Page 1
3 of 40 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 2007 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
March 7, 2007 Wednesday
MARTIN-ST. LUCIE EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 919 words
HEADLINE: CASE AGAINST EXLINE DETAILED ON EVE OF PLEA;
FORMER WEST PALM COMMISSIONER IS EXPECTED TO SURRENDER TODAY
BYLINE: By TONY DORIS And TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
An obscure office condominium under construction along Okeechobee Road stands front and center in the latest
scandal to stain city hall.
Before City Commissioner Jim Exline resigned in shame, he helped push zoning for the development through West
Palm Beach's planning and zoning department, federal prosecutors alleged Tuesday.
Exline, 42, is to surrender today at the federal courthouse on Clematis Street, where he is expected to plead guilty
to filing a false tax return. He faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
If imprisoned, he will follow two other once-prominent Palm Beach County politicians federal corruption hunters
have snared during the past 10 months: former West Palm Beach City Commissioner Ray Liberti, now serving an
18-month sentence, and former County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti, scheduled for sentencing in June.
The three-story office condominium and an adjoining parcel are tucked in a cul-de-sac recently named Wekiva
Way. The property sits behind a Land Rover dealership and an exterminating company known for its TV commercials
featuring Greg Rice, Palm Beach County's celebrity dwarf.
Federal prosecutors said Exline, a professional land-use planner, was paid $50,000 to get the property subdivided
for development. His crime: failing to report the income to the IRS. Further, prosecutors said, Exline misled the city's
planning and zoning staff by failing to disclose that he was being paid to advance the project.
"County and city commissioners are not above the law," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said at a news
conference Tuesday about the Exline case. "Commissioner Exline had an obligation to report all his income and to pay
his fair share of taxes, just like those individuals he represented. We cannot tolerate misconduct or corruption from our
public officials."
Exline's client was John Sansbury, a land investor and lobbyist so admired as a county administrator that the county
commission named a street after him. Sansbury has not been charged.
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CASE AGAINST EXLINE DETAILED ON EVE OF PLEA; FORMER WEST PALM COMMISSIONER IS
EXPECTED TO SURRENDER TODAY Palm Beach Post (Florida) March 7, 2007 Wednesday
To hide the income, Exline allegedly directed Sansbury to funnel the payment through a downtown jewelry shop.
Exline's explanation: At the time, he was getting divorced and trying to hide the money from his wife.
While Exline faces the one tax charge, he has been cooperating with prosecutors. "I don't think the government's
investigations are over," his defense attorney Robert Gershman said.
Exline's tax-fraud admission came a week before Tuesday's city election. Incumbents still are fending off
allegations by a state grand jury in January that "pay-to-play" politics rule city hall.
"It's disappointing and sad for the city," Mayor Lois Frankel said Tuesday of Exline's fall. "The more disclosure
and transparency we have in government, the better."
The criminal information prosecutors filed against Exline identifies the developer only as a real estate broker with
whom he was affiliated. State records show that, in 2004, Exline worked as a real estate sales associate at Sansbury's
brokerage, Sansbury Realty. Sansbury did not return calls requesting comment.
Once an urban planner for the city, Exline was appointed to a vacant commission post in 1999, then was elected
three times.
The federal information filed by assistant U.S. attorneys Bruce Reinhart and John Kastrenakes said Exline was paid
$50,000 for "past and future real estate commissions and land planning services" from October 2004 through May 2005.
City records show that Sansbury during that period sought approval of a subdivision that included the office
condominium site. Though Exline was paid to work on the project, his name doesn't appear in city files and city staffers
said they didn't remember his involvement.
Exline, prosecutors said, "directed that the $50,000 check be made payable to a West Palm Beach retail jewelry
store instead of being paid directly to Exline." The check was written Oct. 7, 2004, and deposited by the store owner.
The proceeds were given to Exline. In his 2004 tax filing on April 9, 2005, Exline falsely listed his adjusted gross
income as $39,671, when in fact it was $94,984, prosecutors say.
Exline paid the approximately $15,500 he owed in back taxes and penalties before going with his attorney to
prosecutors last June, Gershman said.
Business ties between Exline and Sansbury were detailed in a story published in August by The Palm Beach Post.
The story said that, in October 2004, Exline and Sansbury brokered the sale of a building on Evernia Street to the
owners of a jewelry business. The price was $1.82 million. Sansbury let Exline keep 100 percent of the commission:
$36,400.
Months before the sale, Exline voted with the city commission to annex some of Sansbury's property on
Okeechobee Boulevard, including the land involved in Exline's criminal case. Annexation made it easier to subdivide
and develop.
Exline said he voted for the annexation because he had no idea he would be involved in the deal that brought him
the $36,400.
The $50,000 the developer paid was in addition to that commission, Gershman said.
Although prosecutors criticized Exline for not revealing his financial interest to city staffers, he wasn't charged with
failing to make the disclosure.
"The government's concern is, when you go in and speak with whomever in the building, you should tell them
you're not doing this in your capacity as a city official, but in your private capacity," Gershman said. "He actually did
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EXPECTED TO SURRENDER TODAY Palm Beach Post (Florida) March 7, 2007 Wednesday
work. ... There was good work done for the money."
[email protected]
[email protected]
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (B&W)
Jim Exline (mug)
LOAD-DATE: March 8, 2007
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9 of 40 DOCUMENTS
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All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
February 4, 2007 Sunday
MARTIN-ST. LUCIE EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 4C
LENGTH: 1634 words
HEADLINE: P.B. COUNTY OFFICIAL FAILED TO REVEAL TIES;
$14 MILLION WATERFRONT DEAL HAD COMMISSIONER'S SUPPORT
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
BODY:
Palm Beach County Commissioner Warren Newell, champion of a $50 million taxpayer initiative to protect public
access to the waterfront, steered $14 million to a private Hypoluxo marina where he docks his personal yacht.
Newell met privately with the marina's owners and county staff, then voted with other commissioners to pay $14
million to keep the Palm Beach Yacht Center a working boat yard, county records show. County administrators said
they never were told about Newell's business ties to the marina. No record could be found that the four-term
commissioner, before voting on the purchase, publicly disclosed his lengthy association with both the business and one
of its owners.
Newell wouldn't talk about it. "There are several prosecutions pending against other individuals and I do not want
to do anything to compromise the integrity of those pending matters," he wrote in response to written questions from
The Palm Beach Post.
Documents The Post obtained show the commissioner's connection to the marina went beyond tying up Long Shot,
his 38-foot fishing boat, in a yacht-center slip:
- While pushing the $14 million acquisition in 2005, Newell owed the yacht center $35,900 for unpaid dockage fees
and maintenance. Newell never reported the debt on his state-required financial disclosure forms. He did report it in a
May 2005 financial affidavit that he filed in his divorce.
In a brief interview, Newell said the debt has been paid. His boat remains at the yacht center, and his monthly
marina payments are current, he said.
- Newell and Leo Berman, who owns 45 percent of Palm Beach Yacht Center, were among investors who applied
in September 2005 to open Legacy Bank of Florida. Newell invested $300,000 in the Boca Raton-based bank while
Berman, the largest single stockholder, had a $1.6 million stake, according to the Florida Office of Financial
Regulation. Before that, Newell and Berman were directors and shareholders of Southern Community Bank of South
Florida, which was launched in 2002 and sold in 2004.
- Newell's engineering and surveying firm, West Palm Beach-based SFRN, provided the property surveys needed
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P.B. COUNTY OFFICIAL FAILED TO REVEAL TIES; $14 MILLION WATERFRONT DEAL HAD
COMMISSIONER'S SUPPORT Palm Beach Post (Florida) February 4, 2007 Sunday
for the county's acquisition of the yacht center's development rights. Surveys on file with the county show that the firm
had mapped the yacht center in 1996 and updated the survey last year.
Newell, who owns 26 percent of the firm, wouldn't say how much SFRN was paid, and the company, through its
attorney, wouldn't comment. Berman did not return phone calls or answer written questions faxed to his office.
Florida ethics law prohibits a public official from voting on matters that would provide a "special private gain" to a
business associate. Under the law, the official is supposed to declare the conflict of interest, then abstain from voting
and file a written explanation.
Newell's business associations came to light as federal prosecutors continue to probe county government for
corruption, an inquiry triggered by reports that former Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti profited from public land
deals while hiding his interest in them. Masilotti pleaded guilty last month to honest services fraud and faces up to five
years in prison.
In the aftermath of the Masilotti scandal, Newell called for empanelment of an ethics commission to instill greater
public trust in government. He also advocated full disclosure of anyone benefiting from county land use and zoning
changes to help prevent conflicts of interest. "It's one more way to make sure government's in the open as much as
possible," he has said.
The public investment in the yacht center came from a special countywide property tax voters approved in 2004 -- a
popular drive Newell led. At the time, he was running for reelection and faced a formidable opponent for the first time
since 1992. The $50 million bond issue was approved by a 2-1 margin. On the same November ballot, Newell's
reelection was a squeaker. He won by less than 1 percent over opponent Harriet Lerman.
Newell's first pitch to protect the waterfront came in April 2004 when the owner of Sailfish Marina Resort, an
Intracoastal Waterway landmark in Palm Beach Shores, was negotiating with a condominium developer. The county's
marina industry was "under attack by developers," he told commissioners. Newell was encouraged by commissioners to
bring back "global recommendations" to save public access to the waterfront.
A month later, the commission endorsed Newell's recommendation to ask voters to approve a $50 million bond
issue.
The bond issue had the backing of the county's marine industries, which warned they were being forced out of
business by rising land values and property taxes along the waterfront. Access to the water by about 40,000 county
boaters was in jeopardy, they warned.
The vote was unanimous, with Newell and other commissioners rallying for Sailfish Marina. A month later, Newell
without fanfare began pushing for Palm Beach Yacht Center as well.
"This marina, along with other critical facilities, is being heavily solicited by land developers," he wrote on June
29, 2004, to county real estate manager Ross Hering. Newell forwarded a letter from the marina's owners and asked
Hering to meet with them "immediately," as well as with the owners of two unidentified north-county marinas.
"I know you are diligently working on Sailfish, but these other marinas are also very critical," he wrote.
A year later, with the commission decision looming on how to spend the $50 million, Newell arranged a July 26,
2005, meeting in his office with Hering and the yacht center's owners to work out details.
"That project definitely originated with Commissioner Newell," Hering said when asked how the yacht center
discussions got started. "He had the contacts with the owners. They didn't pick up the phone and call me."
Newell never told county staff or the commission that he docked his yacht at the marina, that he had owed back rent
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P.B. COUNTY OFFICIAL FAILED TO REVEAL TIES; $14 MILLION WATERFRONT DEAL HAD
COMMISSIONER'S SUPPORT Palm Beach Post (Florida) February 4, 2007 Sunday
or that he was opening a bank with one of the owners, Hering said. "There was no discussion of that at any level," he
said.
Under the yacht center terms, the county would acquire a property easement that required an operating boatyard
and boat storage shed on the premises. Forty-four boat slips on submerged state land forever would be reserved for
paying customers. The owners would keep all the marina profits.
Additionally, they could develop 65,000 square feet of the property and maintain full control of another 40 boat
slips.
The owners' price, according to Hering, was non-negotiable: $14 million for an easement the county's appraiser
later valued at $9.3 million.
For most of 2005, Hering and his staff shopped for marinas along the Intracoastal with limited success. Finally, at a
November workshop, Deputy County Administrator Verdenia Baker told commissioners that the staff was negotiating
with only two: Sailfish Marina and Palm Beach Yacht Center, and that the cost for both was $29 million, leaving
considerably less money for expansion and improvements at publicly owned marinas and boat ramps.
Newell suggested dropping Sailfish Marina from the plan. But protecting the yacht center was "critical," he said,
because it was the only business in the south end of the county where boats could be dry-docked for repairs.
A commission majority balked, saying the purchase of development rights at both marinas was too expensive. In a
4-3 vote, with Commissioners Jeff Koons, Karen Marcus and Newell dissenting, the commission directed staff to
continue negotiations with Sailfish and the yacht center without a firm money commitment.
The following day, Newell wrote a memo to Hering reiterating the board's direction -- that negotiations with the
two marinas should proceed.
At Marcus' urging, the commission changed course in December 2005, agreeing to acquire development rights at
Sailfish Marina with $10 million from the bond issue and $5 million borrowed through the state. Last February, on
motions from Marcus, commissioners voted to seal both marina deals.
Newell voted without disclosing his association with the yacht center and owner Berman, meeting records show.
Then-commissioner Masilotti opposed the Sailfish Marina deal, saying the $15 million would be better spent to
expand a public marina. But there was no quibbling from Masilotti and other commissioners about the yacht center's
costs, even though the $14 million price was 50 percent more than its appraised value. The Sailfish acquisition had
represented a far better deal. It was valued at $22 million, and the county was paying $15 million.
Hering said he was surprised the yacht center deal was approved. "I gave them the facts," Hering said. "I thought
the board was going to say, 'Go away.' "
With the deal approved, the yacht center's owners filed an appeal with the county's Value Adjustment Board, a
panel of three county commissioners and two county school board members that weighs challenges to real estate
assessments raised by the county property appraiser.
The marina owners argued that the county's newly acquired easement entitled them to a tax break, that the
property's new $28.4 million tax value was inflated. The new assessment would have boosted their property tax bill
nearly $400,000.
At a Dec. 12 hearing, Special Magistrate Harold Overbey agreed that the county easement diminished the
property's value. He recommended that the Value Adjustment Board slash its value to $9.4 million - a $340,000-a-year
property-tax cut.
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P.B. COUNTY OFFICIAL FAILED TO REVEAL TIES; $14 MILLION WATERFRONT DEAL HAD
COMMISSIONER'S SUPPORT Palm Beach Post (Florida) February 4, 2007 Sunday
For the county's marine industries, Palm Beach Yacht Center represented a victory over soaring property taxes and
development pressures. Barring a court challenge by the property appraiser, all the yacht center needs is the signature of
the Value Adjustment Board's chairman endorsing the tax cut.
The chairman: County Commissioner Warren Newell.
[email protected]
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2 B&W) & MAP (B&W)
1. Palm Beach County Commissioner Warren Newell (left) has ties to ... (mug) 2. ... Leo Berman, who owns 45 percent
of Palm Beach Yacht Center. Newell at one point owed the center $35,900. (mug) 3. BRENNAN KING/Staff Artist
Location of Palm Beach Yacht Center
LOAD-DATE: February 6, 2007
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10 of 40 DOCUMENTS
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All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
January 12, 2007 Friday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1349 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI PLEA DEAL AVERTS HEAVIER CHARGES, SENTENCE
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Federal prosecutors were prepared to charge former Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti
with multiple crimes if he had refused to accept a plea agreement with the government, according to a copy of the
agreement filed in court Thursday.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Kastrenakes and Stephen Carlton wrote in the document that they had enough
evidence to charge Masilotti, at minimum, with money laundering, mail and wire fraud, and lying to federal agents -crimes that upon conviction could have imprisoned him for decades.
To avoid the hefty charges, Masilotti agreed to plead guilty Thursday to a single crime, honest services fraud.
Prosecutors, in turn, will recommend that he serve no more than five years in prison.
The government sweetened the deal by agreeing not to prosecute Masilotti's brother. Paul Masilotti lost his job as
a Wellington building inspector last year after his alleged role as his younger brother's co-conspirator was disclosed in
court filings.
As part of the agreement, Tony Masilotti can be fined $250,000 and will forfeit $175,000 in cash, plus 60 acres of
property in Martin County. He and his brother also agreed to forfeit 300 acres they own in Brevard County -- land worth
nearly $8 million acquired for $100,000 from Palm Beach Aggregates, a mining company and landowner in Masilotti's
former district.
The company wanted its property along Southern Boulevard rezoned for a 2,000-home development and a Florida
Power & Light Co. generating plant, prosecutors said. Only Masilotti has been charged in connection with the zoning
scheme.
Masilotti's ex-wife, Susan, also was snarled in the corruption case. She has forfeited $400,000 she received in the
couple's divorce settlement last year. The money came from a tainted Martin County land deal pushed by her
ex-husband while in office, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors wouldn't say why they agreed to the plea deal's terms, letting a prepared statement declare their
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MASILOTTI PLEA DEAL AVERTS HEAVIER CHARGES, SENTENCE Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 12,
2007 Friday
intentions.
"The U.S. Attorney's Office, with the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service,
will aggressively investigate and prosecute corruption at all levels of government to help ensure that the citizens of
South Florida receive the honest services of their elected officials," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in the
announcement of Masilotti's guilty plea.
It's not unusual for the government to accept such agreements because they provide an instant message to the public
that corruption won't be tolerated, former prosecutors said. Plea deals also avoid the risk of lengthy trials and years of
appellate battles.
"Corruption cases are not often a slam dunk, and convictions have a higher-than-average reversal on appeal," said
Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney. "And even if the sentence is five years rather than 20, getting a guilty plea and
jail time quickly sends a message. It's important to get a public official actually behind bars while a case is still on the
public's radar."
There's also the possibility that Masilotti will help build other corruption cases, Coffey added. "It could be a gold
mine for prosecutors."
Masilotti arrived for Thursday's court hearing in his new Ford pickup, equipped with a Boy Scouts license tag. The
plate's slogan: "Scouting teaches values."
No friends or family members accompanied him. Surrounded by his attorneys, he pleaded guilty before Senior U.S.
District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp, answering questions in a somber monotone.
Minutes after admitting his guilt, a more spirited Masilotti defended the deals that probably will send him to
prison, saying his only crime was failing to publicly disclose them.
"The business deals were legitimate, all paid with money I saved and earned," he said outside the Clematis Street
federal courthouse. "I just didn't realize that not disclosing them was a larger issue. The attorneys gave me advice that
was wrong, and now I have to pay for it. I have no hard feelings toward anyone."
In court, Ryskamp asked Masilotti questions to determine whether he knew what he was doing, including whether
he was medicated. Masilotti said he was taking painkillers for his back, and he kneaded his spine with a fist while
standing before the judge. Masilotti said he wasn't impaired and had never been treated for drug abuse.
He also acknowledged that by pleading guilty, he would be stripped of key civil rights. No longer can he vote,
much less hold public office. Nor can he serve on a jury or possess a gun -- unless his wrongdoing is absolved by the
governor or president.
Ryskamp then convicted Masilotti, formally ending his political career with a felony record. His sentencing was set
for March 23.
Prosecutors alleged that during his final years in office, Masilotti collected cash and assembled a real estate
portfolio worth $7 million to $20 million through a series of tainted land deals.
The property, held in a secret land trust and shell companies, was hidden until his divorce. In reporting the couple's
assets in 2005, Susan Masilotti listed property in Martin County, documents referring to a secret land trust, and a series
of certificates of deposits totaling $1.3 million. None of those assets had been reported on the commissioner's
state-required financial disclosure reports.
The $1.3 million represented the land trust's profit on a land sale to the South Florida Water Management District,
The Palm Beach Post reported in April.
