‘Ghost’ candidate consultant had ‘involvement’ in federal probe, deposition reveals

The Central Florida political consultant who was charged with violating state campaign finance laws in the 2020 “ghost” candidate scandal also drew attention from federal investigators probing an unrelated matter, according to depositions recently made public.

It’s unclear what prompted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida to take interest in Eric Foglesong, though as a former contractor of disgraced Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, he is tied to the political scandals centered around the former elected official.

The revelation about the federal probe came to light in May during a deposition of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Inspector Troy Cope, who investigated the “ghost” candidate scheme that has rocked Florida politics during the past three years. Foglesong’s attorney, Jacob Stuart, interviewed Cope as part of the criminal case against Foglesong, who is facing three felony and two misdemeanor charges in connection with the scheme.

Foglesong was one of three Central Floridians arrested last year in connection with the scandal, which involved three independent candidates who ran for competitive Florida Senate seats. They did not campaign but were promoted by a deluge of ads coordinated by GOP operatives, apparently in an attempt to siphon votes away from the Democrats in each race.

One of those candidates, Jestine Iannotti, ran for the Central Florida seat eventually won by Republican Jason Brodeur of Sanford. Iannotti was also charged for her role in the scandal, as was former Seminole County Republican Chair Ben Paris, who was convicted a year ago on a misdemeanor charge. Foglesong and Iannotti are awaiting trial.

Foglesong is accused of contributing $1,200 to Iannotti’s campaign while hiding the source of the money by falsifying her contribution reports, according to charging documents.

Cope’s deposition does not disclose the focus of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s investigation that involved Foglesong, though it apparently doesn’t pertain to the “ghost” candidate scandal.

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Cope said Foglesong’s former attorney, Bob Leventhal of Winter Park, informed him Foglesong was ensnared in “some sort of federal involvement,” though it wasn’t clear if he was the target of an investigation or a witness.

Leventhal, a criminal defense attorney who represented Foglesong during the early stages of the “ghost” candidate investigation, referenced the federal inquiry in October 2021, during a meeting with Cope, Foglesong, another FDLE inspector and Leventhal’s son.

Leventhal and Stuart did not respond to emails seeking comment from the Orlando Sentinel this week.

After the meeting with Leventhal, Cope said he spoke with Roger Handberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, to confirm that FDLE’s probe did not conflict with any federal investigation. Handberg said his office was not investigating Foglesong’s ties to the “ghost” candidate scheme, but asked to be notified if any arrests were made, Cope said during the deposition.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office also didn’t respond to an email from the Sentinel with questions about the nature of the federal inquiry and whether it was still ongoing.

Handberg’s office led investigations into Greenberg, the disgraced former tax collector who is serving an 11-year sentence after pleading guilty to several federal crimes, including trafficking a teenager, stalking a political rival, stealing identities and using public money to pay for sex and cryptocurrency. A half-dozen of Greenberg’s friends and former business partners have also been indicted.

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Records from auditors hired by the Seminole County Commission show that Greenberg used an office credit card to pay $10,000 in late 2017 to Foglesong. Auditors described them as “unknown payments… for ‘community relations consulting.’”

Foglesong, 46, told the Sentinel in 2021 that he was hired as a consultant to help determine whether Greenberg could work with his counterpart in Orange County to open more offices along the county border. Foglesong said he ended the contract after determining what Greenberg had proposed wasn’t possible.

Foglesong, who hasn’t been charged in connection with the Greenberg probe, pleaded guilty in 2020 to grand theft in connection to charges that he stole money from a political committee connected to Orange County Sheriff John Mina during Mina’s 2018 campaign.

The political consultant’s alleged involvement in the “ghost” candidate scheme started roughly four months after his guilty plea in the theft case.

The Central Florida race was one of three competitive state Senate races in 2020 to feature “ghost” candidates. In one Miami-area race, former state Sen. Frank Artiles has been accused of paying his friend Alex Rodriguez nearly $45,000 to run.

Rodriguez, who drew more than 6,000 votes in an election the Republican candidate won by 32, accepted a plea agreement in 2021 and agreed to testify in the state’s case against Artiles, who has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial next year.

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A witness told investigators Artiles was overheard bragging about his role in the South Florida scheme at Brodeur’s election night party.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, which investigated Artiles’ involvement in Rodriguez’s candidacy, has obtained a slew of records, including bank statements, invoices and emails that show Artiles was paid $15,000 per month by a top GOP consulting firm in 2020 to work on South Florida Senate races, as he was allegedly paying his friend to run as an independent candidate in the race, which featured a Democratic incumbent with the same last name.

But unlike their counterparts in South Florida, FDLE investigators didn’t delve into Foglesong’s possible motivations for serving as a consultant for Iannotti, an inexperienced candidate who did not pay Foglesong for his services.

Stuart grilled Cope during the deposition about why FDLE didn’t obtain Foglesong’s bank records, which might indicate whether he was being paid by another entity.

Investigators didn’t look at those documents, Cope said, because it’s not illegal for another entity to contract a political consultant on behalf of a candidate. Iannotti told investigators during a separate interview that, unlike Rodriguez, she was not paid to run.

Stuart also quizzed Cope about why investigators didn’t explore Florida Power & Light’s possible role in the scheme.

The Sentinel reported in 2021 that former FPL CEO Eric Silagy and other executives worked closely with political operatives for Matrix LLC, an Alabama-based consulting firm that targeted political adversaries of the utility in recent years through covert political spending and other tactics. Records anonymously delivered to the Sentinel showed FPL had given more than $10 million to dark-money groups controlled by the same network of consultants.

The now-former Matrix operatives controlled a nonprofit organization in 2020 that funded the ads promoting the “ghost” candidates. And the Sentinel’s reporting revealed that Matrix operatives and FPL executives traded text messages about strategy in the three races that featured those candidates.

But Cope said his probe was narrowly focused on the reporting of Iannotti’s campaign contributions, not the campaign mailers. He said he hadn’t seen any evidence of FPL’s involvement besides news coverage of the utility.

Cope’s deposition also revealed FDLE investigators didn’t try to talk with Brodeur about Iannotti’s candidacy, even though Paris was his employee at the Seminole County Chamber during the campaign and Iannotti’s presence in the race almost certainly helped clear Brodeur’s path to winning the swing seat.

“Our investigation’s a campaign finance investigation, and there was no information that was able to be developed to indicate that he was involved with the cash that was involved in this case,” Cope said.

Brodeur told the Sentinel last year he was unaware of Paris’ involvement in Iannotti’s candidacy.