CORRUPT FLORIDA LT. GOVERNOR JENNIFER CARROLL RESIGNS AMID FEDERAL-STATE RACKETEERING, MONEY-LAUNDERING AND GAMBLING INVESTIGATION– WHAT IT ALL MEANS – TIME TO STRENGTHEN FLORIDA CONSTITUTION AND STATE ETHICS LAWS TO PRESERVE AND PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY!

Florida Lt. Governor JENNIFER CARROLL resigned her office today after she was interviewed in her office by Florida Deparment of Law Enforcement (FDLE) criminal investigators.

CARROLL's resignation takes place amidst federal actions arresting five people in two states and searching and shutting down some 51 "convenience casinos," or "internet cafes" as part of  "Operation Reveal Deal." 

These are a few of the opening busts after a six-year gambling investigation by federal law enforcement agencies. The gambling dens have signs that say things like "Copy, Fax, Print, Surf the Web."  The second wave of criminal charges may include related political corruption.

As a Republican state representative from Jacksonville, Lt. Governor JENNIFER CARROLL once introduced legislation benefiting her public relations firm client, ALLIED VETERANS OF THE WORLD, INC. AND AFFILIATES (ALLIED VETERANS), which would have legalized its putative “internet cafes,” which are allegedly illegal gambling dens.  

Under the Florida Constitution, it looks like it was illegal for then State Representative CARROLL to represent clients before the legislature, but she did it anyway. Florida Constitution Article II, Section 8(e). JENNIFER CARROLL did it anyway.  

Then-Rep. CARROLL later claimed her staff filed the bill without her knowledge in the Florida State House of Representatives in Tallahassee. [That dog won't hunt.  Dodgy corporate types sometimes try to blame their actions on their staffs.  Yet this may be the only time in history when a legislator renounced a piece of legislation with her name on it  and tried to pin the blame for the legislation on her staff.   (Before being elected Lt. Governor, CARROLL also materially altered and backdated a lease in seeking business contracts from the City of Jacksonville).

Pursuant to a 130-page search warrant signed by a federal judge in Oklahoma City two days ago, Federal and state agents have reportedly raided and shut down 51 alleged Florida illegal gambling dens owned by  ALLIED VETERANS OF THE WORLD, INC. AND AFFILIATES (ALLIED VETERANS) bust.  

The ALLIED VETERANS "convenience casino" gambling dens allegedly paid out as much as $15,000 in "sweepstakes," which allegedly violates state and federal gambling and racketeering laws.  The search warrant application indicates the dens are connected to and may be alter egos of an Andarko, Oklahoma business that was raided,

Many of the "convenience casinos" or “internet cafes” reportedly have computers that are really slot machines, and are unadorned by a single keyboard to access the internet.

There allegedly exists a massive gambling empire here in Florida, with the "ALLIED VETERANS OF THE WORLD, INC. AND AFFILIATES (ALLIED VETERANS) World Headquarters: right here outside St. Augustine, at 1965 State Route 16. 

Among those whom have reportedly been arrested are 

A. CHASE BURNS of Andarko, Oklahoma, associated with FLORIDA GAMING PROMOTIONS and INTERNATIONAL INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES; 

B. ALLIED VETERANS NATIONAL COMMANDER JERRY BASS, 

C. Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) President NELSON CUBA and 

D. ALLIED VETERANS' corporate lawyer, Mr. KELLY B. MATHIS (he was formerly Jacksonville Bar Association President and he advertises "common sense solutions" on his law firm website).  

As ALLIED VETERANS' lawyer, Mr. KELLY B. MATHIS, Esquire on January 31, 2011 signed a 49-page federal court First Amendment civil rights lawsuit brought under 42 U.S.C. 1983, and alleging First Amendment and civil rights violations by Seminole County in banning sweepstakes/gambling cafes. MATHIS was arrested yesterday, as federal agents shut down 51 allegedly illegal ALLIED VETERANS internet gambling cafes. Federal agents reportedly accuse the alleged fraudsters of using veterans' causes to misappropriate hundreds of millions of dollars of money meant for homeless veterans, with less than 2% of funds raised allegedly going to charitable causes.

ALLIED VETERANS sued Seminole County in federal court in 2011, claiming its constitutional rights had been violated by Seminole County Commissioners passing Ordinance 2011-1 on January 11, 2011, effective Rebruary 2011.  In its lawsuit, filed by Jacksonville and Gainesville attorneys, led by "Trial Counsel" KELLY B. MATHIS, et al., ALLIED VETERANS claimed in a February 1, 2011 federal court complaint to have been founded in 1979 to “promote veterans causes,” claiming “advocacy, fundraising and donations to veterans health care facilities” as its purpose. Federal agents now allege otherwise, and the joint federal-state racketeering investigation continues, with Seminole County Sheriff and State Attorney General assisting.    

This federal fraud and racketeering investigation comes after the successful federal criminal prosecution of St. Augustine Beach based fraudfeasor LYDIA CLADEK, whose LYDIA CLADEK INC. was found by a federal court jury to have been a $100,000,000 fraud involving stolen investments in a scheme to profit from 28% interest rates on car loans to low-income consumers. LYDIA CLADEK will likely reside in a federal penitentiary for the rest of her life.