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MASILOTTI PLEA DEAL AVERTS HEAVIER CHARGES, SENTENCE Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 12,
2007 Friday
In the months that followed, federal investigators also pursued Masilotti, and more land deals came to light.
Masilotti was charged in October, with cases then filed against two co-defendants: William R. Boose III, a lawyer and
lobbyist accused of helping conceal Masilotti's financial interest in a land sale to the water district, and Daniel Miteff, a
former member of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.
Miteff, due back in court today, is charged with making a $50,000 payoff to Masilotti for pressuring the Catholic
Diocese of Palm Beach to sell land to Miteff's development company. Miteff also is charged with lying to a federal
grand jury and witness tampering. He has been jailed since Dec. 11 and faces decades in prison if convicted of all
charges.
Attorneys for Boose and Miteff say both men are not guilty.
Masilotti moved to Palm Beach County nearly 30 years ago and opened an insurance office in Royal Palm Beach.
He first ran for public office in 1992, handily defeating four other contenders for mayor of Royal Palm Beach. He ran
unopposed three more times before seeking the District 6 county commission seat in 1998.
He was so powerful that the village council named a new park after him in 2001. Council members since have
stripped him of that honor.
As county commissioner, Masilotti gained popularity for pumping his office's discretionary money into his district
-- doling out oversized checks in Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, The Acreage, Loxahatchee and the Glades area to pay
for school athletic uniforms, park improvements and roads. Reelected in 2002, he was named county commission
chairman in 2004.
He was respected and feared for his mercurial temper, and described as the "emperor without clothes" by Royal
Palm Beach Village Manager David Farber.
"He has the ability to go ballistic," Royal Palm Mayor David Lodwick said in an interview last year. "You want to
avoid that at all costs."
Masilotti resigned from the commission in October, three days before the corruption charge was announced. In his
resignation letter to the governor, he apologized for his misconduct.
"To demonstrate my regret and sorrow, I am committed to cooperating with the Internal Revenue Service, Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney's Office in this matter," he wrote.
The apology was a condition of the commissioner's final deal in public office - the plea agreement negotiated with
federal prosecutors.
[email protected]
What's next
Tony Masilotti: Free on bond; sentencing set for March 23.
Daniel Miteff: Still in jail; arraignment and bond modification hearing today.
William Boose III: Free on bond; trial date pending.
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C & B&W)
1. (C) Tony Masilotti (mug) 2. (B&W) BOB SHANLEY/Staff Photographer Tony Masilotti enters the federal
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MASILOTTI PLEA DEAL AVERTS HEAVIER CHARGES, SENTENCE Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 12,
2007 Friday
courthouse in West Palm Beach on Thursday to plead guilty to honest services fraud. Afterward, Masilotti defended the
deals that probably will send him to prison, saying his only crime was failing to publicly disclose them.
LOAD-DATE: March 5, 2007
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11 of 40 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 2007 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
January 11, 2007 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 797 words
HEADLINE: 'I GOT BAD ADVICE ... AND I'M PAYING,' MASILOTTI SAYS
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Tony Masilotti says he's more worried about his 11-year-old daughter than his fateful date this morning with a
federal judge.
"Right now, I've got a little girl with a one-in-three chance of survival," the former Palm Beach County
Commission chairman said Wednesday, on the eve of his hearing to plead guilty to a corruption charge.
He said the youngest of his four daughters, Julie Anne, is headed to a Phoenix hospital for treatment of a
life-threatening stomach disorder. For months, while steeling for a likely prison sentence, Masilotti has been shuttling
between his Wellington home and Miami Children's Hospital, where she was treated.
"When it rains, it pours," the fallen commissioner said.
Masilotti, 50, is scheduled to appear today before Senior U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp to plead guilty to
honest services fraud. He faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and up to $10 million in penalties and
forfeitures. His sentence could be shaved if he undergoes therapy while incarcerated.
His lawyer has said that Masilotti has a problem with alcohol.
"It is what it is," Masilotti said Wednesday about the charge against him. "I didn't fill out the right forms. I got bad
advice from my lawyers, and I'm paying the price.
"I don't know what else to say about it. I'm not a child molester, and I'm not a thief. But I'm not going to sit down
and cry about it. It's my fault."
Fallout from the scandal - the worst in 90 years - has county politicians scrambling to regain public confidence.
Also facing corruption charges: William R. Boose III, a lawyer accused of helping conceal Masilotti's financial interest
in a land sale to the South Florida Water Management District.
Daniel Miteff, a former member of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, is charged with making a
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'I GOT BAD ADVICE ... AND I'M PAYING,' MASILOTTI SAYS Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 11, 2007
Thursday
$50,000 payoff to Masilotti for pressuring the Diocese of Palm Beach to sell land to Miteff's development company.
Miteff also is charged with lying to a federal grand jury and witness tampering.
"There is so much fallout, it's hard to determine," Masilotti said of the aftermath.
Now, sitting commissioners are calling for complete disclosure of anyone profiting from a vote on zoning and sales
of public land. Just Tuesday, a county attorney recommended that commissioners publicly identify all friends, family,
current and former business associates and even their favorite charities if they might somehow benefit from their votes.
The objective is to eliminate "the possibility of any secret motive and better demonstrate that the vote was made for
public good, not private gain."
Masilotti's successor, Commissioner Jess Santamaria, said corruption has been festering for years.
"Obviously Masilotti is not the only one. ... I think other people are scared," said Santamaria, elected to the District
6 seat in November after Masilotti decided not to run. "It's a matter of government and business not following the law.
But I am optimistic good things are coming. The system has been shook up. Good people who thought that nothing
could be done now know things can change."
Prosecutors alleged that during his final years in office, Masilotti amassed a hidden fortune from a series of tainted
land deals. But his family life was left in tatters. Masilotti was divorced last year from his wife of 27 years.
Masilotti's demise was triggered - inadvertently - by the divorce. In reporting the couple's assets in 2005, Susan
Masilotti listed property in Martin County, documents referring to a secret land trust, and a series of certificates of
deposits totaling $1.3 million. None of those assets had been reported on the commissioner's state-required financial
disclosure reports.
The $1.3 million represented the land trust's profits from a series of tangled real-estate transactions in Martin
County, an investigation by The Palm Beach Post showed. The newspaper documented that Masilotti used his public
position to push the land's acquisition to the South Florida Water Management District. Officials of the district said they
had no indication that Masilotti had a financial stake in the purchase.
The Post also found that paperwork filed with the district had been falsified to hide Masilotti's ownership of the
trust. Within weeks after The Post's first story about Maslotti's land deals was published April 2, federal authorities
launched their own investigation.
In the months that followed, a series of land transactions involving Masilotti came to light. Masilotti was charged
by federal prosecutors in October, Boose in November and Miteff in December. Masilotti and Boose have been free on
bond; Miteff has been jailed since his Dec. 11 arrest, unable to raise the $75,000 in cash required for his release.
Attorneys for both say the men are not guilty of corruption.
- [email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C)
Tony Masilotti: Says he's most worried about his ill daughter (mug)
LOAD-DATE: March 5, 2007
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12 of 40 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 2007 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
January 7, 2007 Sunday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2186 words
HEADLINE: CHARGED LOBBYIST BEHIND NO-BID COUNTY LAND SALE
BYLINE: By STACEY SINGER and TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Palm Beach County commissioners this week will consider an agreement to sell "under-utilized" parkland to
developers, a no-bid deal engineered by William R. Boose III, a lobbyist charged in the corruption case against former
Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti.
Seventeen publicly owned acres west of Boca Raton, at Yamato Road and U.S. 441, will be sold within 60 days for
$4.75 million if the commission approves contract revisions Tuesday.
The buyers: a group of politically connected investors that includes George Elmore, a developer and paving
contractor who partnered with Boose in a recently aborted north county land sale to the commission. The commission
scuttled that $1.5 million deal in December, a month after federal prosecutors charged Boose with concealing
Masilotti's $1.3 million profit from a government land acquisition in Martin County. Boose has pleaded not guilty.
Masilotti, charged with honest services fraud, is scheduled to plead guilty Thursday.
Boose, who told a judge he has retired from lobbying, also retreated from the pending south county deal in
November, ceding his interest to Elmore -- and eliminating the stigma of commissioners selling land in a no-bid deal to
an accused felon.
"There was concern his involvement would impact what we are trying to do," said Peter Sachs, whose law firm has
replaced Boose's in representing the investors. "We thought it would hurt the deal."
The remaining investors stand to make plenty off the property, now known as Yamato Court. A new appraisal
indicates the parcel already is worth at least $1 million more than the county's selling price.
County makes concessions
Boose and his partners pursued the deal for several years. During months of negotiations, county staff, closely
monitored by County Commissioner Burt Aaronson, agreed to a string of potentially lucrative concessions, records
show:
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CHARGED LOBBYIST BEHIND NO-BID COUNTY LAND SALE Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 7, 2007
Sunday
- The deal was framed as a land swap, an arrangement that meant the county was not required to seek competitive
bids for the Yamato property. Under the deal, the county paid $250,000 in June 2005 for a drainage easement through
Elmore's property on Okeechobee Boulevard. The easement was needed to widen Okeechobee, traffic engineers said -a road improvement that increased the value of Elmore's land.
Under the agreement, Elmore can use the easement for parking on his property, where he plans townhouses, offices
and retail shops. Without a widened Okeechobee, his plans are held up.
- Parks officials declared as surplus nearly 10 acres of a 16-acre greenway called American Homes Park, saying its
jogging path and playground were "under-utilized." The park parcel was coupled with an abandoned water utilities site
to create the 17 acres sought by the Boose group. Part of the county proceeds would be used to finance the golf course
under construction at the nearby South County Regional Park.
Making the loss of parkland more politically palatable, the investors agreed to donate 1.8 acres to the Jewish
Association for Residential Care, which plans four group homes for developmentally disabled adults, said Sachs, the
nonprofit association's president. An additional 5 to 7 acres is under contract to Temple Beth El of Boca Raton, which
plans a preschool and classrooms for afternoon religious instruction, Rabbi Dan Levin said. The temple has agreed to
pay up to $3 million for the property and associated development costs, Levin said.
- Before conducting public hearings, the commission agreed to the rezoning of the property to allow a
46,000-square-foot shopping center. Drawings show a bank, restaurants and a CVS pharmacy in the commercial part of
the site.
- Boose protested when a 2003 county appraisal valued the public land between $292,929 and $303,535 per acre.
County staff then paid for a second round of appraisals reflecting a lower density of commercial development.
Ultimately, the parties agreed on a price of $279,247 an acre.
When the Yamato Court plan was aired at a public meeting this summer, neighbors cried foul, saying their park
would have been used by more people if the county had made an entry point off Yamato or 441. Commissioners
ordered that the park be left at slightly more than 6 acres, rather than 3, and Boose's group tried to cut the price
accordingly. County staff said the investors met with Aaronson seeking a discount -- and that the commissioner stood
his ground, saying that escalating land values already made the price a bargain.
Aaronson's active role
From the beginning, Aaronson played an active role. Yamato Court is in his commission district. Aaronson said he
helped the deal along because he saw it as a win-win for everyone involved, from county Parks Director Dennis
Eshleman, whose golf course was over budget, to several charitable causes the commissioner supported.
"Everybody seemed to come out a winner on this," Aaronson said. "It was my understanding that the buyers were
going to give land to the JARC home for nothing. I was happy about it."
The deal began in 1998 -- not with a park, but with a decision to decommission a sewage treatment facility. The
county's water utility decided it no longer needed the 5-acre parcel because its sewage treatment process had changed.
The adjacent American Homes Park acted like a curtain, shielding the neighboring community from the unsightly tanks.
Back then, a county appraisal put the utility parcel's value at an estimated $1.1 million, or about $207,500 per acre.
Initially, the U.S. Postal Service had expressed interest in buying it. But in December 2002, with the Postal Service
experiencing a budget squeeze, Aaronson told the water utilities director to put the property back on the market, records
show.
Early in 2003, a for-sale sign was posted, and interested buyers were told they'd have to accept the land "as is." The
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CHARGED LOBBYIST BEHIND NO-BID COUNTY LAND SALE Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 7, 2007
Sunday
park was not part of the deal.
The county library system suggested that it would be interested in buying the water utility site. Soon after, on
March 12, 2003, Aaronson's calendar shows, he lunched at the Fifth Avenue Grill in Delray Beach. At his table were
two of the key partners in what's now Yamato Court LLC: Boose and Rob Levy, whose family runs the Oriole Homes
building firm.
Instead of an auction of the land, the deal was structured as a swap. Boose knew the policy well. He had once
served as head of the county's planning and zoning division and went on to become a formidable land-use lawyer,
secretly holding pieces of many of his clients' deals.
At the time, the county needed a place to send runoff from Okeechobee Boulevard, which was due to be widened.
Boose's frequent business partner, George Elmore, headed a company that owned a rock pit and a strip of land along
Okeechobee that the county wanted for road drainage.
It might have made sense for Elmore to donate that easement -- after all, he owned land next to it and he intended to
turn it into a commercial strip. That couldn't happen until Okeechobee was widened. Elmore said Friday that he wasn't
in the mood to donate anything after giving 2.5 acres for a nearby city fire station.
"I think that was a pretty damn good donation, so I don't think we should be asked to do anything more," Elmore
said.
Boose suggests trade
That's when Boose stepped in, meeting with various mid-level county staff to suggest a trade.
On Aug. 21, 2003, Ross Hering of the county's property and real estate management division began an e-mail
exchange with Tanya McConnell of the county's engineering division, discussing the prospect of ditching the bidding
process for the water utility site west of Boca and doing an exchange instead.
On Aug. 28, 2003, Hering told a colleague via e-mail that the Yamato property would not be put out for bids.
Aaronson wanted nonprofits included in the deal: "We are waiting on one of the potential respondents to develop a
conceptual plan which would accommodate all of the not for profits," Hering wrote.
The potential respondent was Boose.
In an interview, Hering explained: "One of the issues we had been facing down in west Boca was, how do we
provide for these not-for-profit groups? Everybody is coming to us saying, 'Do you have any land?' "
The solution was American Homes Park.
On Feb. 15, 2005, the county commission agreed to buy the Okeechobee Boulevard drainage easement for
$250,000 and sell the Yamato Court property for $4.75 million.
The Okeechobee deal was made June 15, 2005, and the Yamato Court sale was supposed to close 18 months later,
once new zoning and land-use approvals were in place. That deadline came and went, with part of the project -- a
portion reserved for one of the nonprofits, the Solomon Schechter Day School -- still undecided. All the pieces were in
place once the religious school was replaced by Temple Beth El.
Aaronson said that when he learned Boose was involved, he advised Levy to find a new attorney. He chose Peter
Sachs, law partner of U.S. Rep. Ron Klein.
"This wasn't a sweetheart deal for anybody," Aaronson said. "I think what's put a fly in the ointment here is the
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CHARGED LOBBYIST BEHIND NO-BID COUNTY LAND SALE Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 7, 2007
Sunday
ownership of Bill Boose."
With Boose out of the picture, the amendments to be considered Tuesday by commissioners largely are
housekeeping matters, Sachs said.
"It's a good plan," he said of Yamato Court. "It's a good deal. Everybody's on board."
Land deals lobbied by Boose
Lawyer William R. Boose III was a powerful lobbyist until federal prosecutorscharged him in November with
helping conceal former Palm Beach County Commissioner Tony Masilotti's profit from a government land purchase in
Martin County. Boose has pleaded not guilty.
In Palm Beach County, two of Boose's public land deals have been scuttled since federal authorities launched their
corruption probe. The commission will consider a third deal, known as Yamato Court, on Tuesday.
YAMATO COURT
THE DEAL
Sale of 17 acres of county land, including most of a neighborhood park, for $4.75 million.
BOOSE'S PARTNERS
George Elmore, a politically influential land developer and paving contractor; developer Harvey Geller, president
of Vanguard Realty and Development and a frequent Elmore partner; and a revocable trust of Robert Alan Levy, whose
family operates Oriole Homes. Elmore acquired Boose's interest in November, after Boose was charged in the Masilotti
case.
WHAT HAPPENED
- The deal was set up as a land swap, which meant Boose's group didn't have to bid competitively on the Yamato
property. Under the terms, the county paid $250,000 for a drainage easement through Elmore's property on Okeechobee
Boulevard. The easement was needed to widen Okeechobee, traffic engineers said -- a road improvementthat increased
the value of Elmore's land.
- Parks officials declared as surplus nearly 10 acres of American Homes Park, adding it to the property sold to
Boose's investors. To offset the lost parkland, the investors donated 1.8 acres to the Jewish Association for Residential
Care and set aside a 5-to-7-acre campus for Temple Beth El of Boca Raton.
- Before conducting public hearings, commissioners agreed to rezone the land to allow a 46,000-square-foot
shopping center anchored by a CVS pharmacy. Without the zoning, the investors could walk away from the deal.
NORTHLAKE PROPERTY
THE DEAL
Purchase of 10 acres along Northlake Boulevard by the county for $1.5 million.
BOOSE'S PARTNERS
George Elmore; Greg Fagan, former chairman of the Business Development Board; a family trust of former County
Commissioner Conrad Schaefer; Didi Geller, wife of Elmore business partner Harvey Geller; and Linda and Phil
O'Connell, Boose's former law firm partner.
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CHARGED LOBBYIST BEHIND NO-BID COUNTY LAND SALE Palm Beach Post (Florida) January 7, 2007
Sunday
WHAT HAPPENED
- Traffic engineers wanted the land for a drainage pond needed for the widening of Northlake Boulevard. The $1.5
million price tag was based on the land's rural zoning being changed to allow for commercial development.
- The commission in July approved the commercial zoning, making the property more valuable.
- Questioning the cost, commissioners squashed the deal last month after Boose was charged and the identities of
his politically connected partners were made public. They voted to condemn the property in hope of getting a better
price in court. Now they're reassessing whether the county needs the land at all.
PIKE PROPERTY
THE DEAL
Swap of a hiking trail and cash for 10 acres of surplus county land known as the Pike property.
BOOSE'S PARTNERS
Former county engineer Herb Kahlert and Port Mayaca Lake Estates, a limited liability company managed by
Boose. Its ownership has not been publicly disclosed.
WHAT HAPPENED
- County staff in 2005 canceled an all-cash auction of the parcel, then changed the bidding rules to allow Boose and
his partners to offer a land swap.
- When Boose's group was outbid, staff stalled on awarding the property. Ultimately the high bidder withdrew,
putting the Boose group on top.
- Boose and his partners withdrew their bid in June after federal authorities investigated Boose's connection to the
Martin County deal involving Masilotti.
- The county still has not awarded the property. One bidder, Centennial Real Estate Investors, has sued the county,
claiming politics and corruption tainted the competition.
