GOP Florida Lt Gov Jennifer Carroll Resigns Amid Racketeering Probe

Last updated on March 18th, 2013 at 01:04 am

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Florida Republican Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll resigned abruptly Tuesday amid a gambling scandal and racketeering probe into Allied Veterans, a firm for which she once did public relations work. Her resignation comes two days after Florida Law Enforcement officers interviewed Carroll about her work with Allied Veterans of the World, and top officials with the organization were arrested and charged with racketeering.

Carroll’s resignation was first reported by The Florida Times-Union:

Rick Scott tapped Carroll, a Navy veteran, to be his running mate during a 2010 news conference outside Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Allied Veterans is accused of money laundering, using money from a nonprofit for personal gain and misrepresenting the amount donated to charities. Authorities say the group donated just 2 percent of its $290 million in proceeds to charities over about five years. They also say the former president received more than $1.5 million and the national commander got $250,000 from the organization. A firm Carroll owned, 3N & JC, did consulting work for Allied Veterans, and she starred in a commercial for the nonprofit in 2010. …

In 2011, the Times-Union reported that Carroll used falsified documents to make her firm eligible for a Jacksonville program that offers grants to minority-owned companies. Her firm was located in Clay County, but relied, in part, on falsified lease documents to appear based in Jacksonville, which was a program requirement. Additionally, former Carroll aide Carletha Cole was arrested after being charged with giving a reporter a recording of a secret conversation between her and Carroll’s chief-of-staff. The case has brought a lot of unwanted attention to the Scott administration. In court filings, Cole has accused Carroll of having an inappropriate relationship with another female staff member.

Knowledge of how to defraud the government that Republicans claim to hate so much may be a résumé requirement in the Scott administration.

The Miami Herald explained the investigation into Allied Veterans:

Investigators said that Allied Veterans tried to scheme and defraud the public and governmental agencies by misrepresenting how much of its proceeds were donated to charities affiliated with Veterans Administration.

Carroll was nominated by Gov. Jeb Bush to run Florida’s Department of Veterans Affairs and served as one of the national chairpersons for Mitt Romney’s “Black Leadership Council”.

She served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2003-2010, and during that time was paid by Allied Veterans for her consulting work. She also proposed legislation to legalize the gambling games Allied Veterans was running in Florida Internet cafes, but later withdrew the bill claiming her staffer had “erroneously” proposed it.

Read her resignation letter here.

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