Crist calls for grand jury on public corruption
BY MARC CAPUTO and JAY WEAVER
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
Responding to a ``rash of crimes'' by public officials, Gov. Charlie Crist announced Wednesday that he wanted to empanel a statewide grand jury to root out corruption.
But while Crist talked tough about the need for reform at a press conference, he refused to discuss his close ties to indicted political player Alan Mendelsohn, a Broward eye doctor who had once falsely claimed he could bribe Crist.
Mendelsohn, who has pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges, funded attack ads against at least one Crist gubernatorial opponent in 2006, held fundraisers for the then-attorney general and later persuaded Crist to write a personal letter to the University of Florida to admit Mendelsohn's son to medical school.
Crist made Mendelsohn a member of his gubernatorial transition team in 2007.
``What I can air out for you is the concern this administration has for a number of cases. It doesn't center around one case at all,'' Crist said when asked about Mendelsohn.
``Since I have been governor, unfortunately, I have had to remove over 30 people from public office,'' Crist said. ``That's almost one a month. And it's obvious to me that something's wrong with the system.''
The big problem: Money, said Ben Wilcox, executive director of Common Cause Florida, a good-government advocacy group.
``To run for office, you have to raise so much money, too much money,'' Wilcox said, ``and the ones who want to give it are special interests whose bottom line is to influence public policy.''
Wilcox said that, with such big money at stake, it's inevitable that questionable activity surfaces.
Crist has set fundraising records, pulling in $6.7 million in contributions since announcing his U.S. Senate candidacy in May. He is scheduled to appear Oct. 30 at an Arizona fundraiser with that state's former governor, Fife Symington, who was convicted in 1997 on federal fraud charges. His conviction was overturned and President Clinton later pardoned him.
Aside from Mendelsohn, two other Crist fundraisers have drawn scrutiny:
• Harry Sergeant III, Crist's college fraternity brother and fundraiser, employed a foreign national who allegedly gave illegal campaign contributions to Crist through an intermediary listed as ``H.S.'' in a federal indictment.
• Sergio Pino stepped down in 2006 as Crist's campaign finance chairman amid a grand jury probe into whether he raised funds illegally. Pino was never charged.
With back-to-back scandals, Broward's overnight reputation as the state's corruption capital is built on a series of sensational cases filed in federal court last month that charge several politicians and public figures with fraud and other offenses.
• Mendelsohn, a Hollywood eye doctor and fundraiser, was charged in a 32-count indictment with manipulating a major contributor to give his political action committees more than $2 million on the basis of false promises.
Mendelsohn is accused of illegally spending at least $624,000 on himself, his mistress and politicians -- including funneling $87,000 to an unnamed former elected official.
The formidable GOP fundraiser also is accused of conning a Fort Lauderdale viatical insurance executive, Joel Steinger, into donating more than $1.5 million based on Mendelsohn's claim that he bribed Crist and other officials to shut down state and federal investigations into Steinger's company, Mutual Benefits Corp.
Prosecutors say Mendelsohn fabricated everything to boost his reputation as a Tallahassee insider with clout and connections.
• Broward School Board member Beverly Gallagher is accused of accepting $12,500 from FBI agents posing as consultants for contractors who were trying to land school construction projects. The money was in exchange for her lobbying on behalf of a glass company seeking subcontracting work on a $71 million renovation project at Hollywood Hills High School.
At a November 2007 social event, Gallagher spoke with the undercover FBI agent posing as the glass company's representative. Three months later, Gallagher met with the agent, who said the firm was having trouble getting pre-qualified for a contract. He asked if he could hire her as a ``consultant.''
Gallagher agreed, the complaint says, helping the company set up a meeting with Michael Garretson, the school district's deputy construction superintendent, so the glass company could get pre-qualified. Garretson is not named in the complaint.
The undercover agent told Gallagher he was paid $4,000 by the glass company, which he split with Gallagher at a restaurant; He gave Gallagher a day planner stuffed with the cash, which she put ``in a plastic bag in which she had placed leftovers from her meal,'' the complaint said.
According to the complaint, Gallagher later influenced a schools committee to recommend a particular construction company for the Hollywood High renovation project. The undercover agent told Gallagher he was paying her for ``hooking up'' his glass company for subcontracting work on the big job. She agreed.
• Broward Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion allegedly helped three men launder $23,000 collected as part of a Ponzi scheme. The others arrested were Ron Owens and Joel Williams, both Broward businessmen. The third defendant is Bahamian attorney Sidney Cambridge. The allegations against Eggelletion are not related to his public office.
In 2006, undercover agents told Eggelletion they were interested in opening an offshore bank account for a ``nonexistent European, high-yield investment fraud scheme that was sending out `made up' statements to clients,'' the criminal complaint says.
The politician said he had contacts in the Bahamas. He and the others helped set up the bank account in the Bahamas to wire $900,000 derived from the alleged Ponzi scheme, the complaint said; Eggelletion was to get kickbacks from the deal.
In February 2008, Eggelletion met Owens and took a black leather day planner containing $15,000 cash -- Eggelletion's partial share of the proceeds, the complaint said. To establish their relationship with Eggelletion, undercover FBI agents donated $5,000 to the commissioner's private golf foundation.
• Fitzroy Salesman, while serving as a Miramar commissioner, accepted $5,840 from FBI agents posing as contractors attempting to land business with the city of Miramar, the complaint says.
An FBI undercover agent and a cooperating witness met with Salesman in April 2006 to get construction work. According to the complaint, Salesman accepted an envelope containing $1,000 from the agent and then made a phone call to a person Salesman said was a high-ranking Miramar city official.
The complaint said Salesman asked the city official if he had any no-bid $50,000 jobs available, and made an appointment with the official for that month, adding he would bring the person he thought was a contractor.
Salesman told the contractor that the city official ``owes me'' because he had gotten him his job and raises in the past, the complaint said. That city official arranged for the contractor to meet another official regarding the design and construction of a gazebo project that had been destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. Salesman also paved the way for the contractor to do renovation work on a municipal gym, the complaint says.
• Two Broward businessmen are charged with conspiring to pay $150,000 to unnamed Miramar officials in return for municipal construction work, a complaint says. Arrest warrants issued in late September named Celestine Skippy Aniekwu, a project manager for Gulf Building Corp. in Fort Lauderdale, and Luke Facarazzo Jr., president of Luke's Landscaping in Hollywood.
They're accused of scheming with FBI undercover agents posing as asset managers for a Northeastern construction firm seeking municipal work in Miramar.
No Miramar officials have been named or charged in connection with the arrests. Facarazzo surrendered to authorities and was released on bond. But Aniekwu is being sought by federal authorities. He's recorded in the FBI sting operation as saying he paid $50,000 to one Miramar official in November 2008, according to the complaint.
The official was not identified. FBI officials are investigating whether he paid that money to any official.
Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com
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