[email protected]
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (1 C & 2 B&W) & MAP (3 B&W)
1. (C) William R. Boose III (mug) 2. (B&W) Tony Masilotti (mug) 3. (B&W) William R. Boose III (mug) STAFF
GRAPHIC 4. (B&W) Location of Yamato Court 5. (B&W) 10-acre parcel 6. (B&W) Pike property
LOAD-DATE: January 10, 2007
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
December 19, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1012 words
HEADLINE: FBI WIRE REVEALED AS MITEFF'S BAIL SET
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Royal Palm Beach Village Manager David Farber wore an FBI wire to gather witness-tampering evidence against
an alleged co-conspirator of former County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti, prosecutors disclosed Monday in
federal court.
Caught on tape, according to the feds: Wellington real estate consultant Daniel Miteff attempting to coach Farber
this summer before he gave testimony to the federal grand jury investigating Masilotti.
Miteff, prosecutors said, told Farber to keep quiet about conversations he had with Miteff and Masilotti about the
commissioner's $50,000 secret cut from a village land deal. Farber had known about Masilotti's hidden stake since late
2003 or early 2004. Miteff, prosecutors said, wanted him to forget about it.
"If they ask about the $50,000, you didn't see anything," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kastrenakes said Miteff told
Farber. "You weren't there."
The FBI recordings came up during Monday's bond hearing for Miteff. Kastrenakes said Miteff should be kept
locked up because he repeatedly had lied to the grand jury -- and especially because he tried to change Farber's
testimony. Miteff, the prosecutor said, never paid taxes on his $600,000 profit from the 2004 land deal. Noting Miteff
faces more than 200 years in prison if convicted of all charges, Kastrenakes said he has plenty of reason to disappear
before trial.
Miteff's attorney, Christopher Grillo, contended there was nothing sinister about his client's recorded conversations
with Farber, that he didn't try to bribe the village manager and hadn't threatened him in any way. He likened Miteff and
Farber to good friends shooting the breeze about the grand jury investigation and their recollections of the deal that
triggered the probe.
The two shared a fondness for cigars and sports, Grillo said. They often went to major and minor league ballgames
together, he said, and met once a week during baseball season for stogies and drinks while participating in fantasy
baseball leagues.
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FBI WIRE REVEALED AS MITEFF'S BAIL SET Palm Beach Post (Florida) December 19, 2006 Tuesday
It's possible, Grillo suggested, that Miteff had a few too many drinks while the FBI was listening. "Alcohol was
consumed," he said, while the two huddled at Farber's home in August.
Grillo urged U.S. Magistrate Ann Vitunac to release Miteff on bond. He described Miteff, 55, as a church-going
family man who had been appointed to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council by Gov. Jeb Bush. He said Miteff
resigned from the council on Friday. "It's not a crime of violence. There is no terrorism involved," Grillo told the judge.
"Mr. Miteff has never been arrested before."
Vitunac agreed that the witness-tampering evidence was not enough to keep Miteff in custody. Instead, she allowed
Miteff's release on a $500,000 bond -- an amount that Grillo said his client can't cover. "It's the same as detention," he
said of Vitunac's order. "He can't come up with it."
After the hearing, Miteff was shuttled by U.S. Marshals to the Palm Beach County Jail. He has been held there
since Dec. 11, charged with 19 felony counts, including obstruction of justice, money laundering and conspiracy.
He was indicted Dec. 8 for his involvement in a Royal Palm Beach land deal pushed by Masilotti in 2003 and
2004. Miteff allegedly paid off Masilotti with cash and $39,000 in gambling chips delivered to the commissioner in the
Atlantis resort and casino in the Bahamas. The money was a payoff, prosecutors said, for Masilotti's pressure on the
Diocese of Palm Beach to sell 49 acres in the village to Miteff and his partners.
Masilotti also is accused of muscling County Engineer George Webb to approve development of the land off
Southern Boulevard for 218 homes, despite the traffic it would generate. "There were way too many cars dumped on
Southern Boulevard for that development to be allowed," Kastrenakes said.
Farber also played a role in the deal. At Masilotti's request, the village manager wrote a letter to the commissioner
on village stationery saying the village needed some of the church's property for a park. Masilotti then used the letter to
push the church to select a buyer that would offer a site.
Miteff's company was the only bidder to do so. But the park never materialized. Farber, in a June interview, said he
was unaware of Miteff's offer of a park.
Farber said in June he was afraid of Masilotti and wrote the letter in part to keep him happy. He had worked with
Masilotti since 1994, when Farber was hired as village manager and Masilotti was village mayor. They were so close
that Farber was invited to attend the recent wedding of Masilotti's daughter.
At Miteff's bond hearing Monday, prosecutors disclosed Farber has known for about three years that Masilotti had
a financial interest in the church land deal -- because Masilotti had told him about his $50,000 stake. Miteff, in a
separate conversation, told Farber that he was headed to the Bahamas in February 2004 to settle a $50,000 debt with
Masilotti, that he was going to pay off the commissioner's gambling debt.
That's why Miteff called Farber to talk about his grand jury testimony, prosecutors said. Miteff, they said, didn't
want Farber to mention the conversations.
Farber alerted federal authorities after Miteff's first call, and agreed to wear a wire. He attended Monday's federal
court hearing, but did not testify. Farber declined comment after the hearing, referring questions to the U.S. attorney.
No hearing has been set for Miteff to seek a bond reduction. Masilotti's arraignment, which had been scheduled for
Monday, has been reset for Jan. 5. He is scheduled to plead guilty at that hearing to honest services fraud for his role in
the church deal and three others that allegedly netted him a $10 million profit. He faces up to five years in prison and
$10 million in penalties if convicted.
Also charged with Masilotti: William R. Boose III, who allegedly helped hide Masilotti's financial interest in a
Page 21
FBI WIRE REVEALED AS MITEFF'S BAIL SET Palm Beach Post (Florida) December 19, 2006 Tuesday
2003 government land acquisition in Martin County. Boose, who had negotiated a deal to plead guilty to federal
prosecutors, changed his mind last week and plans to go to trial.
~ [email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C & B&W)
1. (C) Daniel Miteff (mug) 2. David Farber (mug)
LOAD-DATE: December 20, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
December 14, 2006 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 615 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI CO-DEFENDANT DECIDES TO FIGHT CHARGE
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ And ANDREW MARRA Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
BODY:
One co-defendant of former Palm Beach County Commissioner Tony Masilotti was ordered back to jail
Wednesday while another canceled a hearing today where he was supposed to plead guilty to a corruption charge.
William R. Boose III, a powerful lobbyist accused of helping conceal Masilotti's role in a government land deal,
has hired another powerhouse defense lawyer, Richard Lubin, to fight the charge.
"He is innocent, and we are preparing for trial," Lubin said Wednesday. "He will not plead guilty."
Lubin this year represented former West Palm Beach City Commissioner Ray Liberti in a corruption case. Liberti
pleaded guilty to accepting $66,000 in bribes and is serving an 18-month prison sentence.
For weeks, Boose had been negotiating with federal prosecutors a deal to plead guilty, and a hearing at which he
was to do so was scheduled today before Senior U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp.
Attorneys in the case won't say what happened. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kastrenakes declined comment.
Boose's other lawyers, partners Jack Goldberger and Scott Richardson, did not return calls.
The grand jury issued the criminal charge against Boose in a Nov. 3 information, a federal court document typically
used when the defendant is negotiating a plea bargain. Had he pleaded guilty, Boose faced a maximum three-year prison
sentence and a $250,000 fine. Typically the terms of a plea deal also require defendants to cooperate with prosecutors by providing, if they have it, information about other crimes.
After Boose was charged, Goldberger said he was cooperating, but wasn't sure whether he'd agree to a guilty plea.
"We've had frank discussions with the authorities. We hope to resolve the matter," Goldberger said.
Meanwhile, another of Masilotti's co-defendants remains jailed after his first appearance Wednesday at the federal
courthouse in Fort Pierce. Daniel Miteff, 55, of Wellington, wore spectacles, shackles and jail-issue blue scrubs and
appeared confused as he sat among defendants in unrelated cases - an accused crack dealer, tax evaders and an illegal
immigrant charged with weapons possession.
His wife, Kathleen, sat alone in the back of the courtroom as he was escorted by marshals to the bench.
Page 23
MASILOTTI CO-DEFENDANT DECIDES TO FIGHT CHARGE Palm Beach Post (Florida) December 14, 2006
Thursday
Kastrenakes said he wanted Miteff kept in jail without bail. U.S. Magistrate Linnea Johnson set a bond hearing for
Monday or Tuesday, depending on when attorneys are available.
Miteff's arraignment was set for Dec. 27. He faces charges including witness tampering, money laundering, lying to
federal agents and fraud in connection to his role in a Royal Palm Beach land deal with Masilotti. Multiple prison
sentences upon conviction could amount to 275 years, federal prosecutors have pointed out - making it likely that if
convicted, Miteff would spend many years in a federal lockup. The feds also are seeking $1.3 million in forfeitures and
intend to confiscate his family's home in Wellington's Greenview Shores neighborhood if he can't come up with the
cash.
Miteff, a low-profile Wellington land dealer who flips property to builders after obtaining development approvals
for their projects, was arrested Monday by the FBI. His attorney, Christopher Grillo, vowed Wednesday to "present a
vigorous defense."
But his first matter of business is getting Miteff, father of college-age daughters, out of jail. "Of course he's
unhappy," Grillo said. "Who would be happy being in jail?"
Charged in October, Masilotti has said he will plead guilty to honest services fraud. His arraignment is set for
Monday before Ryskamp with a change of plea hearing scheduled for Jan. 5. Upon conviction, he faces up to five years
in prison and $10 million in penalties.
- [email protected]
NOTES: Did not run MSL.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2 C & B&W)
1. (C) DAVID SPENCER/Staff Photographer Land dealer Daniel Miteff of Wellington, another Masilotti co-defendant,
is escorted from the Fort Pierce U.S. courthouse after being denied bail at his first appearance. 2. (C) William R. Boose:
Was to plead guilty today, now won't. (mug) 3. (B&W) Tony Masilotti (mug)
LOAD-DATE: December 15, 2006
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All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
December 13, 2006 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 814 words
HEADLINE: GRAND JURY SAYS MASILOTTI, CRONY SCORED BIG WITH DIOCESE LAND DEAL
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
BODY:
For muscling the Catholic Church and county traffic engineers, former County Commissioner Tony Masilotti was
rewarded with gambling chips, a grand jury says -- $39,000 worth delivered at Atlantis, the grandest casino in the
Bahamas.
The chips, in stacks of $17,000 and $22,000, were fed to Masilotti during a two-day gambling spree, according to a
corruption indictment released Tuesday. The payoff, the grand jury filing alleges, came from Daniel Miteff, a
low-profile Wellington land dealer who flips property to builders after obtaining development approvals for their
projects.
Masilotti, the grand jury found, helped Miteff with a big score: a $1.3 million profit from a real estate flip two
years ago in Royal Palm Beach. The gambling chips represented just a portion of the commissioner's cut, grand jurors
wrote.
Masilotti was charged in October with honest services fraud and issued a public apology saying he will plead
guilty to his criminal role in that land deal and two others. For his cooperation, the former commissioner faces no more
than five years in prison and $10 million in penalties.
Not so, Miteff. He is charged with witness tampering, lying to federal authorities, money laundering and a string of
other crimes -- 19 counts in all. Stacked like gambling chips, the multiple prison sentences upon conviction amount to
275 years, federal prosecutors pointed out -- making it likely that if convicted, 55-year-old Miteff would spend much, if
not all, of his golden years in a federal lockup. The feds also are seeking $1.3 million in forfeitures -- and intend to
confiscate his family's home in Wellington's Greenview Shores neighborhood if he can't come up with the cash.
"We will continue to aggressively investigate Masilotti's corrupt transactions and prosecute those individuals
involved in his get-rich schemes," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in a prepared statement announcing Miteff's
indictment.
Miteff is a governor's 2005 appointee to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. He also had chaired a
now-defunct Palm Beach County traffic study panel.
Michael Busha, executive director of the 28-member regulatory council, said Tuesday that he alerted the governor's
Page 25
GRAND JURY SAYS MASILOTTI, CRONY SCORED BIG WITH DIOCESE LAND DEAL Palm Beach Post
(Florida) December 13, 2006 Wednesday
office about Miteff but hadn't heard back. Typically, Miteff, whose term expires in October, would be suspended
pending the outcome of his case.
"I just don't know what the world is coming to," Busha said of Miteff. "He always was square and fair in discussion
and debate. He participated and attended meetings regularly."
Miteff was arrested Monday by the FBI and is scheduled to appear this morning before a federal magistrate in Fort
Pierce. Because Miteff is accused of trying to obstruct their investigation, federal prosecutors want him in custody until
trial.
Miteff is the third defendant to be charged in the Masilotti case. William Boose III was charged last month with
concealing Masilotti's secret role and $1.3 million profit in a Martin County government land deal.
Boose had negotiated a deal with prosecutors in which he would serve no more than three years in prison. But,
apparently, he has changed his mind. His attorneys contacted Senior U.S. District Judge Kenneth Ryskamp's office,
saying they may cancel a Thursday hearing set for Boose to enter a guilty plea, according to a judge's assistant.
Attorneys for Boose and Miteff did not return calls seeking comment.
According to Miteff's indictment, Masilotti pressured the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach to sell 49 acres to a
company Miteff headed. The commissioner also pushed county engineers to approve permits to build 218 homes on the
property -- despite concerns that its traffic would aggravate snarls at the nearby Southern Boulevard-State Road 7
intersection. Miteff then flipped the purchase contract for the property to GL Homes, which has all but completed its
Nautica Lakes subdivision on the property.
Masilotti promoted the church land sale throughout 2003, meeting twice with then-Bishop Sean O'Malley and
writing letters on Palm Beach County stationery that urged the sale, records showed. In conversations with Daniel
Lewis, the diocese's real estate broker, Masilotti made a threat: Choose the buyer willing to provide 15 acres for a park
or he would block development of the property.
Miteff's company, Community Preservation of Palm Beach County, offered the only bid that included a village
park. But once the church awarded the property to the company, the promised park disappeared.
Around Jan. 30, 2004, GL Homes made its first $750,000 payment to Miteff, according to his indictment. Days
later, Miteff wired $50,000 to an Atlantis casino bank account. Miteff and Masilotti then flew to the Paradise Island
resort on Feb. 6, 2004.
Later that day, Miteff forked over $17,000 in gambling chips. On Feb. 7, the indictment alleges, Masilotti took the
second, $22,000, stack.
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C)
Daniel Miteff (mug)
LOAD-DATE: December 15, 2006
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All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
December 12, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 731 words
HEADLINE: BUSH APPOINTEE IS 3RD ARREST IN MASILOTTI CASE
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
BODY:
The FBI arrested a governor's appointee to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council Monday, making him the
third defendant facing criminal charges in the corruption case against former Palm Beach County Commission
Chairman Tony Masilotti.
Daniel Miteff, a Wellington real estate consultant accused of making a $50,000 payoff to Masilotti for help in a
2003 church land deal, was booked into the Palm Beach County jail at 5:11 p.m. Monday. He will remain in custody
until a hearing before a federal magistrate in Fort Pierce, probably Wednesday.
Miteff was jailed on unspecified federal charges, the sheriff's booking blotter shows.
A federal prosecutor, reached late Monday, declined to elaborate, referring questions to the U.S. attorney's office in
Miami.
Miteff's attorney, Christopher Grillo, could not be reached at his Fort Lauderdale office.
Masilotti was charged Oct. 27 with honest services fraud, accused of hiding ill-gained profits from a series of land
deals. He is expected to plead guilty.
Also charged: William R. Boose III, a lawyer-lobbyist accused of helping hide Masilotti's profits. Boose has a
court hearing scheduled for Thursday.
Although the charges against Miteff have not been made public, the grand jury that accused Masilotti and Boose of
corruption had plenty to say about the consultant's role in the case.
In court documents, Masilotti is accused of putting pressure on the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach to sell 49 acres
to a company Miteff headed. The property, in Royal Palm Beach, was bought and then flipped to GL homes for a
million-dollar profit.
The charging documents against Masilotti show that a portion of his share, $50,000, was wired by Miteff to a
Bahamas bank in February 2004 and used by Masilotti to pay a gambling debt at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island.
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BUSH APPOINTEE IS 3RD ARREST IN MASILOTTI CASE Palm Beach Post (Florida) December 12, 2006 Tuesday
When the FBI quizzed Miteff about the deal this year, he lied to agents, the grand jury said.
The Palm Beach Post first reported the diocesan land deal in May. Miteff's $7 million land purchase was bankrolled
by investors Jeffrey and David Lee, two brothers whose sale of Martin County land to the South Florida Water
Management District netted Masilotti a $1.3 million profit, The Post found.
The Lees, former owners of the Black Diamond nursery in Wellington, have not been charged.
Masilotti promoted the church land sale throughout 2003, meeting twice with then-Bishop Sean O'Malley and
writing letters on Palm Beach County stationery that urged the sale, records showed. His pitch: Choose a buyer willing
to sell 15 acres to Royal Palm Beach for a much-needed park, while building fewer homes than the property's zoning
allowed. "My only goal is to build a better community for everyone involved," Masilotti wrote to church officials.
But the park Miteff's group promised to the church never materialized. In a May interview, Miteff said he knew
nothing about it.
"What you do is you buy a piece of property and then sell a piece of property," he said. "How am I going to do a
park? There's no profit in it."
Once the Lee group had a contract on the property, Masilotti arranged a meeting with the county engineer to
resolve a dispute over the proposed development's impact on traffic. Ultimately, the county allowed 218 homes to be
built on the property, despite concerns that its traffic would aggravate snarls at the nearby Southern Boulevard-State
Road 7 intersection.
Miteff's buyer, GL Homes, has developed a subdivision on the property called Nautica Lakes in which homes are
selling from $350,000 to more than $500,000.
While pushing the diocesan deal, Masilotti met with water district officials, urging them to buy the Lees' land to
expand a network of hiking trails in Martin and Palm Beach counties. Water district officials said Masilotti never
mentioned that his family had a financial interest in the deal.
Gov. Jeb Bush appointed Miteff, a 55-year-old civil engineer, to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council in
2005 for a term than expires Oct. 1, 2007.
This year, Masilotti attempted to insert Miteff in a deal to provide county land for a nonprofit children's shelter.
The deal fell apart several weeks before the grand jury issued subpoenas concerning the church and water district
transactions. At the time, Masilotti insisted that he never tried to steer the county land to Miteff and that he had nothing
to do with his business interests.
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C) & MAP (B&W)
1. (C) Daniel Miteff (mug) 2. (B&W) MARK HEMPHILL/Staff Artist Locator map showing Diocesan property in
Royal Palm Beach.
LOAD-DATE: December 14, 2006
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Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
November 10, 2006 Friday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1007 words
HEADLINE: GROWER PAID FOR DIRT ON MASILOTTI;
CALLERY-JUDGE GROVE ADMITS IT HIRED INVESTIGATOR
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Callery-Judge Grove, a citrus grower seeking county commission approval for development of its western property,
admitted Thursday that it paid roughly $500,000 last year for a private investigation of former County Commission
Chairman Tony Masilotti.
