Mississippi Democratic Senate hopeful Mike Espy is facing ethical questions over his work for a company that paid $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit concerning bribing of officials in a bid to score lucrative contracts with the state prison, the latest revelation of the Democrat’s troubling associations.
Espy, who’s facing Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the Nov. 27 runoff election, declared in the latest financial disclosure nearly $10,000 income from Global Tel Link, a controversial prison phone company.
The company had to pay out $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit after Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood sued the company in 2017 for allegedly being responsible for bribes paid by their agents to then-Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps.
The commissioner was sentenced to 20 years for taking at least $1.4 million in kickbacks and bribes from various companies, and awarding them with more than $800 million worth of state prison contracts.
Prison consultant Sam Waggoner also pleaded guilty to bribery in 2015 and testified that Global Tel-Link paid him and he funneled part of the money to Epps.- READ MORE