Disbarred attorney and businessman Donald Watkins, Sr. has challenged the May suspension of his law license by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The suspension was handed down after the Alabama Supreme Court stripped him of the right to practice the law following his 2019 convictions on several federal fraud charges.
Watkins, who was found guilty in Birmingham federal court of wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, had until July 1 to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 22 suspension order.
“I responded to the Supreme Court’s Show Cause order within the time period specified by the Court. I have not heard anything further from the Court,” Watkins told AL.com.
U.S. Supreme Court records do not show any further actions beyond the suspension order.
The Alabama Supreme Court issued an order disbarring Watkins from practicing law in the state on Dec. 27, 2021.
The order was based on the Alabama State Bar’s Disciplinary Commission’s order disbarring Watkins after his conviction, according to Bar records.
Watkins, who now lives in California and has not practiced law since his conviction, scammed several high-profile victims.
Those victims include Auburn and NBA superstar Charles Barkley and Alabama native and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, out of more than $10 million over a decade through his biofuel company, Masada Resource Group, LLC.
Watkins purported to have sold shares of Masada to his victims but in actuality used the investors’ money for personal expenses, according to trial testimony.
His son, Donald Watkins, Jr., was also charged. He was convicted of two of the charges and found not guilty on the remaining offenses.
In August 2021, the elder Watkins was ordered to pay $1.5 million to political consulting firm Matrix and its founder, Joe Perkins, as part of a defamation suit centered around false allegations of University of Alabama student Megan Rondini’s suicide in 2019.
Matrix and Perkins began the collections process on the judgment in March.
Watkins, who was a close aide to former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. and served as Arrington’s special counsel, now runs a blog in which he describes himself as “an American trial lawyer (retired), online journalist, international entrepreneur, and former political prisoner (2019-2022) in the United States.”
