When I originally found the info here ⬇️ it was just a weird piece. It's still weird, but fits better now that we know Joe Ellicott was served a subpoena by the grand jury.
Ellicott & Greenberg go way back. Surprisingly, Pirozzolo too.
5/Now let's get weird. #JoelGreenberg bestowed $3.5mil more than a dozen of outside consultants & new employees, including a lawyer married to his aunt while Greenberg was growing up & 3 of his groomsmen. Together have been paid $640,000 so far (Oct2019). archive.is/v4WvW#selectio…
6/ •2 outside lawyers
•2 outside accounting firms
•2 “land consulting" firms, including one owned by longtime Republican power player Jim Stelling.
•4 others Greenberg "couldn't find".
•He’s planning to hand $20,000 to a “cultural consulting” company.
7/Unpacking where the money has gone.
•2 groomsmen
•Rick Sierra, former uncle by marriage
•Public Affairs Director Michelle Ertel, wife of short-lived FL Secretary of State #MikeErtel
8/The biggest financial winner in Greenberg’s spending spree was Praetorian Integrated Services, owned by Republican operative & campaign consultant Michael Shirley, whom Greenberg paid $6,000 to help him defeat Valdes.
9/Greenberg has doled out roughly $678,000 to Praetorian, more than half in $12,500 monthly chunks, for consulting on the tax collector’s budget, helping with strategic planning and providing technological review and advice. floridapolitics.com/archives/19088…
10/ Shirley, Greenberg, Maloy, and Ertel seem to have started a nonprofit group out of the Tax Collector's Office.
Later, they removed #MikeErtel and added David Johnson.
Seminole County Constitutional Officers Association, Inc.
11/Ernest Falco (also a private pilot)
2018, he opened Kona Poké, a restaurant in Lake Mary. centralfloridalifestyle.com/business/centr…
E3 Ventures LLC, owned by Greenberg’s friend & business partner Falco, collected nearly $500k in total, including through a subsidiary. archive.is/PkxS2#selectio…
12/The second firm, Aries, did website modernization and rebranding. It’s owned by Jason Ross, whom Greenberg paid $6,500 for campaign work. The company owned by Ross, one of Greenberg’s friends and also a wedding guest, cashed in for more than $263,000 since January 2017.
13/Sierra, who was married to Greenberg’s aunt until 2015, has been paid about $315,640 since July 2017, overlapping with both the other lawyers.
Total: More than $687,000 over two years.
Why in the world does a tax collector need three attorneys?
14/We'll circle back to Red Carpet Promotions now w/Keith Ingersoll. Ingersoll Investments II-partner
Greenberg hired KI Consulting, a bus partner of Falco’s, for $48k to “facilitate transition,” “evaluate strategy” & recommend investments. Received $6k/mo from Mar 2017-Oct 2017.
15/So, let’s note only that his three groomsmen:
🔸Ashley Kohler, chief information officer
🔸Joseph “Big Joe” Ellicott, assistant deputy tax collector
🔸Tomlinson have drawn paychecks totaling more than $640,000.
Featured in RCM's video: Seminole Contract Recipients
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15 April
It’s Even Weirder Than You Thought: How a Roger Stone Acolyte and a ‘Tiger King Tax Collector’ Spawned the Matt Gaetz Scandal
Story by @sarahrumpf@Mediaite
More attention to this part of the story is needed. #GetMeRogerStone /1
From reform candidate to rule-breaking elected official
Greenberg listed his personal net worth as nearly $5.9 million at the end of 2019, including $5.5 mil of stock in the family business AWG Inc., $276,000 in bank accounts, and $85,500 in jewelry. tampabay.com/news/florida-p… /2
Audit: Joel Greenberg misspent millions while serving as Seminole tax collector
Greenberg purchased body armor, sprinkler system to spray petitioners
More than $1 mil of taxpayer money was “wasted on these contracts,” according to MSL CPAs & Advisors. clickorlando.com/news/local/202… /3
2/Greenberg was already under investigation when he had a private exchange w/his former sports radio co-host “Big Joe” Ellicott. In that exchange, on Signal, Ellicott expressed fear that others in their group of friends faced legal jeopardy for having sex w/a 17-year-old girl.
3/Ellicott wrote a mutual friend, a woman prominent in Greenberg‘s Venmo, “knew [minor] was underage the whole time, had sex w/her & both went [to] see other guys.” and that “for other guys she brought __ along to see, that could be trafficking,” using a nickname. #Vintage99
@MNobbiee "I read somewhere that Gaetz is also tied to the ghost candidate scandal that happened in south Florida this past election. Dirty hands in everything."
=Yes
1/Greenberg's victim atty:
“Dorworth has a history of hiring local provocateur,” referring to blogger #JacobEngels. Email cited an unrelated defamation suit against Engels-which the atty claimed #ChrisDorworth was the financier of the alleged defamation. By @WFTV h/t @RogerWants
2/ #MattGaetz defended Engels, and like a good the Wingman Greenberg was, he amplified his defense.
3/Engels runs a publication called Central Florida Post. He made FB Live posts about Beute days before Greenberg’s arrest. (See ⬇️ for an into to #JacobEngels)