Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has accused Alabama Ethics Commission Director Tom Albritton of improperly benefiting from a charitable trust for which Albritton was a board member because Albritton’s children received more than $100,000 in scholarship money from the fund.

The accusation by the attorney general came in a civil case and is not a criminal allegation.

Marshall made the accusation in a motion filed Tuesday in an ongoing lawsuit over the operation of the Mabel Amos Memorial Trust. The lawsuit was filed last summer in Montgomery County Circuit Court by relatives of Mabel Amos who claimed breach of trust, breach of contract, and fraud in how the trust was managed and scholarship funds were distributed.

Marshall alleged in the court motion that Albritton and two other members of the board breached their duties by engaging in “self-dealing” or by failing to prevent it.

“The Board members, jointly, and severally and separately, engaged in acts of self-dealing, or breached their fiduciary and other duties to the Trust by failing to prevent or prohibit self-dealing, or by permitting and acquiescing in self-dealing, and engaging in other acts and omissions in violation of statutory and common law duties owed to the Trust,” the motion says.

“By way of example, and without limitation, Thomas A. Albritton, as a member of the Board of the Mabel Amos Memorial Fund, allowed or caused his own children to impermissibly receive scholarship awards from the very trust he was charged with administering. Specifically, from the years 2012 – 2019, Albritton caused, allowed, or otherwise acquiesced in the award of scholarships to his children from the Trust totaling more than $100,000. These scholarship awards to a Board member’s son and daughter violated the terms of the Trust, and are prohibited self-dealing and private inurements.”

Albritton declined comment today.

The other two board members Marshall named in the motion were Rick Clifton and John Bell. Clifton is president of the Covington County Economic Development Commission. Bell was the board member who represented Regions Bank, which is the trustee of the Mabel Amos Trust Fund.

Clifton declined comment today. AL.com did not receive a response from the attorney listed in court records as representing Bell and Regions Bank in the lawsuit.

Mabel Amos was a Conecuh County native who became the first woman elected secretary of state in Alabama, a position she held from 1967 to 1975. Amos established the Memorial Trust in 1993. She died in 1999.

According to Marshall’s filing, the purpose of the trust was to help Alabama students who needed financial assistance for college. The board was established to determine which student applicants received scholarships. The trust established the criteria for awarding scholarships as character, intelligence, scholastic record, and financial need.

The lawsuit says the Mabel Amos Trust had limited funding until oil was discovered on the Amos property in about 2011. That allowed for a substantial increase in the amount of the scholarships awarded.

Albritton became executive director of the Ethics Commission in 2015. In that job, he leads the staff that investigates complaints of violations of the Alabama ethics law, which is the law that prohibits public officials using their public positions for personal gain, among other responsibilities.

In November, Marshall filed a lawsuit against the Ethics Commission over the commission’s rule that it does not disclose exculpatory information to people under investigation. Marshall asked the court to declare the commission’s rule null and void. The Ethics Commission has asked the court to dismiss the case.

Lagniappe in Mobile, which has reported previously on the controversy over the Mabel Amos Trust Fund and reported on Marshall’s court motion today.