201ca bag of f—— information on all the city councilmen\u201d that allowed him to \u201cget votes approved,\u201d according to the indictment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Owens’ charges include one count of conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, honest services wire fraud, and money laundering; three counts of federal program bribery; and a count of lying to federal officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lumumba faces five charges, including one count of federal program bribery and another count of money laundering. Banks has been charged with one conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, honest services wire fraud and money laundering, in addition to a count of federal program bribery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The indictment alleges that in April, Lumumba, Owens and a relative of Owens\u2019, Sherik Marve Smith, took a trip on a private jet to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, \u201cpaid for [by] the FBI on behalf of the developers.\u201d Smith pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge last month<\/a>, according to NBC affiliate WLBT of Jackson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Authorities allege that during the trip, Lumumba, while on a yacht, accepted $50,000 \u201cconcealed\u201d as five $10,000 campaign donations from developers and instructed a city employee to move up a deadline for interested parties to submit proposals for the hotel project, according to the indictment and a news release. Authorities have said they captured the exchange on video and audio, and the indictment includes screenshots from the recording.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Banks, who was not on the trip, is alleged to have asked for $50,000 in exchange for his support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Federal authorities have accused him of accepting at least $10,000 in cash in an envelope from Owens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBanks and Owens understood that the money was being paid in exchange for Banks\u2019 future vote(s) to approve the Developer\u2019s proposed development project,\u201d the indictment says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Owens is accused of accepting at least $115,000 and the \u201cpromise of future financial benefits,\u201d<\/a> the Justice Department said in a news release. The FBI searched Owens\u2019 business and his office<\/a> at the Hinds County Courthouse in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLeaders who are awarded the public\u2019s trust should be focusing on the needs of the Jackson community, not looking to line their own pockets and benefit themselves,\u201d Todd Gee, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, said in a news release Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Banks, a Democrat representing the city\u2019s 6th Ward, did not respond to an NBC News reporter\u2019s request for comment as he walked out of the courthouse with supporters. He pleaded not guilty Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four years ago, Owens\u2019 office brought the first charges in one of the largest cases of public corruption in Mississippi\u2019s history<\/a> \u2014 the misspending of at least $77 million in welfare funds meant to help residents in one of the country\u2019s poorest states. At least seven people have pleaded guilty<\/a> in relation to the scandal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis indictment is a horrible example of a flawed FBI investigation,\u201d Owens told reporters after he pleaded not guilty Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe think the truth has to come out \u2014 that cherry-picked statements of drunken locker room banter is not a crime,\u201d he added before he departed with his legal team in a black SUV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owens did not indicate what statements he was referring to. At times, the indictment quotes him using profane language in his alleged dealings with the developers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t give a s— where the money comes from. It can come from blood diamonds in Africa, I don\u2019t give a f—— s—,\u201d Owens said at one point, the indictment alleges. \u201cI\u2019m a whole DA.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another instance, he is alleged to have used a profane term in describing what he buys in response to demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A trial has been set for Jan. 6 \u2014 four days after the qualifying period for the city\u2019s 2025 mayoral election opens<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n