See how the FBI investigation evolved. Tallahassee Democrat
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The sweeping 66-page, 44-count federal indictment of political power duo Scott Maddox and Paige Carter Smith marks a major turning point in a three-year public corruption probe into the capital city. It is chock full of details alleging bank fraud, lying on income tax returns, taking bribes and shaking down clients looking to do business with the City of Tallahassee.
It outlines a racketeering enterprise allegedly set up by the former city commissioner and longtime business partners by using Maddox’s influential positions on the City Commission and Community Redevelopment Agency to steer business to their clients and enrich their coffers. In doing so, the indictment said, they deceived city officials and the public.
And while it doesn’t mention Mayor Andrew Gillum, the investigation that produced it loomed large over his campaign for governor and may have cost him the election.
Just as eye-opening are the things the indictment doesn’t address, and an assistant US attorney's comments that the investigation is ongoing.

The U.S. Attorney and FBI delivered four subpoenas to the City of Tallahassee, seeking reams of documents and emails going back to 2012 involving top local developers behind some of the biggest projects subsidized by the CRA. 
In the FBI spotlight
Those subpoenas produced more than 240,000 pages of public records.
The projects they worked on include the DoubleTree Hilton Hotel, the Gateway Center and the Edison Restaurant, which collectively received several million in tax dollars to help with construction and add other improvements like sidewalks.
At the top of the list are J.T. Burnette, Chad Kittrell, Kim Rivers and Adam Corey, who was the subject of three subpoenas along with his businesses Cascades Holdings and the Edison Restaurant.

THE COREY-GILLUM CONNECTION

Corey is a former lobbyist who had clients before the city commission, and restaurateur who was a longtime friend of former Mayor Andrew Gillum and his one-time campaign treasurer.
Early on it became clear that Corey was at the center of the FBI probe. The Democrat, which has extensively chronicled the investigation, reported that it was Corey who was introduced to three undercover agents who were posing as developers and medical marijuana entrepreneurs. He escorted them around town, set up meetings with Gillum and his staffers and with city planners and the city manager. It was at his taxpayer subsidized restaurant, The Edison, that some of those meetings took place.
It was at Corey’s house that a fundraiser for Gillum’s gubernatorial campaign was held, with the catering and drinks tab apparently picked up by an FBI undercover agent.
It was Corey’s lobbying firm that sent tickets to city officials to FSU football games.
It was Corey who organized a trip to Costa Rica that Gillum and his wife joined in on, along with Gillum’s campaign manager Sean Pittman and his wife. It was during that trip Corey set up a meeting between Gillum and the undercover agents.
And it was Corey who with the undercover agents arranged several outings in New York City later that summer, including a boat trip and seeing the hit Broadway show, “Hamilton.”
It was Corey and the Edison on the last subpoena issued by the FBI in May, seeking more information about how Corey won the contract to renovate the 100-year-old Electric Building at Cascades Park into the Edison restaurant. 
The subpoena asked for material related to the bid application process to renovate and take over the historic building. They include reviews, approval documents and staff evaluations of the project proposed by Corey and Cascades Holdings, the company he and Ryan Grindler created to attract investors to help finance the Edison.

A SPLINTER INVESTIGATION?

Federal investigators also asked for copies of a city audit of the Edison. 
The subpoena may have been an update of the FBI’s previous requests – seeking any new emails, audits, reviews generated since the last information dump in October.
Another theory is that the subpoena is part of a new investigation, separate from or an offshoot of the years-long FBI investigation into the CRA and people and businesses who interact with the city, according to two sources within City Hall.
One source referred to the investigation as a "splinter" of the larger one, while another said the subpoena was not part of the larger one going on for the previous year. The indictment makes no mention of a separate investigation.
Gillum has said all along he’s been assured that he is not a target of the FBI investigation.
Why did he cut ties with Mike Miller? Can voters believe in his honesty? Andrew Gillum addresses issues head on. Tallahassee Democrat
Does that mean Corey and Gillum are in the clear?
Assistant U.S. attorney Steve Kunz said the FBI public corruption investigation is ongoing “with respect to these matters” when he argued not to release the names of witnesses. What did he mean by “these matters.” Was he referring to the issues outlined in the indictment or other people? 

BUSINESS ROLL-CALL

The other names on the subpoenas read like a who's who of the business community: John “J.T.” Burnette, Kim Rivers, IB Tallahassee, Inkbridge Acquisitions, Chad Kittrell, Hunter and Harp Holdings, Duval Partners, Frank Whitley, Whitley Construction, Melissa Oglesby, KaiserKane, Catherine Baker, Shelton Dean, Sunnyland Solar.
There is an oblique reference to Burnette as the “Person G” who acted as a go-between for undercover agents looking to do business with Maddox. While the indictment mentions the Adams Street Lofts real estate deal, it doesn’t detail the involvement of Burnette and Kittrell.
Other than that, nada.
No mention of Rivers, the brains behind much of the so-called “financial engineering”behind many of Burnette’s and Kittrell’s projects, including ones that received tax credits or funding from the CRA. 
Photos: The remnants of Sunnyland Solar
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Sunnyland Solar, a company owned by J.T. Burnette and
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Photos: The remnants of Sunnyland Solar
No mention of the Jennings Street building that was home to many of their limited liability corporations and a fount for campaign cash. 
No Sunnyland Solar, which received tens of millions in state business incentives and federal loans as well as matching city and county funds but went belly up.


