Bill aimed at securing Florida's online business records system expected to pass Thursday
A bill aimed at securing Sunbiz.org after a Parrish man was accused of fraudulently using the state's business database to gain control of 21 Sarasota properties and borrow more than $1 million against them will likely sail over its final hurdle in the Florida Legislature on Thursday.
The Senate version of the bill advanced on Tuesday on a 38-0 vote.
Previous coverage: Sarasota Rep. McFarland files bill to secure Sunbiz.org, prevent hijacking of businesses
State Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, filed the House bill after a Herald-Tribune investigation this last year into allegations that Robert E. Houston Jr. had fraudulently taken control of a Sarasota real estate company by manipulating the state's online business records and mortgaged the company's 21 single-family residential properties.
Houston was arrested in January on 27 charges following a Sarasota Police Department investigation. The charges ranged from money laundering and real estate fraud to the filing of false documents with a governmental agency, according to court records.
McFarland's bill will allow the Department of State, which oversees the Division of Corporations, to authenticate identities and require a password to change business records with Sunbiz.org.
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The owner of Glenco Properties Group Corp. had accused Houston in a civil suit of using Sunbiz.org to name himself CEO without the company's owner's knowledge. It wasn't until the owner went to pay overdue property taxes on the properties that the alleged fraud was discovered.
Currently, the state's unsecured business database operates in an administrative capacity and can be readily changed online, even by people that have no connection to a company.
McFarland's bill was scheduled to be heard by the full House on Thursday.
"I'm proud of Florida's open records laws, but when a state database can be so easily altered by bad actors, we ought to act quickly to stop that," McFarland told the Herald-Tribune. "With passage of this law, we will do just that."
State Rep. Chip LaMarca, R-Lighthouse Point, will present the bill on behalf of McFarland as Sarasota's state representative has been on maternity leave after the birth of her third child earlier this month.
Houston remains in the Sarasota County jail since his arrest Jan. 10. One of the more recent court filings in his case came on Monday from Assistant State Attorney Andrew Van Sickle, who filed a notice that Houston could face life in prison if convicted on all counts.
"Taken together, if calculated in the manner which is contemplated in the revised rule, the defendant should be on notice that his exposure is 20,454.525 months or, in simple terms, a "life" sentence," the court document reads.
Houston's case is set for case management on June 29.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota lawmaker's bill to secure online business records set to pass