In any eventual jury trial on the racketeering charges, it is possible that ALLIED VETERANS may be explicitly or impliedly found to have filed a fraud upon the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in its February 1, 2011 lawsuit against Seminole County.  The suit claimed that ALLIED VETERANS was not an illegal gambling business.  It elaborately describes a lengthy, detailed, elaborate set of seemingly innocent facts that would (if true) make the cafes legal, again, IF they had actually been true. 

Two federal trial and appeals courts refused to provide injunctive relief pending the outcome of the Seminole County case, which was eventually joined in by other internet cafes. 

Again, ALLIED VETERANS' lawyer in that case, Jacksonville business and insurance company lawyer KELLY B. MATHIS, has reportedly been arrested as part of the racketeering investigation, in which Lt. Governor CARROLL was interviewed yesterday.  Other corporate lawyers should worry.

A Vanderbilt University Law School graduate, arrested ALLIED VETERANS lawyer KELLY B. MATHIS was a litigator who tried medical malpractice and business cases.  On a "dare," MATHIS reportedly once ran a marathon wearing a suit: he told the Jacksonville Business Journal in 2004, upon leaving larger law firms and starting his own law firm as a solo, that "Somebody once told me, if you want to hit a home run, you have to swing hard." KELLY MATHIS said he liked the competition in law, and "You've got to give 100%.  It's not just you that's at stake. It's the reputation of the client.  It's the money of the client, their faith in the system."  MATHIS said that "Part of it is, can you outwork and outsmart the other attorney....It's also .....like being a sherpa, guiding clients through an intricate process." He continued that, "most important, you want to prevail for a just cause. If you have a client that needs a resolution, you want to give them a favorable resolution.  If you can't, then they don't need you."  MATHIS claimed that he did not want to practice "door law," a local Bar nickname for lawyers who "take anything that walks in the door."

It appears that lawyer KELLY B. MATHIS may have gotten the federal government's attention by filing the ALLIED VETERANS' federal civil rights lawsuit attacking Seminole County Commissioners' right to regulate "convenience casino" gambling.  It also appears that, in hindsight, MATHIS practically dared  prosecutors to persist, when he told the Orlando Sentinel in 2010, "There has not been a successful prosecution yet," citing a Marion County jury acquittal of an internet cafe on state charges. The charges against MATHIS and his alleged co-felons are federal charges.

The NY Times reported in 2011 that there then were more than 1000 Florida internet sweepstakes cafes and that the industry grosses more than $1 billion per year. The Times reported that two state legislators then owned internet sweepstakes cafes – State Rep. PETER NEHR (R-Tarpon Springs) and then-Senator MICHAEL BENNETT (R-Manatee County).

Opponents say the Florida "convenenince casino" or internet sweepstakes cafe gambling industry -- encourages compulsive gambling and attracts armed robbers.  A single strip mall "convenience casino" draws in as much as $100,000 weekly, the Times reported.  There was an armed robbery at one in Seminole County, the Times reported, and a patron called police to report the armed robbery from the women's room, saying she was "at the casino." (This was ALLIED VETERANS Post No. 167, which sued Seminole County over its ordinance in the federal court case filed by MATHIS).

This billion dollar Florida sweepstakes cafe gambling industry is one that our State Senator John Thrasher  would like to declare a “moratorium” against. Perhaps there should be a total ban -- what do you think?

Without a Florida Lt. Governor to help "carry water" for them, this latest Florida organized crime business looks like it will soon by dying on the vine, like the “pill mills” that State Attorney General Pam Bondi and Palm Beach County State's Attorney Dave Aronberg have worked to eliminate. 

Lt. Gov. JENNIFER CARROLL was a rarity – an African-American woman snowed by Republicans. They are about as rare as hens' teeth. Her departure leaves a vacancy for a Republican token Tallahassee.

 

There will be teeth gnashed and champagne cried in by Republicans -- and organized crime lobbyists -- in Tallahassee tonight. Probably at the same tables in the same restaurants and bars.  

Under our Florida Constitution, it looks like the choice of a new Lt. Governor is one given to Florida Governor RICHARD SCOTT (himself no stranger to fraud charges: we remember his billion dollar Medicaid fraud settlement). Federal and state law enforcement officials are holding a press conference at 3 PM today, after which Governor SCOTT will answer questions.  Stay tuned -- it's going to be a bumpy night.

Here's two questions for Florida Governor Richard SCOTT:

1. Under our Florida Constitution, it looks like it was absolutely illegal for State Representative JENNIFER CARROLL to represent clients before the legislature she was serving in, but she did it anyway, introducing legislation to benefit them as an industry by legalizing their operations. See Florida Constitution Article II, Section 8(e).  JENNIFER CARROLL did it anyway. She later claimed her staff filed the bill without her knowledge. How can the Constitutional provisions on Ethics be strengthened?

2.  How long must Florida be the butt of TV late night comics' jokes for its legendary, Louisiana-like corruption? What are "We, the People," going to do about it?

These are serious questions for all of us on this painful day.

Please read (below) our Florida Constitution Ethics provision (adopted in 1998), and contemplate why the JENNIFER CARROLLS of the world --- and the special interests that they front for -- get away with stealing our democracy. 

Think about how our Florida Constitution can be reformed to strengthen ethics provisions.  

What do you propose? 

What do you reckon?