Whistleblower Joe Kent Uncovers $100 Million MLGW Fraud — Approved by Mayor Paul Young and the Memphis City Council — Government Gangsters Part VII

By the Shelby County Observer Public Affairs Staff

October 23, 2025 | Shelby County, Tennessee

The title of this series — Government Gangsters — comes from current FBI Director Kash Patel’s breakthrough book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.

In that explosive work, Director Patel exposes how entrenched officials within government cloak corruption in moral language, presenting themselves as champions of justice while secretly enabling and protecting systemic lawlessness.

They are the actors of pretense — orators of ethics who privately violate every principle they invoke.

Today, that same brand of hypocrisy has found its most vivid expression not in Washington, but in Memphis, Tennessee, under Mayor Paul Young and the Memphis City Council who tell struggling families utility rates must go up—but stay silent about the corrupt contracts causing it. While trees get trimmed, crooked deals grow like weeds.

 

 

MEMPHIS, TN – For decades, Memphians have jokingly—yet bitterly—referred to their utility provider not as Memphis Light, Gas, and Water, but as “Memphis Light, Gas, and Robbers.” It’s a nickname born of frustration, passed down through unpaid bills and cold winters, reflecting the belief that the very agency meant to serve them was slowly draining them instead.

Today, that nickname feels less like a joke—and more like a prophecy fulfilled.

While the sports world reels as the FBI just revealed a scheme revealing over tens of millions in fraud, Memphis taxpayers are being fleeced for much more, over $100 million in what insiders are now calling the largest utility contract scandal in modern city history.

And unlike the NBA’s rogue actors, this isn’t just about individual greed—it’s a coordinated scheme involving public officials, inflated contracts, and a utility system that Memphians have long referred to as “Memphis Light, Gas, and Robbers.”

In a city besieged by poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and rising utility costs, few civic scandals have exposed the rot of public corruption as starkly as the $228 million tree trimming contract approved by Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) under the watch of Memphis Mayor Paul Young, the Memphis City Council, and the MLGW Board of Commissioners.

 

According to data compiled by investigative reporter and taxpayer advocate Joe Kent, the numbers tell a story of fraud and fiscal betrayal hiding in plain sight:

• Nashville pays approximately $6,641 per mile for tree trimming.
• Knoxville pays around $7,223 per mile, the standard benchmark across Tennessee.
• Memphis, under the current MLGW contract, is paying an outrageous $23,152 per mile and is set to balloon to $27,000 per mile in 2026

That’s more than triple the cost—a difference that cannot be justified by inflation, labor, or geography. It is, by every reasonable measure, a blatant waste of taxpayer dollars and potentially an act of procurement fraud. Memphis families are footing the bill while insiders and contractors quietly cash in.

This is not about trees.

This is about betrayal—of taxpayers, of working families, of every Memphian who has ever paid a utility bill expecting accountability, efficiency, and basic human decency in the public contracting process. They’re not cutting costs—they’re cutting deals. The branches being trimmed aren’t the real problem. It’s the roots of greed.

 

The Numbers Don’t Lie—But City Leaders Do

Thanks to the dogged analysis of investigative reporter and taxpayer advocate Joe Kent, the full scope of this scandal—what he accurately calls a “$100 million scheduled tree trimming rip”—has now come into horrifying focus.

Kent’s forensic breakdown reveals a staggering overpayment to private vendors that defies logic, math, and morality. Using official MLGW budget documents, public records, and Tennessee benchmarked tree-trimming costs, Kent calculates that of the $228 million contract:

• $93,513,187 has already been spent or budgeted for 2023–2025;
• $30,293,262 is the reasonable projected cost for 2026–2028 based on benchmarked per-mile pricing;
• $103,840,419—the remainder—is pure rip-off. Not theoretical. Scheduled.

 

Kent’s quote is seismic:

“If this tree trimming contract pays out in full at $228M, it is scheduled to be an approximate $100M Rip just in 2026-28… That is a horrifying civic nightmare”

He’s right. The nightmare isn’t hypothetical—it’s been budgeted, blessed, and baked into Memphis’ fiscal cake by a chorus of public officials who now hide behind the opacity of bureaucracy and the silence of complicity.

 

Corruption in Broad Daylight

MLGW’s own data confirms that trimming 1,398 miles of trees should cost roughly $10 million annually—based on the Tennessee benchmark of $7,223 per mile. Yet the utility’s 2026 budget includes a jaw-dropping $39 million for tree trimming—nearly four times the expected cost.

This is not an accounting error.

This is price-gouging with a municipal seal of approval. This is procurement manipulation disguised as public service. This is what happens when elected officials use the public purse as a private buffet.

The Culprits: Political Figures with Dirty Hands

The fraud triangle—opportunity, pressure, and rationalization—is complete in Memphis. Former Mayor Jim Strickland approved it. Current Mayor Paul Young endorses it. The Memphis City Council approved. MLGW leadership submitted. Contracts went to ABC, Lewis Tree, and Kendall—all raking in tens of millions in what could be the most egregious sweetheart deal in recent city history:

• ABC Professional Tree Trimming – $78,916,006
• Lewis Tree Service – $68,677,649
• Kendall Vegetation Services – $80,053,213

Three vendors. One bloated contract. Zero oversight.

