As Seminole County seeks to claw back thousands of dollars in questionable or fraudulent spending by the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office under Joel Greenberg, one of its first victories could come in the form of sports memorabilia purchased with public money.
“What I’m asking for — will be asking for — is not only the money that was used to pay for the memorabilia but also the memorabilia back so that we can sell it back out on the market,” Seminole County Attorney Bryant Applegate told commissioners this week.
According to federal prosecutors, Greenberg used public funds to buy himself personal items, including memorabilia signed by NBA star Kobe Bryant and nearly $600 he charged to an office American Express card to buy an autographed photo of fellow basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Those transactions are a drop in the ocean compared to the full measure of Greenberg’s abuse of public funds and property. He pleaded guilty on May 17 to six federal charges, including sex trafficking of a child, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, creating fake driver’s licenses and conspiracy to bribe a public official, and is slated for sentencing Nov. 18.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, Greenberg agreed to forfeit $654,800 in assets he obtained through his public position as part of his restitution, including more than $220,000 he gathered by embezzling taxpayer dollars to purchase cryptocurrency.
Greenberg’s attorney Fritz Scheller confirmed that he has been in discussions with county attorneys, and he said that the former tax collector wants to pay restitution.
“Mr. Greenberg will honor his agreement with the government concerning the memorabilia and more important, it’s based on his desire to make amends for his conduct,” Scheller said. “I’ve been impressed by the work that they [county attorneys] put into this matter, and their diligence.”
Scheller cited ongoing negotiations over restitution in July when he successfully sought to delay his client’s sentencing, which had originally been slated for mid-August. At the time he said the parties were “diligently working together,” but some amounts remained “disputed.”
Greenberg wasn’t the only one at the Tax Collector’s Office who used public funds to buy sporting goods and other items — and may not be the only one who will soon be handing them over to county officials.
Joe Ellicott — a close friend Greenberg hired as the Tax Collector’s Office’s “supervisor of facilities” — also used a credit card issued to him by the office to purchase up to $5,700 in antiques, sporting goods, knives, batteries and hardware, according to an auditor hired by the county.
Ellicott, who has not been charged with a crime, is now asking to return the items to the Tax Collector’s Office, according to an email exchange obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
Ellicott owns Uncle Joe’s Coins, Currency & Collectibles in Maitland and served as a groomsman at Greenberg’s wedding in the summer of 2016.
“We believe these are items for his personal store in Maitland,” Dan O’Keefe, an auditor with MSL CPAs & Advisors wrote in his report commissioned by the county. “These purchases could be considered fraudulent activity.”
On Wednesday, attorney Kara Wick of the Foley & Lardner LLP law firm, which was hired by Seminole to recoup the public money misspent by Greenberg and others at the Tax Collector’s Office, sent an email to Ellicott’s attorney Rob Mandell.
“I understand… that Mr. Ellicott has property that he would like to return to the Tax Collector’s Office,” Wick wrote. “Can you please provide a list detailing that specific property? We would like to review the list of property before determining how to proceed.”
Mandell responded that he would ask Ellicott for a “detailed itemized list” and “will get it over to you as soon as possible.”
County attorneys said Friday they had not yet received the list.
Applegate told commissioners that he wants not only the items purchased with public funds but the money as well. Commissioners did not comment.
Ellicott could not be reached for comment. Mandell declined to comment.
The items are among approximately $384,000 that the audit by MSL CPAs & Advisors called “questionable expenses” by Greenberg, his staff and consultants he hired.
The audit flagged nearly a dozen consultants hired by Greenberg to fill murky roles and for whom little or no work product could be found, but it remains unclear if the county will be able to recover any of the hundreds of thousands of dollars those contracts paid out.
But federal investigators have started ordering some people who received contracts from Greenberg to turn over documents related to the work they did for the former tax collector, according to a copy of a subpoena provided to the Orlando Sentinel.
The subpoena asks for contracts, service agreements, invoices and any other records related to the products or services provided to the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office, as well as any emails or other correspondence with any agency representatives.
It’s not clear how many contractors have been told to prove their work so far. For instance, state Rep. Anthony Sabatini — the Lake County Republican who was paid $7,500 for two-and-a-half months of vague legal work in the fall of 2019 — told the Sentinel he has not received a subpoena for documents related to his work for Greenberg.
Greenberg also paid Longwood Commissioner Matt Morgan’s company, Blueprint Enterprises, $40,500 from October 2019 through June 2020 to promote the Tax Collector’s Office on social media, records show. However, auditors wrote that they could find “no evidence of work product” by Morgan’s company.
Morgan referred questions about his work with the Tax Collector’s Office to attorney RoseMarie Feller, a Lake Mary criminal defense attorney.
mcomas@orlandosentinel.com
