BREAKING News From Florida!!
Top DEM Just ARRESTED By FBI!!
A Dunkin Donuts bag full of cash has led to the downfall of a Florida mayor.
Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper has been the mayor of the beach town located some 20
miles north of Miami since 2005.
She was removed from office this week after vowing to fight accusations of corruption
including the claim that she was on the receiving end of a Dunkin' Donuts bag filled with
$8,000 in soon-to-be-laundered cash.
Cooper read from a prepared statement, "I can assure you that I will vigorously fight
these allegations in court."
The 57-year-old mayor is charged with a laundry list of crimes including money laundering,
official misconduct and exceeding the limit on campaign finance contribution.
All of which are felonies with a maximum five-year prison sentence for each count.
Cooper is also accused of soliciting contributions in a government building out of the very city
hall office she just vacated.
Cooper's attorney, Larry Davis states in response to the charges against Cooper that
she never accepted any money, anything that went into her pocket.
She never accepted a campaign contribution for any quid pro quo, for any developer, anybody
in her 20 years of public life."
She intends to enter a plea of "not guilty."
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Cooper surrendered to authorities reporting
to the jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Thursday following an undercover FBI investigation.
Florida Governor Rick Scott suspended Cooper as of Friday which prohibits her from "performing
any official act, duty, or function of public office."
The FBI sting that lasted several years detailing how the now former mayor met with people she
thought were wealthy developers from California.
They were actually undercover FBI agents pretending to seek political favor for a project in Hallandale
Beach.
The agents met with Cooper and Koslow over several months in 2012 and secretly recorded
their meetings, court records say.
Koslow did not become aware his developer pals were FBI agents until August 2013, when
they confronted him in a Fort Lauderdale hotel room, records show.
During a meeting in July 2012 between Cooper, the undercover agents and Koslow, Cooper was
recorded saying she and two other commissioners were a "team of three" and could ensure
a favorable result for their project, according to the arrest affidavit.
The meeting took place in City Hall.
"Alan Koslow showed Mayor Cooper a number representing a proposed contribution and asked
her if it was a good number.
She replied 'No.
Add a zero."
Koslow confirmed 'Three zeros, is that fine?' and Mayor Cooper replied 'Yes,'" according
to the arrest affidavit.
Later that month, Koslow told Cooper she would receive $10,000 in the form of two $5,000
contributions – one before the August 2012 primary and one after, the records state.
Koslow told them he'd arrange for individuals to write personal checks to Cooper and Julian
in the amount of $500 each, the records show.
Two of seven people who wrote checks said they got cash back for writing the checks,
records say.
Five claimed they did not recall.
In September, Koslow told one of the agents he'd personally handed 20 checks totaling
$5,000 to Cooper at a Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce fashion show, court records say.
"That's fantastic," Cooper told Koslow when he turned over the checks, according
to what he told the undercover agents.
Cooper's campaign reported nine contributions from eight teachers and a retired person in
the amount of $500 each, matching names on a list of donors Koslow had given the so-called
developers, the affidavit said.
"You guys have been great," Cooper told the undercover agents during a meeting with
Koslow at the Flashback Diner on Oct. 3, 2012, court documents state.
She told them one of the checks had bounced.
Koslow gave a sworn statement in November 2017 confirming he participated in the events
disclosed in the arrest affidavit.
The Washington Post reports additional corruption uncovered through the course of the investigation
– "Cooper's fortunes have tumbled along
with those of Alan Koslow, who the Sun-Sentinel called "one of the most effective and best-known
attorneys and lobbyists in the state."
Last August, Koslow pleaded guilty to hiding the source of $220,000 in illegal gambling
and drug dealing.
His clients in the case, prosecutors said, were "quasi-mafia figures."
But years before that plea, investigators had used Koslow in a sting operation: one
that netted Cooper.
In 2012, Koslow was contacted by people who he thought were wealthy land developers from
California who were "seeking political favor" for projects in Hallandale Beach, according
to court documents posted by Miami ABC-affiliate WPLG.
But the "developers" were really undercover FBI agents.
And over the next few months, they recorded their interactions with Koslow and the politician
he said they could influence with a few well-placed dollars: Cooper.
In June 2012, he told the "developers" that he "had the vote of the Mayor in the
City of Hallandale and if they supported the Mayor's 'causes' she would favorably
view their projects," according to the court documents.
Three days later Koslow allegedly arranged a meeting with the mayor in her office.
The "developers" said they were looking for a suitable site in the city."
Court documents show that Koslow was given a Dunkin' Donuts bag filled with $8,000
in cash by undercover agents August 2012.
Koslow then told the agents that he had influence and connections within the city commission
as well as "the vote of the mayor."
Agents then met with both Cooper and Kaslow on multiple occasions in 2012 while secretly
recording all meetings and interaction.
On one such meeting, Cooper is heard describing the trio of herself and the two other commissioners
as a "team of three" and could ensure a favorable result for their project."
Cooper is also accused of soliciting funds on behalf of Anthony Sanders, the former commissioner
of Hallandale Beach.
Sanders previously resigned his position in August 2017 following accusations of misconduct
by the Broward Inspector General of using his elected position for financial gain.
He was accused of voting to award nearly $1 million to a nonprofit that made monthly payments
to his church and family.
He has since been disbarred after being convicted
on
federal charges.
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