In a statement, the company and its law firm, Lewis, Longman & Walker, said they hired a private detective
code-named "Cobra" after Masilotti attempted to shake down Callery-Judge for his vote.
The sleuth turned up no hard evidence against Masilotti, but the grove and law firm said they are sharing what little
Cobra dredged up with federal prosecutors. Those prosecutors have charged Masilotti with corruption in connection
with a series of unrelated land deals that netted him $10 million.
"The reason the firms took the actions we did is simple, and we trust the public will understand," the grove and its
law firm said. "Our intent was to identify and expose possible corruption by a public official, and we did what we
thought was right."
For more than a year before the FBI began pursuing Masilotti, William "Cobra" Staubs was shadowing the former
commissioner on land and from the air. The Palm Beach Post first reported the caper on Oct. 29.
Quizzed by sheriff's deputies after his cover was blown, Staubs said he sifted through Masilotti's household trash
and followed him to the Bahamas. He said he used a helicopter to follow Masilotti's car and hovered over the home of
developer Bruce Rendina when Masilotti visited.
Cobra's mission was uncovered by sheriff's investigators after a tracking device was found strapped underneath
Masilotti's county-issued Ford Crown Victoria in mid-2005. The investigators concluded the device was legal and let
Staubs go.
Using records gathered in the closed case, the Post linked Cobra to Callery-Judge's lobbyist, Robert Diffenderfer, a
shareholder in the Lewis, Longman firm. For the Oct. 29 story, Diffenderfer said Staubs worked for the firm, but he
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GROWER PAID FOR DIRT ON MASILOTTI; CALLERY-JUDGE GROVE ADMITS IT HIRED INVESTIGATOR
Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 10, 2006 Friday
wouldn't elaborate.
"I never heard of this guy," Nathaniel Roberts, the grove's general manager, said last month when asked about
Staubs. But in an interview late Thursday, Diffenderfer and Roberts said Staubs was directed to dig up evidence of
wrongdoing that could be provided to news organizations and law enforcement agencies.
"Anything he found was to be forwarded to the press and to prosecutors," Roberts said.
The Post was among news organizations provided information, Diffenderfer said. No tips to the Post were
published without independent corroboration. "We get tips all the time from all sorts of people, and we routinely verify
them before putting them in the newspaper," Editor John Bartosek said.
Staubs said his assignment began in early 2005.
"I was hired to gather information on where he goes, what he does," he told sheriff's investigators, referring to
Masilotti. "They believe he has multiple women, that he's making more money than he says, that he favors certain
developers in town. The information was kind of vague, and they said if I was worth my salt, I would find out the who,
where and how."
Staubs found information on Masilotti tough to pin down. "The guy is slicker than 50-weight oil," he said. "There's
not enough you can rope around him to hang on."
Diffenderfer acknowledged that Staubs was paid for aerial surveillance of the commissioner. "We didn't tell him
how to do his job," the lobbyist explained.
Money also was not an issue. Staubs told sheriff's agents that his client had paid $500,000 to investigate Masilotti
for most of last year -- a figure that Diffenderfer and Roberts said was in the ballpark. "Too much is a good answer,"
Roberts said, confirming that the operation didn't come up with a lot.
Masilotti resigned last month after 14 years in public office, acknowledging that he would plead guilty to
honest-services fraud. He faces up to five years in prison and $10 million in penalties upon conviction.
The powerful politician made plenty of enemies with his mercurial temper and unpredictable behavior. Staubs'
account to agents offers a glimpse at how one tried to get him out of the way.
In an interview with the Post last month, Masilotti contended that Callery-Judge was attempting to extort his vote
for the grove's development. The longtime citrus concern is seeking county approval of 10,000 homes on 3,900 acres in
the commission district Masilotti represented. In office, Masilotti had opposed the development vigorously.
Roberts, the general manager, said he was so shaken when Masilotti approached him that he didn't know what to
do. He consulted with Diffenderfer, who agreed to hire a private eye before going to authorities.
"This had to do with corruption, not with this project," Roberts said. Masilotti could not be reached late Thursday.
Roberts wouldn't detail his allegation against Masilotti beyond what was contained in his statement.
"In late 2004-early 2005, Masilotti made an overture to Nat Roberts, that Roberts considered highly inappropriate
and possibly illegal," it said. "Masilotti has attempted to shift attention away from his own criminal conduct by making
the outrageous and false accusation that the private investigator was hired to dig up dirt on him in order to blackmail
him into acting favorably on Callery-Judge Grove's development application. Nothing could be further from the truth."
Staubs told sheriff's investigators that he and other investigators also followed County Commissioner Addie Greene
for two weeks, and that their client lost interest in her after that. Roberts and Diffenderfer said their sole focus was
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GROWER PAID FOR DIRT ON MASILOTTI; CALLERY-JUDGE GROVE ADMITS IT HIRED INVESTIGATOR
Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 10, 2006 Friday
Masilotti and they never ordered Cobra to tail any other commissioners.
On Wednesday and Thursday, they met individually with county commissioners to offer that assurance.
"Neither of our firms has ever been involved in anything like this before," the two said in their statement. "We have
long-standing reputations as fair and honest corporate citizens of Palm Beach County and the state. We are making this
information public because it is the right thing to do."
~ [email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C & B&W)
1. (C) Tony Masilotti (mug) 2. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office This device was found by sheriff's investigators
underneath Tony Masilotti's car. It was used by a private detective to track Masilotti.
LOAD-DATE: November 13, 2006
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Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
November 5, 2006 Sunday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 3725 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS
BYLINE: By STACEY SINGER and TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
BODY:
As multimillionaire developer Bruce Rendina battles deadly brain cancer, his friends and family hold vigil at his
Breakers West sickbed.
Yet one close friend is missing, the person he most wants to see: Tony Masilotti. For now, at least, that visit is out
of the question.
"The lawyers say he's got to avoid contact, and he cries," said his brother, Richard Rendina. "He cries a lot now, my
brother."
Bruce Rendina, founder of the Rendina Cos., one of the nation's biggest medical office building developers, figures
prominently in the federal grand jury investigation of Masilotti, who abruptly resigned from the Palm Beach County
Commission Oct. 27 when charged with corruption. Masilotti said he will plead guilty and faces up to five years in
prison and nearly $10 million in penalties. Rendina, 52, has not been charged.
Among other things, Masilotti, 50, is accused of accepting more than $100,000 in free charter jet flights from
Rendina, most of them gambling trips to the Bahamas. Masilotti never disclosed the gifts, the grand jury noted, while
steering a county land deal to Rendina, the sale of a 10-acre tract at Belvedere Road and State Road 7, next to Rendina's
Breakers West neighborhood.
Not mentioned by the grand jury: a relentless drive by Masilotti and Rendina to move The Scripps Research
Institute from Mecca Farms to Abacoa, one of Rendina's many projects.
Prosecutors contend that Masilotti's accepting Rendina's gifts cheated the public of his "honest services," the
federal crime with which he is charged.
Rendina's close friends and family say the truth is utterly different. This was a deep and loyal friendship, they said,
one that went back decades, long before Masilotti became a public official.
Rendina and his companies contributed to Masilotti's election campaigns; Rendina and his wife hosted a 2002
fund-raiser for him as well. They are so close that one or more of Masilotti's political enemies hired a private eye,
code-named Cobra, to flesh out their relationship.
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Sunday
Cobra strapped a tracking device to Masilotti's car last year and hovered over Rendina's house in a helicopter at
least once when Masilotti visited, according to sheriff's files.
Richard Rendina maintains there is nothing sinister about their relationship.
"They'd fish and they'd boat together. They'd go on family vacations together," Richard Rendina said. "Bruce has a
nationwide company -- the largest private medical real estate company in the country. There is no rational or reasonable
reason for him to do anything improper."
Most painfully, this shadow on Bruce Rendina's reputation is coming at a time when he is unable to defend himself,
his brother said.
"He's sick, and he's fighting for his life," Richard Rendina said.
Dr. Seth Herbst, Rendina's physician and a friend, said, "He deserves some respect. He is suffering. Bruce is sick
and he is trying to get better."
As chairman and CEO of the Rendina Cos., Bruce Rendina has scattered medical office buildings across Florida
and the nation as though they were Monopoly game pieces. As a partner with the original developer of Abacoa, George
de Guardiola, he shaped parts of Jupiter and West Palm Beach into his own version of Park Place and Boardwalk,
attractive new cityscapes with echoes of an old-fashioned, walkable downtown.
His friends called him "the original entourage guy," who loves to party with a pack of friends and is quick to pick
up the tab. He frequently rolled the dice at the Atlantis resort and casino in the Bahamas. If his companions ran out of
luck and money, he'd generously push a pile of his own chips toward them.
Did he ever push a pile of chips toward Masilotti?
"It happened with John Elway and Dan Marino, too," explained Richard Rendina, dropping the names of two NFL
Hall of Fame quarterbacks who gambled with his brother. "He threw chips at people all the time. He's just that way. If
he's winning, he wants everybody to have a good time."
His brother had a rule for Masilotti once he became an elected official, he added: Tony had to pay his own way.
Bruce Rendina is a high roller; legend has it that he didn't even blink after losing $500,000 at Paradise Island's
gaming tables. He was such a big player that Atlantis not only provides him rooms free of charge but also regularly sent
over a chartered jet so he would bring along friends. Masilotti and his family were among them, including Masilotti's
brother, Paul, a former Wellington building inspector who signed off on Rendina's building projects in the village. He
lost the village job last week, within days of the grand jury's citing his involvement in his brother's alleged corruption.
Paul Masilotti has not been charged.
Bruce and Richard Rendina grew up in a strict Roman Catholic family in Irvington, N.J., outside Newark. Their
mother was a homemaker, their father a salesman of aircraft parts.
"We were two Italian brothers raised in a tough part of New Jersey," Richard Rendina said. "We grew up beating
on each other, but we always hugged at the end."
Their father had a job offer in Fort Lauderdale in the 1960s, so the family moved.
By the time they had graduated, Richard was drafted to serve in Vietnam. Bruce went on to Florida State
University, graduating in 1976.
"He would write me every week. He'd start his letters, 'We're having a great time, having parties, all the women,'
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MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 5, 2006
Sunday
and then he'd get serious, talking about life and all that."
Bruce met a girl, Marji, he married in 1979, three years after becoming an accountant at Coopers & Lybrand. He
and Marji had three sons, Richard, Michael and David.
In 1987, he left to form a real estate development company, DASCO.
"His first medical office building was at St. Mary's, on 45th Street," Richard said. "Being a good Catholic boy, he
went in and met the nuns. He had a great program, giving equity participation to doctors in the building. They loved it
so much he did two, then three, then four."
His company was sold to Abe Gosman's firm PhyMatrix Corp. Rendina left in 1998 to start the Rendina Cos. He
had an interest in Renaissance Partners, a group involved in redeveloping downtown West Palm Beach, including 101
North Clematis, near the public fountains.
He linked up with de Guardiola to help him bring the town-within-a-town vision for Abacoa to fruition.
The slowest part to develop has been the workplace area. When the Scripps deal was announced, Rendina did
everything he could to woo the venture to Abacoa.
"It's about making Abacoa work," de Guardiola said.
"It will produce a financial gain for Bruce and I, but it's about making Abacoa work."
On Valentine's Day, the day the commission voted to put Scripps at Abacoa, Bruce Rendina was ecstatic.
"Today was a pure day. A pure day," he said. "The right reasons were given. The right decision was made. It just
makes me so happy. It makes me happy for George."
He vowed to celebrate. Two months later, he did, with a seven-day Caribbean mega-yacht cruise for family, friends
and business associates.
Some, knowing of his severe illness, called it a farewell cruise.
Herbst is angry at the suggestion.
"That's not what it was," he said.
"The tone of that was that Bruce went through brain surgery months before and was very successful. This was a
celebration, an enjoy-life kind of thing," Richard Rendina said.
Paul and Tony Masilotti, along with their families, joined the outing. Nobody paid, Richard Rendina said -- except,
he said, for Tony Masilotti, who wrote a check for $15,000.
"It was a small cruise liner with about 100 people in the Caribbean for seven days, dinners every night, partying
and laughter," Richard Rendina said. "It was a lot of fun, and he enjoyed the hell out of it."
Richard Rendina said his brother's sons Michael and Richard are prepared to take on the real estate business when
their father is ready to pass it on. Son David, 19, is studying at Florida State University.
Although most people in the county know Bruce Rendina for his business success and his shrewd and intense
deal-making, de Guardiola said they ought to know about his philanthropic gestures.
He's given millions to Catholic Charities, the Boys and Girls Clubs and more.
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MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 5, 2006
Sunday
"He has done a tremendous amount of good for the people of Palm Beach County," de Guardiola said.
Herbst, who has traveled to Massachusetts with Rendina for his treatments, recalled a characteristic moment.
"I'm sitting with Bruce Rendina, waiting for him to have one of his scans, and the Father came by. He asked to sit
and pray with him. Bruce wrote him a big check to help the mission in Nigeria that he took care of. That's the kind of
man he is," Herbst said.
"Do you remember the last line of Brian's Song?' He said, 'I love Brian Piccolo.' Well, I love Bruce Rendina. That's
all I've got to say to you."
The charging document against Masilotti focuses on a single, relatively small land deal that benefitted Rendina: It
was the sale of a 10-acre county-owned parcel in Masilotti's commission district known as the "Posse" property,
so-called because it was long used by the Palm Beach Mounted Posse, a nonprofit equestrian group.
Rendina's bid to erect medical offices there beat two other offers, despite the fact that it paid the county $700,000
less than one of the offers. On Jan. 13, 2004, Masilotti voted to accept Rendina's bid, without disclosing the gifts and
financial relationship he shared with Rendina, federal prosecutors said.
On Friday, County Administrator Robert Weisman ordered an internal investigation to determine how much
pressure Masilotti applied to steer the contract to Rendina -- and how Masilotti managed to insert his friend, Royal
Palm Beach Manager David Farber, onto the county bid selection committee.
For the Posse and other land deals, Masilotti was charged with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud. He
turned himself in on Friday, even as the attorney accused of helping him hide his gain from his another deal, William R.
Boose III, was charged with participating and covering up Masilotti's misuse of public office.
As the federal corruption probe widens, Commissioner Mary McCarty argues that all decisions in which Masilotti
cast decisive votes should be scrutinized, especially those that benefited his friend Rendina.
That includes the vote to put The Scripps Research Institute in the Abacoa development rather than Mecca Farms or
the other alternate sites under consideration, Boca Raton and the Florida Research Park, McCarty said.
"I think Scripps should be considered right with everything else," she said. "Do I relish that? No."
Rendina's friends say that, to their knowledge, Rendina and Masilotti never had a business relationship.
There was one deal involving publicly owned land in Royal Palm Beach, on the corner of Okeechobee Road and
Royal Palm Beach Boulevard. Masilotti, not yet in public office, was awarded a corner lot in 1990 by the Royal Palm
Beach Village Council.
He assigned the contract to RPB Investors, a company in which Rendina was director.
Then-Circuit Judge Edward Rogers nullified the deal shortly after Masilotti was elected Royal Palm Beach mayor
in 1992. The judge cited Sunshine Law violations in the manner village council members handled the bid award.
In the case of Scripps, Masilotti played a decisive role in assembling the deal that ultimately put the institute on
land in Abacoa on the Florida Atlantic University campus, working to bring down the cost and make the proposal
acceptable to Gov. Jeb Bush.
Scripps' president, Dr. Richard Lerner, notes that every prospective site had parties that would profit from the
institute's choice, and most had the favor of specific commissioners.
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MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 5, 2006
Sunday
For him, the "move Scripps" chapter has closed.
"Almost everybody who has been involved with this project has now taken the position that we need to move on
and focus on exciting research and building the cluster," Lerner said. "And that's what we intend to do."
Bruce Rendina, meanwhile, is focusing on recovery. The diagnosis reportedly is glioblastoma, a vicious brain
cancer. The 18-month survival rate for someone between 40 and 60 is just 20 percent, according to medical literature.
The conventional treatment is surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
Rendina is about to return to Massachusetts General Hospital to have a second growth removed.
"Just pray for him," Herbst said.
[email protected]
The Masilotti-Rendina connection
A federal grand jury found that Tony Masilotti and his family accepted more than $100,000 worth of free charter
flights from developer Bruce Rendina while pushing the sale of county landknown as the 'Posse'property to one of
Rendina's companies. Failure to disclose the free trips, most to the Atlantisresort and casino in the Bahamas, was one of
the ways the former county commissioner cheated his constituents out of his 'honest services,'a federal crime carrying a
maximum five-year prison sentence upon conviction. Here's what the grand jury and federal investigators said
happened:
May 18, 2003: Masilotti flies free from Nassau, Bahamas, to West Palm Beach, six months before Rendina
bids$2.8 million on the Posse property, the 10-acre northeast corner of Belvedere Road and State Road 7.
August 2003: County seeks bids for the Posse property.
September 2003: Masilotti closely monitors the competition, directing county staff to fax him the sign-in sheet for
a pre-bid conferenceand bid evaluations to determine if they were responsive, country records show.
Oct. 17 and 19, 2003: Masilotti's brother, Paul, flies free, a round trip between West Palm Beach and Nassau.
Hired as a Wellington village building inspector the following month, Paul Masilotti later is accused of signing off
Rendina's building projects -- a relationship that cost him his job, which he resigned Oct. 27.
Oct. 30, 2003: A three-member evaluation committee rates the bids. Added at the last minute to the panel is Royal
Palm Beach Village Manager David Farber, even though bidders were told only county staffers would be involved,
county records show.
Farber saysMasilotti asked him to help because the property was on the outskirts of the village, and wasn't told to
steer the deal to Rendina.
Nonetheless, the Rendina offer is ranked tops, even though competitor Faison Capital Development offered
$700,000 more than Rendina.
Assisting the evaluation is Wesley Blackman, then with Kilday & Associates, a planning firm with a county
consulting contract. The company also is a registered lobbyist for the Rendina Cos., county records show. Blackman
saysRendina did not influence him.
Dec. 5 and 7, 2003: Tony and Paul Masilotti fly free to Providence, R.I., then shuttle to Foxwood Resorts Casino
in Connecticut. From there they head to Bostonto watch the Miami Dolphins 12-0 lossto the New England Patriots.
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MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 5, 2006
Sunday
Jan. 10, 2004: Tony Masilotti flies free from Nassau to West Palm Beach. Three days later, at a county
commission meeting, he makes the motion to accept Rendina's bid and proposal to build professional offices on the
Posse property. The vote is unanimous. 'Masilotti failed to disclose his concealed financial relationship and substantial
gifts'from Rendina, the grand jury found.
