St Petersburg Times
Published: June 15, 2011
Updated: June 15, 2011 - 1:18 PM
Bail has been set at $25,000 for former Hillsborough County commissioner Kevin White, who was arrested by the FBI this morning on corruption charges.
The federal indictment unsealed this morning accuses White of trading his influence as chairman of the Public Transportation Commission for $10,000 in cash, several steak dinners and a 2003 Lincoln Navigator for his father.
White was arrested on multiple charges related to his tenure on the PTC, which is comprised of local government officials and regulates cab, limousine and ambulance companies. The charges accuse him of accepting money in exchange for his efforts to get a towing company on the county's rotational towing list.
Also indicted is George Hondrellis, who is accused of paying money to get a company on the towing list. Hondrellis owns a towing company in Tampa. His bail was set today at $50,000.
Both were in the process early this afternoon of posting bail.
White was indicted on 10 federal charges, including bribery, conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and lying to an FBI agent. He is tentatively scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Anthony Porcelli at 2 p.m. today.
White faces a maximum penalty of 80 years in prison.
Federal authorities alleged in the indictment that Hondrellis bribed White in exchange for a spot on the county's rotation of towing services. Towing companies on the rotation take turns in responding to calls from law enforcement agencies in the county when vehicles need to be towed.
The probe reached back to September 2009, when Hondrellis met with an undercover informant and talked about forming a towing company to get on the rotation, the indictment said. Two months later, Hondrellis told the informant he had made a $2,000 loan to Gerald White, Kevin White's father, to assist Kevin White's family, the indictment said. At the time, White was chairman of the transportation commission. Hondrellis told the confidential informant that Kevin White "was backing him," the indictment said.
After that, Hondrellis told the informant he had made the loan in exchange for White's influence in getting a spot on the rotation, the indictment said. Hondrellis asked the informant to chip in $1,000, or half the loan, the indictment said.
Over the course of the next several months, the confidential informant met frequently with White, his father and Hondrellis, authorities said. Thousands of dollars in cash had changed hands, and Gerald White received a Lincoln Navigator, the indictment said. Steak dinners and lunches were paid for by the informant and an undercover federal agent, according to authorities.
By January 2010, the towing company had been formed and Hondrellis told the informant that he had named a driver with his towing company as owner, the indictment said. White told the two their application to be placed on the rotation list "should fly through" the PTC, according to the indictment.
In April, 2010, the indictment said, the informant introduced an undercover FBI agent to White. The agent posed as a partner in the towing business company owned by the confidential informant.
The next month, Kevin White told the undercover agent that their towing business had been added to the rotation, the indictment said.
The indictment said that after that, the agent suggested adding another towing business to the rotation and was told by White that it would cost $10,000.
Gerald White, 64, died on May 23 of natural causes.
U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill said he does not expect any more indictments from the investigation.
"This appears to be an isolated incident,'' O'Neill said.
Hondrellis has a long arrest record.
In April 2010, he was acquitted on a misdemeanor violation of municipal ordinance of wrecker regulations.
In April 2002, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge involving towing rates. Hondrellas was convicted.
In April 1998, he was pleaded no contest to grand theft of a motor vehicle, attempted burglary, third-degree grand theft and having an improperly marked tow vehicle. He was found guilty and placed on probation.
Following his early morning interview with the FBI, White was turned over to the U.S. Marshal's Service which drove him, in handcuffs, to the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa to await his court hearing.
At White's Riverview home, his son answered the door this morning but declined to comment except to say his father was arrested about 6:45 a.m. White was not handcuffed at the time, his son said.
White's tenure in politics is dappled with controversy, ranging from losing a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former female aide to his lunchtime conversations with the county attorney that ultimately led to her dismissal.
Just last month, Florida's Commission on Ethics found probable cause to back a complaint that White, 46, used his authority to sexually harass the aide.
The complaint had been filed in October 2009, after a civil jury found White guilty of the allegations.
The aide had filed the lawsuit against White in May 2008, alleging the commissioner sexually harassed her while on the job and then firing her when she rebuffed his advances.
In August 2009, a jury awarded the aide $75,000 along with attorney fees. The judge held that the county was jointly liable because it had no harassment policies in place at the time. Hillsborough County spent about $425,000 in legal bills as a co-defendant in the case and the county's insurance company paid about $66,000 toward those expenses.
White has sued the county and the county's insurer to recoup legal bills, saying he was broke. His financial disclosure papers said his only income was the $98,000-a-year commission job.
But in the spring, White plunked down a down payment on a second home in Riverview, while he and his wife, Jennie, continued to own their southeast Seminole Heights home.
Public records showed that in December, the former commissioner bought the 2,238-square-foot Riverview home for $143,300.
Mortgage records show the Whites borrowed $91,100 to buy the Riverview house in the South Fork subdivision.
The mortgage for the home was from Moses Investment Holdings LLC, whose owner, Michael J. Moses, also owns cab, limousine and van companies. When he bought the companies, Moses had to get approval from the county transit commission. White was chairman at the time.
During the three years he served on the Tampa City Council and his four years on the county commission, White always made sure he secured a seat on the board.
White lost his re-election bid last year.
The Public Transportation Commissioner, created in 1983, had never hired a lobbyist until White suggested it needed one in October 2007. Although not legally obligated to bid out the lobbyist's job, the commission informally agreed in November 2007 to hire a lobbyist temporarily with the idea of putting a longer-term contract out to bid. That was never done.
In 2009, the lobbyist, Victor DiMaio, was about to be cut, as an interim director said budget cuts needed to be made and there was no need for the position.
DiMaio had a long-standing relationship with White, who at the time was the PTC chairman. DiMaio had earned more than $27,000 working as a consultant on White's campaigns for the Tampa City Council and county commission in 2003 and 2006.
Despite the move to cut the position, White said at a meeting that he and DiMaio had negotiated a new contract that would reduce DiMaio's salary from $60,000 to $36,000 a year. The board unanimously approved the contract over the objections of the administration.
White's case isn't the first time the Public Transportation Commission has been linked to scandal.
In October 1998, Tampa City Councilman Ronnie Mason and council attorney David Carr were indicted on extortion charges related to their entry into the local ambulance business, which is regulated by the PTC.
Prosecutors said they used their political muscle to make their way into the multimillion-dollar local ambulance market.
At the time, the U.S. Attorney's Office alleged that Mason and Carr obtained permits for their ambulance company by threatening a competitor with economic harm if it opposed them. Mason had just resigned from the Public Transportation Commission, which issues the permits, before he sought his own.
But the case never went to trial.
Prosecutors dropped the charges in March 2000, saying important questions had surfaced about the validity of their case.
But Mason, a longtime councilman, never surfaced again in local politics, and Carr was fired from his job as council attorney in the midst of the scandal.
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