Alabama political powerhouse Matrix LLC and its founder, Joe Perkins, have begun the process to collect on its $1.5 million judgment against Donald Watkins after Watkins exhausted his appeals in the defamation case surrounding the suicide of Meghan Rondini.

Watkins is a long-time figure in Alabama business and politics who was released from federal prison in January after serving time for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme whose victims included ex-Auburn and NBA star Charles Barkley. And the U.S. Supreme Court late last month denied a request to consider Watkins’ appeal in the defamation case.

Rondini, 20, was a former University of Alabama student who died by suicide in February 2016 after alleging she was raped by a man who came from a prominent Tuscaloosa family.

The defamation case stemmed from a series of social media posts Watkins made in 2017, attributed to anonymous sources.

“Watkins never identified his ‘anonymous source,’ nor provided any verifiable evidence that the ‘source’ even existed. We demanded Watkins retract his false statements, but he refused, so we sued him for five claims of defamation,” Cason Kirby, the attorney representing Perkins and Matrix, said when the judgement was awarded two years ago.

Kirby announced Monday that his clients were moving forward with the collections process.

In May 2021, Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Allen May issued a summary judgment in favor of Perkins and Matrix, awarding the plaintiffs $1.5 million in damages.

Perkins founded Matrix LLC in 1995. It has since become one of Alabama’s most powerful political consulting firms.

Kirby said his clients do not expect to be made whole.

“Regardless, we are moving forward with collections efforts against Watkins to hold him accountable for his damaging lies,” Kirby said.

Watkins appealed the judgement to the Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court but lost both appeals; the U.S. Supreme Court refused to even hear the appeal, according to court records.

Despite losing in the highest court in the land, Watkins, who now lives in California, maintained that he would continue his legal fight against the judgment.

“Matrix and Joe Perkins have a long way to go in this litigation. I look forward to continuing the legal fight with them in California,” Watkins said in a statement to AL.com. “It is NOT the number of rounds that count in a legal battle. What counts is who walks out of the gladiator pit a winner. I am highly confident I will be that person.”

He did not respond to Kirby’s claim about his finances.

In 2019, Watkins and his son, Donald Watkins Jr., were found guilty of fraud charges in federal court in Birmingham.

Under the more than $10 million scheme, victims testified, Watkins Sr. sold them what they believed to be shares of his biofuels company, Masada, but their funds were actually used for personal expenses.

Barkley was among the victims who testified. Others targeted in the fraud included former NFL players Takeo Spikes, Bryan Thomas, Carlos Emmons, and Gibril Wilson; and former NBA player Damon Stoudamire’s wife, Natasha.