March 25, 2004: Masilotti, then-wife Susan, and two of their children fly free from Nassau to West Palm Beach.
July 12, 2004: Masilotti meets with county staff to discuss Rendina's property purchase, 'never disclosing his
financial relationship and substantial gifts'from the developer, the grand jury reported.
Jan. 12, 2005: Masilotti flies from West Palm Beach to Nassau. A month later, he votes to accept the property
purchase contract with Rendina's company without disclosing their relationship.
Oct. 16, 2005: Tony and Paul Masilotti fly from Nassau to West Palm Beach.
February 2006: Masilotti continues pressing for answers and solutions for the traffic problems the Rendina project
is expected to generate. 'The developer is contacting Comm. Masilotti and wants a meeting,'County Administrator Bob
Weisman wrote to the county traffic departmentFeb. 8. 'Please review and advise.'
June 17: Masilotti's daughter, Jennifer Mae, marries. Both Rendina and his family, as well as village manager
Farber, are invited.
Oct. 27: A federal grand jury charges Masilotti with honest services fraud, in part citing his relationship with
Rendina.
Last week: Royal Palm Beach shelves annexation of the Posse property, citing the federal investigation of
Masilotti and the Posse sale to Rendina. Weisman orders an internal investigation into whether county officials handled
the deal properly.
'I ask you to consider this in the light that it was Commissioner Masilotti's intention to rig the process to help Mr.
Rendina,'he wrote to staff.
Masilotti's web of deals
How the grand jury says the players are connected
Palm Beach Aggregates:
Zoning change boosts profits
A piece of land on the outskirts of Wellington became much more valuable when Tony Masilotti orchestrated a
zoning change increasing the number of homes that could be built from 120 to 2,000. And he shared handsomely - and
secretly - in the profits.
Here's how it worked:
- Tony and Paul Masilotti, through the ARM Family Land Trust, lined up an option on 60 acres of land in western
Palm Beach County.
- That land was part of a 1,200-acre tract owned by Enrique Tomeu's company, Palm Beach Aggregates. With
Masilotti's interest in the 60-acre tract undisclosed, he pushes for and votes to increase vastly the number of homes that
can be built there.
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MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 5, 2006
Sunday
- Tony gave his brother $50,000 and Paul, in turn, gave Robert A. D'Angio Jr., the Royal Palm Beach attorney who
set up the ARM Family Land Trust, $100,000 as an escrow payment for the option.
- An attorney for Tomeu, John B. McCracken, set up a company called Micco Eastern Holdings, which bought a
$7.7 million, 300-acre property in Brevard County. Tomeu transferred ownership of Micco Eastern Holdings, along
with the company's only asset - the 300 acres in Brevard county - to the ARM Family Land Trust.
- The Masilottis, through the ARM Family Land Trust, then relinquish to Tomeu their $100,000 option on the
60-acre parcel in Palm Beach County. D'Angio, attorney for the Masilottis' trust, takes charge of Micco Eastern
Holdings.
- The deal netted the Masilottis a $7.7 million property and Tomeu the 60-acre parcel in the high-density 1,200-acre
tract.
- Lennar Homes contracts to pay $300 million to Tomeu's Palm Beach Aggregates for the 1,200 acres where,
thanks to Tony Masilotti's help, it can now build 2,000 homes.
Palm Beach Diocese land flip:
Investors help Masilotti pay off gambling debt
In this deal, County Commissioner Tony Masilotti is accused of coercing the Diocese of Palm Beach to sell a
50-acre parcel to a group of investors who later helped Masilotti pay off a gambling debt.
Here's how it worked:
2003-2004
- Tony Masilotti persuaded the diocese to sign a contract with Community Preservation of Palm Beach County
Inc., a company operated by Daniel Miteff.
- Tullio `Chic' Cecchinelli, a Royal Palm Beach retiree, invested $50,000 in the deal.
- Masilotti joined the deal, his interest hidden behind Miteff and Cecchinelli. Masilotti used his role as county
commissioner to resolve traffic issues and increase building density - increasing the value of the land.
- David and Jeffrey Lee bought out Cecchinelli's interest in the deal, becoming partners with Community
Preservation.
- GL Homes bought the land contract from Community Preservation - a $900,000 profit for Miteff and the Lees.
GL then built Nautica Lakes.
- Miteff and Masilotti flew to the Bahamas, where $50,000 was deposited into a bank account to help Masilotti
pay off gambling losses. Masilotti failed to report the money to the IRS.
- Miteff is accused of lying to investigators and helping Masilotti hide his profit. No charges have been filed
against Miteff.
Ninejems property
Calculated maneuvering conceals a complex deal
Here's how it worked:
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MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 5, 2006
Sunday
2003-2005
- Tony Masilotti, as county commissioner, helped increase the value of Jeffrey and David Lee's 230-acre Black
Diamond Nursery in Wellington by cutting through red tape, enabling more homes to be built.
- Masilotti and his wife at the time, Susan, secretly paid the low ball price of $370,000 for a piece of a deal with
the Lee brothers to buy a 150-acre section of a 3,500-acre tract known as the Ninejems property.
- Attorney William Boose set up a land trust to conceal Masilotti's purchase of the 150 optioned acres. Boose, who
frequently does business before the county commission, gave Masilotti a steep discount on legal fees.
- Richard Crum, an accountant at Boose's firm, was placed in charge of the land trust, named Crum Trust.
- The Lees' lawyer, Harvey Oyer, arranged the $7.9 million purchase of the Ninejems property. Oyer also took
repeated steps to hide Masilotti's interest.
- When the South Florida Water Management District expressed an interest in buying the Martin County land, as
part of Everglades and Loxahatcheee River restoration, Masilotti pushed for the sale at meetings of the water district
and Palm Beach and Martin county commissions.
- Susan Masilotti, named in papers as beneficiary of the trust, wrote checks - at the behest of Tony and Boose - to
cover the balance of the purchase price. In addition, Oyer told the water district that the Lee brothers owned the trust.
- Boose asked Jeffrey Lee to buy out Susan Masilotti's interest in the Crum Trust, further concealing Tony
Masilotti's involvement from the water district. Other land swap and option agreements concealed Tony's interest, as he
secretly sold 110 acres to the Lees for $1.7 million. Susan Masilotti kept the remaining 40 acres, later transferring it to
Tony Masilotti as part of their divorce settlement.
- Oyer transferred $1.7 million to Boose. Boose submitted fraudulent billing statements to conceal free legal
services for Tony Masilotti.
Posse property
Masilotti takes gifts, gives vote
Here's how it worked:
2003-2006
- Developer Bruce A. Rendina treated County Commissioner Tony Masilotti, Masilotti's wife, Susan, two children
and brother, Paul, to more than $100,000 worth of trips to the Bahamas on chartered aircraft. Tony and Paul Masilotti
also flew from West Palm Beach to Providence, R.I., courtesy of Rendina.
- Tony Masilotti, without disclosing those gifts, voted to accept Rendina's bid for commercial development of a
10-acre, county-owned property near Belvedere Road and State Road 7, over the top bidder.
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info boxes at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (1 C & 5 B&W) & MAP (3 B&W)
1. (C) Bruce Rendina Now in the hospital, he gave Masilotti gifts but is not charged in the ex-official's case. (mug) 2.
(B&W) Tony Masilotti (mug) 3. (B&W) Paul Masilotti (mug) 4. (B&W) Bruce Rendina (mug) 5. (B&W) William
Boose (mug) 6. (B&W) Harvey Oyer (mug) STAFF GRAPHIC 7. (B&W) Site of proposed homes 8. (B&W) Diocesan
property 9 (B&W) Location of Posse land
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MASILOTTI, DEVELOPER CALLED FRIENDS, NOT DEALERS Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 5, 2006
Sunday
LOAD-DATE: November 7, 2006
Page 40
22 of 40 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
November 4, 2006 Saturday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2405 words
HEADLINE: LOBBYIST CHARGED IN MASILOTTI CASE
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ and JANE MUSGRAVE Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Political fallout again shook Palm Beach County government Friday when William Boose, a powerful lobbyist and
former planning director, was charged as a co-conspirator in the federal corruption case against former County
Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti.
Boose, 62, founding partner of a prominent downtown law firm, is accused of helping to conceal Masilotti's $1.3
million profit from a government land deal. If convicted, he faces a maximum three-year prison sentence and $250,000
fine. He also could be disbarred and stripped of his right to vote.
A grand jury accused Boose of helping Masilotti cover up a scheme to secretly profit from a 2003 land deal in
Martin County.
When FBI agents started asking questions, Boose allegedly lied and falsified legal bills to disguise the fact he didn't
charge Masilotti full price for legal services. He worked on Masilotti's deal while lobbying the county commission for
other developer clients. His business relationship with the commissioner never was disclosed, the grand jury reported.
The grand jury issued the criminal charge against Boose in an information, a federal court document typically used
when the defendant is negotiating a plea bargain. Boose hired attorney Jack Goldberger, who has a reputation for
arranging plea deals for high-profile clients.
Goldberger said Boose hadn't decided whether to fight. "We really don't know," he said. "He's cooperating with the
authorities. We've had frank discussions with the authorities. We hope to resolve the matter."
Masilotti reached out to Boose in 2002 as the commissioner plotted a scheme to profit from a Martin County land
purchase by the South Florida Water Management District, a well-publicized acquisition to help clean up the
Loxahatchee River. Masilotti wanted to secretly own land that the district would buy. Prosecutors allege Boose
provided the vehicle: a secret land trust.
The land deal hit a snag when the district required disclosure of who was behind the land trust. Boose, according to
the grand jury, helped engineer a land swap that would hide Masilotti's $1.3 million profit.
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LOBBYIST CHARGED IN MASILOTTI CASE Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 4, 2006 Saturday
Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Kastrenakes and Stephen Carlton alleged that Boose, while representing the former
commissioner, knew Masilotti was abusing the power of his public office for personal profit. Boose's participation in
the scheme broke a law called "misprision of a felony."
"A law degree is not a license to assist public officials in violating the law," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta
said in a statement. "Indeed, of all professions, attorneys and law enforcement officials have a heightened duty to take
all possible steps to uphold the law."
Boose is to surrender Monday at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, where Masilotti, at an initial hearing Friday,
was handcuffed and stripped of his necktie and belt in preparation for fingerprinting and mug shots. Masilotti, who
resigned last week and said he planned to plead guilty, faces up to five years in prison and forfeiture of $9.5 million.
The charge against Boose culminated a week of stunned reaction to county government's worst scandal in at least
90 years:
* In West Palm Beach, Masilotti's official portrait was stripped from the walls of public buildings and his image
digitally erased from a group photo of the commission posted on its Web site. County Administrator Robert Weisman
on Friday ordered an internal investigation into the sale of the county's "Posse" property to Masilotti's pal Bruce
Rendina, another deal cited by the grand jury. "I ask you to consider this in the light that it was Commissioner
Masilotti's intention to rig the process to help Mr. Rendina," Weisman wrote in his staff directive.
* In Royal Palm Beach, where Masilotti served as mayor before his 1998 election to the commission, the
government has put on hold the annexation of the 10-acre Posse property, at Belvedere Road and State Road 7, until the
federal investigation subsides. Officials also plan to strip Masilotti's name from a village park, an honor he sought from
the village council for providing county money for village services.
* In Wellington, Masilotti's brother, Paul, quit his job as a village building inspector Thursday. His bosses had
threatened to fire him for accepting a free seven-day cruise and gambling trips from Rendina while signing off as an
inspector on the construction of Rendina's office buildings.
* Wellington also asked the county commission to retract its rezoning of 1,200 acres bordering the village that are
owned by Palm Beach Aggregates. The zoning, approved in 2004, allows construction of 2,000 homes where only 120
had been allowed. Tony Masilotti is accused of receiving $7.7 million worth of property for engineering the zoning
change.
* Across the county, politicos were unnerved by a Palm Beach Post report Sunday that Masilotti had been tailed
for nearly a year by a private eye code-named "Cobra," who sifted through his trash and watched from a helicopter as
Masilotti visited Rendina's home in the Breakers West gated community. Cobra's cover was blown when sheriff's
agents traced a tracking device found beneath Masilotti's county automobile.
The caper prompted County Commissioner Karen Marcus to demand an explanation from the Lewis, Longman and
Walker law firm. According to billing, the law firm and shareholder Robert Diffenderfer repeatedly had been called
from Cobra's cellphone.
Many in political office said the Masilotti scandal has further eroded the public's trust of its servants. Still not
fathomed: how voters will react at the polls Tuesday, particularly toward Republicans.
Masilotti's meltdown followed that of two other prominent Republican politicians. Former West Palm Beach City
Commissioner Ray Liberti is serving an 18-month sentence for accepting $66,000 in bribes, most of it delivered in a
shaving kit. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley resigned and checked into an Arizona alcohol rehabilitation facility after his
electronic sexual banter with underage congressional pages surfaced.
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LOBBYIST CHARGED IN MASILOTTI CASE Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 4, 2006 Saturday
"I've been in government 30 years and I've never seen a year like this one," Wellington Village Manager Charles
Lynn said. "It hasn't been a good year for public service in general."
Well-connected in political circles, Boose in the 1970s worked as an assistant county attorney and later as the
county's first planning director. He is a University of Florida law school graduate and a founding partner of Boose
Casey Ciklin Lubitz Martens McBane & O'Connell, a 33-lawyer firm founded in 1985.
The firm had no comment on Boose's trouble. Goldberger said Boose has no immediate plans to quit the firm. But
partner Alan Ciklin wrote late Friday to the county attorney that the firm had resigned as counsel on a county bond issue
-- a job that Masilotti voted to approve without disclosing his business relationship with Boose, the grand jury pointed
out.
Foes and friends alike noted that Boose, with his sense of humor and easygoing style, seemed too smart to become
embroiled in such a mess.
"I can't imagine a man of his stature and his intelligence finding himself in this situation or allowing himself to be
placed in this situation," said Joanne Davis, an environmentalist who heads the West Palm Beach office of 1000 Friends
of Florida. "These are supposed to be our county leaders?" she said. "That's scary."
Peter Sachs, a Boca Raton attorney who often represented homeowners opposed to projects Boose championed,
described the events as "sad, very sad."
"He's always been known as one of the top two or three land use attorneys in the county," Sachs said. While
cautioning that all the facts have yet to come out, he said he is confident Boose's law firm will survive.
"It will be a loss. It will be a blow," he said. "But my understanding is that they have multiple partners who bring in
business. They'll reorganize. They'll change the firm's name. All firms have to reorganize from time to time."
Days before the charges were announced, Boose's friends said they knew ill winds were blowing.
"I talked to him about 10 days ago, roughly when he realized something major was up," said George Elmore, a
longtime friend and lobbying client. "He's shook. He doesn't know what to do."
Like scores of major landowners in the county, Elmore, the multimillionaire founder of Delray Beach-based
Hardrives construction, credits Boose with getting government agencies to approve large, problem-plagued
development projects that would have flummoxed other attorneys.
Land use attorney Martin Perry said the impact from Boose has been muted somewhat by previous events. "The
Liberti issue was more bewildering to me -- the sheer stupidity of it all," Perry said.
Still, he added, the Masilotti case hit hard. "There's the sense that the whole structure is threatened. From a
community perspective, it will be a much better place when the final curtain drops."
Staff writer Kelly Wolfe contributed to this story.
~ [email protected]
~ [email protected]
Timeline of events
William Boose was charged Friday as a criminalco-conspirator of former County Commission Chairman Tony
Masilotti. The lobbyist is accused of covering up Masilotti's stake in a government land deal and lying to the FBI
Page 43
LOBBYIST CHARGED IN MASILOTTI CASE Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 4, 2006 Saturday
about it. Here's what the grand jury investigating Masilotti says about Boose's role:
August 2002: Masilotti retains Boose to create a secret land trust to conceal his $367,500 purchase of Martin
County land that will be sold to the South Florida Water Management District for a $1.3 million profit. Boose agrees to
handle the legal work for free. The arrangement never is declared, even when Boose seeks favorable votes for his
clients' projects from Masilotti and other commissioners.
Aug. 28, 2002: Boose sets up a land trust with Richard Crum, an accountant at Boose's law firm, as trustee. The
beneficiary of the trust is Susan Masilotti, then the commissioner's wife. She is a 'straw client' of Boose, who really is
working for the commissioner, the grand jury said. The next month, Masilotti purchases 150 acres in Martin County
from David and Jeffrey Lee. Two years earlier, Masilotti had helped the Lees win previously denied development
approvals for their Black Diamond nursery in Wellington. During the next year, Masilotti repeatedly will use his
political influence to lobby for the water district purchase without disclosing his personal financial interest.
Nov. 25, 2003: Harvey Oyer, lawyer for the Lees, causes 'a materially false electronic mail transmission to be
made' to the water district stating that the beneficiaries of the Crum trust are the Lees -- an act that hides the Masilottis'
financial interest from the water district. State law requires the sellers to identify all the beneficiaries of the government
deal, 'subject to the penalties prescribed for perjury.' Oyer has not been charged.
November-December 2003: Boose urges Jeffrey Lee to buy the Crum trust's 150 acres before the sale goes forward,
to conceal Masilotti's involvement. Lee balks.
March 2004: Boose tells the Lees and their attorney that they need to swap land so Masilotti isn't selling property
directly to the water district. 'As a result, the Crum trust and its true beneficial owner would remain concealed from the
public,' the grand jury wrote. That same month, in a telephone conference call that includes Boose, the Lees and Oyer,
Masilotti threatens to obstruct the water district deal unless the Lees not only agree to the swap but cover the $50,000 in
closing costs. The Lees agree and receive an option to buy back 110 acres swapped to Masilotti -- but only if the water
district deal goes through.
July 13, 2004: Masilotti votes to hire Boose's law firm to handle a $50 million bond issue. Neither Boose nor
Masilotti discloses that the attorney is representing the commissioner in a land deal at a 'substantially discounted rate.'
April 2005: The Lee brothers exercise the option to buy 110 acres from the Crum trust. Oyer wires $1.7 million to
Boose, who then transfers the money to Masilotti.
May-December 2005: Masilotti invests his profit of $1.3 million in 13 bank certificates of deposit in the names of
family members. Forty acres in Martin County remain held by the Crum trust.
April 24: Weeks after the Martin County deal is exposed in The Palm Beach Post, Boose directs Crum to resign as
trustee and transfer the 40 acres to Susan Masilotti. The following month, she transfers the property to the
commissioner as part of their divorce settlement.
May: With federal agents in pursuit, Boose 'knowingly and materially altered, and caused to be materially altered,
certain notations, notes and a billing sheet ... which concealed from all persons, including federal law enforcement,
Masilotti's financial interest,' the grand jury wrote. As part of the alleged concealment, Boose sends a fraudulent billing
statement to Susan Masilotti to cover up the free legal services provided to her ex-husband. In the statement, Boose
claims to have worked just 9.3 hours on the deal.