WHAT HAPPENED IN VEGAS

The indictment is short on details about Maddox’s trip to Vegas with FBI undercover agents posing as businessmen looking to do business with the city, perhaps living up to the slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”
One paragraph in the indictment describes Maddox traveling with “Company F”representatives believed to be Mike Miller of Southern Pines and his cohorts – the bald-headed Brian Butler, who said he was an environmental consultant, and the long-haired Mike Sweets, who posed as a medical marijuana entrepreneur.
Back story: FBI Fakeout? Southern Pines Development site offers promises but no substance
The indictment said he accepted a charter flight and hotel room and meal expenses from Company F, and told an anecdote about “threatening to destroy a former client’s business deals if the former client” didn’t pay his fee to Maddox.
The Democrat published a photo of Maddox and Burnette in a Las Vegas hotel roomwith the undercover agents, several unidentified people surrounding a little person in costume. Nothing in the indictment explains what Maddox was doing in that hotel room or what led him there.
Both Burnette and Maddox refused to comment about the photo when it was first brought up last September.
"As much as I would like to comment, I continue to follow the city attorney's advice about commenting or speculating during an open investigation," Maddox said at the time. "I have full confidence in our judicial system and await the conclusion of the process."
Is Mike Miller a developer from Atlanta? Or someone else? Wochit
In an interview with investigators on May 24, 2017, Maddox claimed the company hadn’t attempted to pay him and he was not involved in the company’s introduction to Carter-Smith.

COVERT OPERATION

The indictment does tip its hat to comments made by former FBI case supervisor Josh Doyle, now executive director of the Florida Bar.
During his interview with the Bar, Doyle discussed his most recent case he ran and his former role as coordinator of a public corruption task force during a videotaped interview with the Florida Bar’s search committee. 
The case he described — and went into in greater detail on his application — bears plenty of similarities with the three-year FBI probe that resulted in indictments for Maddox and Carter-Smith. Doyle’s name is across the top of one of the first two subpoenas delivered to City Hall. 
As a case agent on “significant investigations,” Doyle said, it was his job to assemble teams of people who had the best skills to perform the tasks needed. He told the search committee he was “concluding a case now in which we have an investigative team of 25 people … that includes agents, undercover employees, focus on technology to gather evidence, and analysts.”
The operation had a $500,000 budget he had to justify to superiors. He also knew the dollars spent would be subject to audits. On the application, Doyle said the investigation deployed three covert vehicles, an airplane, audio and video surveillance technologies, and the use of techniques that hadn’t been employed in decades.
Josh Doyle interviews for his position as executive director of the Florida Bar. He speaks about his FBI experience at about the 4-minute mark.
Back story: Doyle shared FBI experience in videotaped interview
While a chartered jet is mentioned, the indictment makes no mention of other vehicles or the use of audio and video surveillance technology in agents' interactions with Maddox in Las Vegas or Gillum in New York.

BURNER PHONES AND CITY HALL

The indictment states that after the first round of subpoenas hit City Hall in June 2017, Maddox and Carter-Smith had cell phones not registered to any specific person, otherwise known as burner phones, purchased for communications between themselves and others, including a city staff member.
That tantalizing sentence raises questions about how deep Maddox’s network into City Hall went. The indictment refers to a $64,000 fine levied against Waste Pro, the city’s waste hauler, identified as Company C. The regional vice presidents called Maddox and Maddox talked to then-City Manager Anita Favors, who reduced the fine to $7,000.
Waste Pro regional vice president Ralph Mills appeared before the grand jury the same day the City Commission renewed a $6 million contract with Waste Pro.
Likewise, when a residential property developer and client of Governance had issues with the city’s refusal to approve a certain type of fencing around one of his developments in 2017, he asked Maddox to intervene with city officials. Maddox contacted the city manager at the time, Rick Fernandez, and several days later a city official emailed to tell the developer the city had changed its position on the fence.
Stephen Dobson III, attorney for Scott Maddox, and Stephen Webster, attorney for Paige Carter-Smith, discuss the corruption case outside federal court. Jeff Burlew, Democrat senior writer
Around January of 2017, the same company had an issue with the city’s Utilities Department work at one of the company’s apartment complexes. The owner sent Maddox a text message, and he responded: “All good. I can handle city guy no prob. Already had a word at the top. Should be straightened out.”
The indictments also failed to mention the skybox-hopping at Florida State University football games between lobbyists city officials, and the undercover agents. 

FALLOUT FROM INVESTIGATIONS

Accepting tickets from Corey led to the resignation of Fernandez, who turned in a phone that had text messages between him and lobbyists in Corey’s firm.
The indictments led to the removal of Maddox from office and the resignation of Carter-Smith as chief executive officer of the Downtown Improvement Authority, the forced resignation of Fernandez. They are awaiting trial set for January 14 in U.S. Judge Mark Walker’s courtroom.
Whether they are joined by others as yet to be indicted co-conspirators only time will tell.
Scott Maddox and Paige Carter-Smith were indicted on a total of 44 charges. Dillon Thompson, Tallahassee Democrat
Contact Schweers at jschweers@tallahassee.com.