Former Atlanta financial chief set to enter plea in corruption case Monday
Seven years after a vast corruption scandal at Atlanta City Hall came to light, the city’s former chief financial officer is scheduled for a federal plea hearing Monday in a related criminal case.
Jim Beard, who previously pleaded not guilty to eight felony charges, is due to appear before a federal judge in Atlanta at 10 a.m., likely avoiding a trial that was due to start in May. His case is believed to be the last of the federal government’s prosecutions stemming from the sprawling corruption investigation that lasted at least eight years.
Eight other former Atlanta officials and city government contractors have been sentenced to prison in the extraordinary scandal that involved allegations of bribery, witness tampering, tax evasion and fraud, among other charges. The facts of Beard’s case are perhaps the most stunning of the lot.
Beard, the man responsible for the oversight and management of the city’s financial condition from 2011 to 2018, is accused of using public money to cover tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses and of cheating on his taxes. Prosecutors say he used city funds to pay for airline tickets, machine guns, lavish meals, luxury hotels and limousines for himself and his travel companions.
It is not clear to which charges Beard might plead guilty, or what the government’s sentencing recommendation might be.
Beard used his city-issued credit card for a $10,277 stay at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Paris, France, in 2017, records show. He later repaid taxpayers after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News obtained statements showing his use of the credit card during then-Mayor Kasim Reed’s last three years in office.
Beard is also accused of using $2,641 in taxpayer money to buy two machine guns for personal use. He claimed the fully automatic weapons, which were delivered to his office in City Hall, were for the Atlanta Police Department. Prosecutors said Beard personally kept the guns, which were not the type of weapons the department would use and are not available for purchase by the general public.
Beard was indicted in 2020 on charges including wire fraud, theft from government, possession of machine guns, making a false statement and obstructing federal tax laws.
Beard’s trial was due to begin May 15, though his attorney, Scott Grubman, requested last month that it be postponed for at least 90 days. That was before the plea hearing was scheduled.
Grubman did not immediately comment on the plea hearing. He has previously said Beard is innocent and was caught up in an investigation aimed at Reed, who was never charged with any crimes.
“If you add up the allegations here, it’s just a few thousand dollars, way less than the feds are ever interested in,” Grubman said at one point.
He later added: “This is maybe the first possession of a machine gun case where there’s no evidence the defendant ever possessed the machine gun or used the machine gun.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment Friday.
The corruption investigation took many twists and turns over the years since it first came to light Jan. 17, 2017, when Elvin R. “E.R.” Mitchell Jr., a well-known CEO of an Atlanta construction company, was charged with conspiring to pay more than $1 million in bribes to help secure city construction contracts.
Days later, the AJC and Channel 2 Action News learned of an apparent attempt to intimidate Mitchell after he started talking to federal authorities. In September 2015, someone threw a brick through Mitchell’s living room window with the words, “ER, keep your mouth shut!!!” Dead rats were also left on Mitchell’s property.
The man arrested in the brickthrowing incident, Shandarrick L. Barnes, had been listed as working as the chief financial officer for a public relations company owned by Mitzi Bickers, a campaign consultant who helped Reed win the mayor’s race in 2009. Bickers, who later served as the city’s director of human services, was sentenced in 2022 to 14 years in prison, accused of pocketing $2 million in bribes in the pay-to-play game at City Hall.
Some of the charges against Bickers were later dismissed after U.S. Supreme Court and appeals court rulings narrowed the definitions of certain offenses. Bickers is currently imprisoned at a federal facility in Florida with a release date of May 2034.