Oct. 12: Boose 'intentionally misled and made material false statements to agents of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and Internal Revenue Service when questioned about his knowledge of Masilotti's involvement in the
transactions.'
Page 44
LOBBYIST CHARGED IN MASILOTTI CASE Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 4, 2006 Saturday
William Boose III
Personal: Age 62; divorced father of an adult daughter.
Hometown: Falls City, Neb.
Reputation: Considered the dean of county's land use attorneys. Has been involved in large development deals from
Jupiter to western Boca Raton. Counts Target Corp., mall developer Simon Property Co. and local land baron George
Elmore among his clients.
Professional: Founding partner of the 33-member law firm Boose Casey Ciklin Lubitz Martens McBane &
O'Connell; worked as an assistant Palm Beach County attorney and director of the county Department of Planning,
Zoning and Building, 1970-74.
Education: Bachelor's degree, Westminster College, Fulton, Mo.; law degree, University of Florida.
Signature projects: Developed Northbridge Centre, the so-called 'Darth Vader' building in downtown West Palm
Beach; was part of partnership that sold the Amtrak station in West Palm Beach to the city for $2.5 million in 1987,
making $1.9 million; overcame resident opposition to persuade the commission to approve the Mission Bay shopping
center and residential development west of Boca Raton.
Dark moment: Nearly was forced into bankruptcy during recession of late 1980s. Lost waterfront house and
ownership of Northbridge Centre.
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info boxes at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (B&W)
William Boose: Former planning chief could face three years, $250,000 fine. (mug)
LOAD-DATE: November 6, 2006
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23 of 40 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
November 3, 2006 Friday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1C
LENGTH: 1149 words
HEADLINE: SITE LINKED TO MASILOTTI PUT ON HOLD;
FEDS SAY HE HELPED DEVELOPER FRIEND GET LAND
BYLINE: By LESTER J. DAVIS and TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: ROYAL PALM BEACH
BODY:
The village has postponed annexing a piece of land with ties to the federal investigation of disgraced former County
Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti to give investigators a chance to study the deal.
The 10-acre site at State Road 7 and Belvedere Road was acquired from the county with the commissioner's help by
developer Bruce Rendina, a friend of Masilotti.
The deal is among several possibly tainted projects named by a federal grand jury that last week charged Masilotti
with conspiracy to violate the federal honest-services statute, a law that allows prosecutors to charge public officials
with corruption even if there was no direct bribe to secure an official act.
The recent web of corruption that has ensnared Florida politicians "gives existing elected officials reason to pause
and make sure the steps we're taking are in the best interest of the public," Village Manager David Farber said.
"In America you're still innocent until proven guilty," Farber added, "and Mr. Rendina has historically enjoyed a
good reputation. We want to make sure that our annexation doesn't impede the ongoing investigation."
Farber said the council will take up the annexation at its next meeting, scheduled for Nov. 16.
Federal authorities say Masilotti, mayor of the village from 1992 to 1998, used his influence with the council to
help Rendina, a major developer, acquire the land.
In exchange, Masilotti and his family reportedly received $100,000 worth of free trips on a private aircraft and
other gifts from Rendina.
The parcel, also known as the posse property, was acquired by the county in 1944 and since 1982 had been leased
to the Palm Beach County Mounted Posse, a nonprofit equestrian group. After the property was declared surplus, the
group was relocated to new quarters at the county's Okeeheelee Park.
Page 46
SITE LINKED TO MASILOTTI PUT ON HOLD; FEDS SAY HE HELPED DEVELOPER FRIEND GET LAND
Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 3, 2006 Friday
The county first issued a request for proposals for its sale in August 2003. Of the three top bids, Rendina Cos.' $2.8
million bid ranked No. 2, behind $3.6 million offered by Faison Capital Development and ahead of $2.7 million bid by
Lennar.
Bidder 'really got nailed'
Faison Managing Director Pryse Elam said he had felt confident that his company would win because its bid was so
much higher than Rendina's.
But as a county evaluation committee deliberated on Oct. 30, 2003, he said he realized the bid would be awarded to
Rendina.
"We really got nailed," he said. "I got up and left. It was the first time and the last time we bid on county property."
Throughout the selection process, Masilotti kept a close watch, county records show. The county property and real
estate management division was directed to fax Masilotti the sign-in sheet for a Sept. 10, 2003, meeting of interested
bidders and in-house evaluations of bids to determine if each bid was responsive.
Masilotti also asked that Farber be included on the evaluation panel -- a request that skirted the selection process
outlined in the county's request for proposals.
The request stated that the submissions would be evaluated by a three-member selection committee "which shall be
comprised of three county employees."
In a Oct. 9, 2003, letter, prospective bidders were told that the committee would include Ross Hering, director of
the real estate division, Richard Bogatin, the division's property manager, and a parks and recreation department
representative who ended up being Dennis Eshleman, the department director.
At the last minute, Bogatin was replaced by Farber, who was hired as Royal Palm Beach's village manager while
Masilotti was the mayor.
He and Masilotti were so close that Farber was invited -- along with Rendina -- to the June wedding of Masilotti's
daughter, Jennifer Mae.
Having a representative from the village on the selection committee was a no brainer because the property, once
developed, would directly affect village residents, Farber said.
"The reason I was presented to be on the committee is because" the owners of the property "anticipated annexing
into the village at some point," Farber said.
The thinking, said Farber, was that since the land had already won county approval for development, why not bring
the parcel into the village and reap its financial rewards?
Farber says at no time during his stint on the selection committee did he feel pressured by Masilotti to award the
deal to Rendina.
County Attorney Denise Nieman said switches like the last-minute deal that placed Farber on the committee should
be avoided -- because they could lead to bid protests.
"I always advise that departments should follow an RFP (request for proposals)," Nieman said in August. "It just
raises an issue. What you say in your RFP is what you should do."
While Masilotti personally asked Farber to be on the committee, Hering said the switch was his idea, that he felt
Page 47
SITE LINKED TO MASILOTTI PUT ON HOLD; FEDS SAY HE HELPED DEVELOPER FRIEND GET LAND
Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 3, 2006 Friday
Royal Palm Beach should be represented should the property ever be annexed into the village. He said he was under no
pressure to sell the land to Rendina.
Of the three panelists, Farber gave Rendina the highest score -- and trashed Faison, the high bidder, giving its
proposal a zero.
While the other panelists also favored Rendina, their point spreads were not as dramatic.
Farber's scores made Rendina's plan for commercial and professional office space look like a standout to the county
commission, with a combined committee score of 83.7 compared to 76.7 for Lennar, which proposed 108 townhouses,
and just 73 for high bidder Faison, which proposed 128 homes plus retail store space.
"In the hierarchy of uses the best use" came from Rendina, Farber said.
Assisting the evaluation was Wesley Blackman, then employed by Kilday & Associates, a planning consultant. At
the same time he was advising the committee, Blackman was a registered as a lobbyist for the Rendina Companies,
records show.
Consultant denies conflict
Blackman said he didn't do any work for Rendina, that other Kilday consultants did. "It's like a blanket thing," he
said of how Kilday registers its lobbyists with the county.
As for his work for the evaluation committee, Blackman said he felt no pressure to steer the property to Rendina
and offered no overall opinion of the proposals -- just whether they met zoning requirements and how they would affect
traffic.
"I was there to do an objective analysis and that's what I did," Blackman said. "There was no overt, covert or
whatever suggestion to do otherwise."
On Jan. 13, 2004, on a motion from Masilotti, the commission awarded the property to Rendina.
After the award, Masilotti continued to stay on top of county staffers responsible to giving development approval
for Rendina's project.
As recently as February, he was pressing for answers and solutions for the traffic problems the project is expected
to generate.
"The developer is contacting Comm. Masilotti and wants a meeting," County Administrator Bob Weisman wrote
to the county traffic department on Feb. 8. "Please review and advise."
[email protected]
NOTES: Did not run MSL.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2 C & 1 B&W) & MAP (B&W)
1. Bruce Rendina (mug) 2. Tony Masilotti (mug) 3. TIM STEPIEN/Staff Photographer Royal Palm Beach has delayed
plans to annex this 10-acre site at State Road 7 and Belvedere Road. 4. TIM BRITTON/Staff Artist Posse property
LOAD-DATE: November 6, 2006
Page 48
24 of 40 DOCUMENTS
Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
November 1, 2006 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1784 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI GRAND JURY HIGHLIGHTS LOBBYIST'S ROLE
BYLINE: By JANE MUSGRAVE and TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
William Boose, one of Palm Beach County's most influential lobbyists, is a central figure in the biggest corruption
scandal to rock county government in nearly a century.
A federal grand jury that indicted former County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti in a land-deal conspiracy
also is looking at Boose.
In the criminal information filed against Masilotti, the grand jury found Boose helped Masilotti hide his interest in
a government land deal in Martin County. When FBI agents started asking questions, Boose falsified legal bills to
disguise the fact that he didn't charge Masilotti full price for legal services, according to the court record. He worked on
Masilotti's land deal while lobbying the county commission for other developer clients. His business relationship with
the commissioner never was disclosed, the grand jury reported.
No criminal charges against Boose, 62, have been made public, but he has hired attorney Jack Goldberger -- a legal
powerhouse who has a reputation for working with authorities to negotiate plea deals for high-profile clients.
Goldberger and his client aren't talking.
Boose's friends are worried. "I talked to him about 10 days ago, roughly when he realized something major was
up," said George Elmore, a long-time friend and lobbying client. "Be kind to him."
Like scores of major landowners in the county, Elmore, the multimillionaire founder of Delray Beach-based
Hardrives construction, credits Boose with getting government agencies to approve large, problem-plagued projects that
would have flummoxed other attorneys.
Masilotti reached out to Boose in 2002 as the commissioner plotted a scheme to profit from a Martin County land
purchase by the South Florida Water Management District, a well-publicized acquisition to help clean up the
Loxahatchee River. Masilotti wanted to secretly own land that the district would buy. Boose provided the vehicle: a
secret land trust, prosecutors alleged.
The land deal hit a snag when the district required disclosure of who was behind the land trust. Boose, according to
Page 49
MASILOTTI GRAND JURY HIGHLIGHTS LOBBYIST'S ROLE Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 1, 2006
Wednesday
the grand jury, helped engineer a land swap that would hide Masilotti's $1.3 million profit.
Boose has weathered adversity before.
In the 1980s, Boose was a tanned, fit and good-looking farm boy who had a wildly successful law practice, a
two-story Colonial-style house along the Intracoastal Waterway in West Palm Beach and a reputation as the man
high-rollers should see if they wanted to develop property in Palm Beach County.
Then came the late-'80s real-estate crash.
"He would have been a lot better off to file for bankruptcy," Elmore recalled. "But he wouldn't because it was
against his principles."
Then Elmore added with a rueful laugh, "He's concerned about his image."
The image Boose carefully cultivated, the one that kept his financial problems hidden, allowed him to weather a
financial storm that might have sunk lesser men.
It's a reputation Boose developed early in his multifaceted career, which took him from a $20,000 job as the
county's first planning director to the height of his profession. After graduating from law school at the University of
Florida, he got real-estate and general contractor's licenses and eventually became a developer himself.
Boose helped found the company that became Touchstone-Webb Realty. He was in a partnership that developed
the Northbridge Centre, the black high-rise in downtown West Palm Beach known as the Darth Vader building. He was
one of the owners of the Amtrak station on Tamarind Avenue before selling it to the city of West Palm Beach for $2.5
million. He has handled scores of large-scale rezoning requests.
"He's a workaholic," said County Commissioner Karen Marcus, who has known Boose since she was a commission
aide.
Her first memory of him was when she was 19 and he and another young lawyer tried to pick up her and a friend as
they were leaving the courthouse. Neither she nor her friend became romantically involved with either of the attorneys,
but she and Boose became fast friends.
His friendship with commissioners has been both his strength and a sore point among those who question whether
it made him uniquely qualified to persuade the commission to embrace unchecked development.
"He had an inordinate amount of influence with them because he knew them," said Dorothy Wilken, a former
county commissioner and clerk of courts.
After serving as the county's first director of planning, zoning and building, he opened a private land-use law
practice and began lobbying the commission. Based in part on his actions, Wilken unsuccessfully pushed for a law to
restrict the ability of former county staffers to lobby the commission.
It was a time when county government was ruled by a group of young men and women dubbed the Kiddie Car
Gang. Though some, such as current Airports Director Bruce Pelly and Assistant County Administrator Vince
Bonvento, made careers in county offices, many turned up on the other side of the podium as lobbyists.
Boose's change of uniform was noteworthy because he had authored the county first comprehensive land-use plan,
a document that won awards and rave reviews from managed-growth advocates.
"The ironic part is after assisting the county commission in adopting an award-winning land-use plan in the 1970s,
he went to the other side and began to dismantle it," Wilken said. "He knew where all the loopholes were."
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MASILOTTI GRAND JURY HIGHLIGHTS LOBBYIST'S ROLE Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 1, 2006
Wednesday
Former Commissioner Dennis Koehler, who was a member of the Kiddie Car Gang, said Wilken's criticism is
unfounded.
In many respects, Boose was ahead of his time, he said. Long before impact fees were required of developers,
Boose would force clients to donate land for parks or schools or pay for multimillion-dollar road projects to get
development approval.
And, Koehler said, Boose wouldn't let his clients forget promises. "I don't think he created any loopholes," Koehler
said. "He played the game straight up. I would credit Bill with influencing those kind of development contributions, and
I would think that's a fine legacy."
And, those who knew him said, his rise wasn't happenstance. He set five-year plans for himself. A native of
Nebraska, he went to law school in Florida because he knew it was a high-growth state. He planned his moves carefully
and then worked hard to achieve his goals.
He once described himself this way: "I consider myself a B-skill player who tries to participate at an A level
through intensive preparation."
The divorced father of an adult daughter, he lives with a longtime girlfriend in Palm Beach Gardens.
"He's gone through it all," Elmore said. "He's had trials and tribulations in his personal life. He takes on challenges
and finds a way to solve them. He perseveres."
Timeline of events
William Boose, a leading Palm Beach County lobbyist, is considered one of the best at getting the county
commission to approve land use and zoning changes for developers. Now he is a central figure in the corruption case
against former County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti. Here's what the grand jury investigating Masilotti said
about Boose's role:
August 2002: Masilotti retains Boose to create a secret land trust to conceal his $367,500 purchase of Martin
County land that will be sold to the South Florida Water Management District for a $1.3 million profit. Boose agrees to
handle the legal work for free. The arrangement never is declared, even when Boose seeks favorable votes for his
clients' projects from Masilotti and other commissioners.
Aug. 28, 2002: Boose sets up a land trust with Richard Crum, an accountant at Boose's law firm, as trustee. The
beneficiary of the trust is Susan Masilotti, then the commissioner's wife. The following month, Masilotti purchases 150
acres in Martin County from David and Jeffrey Lee. Two years earlier, Masilotti had helped the Lees win previously
denied development approvals for their Black Diamond nursery in Wellington. During the next year, Masilotti
repeatedly will use his political influence to lobby for the water district purchase without disclosing his personal
financial interest.
Nov. 25, 2003: Harvey Oyer, lawyer for the Lees, "caused a materially false electronic mail transmission to be
made" to the water district stating that the beneficiaries of the Crum Trust were the Lees -- an act that hid the Masilottis'
financial interest in the water district land purchase. State law required the sellers to identify all the beneficiaries of the
government deal, "subject to the penalties prescribed for perjury."
November-December 2003: Boose urges Jeffrey Lee to buy the Crum Trust's 150 acres before the sale goes
forward, in order to conceal Masilotti's involvement. Lee balks.
March 2004: Boose tells the Lees and their attorney that they need to swap land so that Masilotti isn't selling
property directly to the water district. "As a result, the Crum Trust and its true beneficial owner would remain concealed
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MASILOTTI GRAND JURY HIGHLIGHTS LOBBYIST'S ROLE Palm Beach Post (Florida) November 1, 2006
Wednesday
from the public," the grand jury wrote. That same month, in a telephone conference call that includes Boose, the Lees
and Oyer, Masilotti threatens to obstruct the water district deal unless the Lees not only agree to the swap but cover the
$50,000 in closing costs. The Lees agree and received an option to buy back 110 acres swapped to Masilotti -- but only
if the water district deal goes through.
July 13, 2004: Masilotti votes to hire Boose's law firm to handle a $50 million bond issue. Neither Boose nor
Masilotti disclose that the attorney is representing the commissioner in a land deal at a "substantially discounted rate."
April 2005: The Lee brothers exercise the option to buy 110 acres from the Crum trust. Oyer wires $1.7 million to
Boose, who then transfers the money to Masilotti.
May-December 2005: Masilotti invests his profit -- $1.3 million -- in 13 bank certificates of deposit in the names
of various family members. Forty acres in Martin County remain held by the Crum trust.
April 24: Weeks after the Martin County deal is exposed in The Palm Beach Post, Boose directs Crum to resign as
trustee and transfer the 40 acres to Susan Masilotti. The following month, she transfers the property to the
commissioner, as part of their divorce settlement.
June: With federal agents in pursuit, Boose sends a fraudulent billing statement to Susan Masilotti to cover up the
free legal services provided to her ex-husband. In the statement, Boose claimed to have worked just 9.3 hours on the
deal.
A review of votes?
At least two Palm Beach County commissioners support revisiting a series of votes that pave the way for a
2,000-home development at Palm Beach Aggregates as a result of former County Commission Chairman Tony
Masilotti's alleged financial ties to its part-owner.
[email protected]
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (B&W & C)
1. William Boose (mug) Grand jury says he helped hide land deal. 2. Tony Masilotti (mug) Failed to disclose ties to
lobbyist.
LOAD-DATE: November 2, 2006
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Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
October 31, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1593 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI CHARGED;
FEDERAL CHARGE:CONSPIRACY IN TAINTED LAND DEALS;
POTENTIAL PENALTY:5 YEARS, FORFEITURE OF $9.5 MILLION;
WHAT'S NEXT:SURRENDER EXPECTED FRIDAY IN FORT PIERCE
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Former Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti faces up to five years in prison and forfeiture
of $9.5 million in cash and real estate for his leading role in a land deal conspiracy that stretched from 2000 to this past
June, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Masilotti, who in a sorrowful resignation letter said he will plead guilty, is expected to surrender Friday at the
federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, where he will appear for the first time before a judge. Still to be determined: when
Masilotti formally will plead guilty and when he'll be dispatched to prison.
A federal grand jury charged the 50-year-old insurance broker with conspiracy to violate the federal "honest
services" statute, a law that allows prosecutors to charge public officials with corruption even if there was no direct
bribe to secure an official act. Public officials -- and those caught providing them with financial inducements -- can be
charged even if there was no specific vote involved.
"As an elected official, former Commissioner Masilotti was legally and ethically required to represent the best
interests of his constituents and to perform his duties free from fraud and self-dealing," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander
Acosta said at a news conference Monday. "Masilotti repeatedly breached that duty and misused his power and his
office for personal gain."
