Ex-GOP chief in Florida accused of defrauding party
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The former chairman of the Florida GOP and a longtime ally of Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for Senate, has been arrested on charges that he tried to cheat the party.
Jim Greer, who resigned his party post in February amid reports that he spent Republican Party money on fancy hotels, meals and private planes, was taken into custody Wednesday morning at his Orlando-area home, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced in a post on its website.
Prosecutor Bill Shepherd said that Greer, 47, was indicted on one count of organized fraud, one count of money laundering and four counts of grand theft.
Greer had been closely tied to Crist, the popular Republican governor who was forced to run for Senate as an independent after ‘tea party’ activists denied him his party nomination.
It was unclear what Greer’s arrest would mean for Crist’s Senate campaign, but Democrats lost no time reminding voters of their ties. In a prepared statement, Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman noted that Crist had picked Greer to head the GOP and called for an end to the culture of corruption in Florida.
“Now with disgraced Republican Speaker Ray Sansom under indictment, Former Republican Party Chair Jim Greer under arrest and most of the Republican leadership in Florida, including Crist and Speaker Marco Rubio, under criminal investigation, Floridians are forced to watch the car wreck that has become the Republican Party of Florida and wonder which GOP party boss or elected official will be taken off in handcuffs next,” she stated.
According to authorities, at the start of Greer’s second term as party chairman he appointed Delmar Johnson III as party executive director and fundraiser. Investigators say Greer told Johnson they would take 10% of funds coming into the party and the two of them would split 10% of all major donor fund-raising coming into the party.
Johnson and Greer formed Victory Strategies in February 2009, a move investigators said was designed to hide the flow of money to Greer, who owned 60% of the firm but held no office. Victory became a fund-raising vendor for the state GOP.
From February to October 2009, investigators said the party paid Victory Strategies $199,254. Of that, Greer was paid $125,161 for services never performed while he kept his ownership interest hidden, investigators allege.
-- Michael Muskal
