20 Mar 2013 4:39 pm
Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll resigns amid probe of corrupt veterans' charity she consulted for.(CNN)March 13, 2013 -- Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll has resigned, it was announced Wednesday, the day after she answered questions from investigators about her role in an allegedly corrupt veterans' charity.The resignation came the same day 57 people connected to the charity, Allied Veterans of the World, were arrested on racketeering and money laundering charges. Leaders in the company, which operates Internet gambling parlors, are accused of donating little of its proceeds to veterans, and instead buying luxury goods for themselves."I want any funds from these groups to immediately be given to charity. I have zero tolerance for this kind of criminal activity, period," Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday.In a two-sentence resignation letter delivered to Scott, Carroll said it was an "honor to have served." She consulted for Allied Veterans, but was not among those arrested Wednesday."Carroll consulted for this company in 2009 and 2010 when she was serving in the Florida House of Representatives," Scott said at the press conference. "The Florida Department of Law Enforcement interviewed Lt. Gov. Carroll about her work for this company, and yesterday Lt. Gov. Carroll resigned in an effort to keep her affiliation with the company from distracting our efforts to help make sure we do the right thing for Florida families."Scott said he wouldn't elaborate on any potential connection between Carroll and Allied Veterans of the World, but did say he appreciated "the efforts she made on behalf of the state of Florida. She was tireless. She put a lot of effort into military and getting jobs going and I am grateful for her service."Rachel Maddow did a segment about this and a few other phony groups supposedly raising money for veterans.Interestingly enough they all seem to involve Republicans who used some of their ill gotten gains to donate money to campaigns.VIDEOTranscript:The state of Florida, the great state of Florida, I should say, doesnot right now have a lieutenant governor. They have a governor, of course.You know, old Rick Scott. There is a job in Florida called lieutenantgovernor, but there is nobody in that job. The job is vacant. Helpwanted.Last week, Governor Rick Scott is reported to have, quote, "staredstone-faced" at the Florida Press Corps annual political roast inTallahassee, he said to have stared stone-faced while a reporter at thatroast poked fun at the tension between him and the lieutenant governor.The joke was supposed to be the lieutenant governor was demanding respect -- R-E-S-P-E-C-T -- from Rick Scott. She was dressed up kind of ArethaFranklin style. It was supposed to be funny. Funny, ha-ha.As "The New York Times" reports, quote, "What nearly everybody in thatroom did not know was that the lieutenant governor, Jennifer Carroll, thefirst black woman to serve in the state`s number two spot, what people inthe room did not know is that she had only hours earlier signed aresignation letter, while seated at a small table in her office, and thenhanded it to the governor`s general council."Florida`s lieutenant governor had already resigned and everybodyjoking about how difficult their relationship with didn`t know that she wasalready gone. The reporters up there on stage bumping around as pseudo-Aretha Franklin, portraying the give me respect lieutenant governor, butthe lieutenant governor had already quit.The next day when the news broke that she had quit, that she hadresigned, Governor Scott issued a statement in which he said that thelieutenant governor had left elected office, she left the number two officein the state, so that her former association with a certain company wouldnot end up, quote, "distracting from our important work on behalf ofFlorida families."Well, the distracting company in question is this -- this is theformer Florida lieutenant governor. And she was the lieutenant governor.And she`s appearing in a PSA/ad for this distracting company. She did thisa couple of years ago.In the two years preceding her appearance in that ad, the Floridalieutenant governor had a P.R. firm that that group, that company was theprimary source of income for her firm. The group purports to be a charityfor America`s military veterans. They purport to be a group that helpsveterans struggling with homelessness, among other things.The group is led by this man, whose title in the group is nationalcommander. His name is Jerry Bass. If you`d like to see a more recentpicture, we have one here in the form of his mug shot. This was taken lastweek. The day after Florida`s lieutenant resigned because her associationwith him and his supposed veterans charity made her continuing in office asFlorida`s lieutenant governor an untenable prospect.Jerry Bass was arrested last week in Florida amid allegations that hisgroup supposedly raising money for veterans was actually doing somethingelse with almost all of the money they raised.In all, nearly 60 people were arrested in this sting. It was a massraid. Nearly 60 people arrested, 57 arrest warrants issues around thesupposed veterans charity operating in Florida. The suspects stand accusedof racketeering, illegal gambling, money laundering and more. The IRS saysthe so-called veterans charity was a fraud.From "The Associated Press," investigators say they found evidence ofnearly $6 million in what appeared to be actual charitable donations toveterans, $6 million, but that is only about 2 percent of the nearly $300million raised supposedly for veterans during that time.Investigators chasing the other 98 percent of the money that wassupposedly raised for veterans found that the group instead lavishedmillions dollars on charity leaders, spending on boats and beach frontcondos and Maseratis and Ferraris and Porsches. A lot of it just turned upas cash, parked in people`s personal bank accounts. Law enforcementsseized about 300 bank accounts containing almost $65 million in cash, aswell as sports cars and other property.Since the raid a week ago, this supposed charity for veterans appearedto have gone poof. The headquarters of the group in St. Augustine,Florida, described our reporters as sitting empty. Emails and phone callsto the organization just ringing off the ether now with nobody responding.Fifty-seven people get arrested and then, all of a sudden, we can`t findthat group anymore.The press in Florida is reporting that part two of the giant multi-state investigation into this apparent fraud will be looking into thegroup`s extensive political donations. Already, Florida`s Republican Partysay they plan to give $300,000 to real veterans causes, to try to make goodon the money they took from this scheme that got several dozen allegedhackters arrested.In Florida, at least for now, this particular gig is up, this allegedscam is over. I mean, the boss`s mug shot is on national TV. The Porschesand the Ferraris and the Maseratis are with the proper authorities now.The headquarters had gone dark, and good luck to any real veterans whoactually did think they could depend on this group that promised to helpthem, but is now accused of taking that money for their own benefitinstead.Florida`s lieutenant governor has done precisely one interview sinceresigning in this scandal last week. She did an interview with "The NewYork Times" in which she told "The New York Times", quote, "I believe I dida fantastic job."Two years ago on this show, we covered the case of Bobby Thompson.(INAUDIBLE) he was at the time. The man known as Bobby Thompson also ran apurported charity for veterans. This, I think, really was an early versionof their Web site. The Bobby Thompson Web site. Come on, right?Yes, fake Bobby Thompson and his charity, I guess, claim to havechapters in dozens of states all serving veterans. They raised money bycalling up regular people on the phone and asking for money. Supposedly,they wanted to help Navy veterans in particular.Well, "The Tampa Bay Times" spent months investigating this guy andhis supposed charity. He also was in Florida. They found that hissupposed national headquarters as well as most of his state chapters wereactually just one rented mailbox at a UPS Store.Just like the charity that just got raided in Florida last week, BobbyThompson cuddled up to all manner of political leaders, from President Bushto Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, Virginia Attorney General KenCuccinelli, several Virginia lawmakers. Once he got found out, they alltried the shake that money off themselves like it was a pack of fleas. Imean, when Bobby Thompson got found out when the press exposed him forappearing to take money intended for veterans and using to line his ownpockets instead, fake Bobby Thompson split.He was a fugitive. He ran from the federal authorities for two yearswhere he finally got caught was in Portland, Oregon. He`s now beenextradited to Ohio. He is slated to stand trial there next month under hisreal name, John Donald Cody. But when they got into him, he was justanother Florida guy accused of a nationwide scam built on the backs of ourmilitary veterans, and, of course, on our civilian desire to do somethingfor them.But before you go thinking this is just some weirdness that keepscrawling up out of Florida, in particular, consider also the past couple ofyears the news out of Wisconsin. Before Scott Walker became governor ofWisconsin, his last job before that was being county executive inMilwaukee. And in Milwaukee, he helped organize a local supposed charityeffort for veterans. It was an annual picnic at the Milwaukee Zoo, just afriendly local event for vets.Well, when Scott Walker made his executive decision of who to handthat work off to, when he made a decision to hand that work off to others,he made bad decisions. The guy on the right in the handcuffs was sentencedin December to a couple of years in prison for stealing $51,000 in moneythat was meant to go to veterans and their families. The other guy got thesame prison term in January for the thousands of dollars that he stole --money again that was supposed to go to veterans.That money one was there to be stolen because Americans gave thatmoney as a way of saying "thank you, we appreciate you, we want to do rightby you, we are glad you are back," saying that to the men and women willingto fight for this country, even to sacrifice those lives for this country,if asked to do so.However you feel about the wars our country has fought in ourlifetimes, or our grandparents` lifetime, the idea of welcome home is anidea that works in this country. We want to do right by our veterans. Wewant to make sure when they and their families have what they needs. Wewant to make sure when they are promised things, as a condition of themsigning up, that those promises are kept.When so help me God, the low life drifters among us decide to exploitthe way we feel about wanting to do right by veterans, when they undertaketo tap that feeling in us but then divert it, so veterans do not actuallyget helped -- really what we need in those cases is a special place in hellso we can cram those people into.