Acosta hinted that more defendants could be charged in the case but declined to elaborate. The grand jury's
charging document points to a group of prominent lawyers and developers allegedly involved in the series of tainted
land deals that made Masilotti millions.
None of them has been charged. The grand jury identified them by their initials but provided ample information in
the charging document to clearly identify them.
The participants included:
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MASILOTTI CHARGED; FEDERAL CHARGE:CONSPIRACY IN TAINTED LAND DEALS; POTENTIAL
PENALTY:5 YEARS, FORFEITURE OF $9.5 MILLION; WHAT'S NEXT:SURRENDER EXPECTED FRIDAY IN
FORT PIERCE Palm Beach Post (Fl
- William Boose, a lawyer and lobbyist whose West Palm Beach firm created the secret land trust that Masilotti
used to hide his participation in a 2003 Martin County land sale to the South Florida Water Management District. The
grand jury accused Boose of lying to federal investigators and falsifying a bill to hide the fact that he didn't charge
Masilotti full price for legal services. While working at a deep discount, Boose appeared frequently before the county
commission, seeking land use and zoning changes for other clients. Masilotti, while voting on those matters, never
disclosed the conflict of interest.
Boose could not be reached Monday.
- Harvey Oyer, a lawyer and lobbyist who represented lead investors David and Jeffrey Lee in the Martin County
deal. Oyer was accused of falsifying an ownership statement required by the water management district to hide
Masilotti's interest in the deal and, with Boose, helped orchestrate a land swap designed to further conceal Masilotti.
A spokeswoman for Oyer said he was cooperating with authorities.
- Enrique Tomeu, president of Palm Beach Aggregates, owner of 1,200 acres on the outskirts of Wellington.
Masilotti was richly rewarded by Tomeu for pushing the rezoning of the property in 2004 to allow for construction of
2,000 homes. Through a shell company, Tomeu allegedly transferred property in Brevard County worth $7.7 million to
Masilotti's brother, Paul, a building inspector for the village of Wellington.
Tomeu could not be reached.
- Bruce Rendina, a major developer and close Masilotti friend who, with the commissioner's assistance, acquired
10 acres of county-owned land and development approval for the so-called posse property at the northeast corner of
State Road 7 and Belvedere Road. While Masilotti helped Rendina from 2003 until early this year, the developer
allegedly provided Masilotti and his family with $100,000 worth of free trips on a private aircraft and other gifts.
The investigation of Masilotti was triggered by an April report in The Palm Beach Post that documented how
Masilotti's family made more than $1.3 million in connection with the $40 million Martin County purchase by the
management district. Although Masilotti insisted he had no direct involvement, records and interviews with district
officials showed that Masilotti had pushed the deal in 2003 without disclosing his family's profit.
Within weeks of the report, the FBI and IRS swooped in and a grand jury was impaneled. The investigation was
headed by three seasoned federal prosecutors: John Kastrenakes, Stephen Carlton and Antonia Barnes.
U.S. Attorney Acosta marveled at how swiftly the case was put together. "These transactions were quite complex,"
he said. "Mr. Masilotti engaged in a variety of complicated schemes to hide his ownership. ... After six months of hard
work, our investigation yielded results."
FBI agent in charge Jonathan Solomon also credited The Post.
"I'd just like to recognize them for their investigative reporting," Solomon said at Monday's news conference.
"They did an outstanding job."
All told, the grand jury investigation found that Masilotti was enriched by three land deals while his interest was
hidden from the public.
He was accused of coercing the Diocese of Palm Beach to sell 50 acres in Royal Palm Beach to a group of investors
that included Wellington businessman Daniel Miteff and David and Jeffrey Lee. The Lees and Miteff flipped the
property for a $900,000 profit to GL Homes, which built the Nautica Lakes subdivision on it.
Masilotti, who also helped get county traffic impact approval for the property, was paid $50,000 -- money
deposited in a Bahamas bank account in 2004 to help Masilotti pay off gambling losses at The Atlantis Resort &
Page 54
MASILOTTI CHARGED; FEDERAL CHARGE:CONSPIRACY IN TAINTED LAND DEALS; POTENTIAL
PENALTY:5 YEARS, FORFEITURE OF $9.5 MILLION; WHAT'S NEXT:SURRENDER EXPECTED FRIDAY IN
FORT PIERCE Palm Beach Post (Fl
Casino on Paradise Island. Masilotti, the grand jury said, failed to report the income to the IRS.
Miteff is accused of lying to investigators and helping Masilotti hide his profit from the deal in the Bahamas.
"D.N.M., under false and fraudulent pretenses, failed to disclose to the Palm Beach County engineer's office that
Masilotti had a concealed financial interest in the Diocese land deal with him," the grand jury wrote, referring to Miteff
by his initials. Miteff declined to comment Monday.
The Lee brothers have declined to comment. They had Masilotti's help in 2000 to get previously denied
development approvals for their 230-acre Black Diamond nursery in Wellington. Around the same time, they agreed to
sell Masilotti 150 acres in Martin County at a discount.
By far the biggest illegal windfall to Masilotti -- more than $7 million -- came from Palm Beach Aggregates and
involved Masilotti's older brother, Paul. In 2004, Tony Masilotti pushed the county to rezone the property, which until
then had been limited to construction of 120 homes. With approval for 2,000 homes, Palm Beach Aggregates signed a
$300 million contract to sell the property to Lennar Homes.
As Masilotti pushed the rezoning, he and his brother acquired an option on 60 acres of the company's Palm Beach
County property for $100,000. The company, meanwhile, created a limited liability company called Micco Eastern
Holdings to acquire 300 acres in Brevard County that the Masilottis had picked out with the help of David Lee.
The Masilottis released their option on Palm Beach Aggregates property in 2005, a month after Lennar agreed to
buy it as part of the 1,200 rezoned acres. In exchange, Palm Beach Aggregates turned over Micco Eastern to the
Masilottis -- along with the Brevard property it purchased for $7.7 million.
Masilotti, the father of four daughters, owns a prosperous State Farm Insurance agency in Royal Palm Beach,
where he served as village mayor before his election to the county commission in 1998. He was elevated to chairman
six years later.
His successor will be elected Nov. 7 and sworn into office Nov. 21. Commission Vice Chairwoman Addie Greene
is to succeed him as chair.
With his political career destroyed -- a felony conviction would even strip him of his right to vote -- Masilotti also
faces financial losses. He could have to pay a $250,000 fine on top of forfeiting $9.5 million. If Masilotti cannot raise
that money, prosecutors want to take his Wellington home, his insurance agency and his stake in a development planned
on Cat Island in the Bahamas by his fishing buddy and political supporter, Palm Beach County rancher Billy Bowman.
Masilotti already has pledged his cooperation in the continuing investigation.
"I can only hope that my decision to resign, face my mistakes and cooperate with these authorities will result in
mercy from the court, and more importantly, forgiveness from the community I have served," Masilotti wrote in his
resignation letter.
[email protected]
South Florida Water Management District
When: 2003-05.
What he gave: Helped investors David and Jeffrey Lee get approvals from the county and Wellington for
development of Black Diamond nursery.
What he got: Vastly reduced price for 150 acres in Martin County, which earned his family a $1.3 million profit.
Page 55
MASILOTTI CHARGED; FEDERAL CHARGE:CONSPIRACY IN TAINTED LAND DEALS; POTENTIAL
PENALTY:5 YEARS, FORFEITURE OF $9.5 MILLION; WHAT'S NEXT:SURRENDER EXPECTED FRIDAY IN
FORT PIERCE Palm Beach Post (Fl
Diocesan property
When: 2003-04.
What he gave: Pressured the Diocese of Palm Beach to sell 50 acres to Daniel Miteff and David and Jeffrey Lee,
then helped secure county traffic permits.
What he got: $40,000-$50,000 wired to the Bahamas to pay gambling debts.
Palm Beach Aggregates
When: 2004-05.
What he gave: Pushed for land use and zoning changes for the company's 1,200 acres near Wellington.
What he got: 305 acresin Brevard County worth$7.7 million.
Posse property
When: 2003-06.
What he gave: Pushed for development approval and voted to sell 10 acres of county land to a company owned by
developer Bruce Rendina.
What he got: More than $100,000 in free gambling trips to the Bahamas and other gifts from Rendina.
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2 C) & MAP (4 C)
1. CHRIS MATULA/Staff Photographer U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta announces charges Monday against
former County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti. Acosta hinted that more defendants could be charged. 2. Tony
Masilotti (mug) 3. BRENNAN KING/Staff Artist Map of Masilotti family land 4. MARK HEMPHILL/Staff Artist
Map of Diocesan property 5. TIM BRITTON/Staff Artist Map of Land purchased for $7.7 million 6. TIM
BRITTON/Staff Artist Map of Posse property
LOAD-DATE: November 1, 2006
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Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
October 29, 2006 Sunday
SOUTH EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1414 words
HEADLINE: MYSTERY CLOAKS PRIVATE SLEUTHING OF MASILOTTI
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
More than a year before the FBI began pursuing Tony Masilotti, a private eye code-named "Cobra" told authorities
he was shadowing the former commissioner -- on land and from the air.
Quizzed by deputies after his cover was blown, Cobra, a licensed private detective named William Staubs, said he
sifted through Masilotti's household trash and followed him to the Bahamas. He said he used a helicopter to follow
Masilotti's car and hovered over the home of a close friend, developer Bruce Rendina, when Masilotti visited.
Cobra's mission was uncovered by sheriff's investigators after a tracking device was found strapped underneath
Masilotti's county-issue Ford Crown Victoria in mid-2005.
The device, which Masilotti's golf caddy discovered , triggered what deputies called a "Front Office Caper." That
is, an ultra- sensitive inquiry handled by the sheriff's Strategic Intelligence Unit, an elite group attached to the
Homeland Security Division.
With forensic techniques used to pursue terror suspects, agents traced the GPS tracker to Staubs. Although the
private investigator insisted he didn't install the tracker, he talked on tape to agents about his mission to dig up dirt on
Masilotti.
Masilotti resigned Friday after 14 years in public office, acknowledging that he would plead guilty to unspecified
federal charges in connection with a series of land deals that profited his family.
While in office, the powerful politician made plenty of enemies with his mercurial temper and unpredictable
behavior. Staubs' account to agents offers a glimpse at just how far one or more of those enemies went to get him out of
the way.
Although Staubs won't identify his clients, he describes himself as a Broward County-based private eye and
fugitive hunter who also had been a building contractor until he filed for bankruptcy in 2003. In a Nov. 15, 2005,
tape-recorded interview, Staubs told agents that he had been tracking Masilotti on and off since January or February
2005.
Page 57
MYSTERY CLOAKS PRIVATE SLEUTHING OF MASILOTTI Palm Beach Post (Florida) October 29, 2006 Sunday
"I was hired to gather information on where he goes, what he does," he said. "They believe he has multiple women,
that he's making more money than he says, that he favors certain developers in town. The information was kind of
vague, and they said if I was worth my salt, I would find out the who, where and how."
Staubs found information on Masilotti tough to pin down. "The guy is slicker than 50-weight oil," he said. "There's
not enough you can rope around him to hang on."
Over the months, Staubs said, he and three associates tailed Masilotti and retrieved his credit card statements and
cellphone records from trash. He said he hid surveillance cameras in parked cars and used a helicopter when Masilotti
visited developer Rendina's home in the Breakers West gated community.
And Masilotti wasn't the only one. Staubs said they followed County Commissioner Addie Greene, but their client
lost interest after about two weeks and told them to focus on Masilotti.
In June 2005, a tracking device was attached to Masilotti's car. It was discovered on July 2, 2005, when Masilotti
and his brother Paul returned to the sedan after a Saturday afternoon round at the Breakers West golf course. Their
caddy noticed a dangling wire. Found underneath the car was a black box containing a cellphone programmed to
transmit the vehicle's location to a commercial Web site, where the private eyes could monitor Masilotti's whereabouts
with their laptops.
Masilotti waited to turn over the device to the sheriff until July 5.
"He never felt it could have been an improvised explosive device," agent David Agronow wrote in his report,
noting his surprise that Masilotti hadn't left it alone and called 911.
Masilotti, he said, believed the device had to do with his work on the commission. "The commission makes people
a lot of money and costs people a lot of money with its votes," Masilotti recalled telling the agent.
Agronow and other agents investigated the case for four months before concluding, on Nov. 30, 2005, that it wasn't
a crime to attach the tracker to Masilotti's car. "Without a crime, we can't do an investigation," Agronow said.
Staubs was let go without ever saying who had hired him, though he claimed the client had spent $500,000 on
various private investigators chasing Masilotti.
They did get a clue on Sept. 9, 2005, when an undercover agent met with Staubs while posing as a prospective
client in need of a tracking device. Staubs, the agent said, bragged to him about the one found on Masilotti's car.
"Staubs advised that he is working for a developer that has been trying to gather information about the places
Commissioner Masilotti goes and the people he meets because he needs certain favorable rulings," the agent's report
states.
Agents also subpoenaed Staubs' cellphone records from June to August 2005 before they closed the case. The
records show that the private eye's phone was used to make 18 calls during that period to Lewis, Longman and Walker,
a West Palm Beach law firm that specializes in getting land use and zoning changed for developers. Seven other calls
were made to the home and personal cellphone of Robert Diffenderfer, a shareholder of the firm who is a registered
county lobbyist.
Diffenderfer said Staubs did work for his firm, but wouldn't elaborate on his assignments.
"I've used Bill in the past for any number of things, so I wouldn't draw any inference from his calls to me,"
Diffenderfer said. "We are really not in a position to say what we are using him for. Attorney-client stuff you just don't
discuss."
Page 58
MYSTERY CLOAKS PRIVATE SLEUTHING OF MASILOTTI Palm Beach Post (Florida) October 29, 2006 Sunday
Among Diffenderfer's clients: Callery-Judge Grove, a longtime citrus concern seeking county approval of 10,000
homes on 3,900 acres in the county commission district Masilotti had represented. In office, Masilotti vigorously had
opposed the development.
Told about Staubs' cellular calls, Masilotti said he believes he was the target of a clandestine operation that also
involved a Nov. 4, 2005, break-in at his Royal Palm Beach insurance agency.
Sheriff's agents never linked the break-in to the tracking device, and Staubs denied having anything to do with the
burglary, in which a few blank checks were taken and nothing else. Classified as a run-of-the-mill burglary, it remains
unsolved.
Nonetheless, Masilotti maintained that the two incidents were more than coincidental, that he was targeted in hopes
of changing his opposition to Callery-Judge.
"There was no doubt in my mind that there was some sort of extortion attempt going on there," he said. "Nobody
puts a tracking device on somebody's car for no reason. I was relatively aware that somebody was going through my
trash because the plastic bags were ripped open. At my insurance office, they rifled through my personal desk."
Nathaniel Roberts, Callery-Judge's general manager, dismissed Masilotti's allegations, saying his company had
nothing to do with it.
"I never heard of this guy," Roberts said of Staubs. "I've never heard about any of this except for Bob Diffenderfer.
So I don't know how the commissioner gets from one to the other."
Masilotti has been in seclusion since quitting the commission. But in the hours before tending his resignation, he
told The Palm Beach Post that Cobra's clandestine mission shows the bizarre pressures he was under when he
committed the "serious mistakes of judgment" cited in his resignation letter.
"This could help me with my negotiations with the U.S. attorney," he said of the sheriff's closed case on Staubs'
activities. "I was the victim of an extortion attempt."
Staff researchers Sammy Alzofon, Angelica Cortez and Melanie Mena contributed to this story.
~ [email protected]
How Masilotti was tracked
Private eyes following Tony Masilotti used a $5.99 cellphone service pitched as a way that parents can keep track
of their kids online. The GPS software loaded into the phone monitors location and speed and transmits it to the
Internet.
* The tracking device used a pay-as-you-go cell phone purchased at Target and registered to a ficticious name to
make it difficult to trace.
* The phone was wired to an external battery pack so its power source would last longer. The rig then was strapped
behind the rear bumper of Masilotti's car.
* What went wrong: The battery pack fell off, leaving a dangling wire spotted by Masilotti's golf caddy. The
phone also had been used to make calls, including some to "Cobra," the private eye following Masilotti -- a slip-up that
allowed sheriff's intelligence agents to learn Cobra's identity through cell phone billing records.
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
Page 59
MYSTERY CLOAKS PRIVATE SLEUTHING OF MASILOTTI Palm Beach Post (Florida) October 29, 2006 Sunday
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C & B&W)
1. (C) Tony Masilotti: 'I was the victim of an extortion attempt.' (mug) 2. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office The
device used to track Tony Masilotti.
LOAD-DATE: October 30, 2006
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Copyright 2006 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
October 27, 2006 Friday
MARTIN-ST. LUCIE EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 4B
LENGTH: 1069 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI PLANS TO QUIT COMMISSION
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Under pressure from federal investigators, County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti has informed the county
administrator that he will resign today -- even though his term expires in a matter of weeks.
"I have been advised by an attorney for the commissioner that I will receive a letter of resignation from the
commissioner in the morning," Administrator Bob Weisman said late Thursday. "I am to fax it to the governor's office."
Masilotti could not be reached Thursday evening. But in an interview earlier in the day, the beleaguered
commissioner said he was on the brink.
"You get to a point of wondering, how are you going to keep fighting this?" Masilotti told The Palm Beach Post.
"It's difficult to eat, to sleep, to do anything. It's difficult to get anything done in a storm."
Masilotti's successor will be elected Nov. 7 and sworn in Nov. 21. Weisman said he alerted commissioners
Thursday night of Masilotti's impending departure so they could prepare for a transition. Vice Chairwoman Addie
Greene is in line to ascend.
"Frankly, I am kind of shocked to have received the call," Weisman said.
Masilotti said Thursday that federal prosecutors are threatening to charge him with "honest services" fraud, a crime
that upon conviction carries a prison term of five to 20 years.
"I thought I was doing right," he said of his involvement in land deals that now are under scrutiny by a federal
grand jury. "It wasn't public corruption or kickbacks. ... The U.S. attorney told me that these things weren't illegal -except that I didn't disclose them."
The honest services law is a 28-word federal statute that allows prosecutors to charge public officials with
corruption even if there was no direct bribe to secure an official act. In general, it makes it a federal crime for officials
to deprive their constituents of their honest efforts to represent them.
Page 61
MASILOTTI PLANS TO QUIT COMMISSION Palm Beach Post (Florida) October 27, 2006 Friday
"It's more than a cozy relationship, it's a corrupt relationship," former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said.
"Prosecutors are looking for financial inducements that corrupt the motives of a public official. It's not enough to be a
lobbyist or a campaign contributor. It's like having someone who is on the take who can give you an inside track. It's a
corrupt relationship even if a specific vote is not involved."
Convictions under the law have been overturned in the appellate courts because the law is arguably vague -prompting Masilotti to ponder an aggressive defense.
"I am really not sure. I don't know what to do," he said. "I need the advice of my attorney. I may have to just stand
and fight."
