The indictment is likely to shake up the Florida Senate race. Gov Crist, running without party affiliation, is a personal friend of Greer’s, instrumental in his chairmanship, and continued to support him after calls began for his resignation. Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, along with other Florida Republican politicians, has been paying back money he received from the party under Greer.
[Statewide Prosecutor William] Shepherd said Greer was charged with organized scheme to defraud, four counts of grand theft and one count of money laundering.
The charges stem from a state grand jury investigation. Shepherd said Greer used a shell company called Victory Strategies to funnel money from the state Republican Party. Shepherd said Greer used Victory Strategies to hide his own involvement in using party money for his own purposes.
The money – at least $100,000 – was taken from Republican Party of Florida donors, paid to Victory Strategies, then used by Greer to support his own personal lifestyle, Shepherd said.
Greer burst briefly upon the national scene when he tried to block a speech to school children by Pres. Obama, labeling it “socialistic” because Obama planned to ask the children to work hard and stay in school. But it turns out that even as he appeared on FOX News, Greer was having troubles back home.
[A Florida Department of Law Enforcement] review of Greer’s personal bank records showed that he “appeared to be suffering from financial problems in 2009,” with bank accounts overdrawn by $25,392 in July and $3,794 in August. His accounts in the rest of 2009 were overdrawn by an average of $10,000. The affidavit says that Greer pleaded for financial help from a Republican donor, who sent him $3,000 a month over 18 months.
According to the affidavit, the Republican party was a constant and apparently trusting source of money for Greer throughout 2009, through invoices from Victory Strategies to the RPOF. Once the party wrote a check to Victory Strategies, that company in turn wrote a check to Greer. In all, the affidavit says, the party paid more than $199,254 to Victory Strategies. Greer took more than $125,161 from his interest in Victory Strategies…
At the same time this was going on, the affidavit says, “Mr. Greer was facing additional public and RPOF scrutiny related to party spending. In what was purported by Mr. Greer to be a show of fiscal responsibility, Mr. Greer stood before the media and RPOF officials and cut up an American Express card.” The card, however, was not Greer’s, but that of a staff member…
Crist is keeping a little further away from Greer this time around.
Asked about Greer’s arrest, Gov. Charlie Crist said it was “obviously disappointing, and surprising. I have faith in our judicial system; I know that they will handle it appropriately.”
Asked if, by handpicking Greer and standing by him to the end of his tenure, Crist felt in any way responsible or complicit, he said, “I do not feel complicit.”
Greer could serve 75 years if convicted on all counts.
Once again, a dixiecrat with no neck. See ya in 75 years, puss bag.
Asked about Greer’s arrest, Gov. Charlie Crist said it was “obviously disappointing, and surprising. I have faith in our judicial system; I know that they will handle it appropriately.”
Once the party wrote a check to Victory Strategies, that company in turn wrote a check to Greer