Jacksonville lawyer KELLY MATHIS was convicted last week of 103 counts of racketeering and gambling involving his role in a chain of "internet cafes" posing as a charity, ALLIED VETERANS OF THE WORLD, a $300 million scam which attracted low-income people to gamble in strip malls across the state. ALLIED VETERANS' headquarters was here in St. Johns County.
St. Augustine Beach Ponzi schemer LYDIA CLADEK was convicted last year over her LYDIA CLADEK, INC. scam, which defrauded investors of more than $100 million they ponied up to make money from low-income people who paid 29% interest rates to buy used vehicles. The scheme was headquartered in St. Augustine Beach, at the former location of Cooksey's Campground, a beautiful space that has been ruined by developers, and is now the locus of a Post Office, Library, shops, offices and homes.
What do LYDIA CLADEK and ALLIED VETERANS have in common?
Both were fraudulent schemes, both were headquartered in St. Johns County, both have been nailed by juries, and both ripped off poor people (although LYDIA CLADEK managed to rip off both poor people and relatively wealthy investors, some of their entire life savings).
What is it about St. Johns County that attracted the headquarters of two fraudfeasors?
Could it be our relatively docile federal, state and local law enforcement and local newspapers, none of which are noted for investigating white collar crime and corruption? Ever try reporting Sunshine and Open Records violations, or other violations, to any of them? Try it sometime, and tell me the results. Notice how Folio Weekly has gone downhill since Anne Schindler left as editor to work for First Coast News?
They all need spinal implants and continuing education.
It used to be that every big-shot conman wanted to start a business in Fort Lauderdale, or Miami. That led to the Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney's office being beefed up (once ably led by my Memphis State University Law School classmate, Guy Alan Lewis, who helped prosecute Manuel Noriega, among others).
Now, South Florida having effective prosecutors, mutatis mutandis, the fraudfeasors are here. On our doorstep. Treating our people like doormats. Just ask the people who gambled in KELLY MATHIS' low-rent ALLIED VETERANS storefront casinos. Just ask the people who lost their life savings to LYDIA CLADEK.
Two big scams were based here, with nearly $500 million scammed.
Two big convictions, one in federal court and one in Seminole County.
Lots of poor people ripped off by one scam (the ALLLIED VETERANS case). Lots of life savings (and poor people) ripped off by the other one (LYDIA CLADEK case).
Nearly half a billion dollars ripped off before law enforcement ever investigated and prosecuted.
Organized Crime, Fraudfeasors and Tortfeasors in Paradise.
Right here, right here adjoining "Rainbow City USA," near our Nation's Oldest European-founded City, in the surrounding county.
Why is that? It's not just the relative zealousness, effectiveness and intelligence of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida, rivalling that in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
Could it also be the sequelae of more than 150 years of one-party misrule? No democracy means no justice. No ballot choices means other people do the choosing for you.
Once upon a time, St. Johns County was run by a one-party Democratic machine, with corrupt venile racist KKK-annointed lawbreaking officials like Sheriff L.O. Davis, removed from office for corruption involving prostitution, moonshine and gambling by Florida Governor Claude Kirk, which was upheld by the Florida State Senate by vote of 44-2.
Today, St. Johns County is run by a one-party Repubican machine. Developers boss and bully our county.
What's the difference between one-party regimes? Is there any?
Is St. Johns County any less corrupt than it was under Sheriff L.O. Davis? Or have the crooks gotten educated and sophisticated?
Ever notice how there is not one Democratic county-wide elected officeholder elected in a partisan race? Not one? Not even a single "sacrificial lamb" Democratic candidate even filed to run for any of those partisan races last year. Not one.
Like Will Rogers, "I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat."
Our local Democratic Party is ineffectual. Its meetings are dull. Our Democratic Executive Committee's domineering, reflexive, somnolent, somnambulistic leadership does not lead. It turns off all the good people who volunteer, with our entrenched putative "leaders" treating them as school children to be lectured to, instead of paticipants in an organization of equals. The Democratic Party has long been bossed by "cognitive misers," unthinking knee-jerk people who should retire, people who "know not that they know not that they know not."
My late friend Larry Tucker was a journalist, lobbyist and photographer who knew Florida politics better than anyone. Larry Tucker told me about "marked districts," where the parties agree no to oppose each other.
Larry Tucker thought that our Congressional District and several local legislative districts were "marked," in that the Florida Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee never seriously invested or contested races here in SJC. Not in decades.
Is that also the case with one-party rule of our county?
Maybe if our anemic Democratic Party here in St. Johns County were not a shame and a sham -- and actually worthy of the name "Democratic," and actually ran Democratic candidates -- we'd win more often.
Just like with any lottery, "You gotta play to win."
Checking the Supervisor of Elections website, it looks like the total number of registered Democrats and Independents now roughly equals the number of registered Republicans.
Most folks nowadays are pretty disgusted with both political parties, as am I; both parties too often represent only the rich and powerful (Republicans much more than Democrats, of course).
This is not about donkeys and elephants.
It is about right and wrong, who lives and who dies, and whose paycheck and life savings get stolen by big-shot crooks. Sadly, LYDIA CLADEK and KELLY MATHIS are but the symptoms of a corrupt system and corrupt country.
Suppose they held local elections, and there were more worthy candidates to choose from? Not just one at a time, but several of them, perhaps even a group of them? Suppose these candidates were united by JFK's call to government service, motivated by concern for others? (Not self-aggrandizing narcissism and by the mantra of, "where's mine?") Suppose they were all independent-minded, intelligent and ethical? Suppose they each had a sense of humor and listened to people before they opined?
You could call it a "fusion ticket" as they used to call it in New York City during the days of Congressman and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, a regstered Republican whom nearly everyone supported because he cared about people.
Suppose those candidates all opposed white collar crme and corruption, and said so? Suppose they looked askance at foreign money that buys tree-killing, wetland-killing "developers," and all their works and pomps? Suppose they agreed with former County Commission Chairman Ben Rich, who said foreign-funded "developers" (who don't need a license except a business license) were "worse than any carpetbagger?
Suppose they told the big-shot crooks, "no thanks!"
Could or would they get elected? Or character assassinated by local hate websites, and ignored by the local newspaper?
Would you vote for them, like your life depended on it?
Is that a dream? Can we make it a reality?
What do you reckon? You tell me.
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