Donald Watkins, in a Facebook post on Wednesday, says his lawyer has demanded the Securities and Exchange Commission dismiss the civil lawsuit the agency filed claiming he defrauded professional athletes and other investors out of millions of dollars and using much of it on personal expenses.

Watkins, an Alabama businessman and attorney who once represented long-time Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, states in his post that his attorney on Tuesday filed a letter with the SEC demanding the dismissal of its lawsuit filed Sept.1. The SEC has made false allegations against him, he also writes.

Watkins provided an address with the SEC for readers to obtain a copy of the letter. Later he provided a copy of the letter to AL.com, which is posted below.

The post on Wednesday is among at least six Watkins has written regarding the SEC lawsuit since it was filed.

In a comment under his Wednesday’s post, Watkins criticizes the SEC for going after him:

“It is shocking that the SEC has the time and resources to involve itself in the business and contractual affairs of a closely held private company where only one stakeholder out of 29 in his category has complained about their economic participation purchase transaction, but does not have the time or interest in investigating 2 million separate incidents bank account and credit card
fraud at Wells Fargo Bank, which is a publicly traded company. The disparate treatment between these two cases is glaring. The SEC’s retaliation and harassment agenda in my case is crystal clear.”

Watkins claims within his post that “the SEC deliberately altered a key section of an email” he had written to change its context and the message to the recipient.

The letter from his attorney to the SEC, Watkins writes, also states that the SEC in its lawsuit falsely portrays the amount of time and effort his company Masada spent trying to form a business alliance with Waste Management Inc. The SEC in its complaint stated that Watkins and his companies had falsely claimed to investors that Waste Management Inc. was seriously considering acquiring Watkins Pencor, Masada, and its affiliated companies in a multi-billion-dollar sale.

Watkins also claims in his Facebook post that the SEC knew from documents that former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes was working through a limited liability company with Masada to form an alliance with Waste Management to use Masada’s waste-to-energy technology throughout the United States.

“The SEC knew that Masada and Barnes believed in good faith that the value of the contemplated WMI business alliance and/or acquisition transaction could exceed $2 billion over the life of the deal, ” Watkins’ Facebook post states.

Watkins also writes that the SEC knew that Masada’s negotiations with Waste Management were slowed by several events beyond its control, including a financial dispute with Barnes and the departure of a Waste Management executive, and the time it took Masad to produce “due diligence” documents.
The SEC also failed to review thousands of pages of Masada corporate documents that it had subpoenaed, Watkins states. “These documents flatly contradict the SEC’s false allegations that the Defendants have defrauded stakeholders in their businesses, or anyone else,” Watkins wrote.

Watkins states that the lawsuit has harassed his him and his companies and has “damaged their good reputations among business partners worldwide and in the general public.”