Fresh Loaf

A lawsuit against Kai Franklin Graham, who was supposed to go on trial Monday in federal bankruptcy court, has been settled, according to documents filed today in federal bankruptcy court.

Free At Last Bail Bonds had sued Graham in late 2005 to recover $185,000 the company lost after her then-husband, major cocaine trafficker Tremayne “Kiki” Graham, cut his ankle monitor and went on the run. Kai Franklin Graham, the daughter of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, had filed for bankruptcy in early 2005 to avoid having to repay the bond.

According to court documents, Free At Last settled for a fraction of what it sought — just $6,000.

As of last month, it had appeared all but certain that the case would go to trial. “We’ve talked about [a settlement] many times,” Cameron McCord, an attorney for Free At Last Bail Bonds, said during an October hearing. “I just think we’re too far apart.”

Free At Last had claimed Graham misled authorities about her financial situation and her knowledge of her then-husband’s whereabouts, and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to receive bankruptcy protection.

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UPDATE: Case settled.

A lawsuit against Kai Franklin Graham, who was supposed to go on trial yesterday in federal bankruptcy court, might have been resolved.

Free At Last Bail Bonds sued Graham in 2005 to recover $185,000 the company lost after her then-husband, major cocaine trafficker Tremayne “Kiki” Graham, cut his ankle monitor and went on the run. Kai Franklin Graham, the daughter of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, filed for bankruptcy to avoid having to repay his bond.

In court documents, Free At Last has claimed Graham misled authorities about her financial situation and her knowledge of her then-husband’s whereabouts, and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to receive bankruptcy protection.

The most recent hearing and filings in the lawsuit indicated that the case couldn’t be resolved.

“We’ve talked about [a settlement] many times,” Cameron McCord, an attorney for Free At Last Bail Bonds, said during a hearing last month. “I just think we’re too far apart.”

But considering that the trial didn’t start as scheduled — and that no new date has been set — it’s likely that Free At Last and Graham reached some sort of agreement.

“The only other possibility is that the matter was settled,” says bankruptcy attorney Howard Rothbloom, who is not involved in the case. He adds that if the lawsuit did in fact settle, it might take several days for the settlement to show up in the court file. “Ultimately, there has to be something on the docket.”

Attorneys for Graham and Free At Last did not return phone calls.

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UPDATE: Case settled.

Mayor Shirley Franklin’s daughter Kai Franklin Graham, who is being sued in federal bankruptcy court by the bonding company that bailed out her then-husband in 2004, was supposed to go on trial this morning. But when I showed up at the courtroom, it was empty and dark.

A call to the judge’s chambers didn’t help. The assistant who answered the phone said she couldn’t give me any information, other than, “There is no court today.” Kinda weird, huh?

(more…)

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UPDATE: Case settled.

When Kai Franklin Graham, daughter of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, goes on trial next month on civil charges, the case could shed light on allegations that a recent criminal investigation only hinted at.

The plaintiff, Free At Last Bail Bonds, is suing Graham in an attempt to hold her accountable for $185,000 she owes the company after her then-husband jumped bond and became a fugitive. Kai Franklin Graham filed for bankruptcy in 2005 in an attempt to avoid paying the bond.

The reason she shouldn’t be allowed to use the federal bankruptcy statute to free herself from the debt? According to Free At Last, Graham deceived both the bondsman and the bankruptcy court about her financial situation and the whereabouts of Tremayne “Kiki” Graham, whom she divorced the year after he went on the lam.

Documents filed in the case allege that Kai Franklin Graham “blatantly lied under oath” and tried to hide contentious sources of income.

In court documents, Graham’s attorney, James Dearing, denied Free At Last’s allegations. Dearing didn’t return CL’s phone calls seeking comment.

Continue reading here

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Mayor Shirley Franklin responded late Tuesday night with the following comment to Mara Shalhoup’s Fresh Loaf post on the sentencing hearing for Franklin’s daughter, Kai Franklin Graham:

“Check the facts. She plead[ed] guilty to structuring which is clearly defined in the federal code. Her plea had absolutely nothing to do with any other criminal act. ANY OTHER representation by you or anyone else is FALSE. I’ve come to expect unfair, illogical and inaccurate reporting from CL. Mara, [former CL Senior Editor John Sugg] and CL have slandered me and my daughter in headlines and articles and misrepresented the facts for years to sell papers. It’s call[ed] tabloid and yellow journalism.”

Shalhoup also received a statement from Kai Franklin Graham on Tuesday night:

“On Monday, March 17, 2008 in federal court I was sentenced for structuring $14,000 in mortgage payments. Any other representation by anyone about me in this case is false and contrary to the truth.

“As proud as I am of my mother, Shirley Franklin, I believe the intense media attention has been directed to her and not me. The reporting, coverage and headlines have been sensationalized and inaccurate every step of the way in this case. The media coverage of my sentencing yesterday is no exception.

“As I stated in court, I am ready to move on with my life. By God’s grace I will be able to do so.”

We’re, of course, concerned that the mayor has accused us of “slandering” her and her daughter. The facts we reported are the same facts Mayor Franklin points to in her comment: Kai Franklin Graham pleaded guilty to making “structured financial payments” to avoid federal detection.

