Ronnie Musgrove’s Client . . . Margaret Energy . . . As in Margaret Maddox

In a Ana Radalat article today about Ronnie Musgrove’s (D) financial disclosures, one of the entities he represented was listed as “Margaret Energy”. A Google search turned up bupkus. But as it turns out “Margaret” is Margaret Maddox of the Maddox foundation. From the Memory Division of YallPolitics, Ronnie Musgrove represented the Maddox Foundation and Robin Costa in a rather nasty battle over asset control for that charitable foundation’s assets.

Though there is virtually nothing about “Margaret Energy” in the public domain, I did run across this little nugget.

Timothy J. Pagliara, Managing Partner of Capital Trust Wealth Management, who has been retained as an expert witness by the District Attorney General and Ms. Working in the Tennessee lawsuit, has determined in a preliminary report that Robin Costa, as the managing trustee of the Maddox Foundation and controlling director of the Maddox Foundation Corporation, breached the standard of care required of fiduciaries in a number of ways which have directly resulted in financial loss to the Foundation.38
Rhonda Sides, a Certified Public Accountant and Director with Crosslin Vaden & Associates, P.C., has reached similar conclusions about Ms. Costa’s management of the Maddox Foundation Corporation. Based on her preliminary review of documents provided by the Corporation, Ms. Sides has concluded that:

The financial statements of the Foundation and its related entities do not accurately reflect the true financial condition or value of the Foundation, its assets and its related entities;39
Robin Costa has paid herself excessive compensation by taking compensation from the Foundation (premised upon an erroneously high valuation of assets) as well as from at least one of those related entity assets, Margaret Energy. She has also been paid fees as a co-executor of each of the Maddox Estates. As stated in Ms. Sides Affidavit, Robin Costa has been “triple dipping” her personal compensation40; and
The financial records reflect expenditures of Foundation assets exceeding $6,000,000 for purposes that have no apparent relationship to the charitable purposes of this tax exempt entity.41

The whole piece is a fascinating read, though it is certainly only one side of the story. The other side can be found in the complaint where AG Jim Hood sued the Maddox Foundation at the behest of Costa to try and keep the Foundation in Mississippi.

I continue to think that the Maddox Foundation mess will be one of the more interesting subtexts for Musgrove’s campaign to unseat US Senator Roger Wicker.