This is more than fiscal negligence. This is a systemic hijacking of the procurement process—a betrayal of public trust so grotesque that it demands not just budget cuts, but criminal prosecution.

What Laws Are Being Violated?

The scale of corruption here implicates a host of federal, state, and local laws:

1. Federal Statutes

• 18 U.S.C. § 666 – Theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. MLGW receives federal dollars, and the misuse of those funds triggers federal jurisdiction.
• 18 U.S.C. § 1341 & § 1343 – Mail and wire fraud. If emails, invoices, or payments were used in furtherance of this scheme, federal fraud charges apply.
• 18 U.S.C. § 371 – Conspiracy to defraud the United States or its citizens.

2. Tennessee State Statutes

• T.C.A. § 39-16-402 – Official Misconduct: when a public servant intentionally refrains from performing a duty or abuses official capacity for personal advantage.
• T.C.A. § 12-4-106 – Unlawful interest in public contract. Any council member or official with indirect ties to these vendors could face felony charges.
• T.C.A. § 39-14-103 – Theft of property. Overpayments exceeding $250,000 constitute Class A felonies under Tennessee law.
• T.C.A. § 8-50-501 et seq. – Whistleblower protections. Kent’s exposure of this fraud could entitle him to whistleblower immunity and legal protection.

3. Memphis City Code

• City Charter § 35 – Requires competitive bidding and cost-efficiency in all public contracts.
• Procurement Ordinance 2-12-1 et seq. – Demands transparency, fair competition, and prohibition against bid-splitting or contractor favoritism.

These statutes are not theoretical tools—they are legal weapons and now is a good time for the Tennessee Comptroller, the State Attorney General, and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee wield them.

A Pattern of Fiscal Sabotage

Joe Kent’s chilling commentary underscores a deeper pattern—one where inflated budgets, insider deals, and weaponized incompetence have become the norm:

“MLGW is a highly professional organization… that must contend in a ravenously corrupt public contract culture… Chief McGowen’s 2023 5-year tree trimming contract that grew from $100M to $228M never made sense to me, even with inflationary pressures…”

Indeed. It doesn’t make sense. Not unless the goal is not utility maintenance, but political enrichment.

Even more appalling: this excess comes during a 4% rate increase approved by the City Council. MLGW’s own projections show that half of that rate hike will be swallowed by tree trimming fraud. Families will pay more this winter—not for heat, but for lies.

 

The History of the MLWG City Council Tree Scheme

 

But the stench of this scandal doesn’t stop with the numbers. It wafts through the halls of City Hall and into the history of how this $227 million contract came to be.

Among those at the helm when the deal was approved was former Memphis City Council member Martavius D. Jones, who chaired the pivotal July 11, 2023 Council meeting where the multi-vendor tree-trimming contract was passed. Jones, who also owns a private financial firm—Jones Wealth Management Group—has come under quiet scrutiny from several city officials and insiders, who allege that his firm may have had undisclosed ties to parties that benefitted from the bloated contract.

“There were whispers even then,” one city official told us off the record. “And they’ve only grown louder. People want to know: did Jones’s vote—and his position as chair—help steer business toward firms he or his associates had an interest in?”

So far, no public record has surfaced confirming any financial connection between Jones’s firm and the three awarded contractors: ABC Professional Tree Services, Lewis Tree Service, and Kendall Vegetation Services. Still, the concern lingers—and grows louder—as more Memphians begin asking why their rates are rising while certain insiders seem to keep winning.

It must be emphasized: no wrongdoing has been proven. These are, at this stage, allegations made by current and former city officials. But the facts—that Jones chaired the vote, that he owns a financial firm, and that insiders believe further investigation is warranted—demand attention.

 

The Real Cost: Trust and Democracy

When a city allows corruption to masquerade as civic necessity, democracy itself begins to rot. Utility bills rise. Budgets balloon. And public confidence—already on life support in Memphis—is extinguished.

It is no longer enough to cut the tree trimming budget. It is time to cut out the rot—with investigations, indictments, and resignations.

Mayor Paul Young.

The Memphis City Council.

MLGW leadership.

Every official who voted “yes” or looked the other way owes Memphians an apology.

But Memphians deserve more than apologies. They deserve answers. They deserve accountability.

If the public is expected to shoulder rate hikes under the guise of civic necessity, they deserve to know whether backroom profits were prioritized over public trust. Memphis can’t afford to let another contract grow wild with unchecked power, shadowy profits, and no pruning of accountability.

The branches may have been trimmed.

But the roots of corruption still run deep.

 

Will the  Department of Justice, the FBI, the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation be called upon to investigate this scandal—not just for the sake of dollars and cents, but for the countless families in Memphis who don’t even know that their utility bills are rising… not because of necessity, but because someone else’s pockets are quietly getting fatter?

The tree trimming may be done, but the branches of corruption reach deep—and if left untouched, they will choke out the last hopes of trust in local government.