But to argue, as the mayor does, that her daughter’s “plea had absolutely nothing to do with any other criminal act” ignores the context of the plea. According to prosecutors, at least some of that money came from the cocaine smuggling operation run by Franklin Graham’s then-husband, Tremayne Graham. The mayor’s daughter converted that money into postal money orders in a way to avoid detection by federal officials, and she was in contact with her husband after he had jumped bail and was a fugitive, according to court documents.

Tremayne Graham has since been captured and sentenced to life in prison. He and Kai are now divorced. As part of her plea agreement, Franklin Graham agreed to cooperate with investigators involved in an ongoing probe of criminal activities associated with her ex-husband’s case.

I e-mailed the mayor and asked her to provide specific examples of when our coverage was inaccurate or unfair. She gave her permission to print her e-mailed response: (more…)

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GREENVILLE — Kai Franklin Graham apologized to her mother, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, during a brief sentencing hearing in Greenville federal court today, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Moore.

Moore says the mayor sat in the courtroom during the proceedings — the same courtroom where, a year earlier, her ex-son-in-law was sentenced to life in federal prison on cocaine charges.

Franklin Graham received a sentence of three years probation for making “structured financial payments.” In 2004, Franklin Graham received $14,000 cash from her then-husband — and federal fugitive — Tremayne Graham, a cocaine trafficker who was linked to the Black Mafia Family. She then converted the cash into postal money orders less than $2,000 each in an attempt to evade federal reporting requirements. (Any amount more than $2,000 must be reported to the feds). The money was used in part to pay the mortgage on the couple’s $630,000 Marietta home.

Franklin Graham pleaded guilty to the federal charge in December, and she agreed to cooperate with the government in other investigations. During the April 2007 sentencing of Tremayne Graham, whom Franklin Graham divorced in 2005, Moore said he was interested in what she might know about Graham’s alleged role in the 2004 murder of his co-defendant, Ulysses Hackett, and Hackett’s 24-year-old girlfriend, Misty Carter.

“She might have very critical information about where he was and what he did on the night that Ulysses Hackett was killed,” Moore said.

No one has been arrested in the killings, though Graham has been named a suspect.

Franklin Graham was cited as a potential witness in the trial of one of Graham’s drug associates, Ernest Watkins. However, the trial was cut short last week, when Watkins pleaded guilty on the second day of testimony.

Editor’s Note: This blog post has been updated to clarify that Kai Franklin Graham converted the cash into postal money orders to evade federal reporting requirements.

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GREENVILLE — A drug associate of Mayor Shirley Franklin’s ex-son-in-law pleaded guilty to federal charges today, bringing an abrupt end to his trial on cocaine trafficking.

As part of his plea deal, Ernest Watkins agreed to cooperate with federal authorities “about all criminal activities [of] which he has knowledge.”

Watkins has been identified in federal documents and in open court as the person who supplied Kai Franklin Graham’s then-husband, Tremayne Graham, with a gun that was later used to kill Graham’s co-defendant, Ulysses Hackett, and Hackett’s girlfriend, Misty Carter. No arrests have been made in the 2004 double-murder of Hackett and Carter, who were killed as they lay in bed inside Carter’s Highland Avenue townhouse.

Like Watkins, Kai Franklin Graham — the mayor’s daughter — also signed a cooperation agreement when she pleaded guilty in December 2007 to minor charges related to her ex-husband’s crime ring.

Franklin Graham is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in federal court in Greenville on charges that she made structured financial payments to avoid federal detection. She, Graham, Watkins and more than a dozen other defendants linked to Graham have had cases brought in South Carolina, where Graham’s drug ring delivered multi-kilo shipments of cocaine from Atlanta.
(more…)

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Kai Franklin Graham, 35, daughter of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, pleaded guilty this morning in South Carolina to a federal charge of “structuring financial transactions” to avoid detection.

The charges stem from an investigation of Franklin’s former husband, Tremayne Graham, who pleaded guilty for his leadership role in a cocaine operation affiliated with the Black Mafia Family. Graham received a life sentence, and has been identified as a suspect in the murder of co-defendant Ulysses Hackett and Hackett’s girlfriend, 24-year-old Spelman graduate Misty Carter, in 2004. They were gunned down while sleeping in Carter’s Highland Avenue townhome.

Kai Graham agreed to cooperate fully with the federal investigation, and she must pass a polygraph. If she complies fully, she will spend three months in home confinement and three years on probation.

Mayor Franklin arrived at the federal courthouse in Greenville, S.C., with her daughter, and was in the courtroom during the hearing. She declined to comment after the hearing.

Court records identify Tremayne Graham as a “major drug dealer” with close ties to multistate cocaine empire the Black Mafia Family and related drug ring the Sin City Mafia. Graham, along with 12 other defendants, is accused of moving at least 500 kilograms of cocaine from California to Atlanta, where most of the defendants lived. The cocaine was then allegedly delivered to Greenville. When Graham disappeared in late October 2004, he was out on bond under the condition that he be confined to the $630,000 Marietta home he shared with his wife. But after he cut his ankle monitor and fled, Kai Franklin Graham divorced her husband, who turned up in California a month after the divorce was final.

CL’s Mara Shalhoup will have a full report of the hearing later this afternoon.

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