Masilotti, 50, a former Royal Palm Beach mayor, first was elected to the county commission in 1998 and was
reelected in 2002. Term-limited, he was preparing for a third and final run when he abruptly scrapped his campaign in
May and declared he wanted to spend more time with his children.
Before withdrawing from the race, Masilotti had been defending his connection to a multimillion-dollar land
acquisition in Martin County reported weeks earlier in The Post -- disclosures that eroded his support in the ranks of his
Republican Party.
Masilotti at the time maintained that he did nothing wrong, that the stories were an attempt to oust him from office.
"There is nothing inappropriate about buying or selling land," he said from the commission dais. "And in fact I
would put out a challenge to the publisher of The Post: If I or any of my family members did anything illegal, I will
resign from this post, if in fact the editor of The Post will resign when they admit I did nothing wrong."
A federal grand jury soon was investigating the deal and another in Royal Palm Beach in a probe that has since
mushroomed.
The Post reported in April that Masilotti's family made as much as $1.3 million in connection with a $40 million
land purchase in Martin County by the South Florida Water Management District in 2003. The family's interest was
hidden through a secret land trust and a tangled series of real estate transactions. Although Masilotti insisted he had no
direct involvement, interviews and documents obtained by The Post showed he pushed for the water district purchase
without revealing his family's interest.
The grand jury also has subpoenaed records concerning Masilotti's promotion of a second real estate deal in 2003
and 2004 involving two investors who profited from the water district purchase. The investors bankrolled a bid to
acquire 49 acres in Royal Palm Beach owned by the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach.
Masilotti met twice with the bishop and wrote letters on Palm Beach County stationery urging the sale, records
show. Once the investors had a contract on the property, Masilotti arranged a meeting with the county engineer to
resolve a dispute over the proposed development's impact on traffic.
Masilotti defended his actions, saying he was merely helping constituents.
Last month, the grand jury subpoenaed Masilotti's older brother, Paul, a building inspector for the village of
Wellington, in connection with a land purchase in Brevard County. The 300 acres were acquired last year for $7.7
million in cash by a limited liability company whose manager was an attorney who also works for Palm Beach
Aggregates, a major landowner in Tony Masilotti's commission district.
After the land purchase, Paul Masilotti paid the taxes on the property. Tony Masilotti said Thursday that his
brother owned the Brevard County parcel and had acquired it from Palm Beach Aggregates in exchange for a property
purchase option in Palm Beach County.
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MASILOTTI PLANS TO QUIT COMMISSION Palm Beach Post (Florida) October 27, 2006 Friday
"Paul had a purchase option on a piece of property that Enrique Tomeu needed," the commissioner said, referring to
the Palm Beach Aggregates president. "Paul was planning to build a horse manure processing facility, but instead he
swapped it."
Paul Masilotti's attorney could not be reached Thursday, and Palm Beach Aggregates has declined comment on the
grand jury matter.
Tony Masilotti said the company's dealings with his brother had nothing to do with his pivotal role in the county's
approval of 2,000 homes and up to 50,000 square feet of commercial space on Palm Beach Aggregates' land. Until then,
development had been limited to 120 homes.
"I honestly didn't know about it," the commissioner said.
"If I had known, I would have told my brother not to buy land in Palm Beach County. I'm sure he didn't intend to
hurt me."
Staff writer Hector Florin contributed to this story.
- [email protected]
LOAD-DATE: October 29, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
October 27, 2006 Friday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1246 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI PLANS TO RESIGN TODAY;
FRAUD CHARGE THREATENED, COMMISSION CHAIRMAN SAYS
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Under pressure from federal investigators, County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti has informed the county
administrator that he will resign today -- even though his term expires in a matter of weeks.
"I have been advised by an attorney for the commissioner that I will receive a letter of resignation from the
commissioner in the morning," Administrator Bob Weisman said late Thursday. "I am to fax it to the governor's office."
Masilotti could not be reached Thursday evening. But in an interview earlier in the day, the beleaguered
commissioner said he was on the brink.
"You get to a point of wondering, how are you going to keep fighting this?" Masilotti told The Palm Beach Post.
"It's difficult to eat, to sleep, to do anything. It's difficult to get anything done in a storm."
Masilotti's successor will be elected Nov. 7 and sworn in Nov. 21. Weisman said he alerted commissioners
Thursday night of Masilotti's impending departure so they could prepare for a transition. Vice Chairwoman Addie
Greene is in line to ascend.
"Frankly, I am kind of shocked to have received the call," Weisman said.
Masilotti said Thursday that federal prosecutors are threatening to charge him with "honest services" fraud, a crime
that upon conviction carries a prison term of five to 20 years.
"I thought I was doing right," he said of his involvement in land deals that now are under scrutiny by a federal
grand jury. "It wasn't public corruption or kickbacks. ... The U.S. attorney told me that these things weren't illegal -except that I didn't disclose them."
The honest services law is a 28-word federal statute that allows prosecutors to charge public officials with
corruption even if there was no direct bribe to secure an official act. In general, it makes it a federal crime for officials
to deprive their constituents of their honest efforts to represent them.
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MASILOTTI PLANS TO RESIGN TODAY; FRAUD CHARGE THREATENED, COMMISSION CHAIRMAN
SAYS Palm Beach Post (Florida) October 27, 2006 Friday
"It's more than a cozy relationship, it's a corrupt relationship," former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey said.
"Prosecutors are looking for financial inducements that corrupt the motives of a public official. It's not enough to be a
lobbyist or a campaign contributor. It's like having someone who is on the take who can give you an inside track. It's a
corrupt relationship even if a specific vote is not involved."
Convictions under the law have been overturned in the appellate courts because the law is arguably vague -prompting Masilotti to ponder an aggressive defense.
"I am really not sure. I don't know what to do," he said. "I need the advice of my attorney. I may have to just stand
and fight."
Masilotti, 50, a former Royal Palm Beach mayor, first was elected to the county commission in 1998 and was
reelected in 2002. Term-limited, he was preparing for a third and final run when he abruptly scrapped his campaign in
May and declared he wanted to spend more time with his children.
Before withdrawing from the race, Masilotti had been defending his connection to a multimillion-dollar land
acquisition in Martin County reported weeks earlier in The Post -- disclosures that eroded his support in the ranks of his
Republican Party.
Masilotti at the time maintained that he did nothing wrong, that the stories were an attempt to oust him from office.
"There is nothing inappropriate about buying or selling land," he said from the commission dais. "And in fact I
would put out a challenge to the publisher of The Post: If I or any of my family members did anything illegal, I will
resign from this post, if in fact the editor of The Post will resign when they admit I did nothing wrong."
A federal grand jury soon was investigating the deal and another in Royal Palm Beach in a probe that has since
mushroomed.
The Post reported in April that Masilotti's family made as much as $1.3 million in connection with a $40 million
land purchase in Martin County by the South Florida Water Management District in 2003. The family's interest was
hidden through a secret land trust and a tangled series of real estate transactions. Although Masilotti insisted he had no
direct involvement, interviews and documents obtained by The Post showed he pushed for the water district purchase
without revealing his family's interest.
The grand jury also has subpoenaed records concerning Masilotti's promotion of a second real estate deal in 2003
and 2004 involving two investors who profited from the water district purchase. The investors bankrolled a bid to
acquire 49 acres in Royal Palm Beach owned by the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach.
Masilotti met twice with the bishop and wrote letters on Palm Beach County stationery urging the sale, records
show. Once the investors had a contract on the property, Masilotti arranged a meeting with the county engineer to
resolve a dispute over the proposed development's impact on traffic.
Masilotti defended his actions, saying he was merely helping constituents.
Last month, the grand jury subpoenaed Masilotti's older brother, Paul, a building inspector for the village of
Wellington, in connection with a land purchase in Brevard County. The 300 acres were acquired last year for $7.7
million in cash by a limited liability company whose manager was an attorney who also works for Palm Beach
Aggregates, a major landowner in Tony Masilotti's commission district.
After the land purchase, Paul Masilotti paid the taxes on the property. Tony Masilotti said Thursday that his
brother owned the Brevard County parcel and had acquired it from Palm Beach Aggregates in exchange for a property
purchase option in Palm Beach County.
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MASILOTTI PLANS TO RESIGN TODAY; FRAUD CHARGE THREATENED, COMMISSION CHAIRMAN
SAYS Palm Beach Post (Florida) October 27, 2006 Friday
"Paul had a purchase option on a piece of property that Enrique Tomeu needed," the commissioner said, referring to
the Palm Beach Aggregates president. "Paul was planning to build a horse manure processing facility, but instead he
swapped it."
Paul Masilotti's attorney could not be reached Thursday, and Palm Beach Aggregates has declined comment on the
grand jury matter.
Tony Masilotti said the company's dealings with his brother had nothing to do with his pivotal role in the county's
approval of 2,000 homes and up to 50,000 square feet of commercial space on Palm Beach Aggregates' land. Until then,
development had been limited to 120 homes.
"I honestly didn't know about it," the commissioner said. "If I had known, I would have told my brother not to buy
land in Palm Beach County. I'm sure he didn't intend to hurt me."
Staff writer Hector Florin contributed to this story.
~ [email protected]
What he faces
* Since June, a grand jury has been scrutinizing Tony Masilotti's participation in multimillion-dollar land deals in
rural Martin County and Royal Palm Beach.
* The probe was triggered by stories in The Palm Beach Post documenting how a secret Masilotti family trust
profited from a 3,000-acre Martin County land acquisition by the South Florida Water Management District. Masilotti
had lobbied district officials for the $40 million purchase without revealing his family's interest in the deal, district
officials said.
* Federal authorities also are examining Masilotti's pivotal role in the county's approval of 2,000 homes and up to
50,000 square feet of commercial space on Palm Beach Aggregates' land. Until then, development had been limited to
120 homes.
What he says
* It's difficult to eat, to sleep, to do anything. It's difficult to get anything done in a storm.'
* 'The U.S. attorney told me that these things weren't illegal -- except that I didn't disclose them.'
* 'I need the advice of my attorney. I may have to just stand and fight.'
NOTES: Did not run MSL. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C)
LANNIS WATERS/Staff Photographer Tony Masilotti told County Administrator Bob Weisman he will resign today,
even though his term expires next month. Vice Chairwoman Addie Greene is in line to succeed him.
LOAD-DATE: October 29, 2006
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All Rights Reserved
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
September 26, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 12A
LENGTH: 1507 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI FLIPPED ANNEXATION VIEW WHEN DEAL STALLED
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WELLINGTON
BODY:
County Commissioner Tony Masilotti acted swiftly and decisively when the village council waffled on a
1,200-acre land annexation he endorsed.
Nine days after the council said it needed more time, Masilotti led a charge to have the county approve
development plans for the land owned by Palm Beach Aggregates - with the promise from the company that it never
would seek annexation into the village again.
Political fallout from the village's aborted deal also spread across the county. Riled by Wellington, commissioners
also launched a voter initiative to block all cities - not just the village - from expanding their boundaries without the
endorsement of five of the seven county commissioners.
Federal authorities now are examining the 2004 episode, interviewing Wellington officials and collecting related
documents, village officials confirmed last week.
At an April 22, 2004, county commission meeting, Masilotti warned that Wellington's interest in Palm Beach
Aggregates was not "the whole enchilada" - that the village was plotting a march beyond the Aggregates property to
annex 14,000 acres of sugar cane fields owned by the Fanjul family.
Which was true, according to insiders involved with the plan. But before the village vote, records show, Masilotti
had no objection to Wellington's ambition.
The commissioner's turnabout was triggered nine days earlier, when the Wellington council shelved Palm Beach
Aggregates' annexation.
Until then, Wellington's expansion plan had been orchestrated to give it access to the Fanjul property. Helping craft
the plan: lobbyist Hugo Unruh, whose past efforts had allowed development of the Mall at Wellington Green, and a
string of residential properties bordering State Road 7 that now pay taxes to Wellington.
Adding the sugar land to the village was complicated. Because cities can expand only with land bordering their
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MASILOTTI FLIPPED ANNEXATION VIEW WHEN DEAL STALLED Palm Beach Post (Florida) September 26,
2006 Tuesday
limits, the village first had to annex 6,584 acres of marshland owned by the South Florida Water Management District land pledged to Everglades restoration that never would be taxed or require village services. That posed no problem;
then-district Director Henry Dean was willing.
Next, the village had to annex not just the 1,200 acres owned by Palm Beach Aggregates, but other company
property needed to reach the Fanjuls' holdings.
Unruh said he represented the Fanjuls and their company, Florida Crystals, in the negotiations. He said his clients
viewed annexation as part of a long-term plan - and a good way for government to plan future development in a vast
area of the county.
"It would be a city in itself," Unruh said Monday of the plan that he said included space for a university campus
and greenways to adjoining conservation areas. "It made good planning sense."
At first, Palm Beach Aggregates was agreeable - but with a catch. It wanted to buy land from the Fanjuls to expand
its rock mining operations. The Fanjuls refused.
Palm Beach Aggregates then asked the village to annex just the 1,200 acres - setting up a clash between Masilotti
and Unruh.
"It was bad planning," Unruh said of Masilotti's strategy. "It had to be all or none - do a master plan for the whole
area."
Masilotti did not return phone messages Monday.
Unruh said he privately advised village officials to insist on annexing all of the Aggregates property. Wellington
insiders said Masilotti disagreed, and urged them to take it a step at a time - by first annexing the 1,200 acres. Eleven
days before the council vote, Masilotti met privately with Mayor Tom Wenham, Vice Mayor Bob Margolis and council
member Carmine Priore, the commissioner's appointment calendar shows.
At the April 13 council meeting, Masilotti scolded speakers who said annexation of the water district land was a
ploy to develop Palm Beach Aggregates' property and build the needed bridge to the Fanjul land.
"Palm Beach County historically has always supported voluntary annexation into communities with the
understanding that the level of service that a local municipality can render for its residents is usually at a higher level
than that the county can render. So we want to encourage that," he said. "I understand your community wants to grow
and that's probably a good thing. . . . I have to assure you that the county would have a problem if you took this 1,200
acres and made it a large industrial park. If it's a more passive use, we would not - at least I would not - object to that."
Despite Masilotti's encouragement, every council member voiced concerns about moving too quickly. All said
they wanted more specifics about how Palm Beach Aggregates wanted to develop the property.
"I hear piecemeal, chaos, caution and (the need for) a master plan," council member Lizbeth Benacquisto said.
"Piecemeal? I don't want to do anything piecemeal. Chaos? I don't want anything that causes chaos. Do we need a
master plan? Absolutely. And we do that by proceeding cautiously."
Palm Beach Aggregates President Enrique Tomeu was standing in the back of the council chambers but never came
forward, according to Unruh and others at the meeting. Tomeu did not return messages Monday.
Before the vote, Masilotti made one final plea for preliminary approval. He said there would be plenty of time to
answer questions, develop a master plan and hold public hearings.
"You are going to have to sooner or later come to grips with it," Masilotti said. "At a later date, we are still going
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MASILOTTI FLIPPED ANNEXATION VIEW WHEN DEAL STALLED Palm Beach Post (Florida) September 26,
2006 Tuesday
to want to know what you want to do. If you would start that process for what you want to do with it . . . I would be
very grateful."
Nonetheless, the council voted unanimously to table the annexation request indefinitely.
At a county commission meeting nine days later, Masilotti, joined by Commissioners Karen Marcus and Mary
McCarty, attacked the village.
They wanted to keep Palm Beach Aggregates' property unincorporated and under county control by negotiating a
development deal.
They also wanted to amend the county charter to give the county more control over annexation - power that voters
gave the commission later that year. During the discussion, Masilotti raised the specter of Wellington annexing the
Fanjuls' land. Residents from his district, he said, were calling to "allow this board in the years to come to have
jurisdiction over the property to the west of (Palm Beach Aggregates) to make sure it was done in an environmentally
and a sane and sound planning fashion."
McCarty then recommended that staff offer a development package that Palm Beach Aggregates couldn't refuse.
Ultimately, they agreed on 2,000 homes, plus 50,000 square feet of commercial space, on land zoned at the time for 120
homes.
The commission voted 6-1 to go forward with the measures, with Warren Newell dissenting.
"I am only doing this because I really don't have a good understanding of the consequences here, and I am not
interested in this occurring without some input," Newell explained at the time.
"Might start with me," Masilotti replied, "because it's in my district."
- [email protected]
Wellington's aborted annexation: How Masilotti derailed the village's plan to expand
The village of Wellington wanted to annex 14,000 acres owned by the Fanjul family. To do that, it would have had
to create a land bridge to the village's borders - and have Commissioner Tony Masilotti's support.
1. First step to add land
Henry Dean, then executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, agreed to have this land
annexed to the village, the first link.
2. A missing strip of land
Palm Beach Aggregates agreed to provide the needed land - if the Fanjuls sold it other property. The Fanjuls
refused, so the company was willing to have only 1,200 acres annexed, leaving a gap.
3. County stymies use of Fanjul land
Despite Masilotti's wishes, the Wellington council refused to annex just the 1,200 acres. Masilotti then pushed the
county to approve development of 2,000 homes on Palm Beach Aggregates' 1,200 acres. The county commission
approved that deal, and then blocked any future attempt by Wellington to annex the Fanjuls' property - by getting Palm
Beach Aggregates to agree to remain unincorporated and under county control. Records of the deal have been provided
to the grand jury.
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MASILOTTI FLIPPED ANNEXATION VIEW WHEN DEAL STALLED Palm Beach Post (Florida) September 26,
2006 Tuesday
What's Paul Masilotti's connection to Palm Beach Aggregates?
1. Brevard land purchased
A federal grand jury is examining the Feb. 28, 2005, purchase of 305 acres in Brevard County by Micco Eastern
Holdings, a company formed by John McCracken, lawyer for Palm Beach Aggregates. The price: $7.7 million.
McCracken won't say who bankrolled the purchase.
2. Management switched
Two months after the purchase, on April 29, 2005, the management of Micco Eastern switched from McCracken to
Robert D'Angio, a lawyer for Tony Masilotti's brother Paul Masilotti.
3. Paul Masilotti pays taxes on land
On Feb. 2, 2006, Paul Masilotti paid the taxes on the property with a personal check. Attorneys for Paul Masilotti
and D'Angio, owner Micco Eastern's manager, won't say why. Both Paul Masilotti and D'Angio have been subpoenaed
by the grand jury.
Source: Palm Beach Post research
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (3 B&W) & GRAPHIC (4 B&W)
1. Hugo Unruh (mug) 2. Paul Masilotti (mug) 3. Paul Masilotti's check to pay land taxes. TIM BRITTON,
CHRISTOPHER SMITH/Staff Artists 4. Location of 14,000 acres Wellington wanted to annex. 5. Location of SFWMD
land annexed by Wellington. 6. Location of land originally agreed on and 1,200 acres ultimately offered. 7. Location of
Brevard land purchased for $7.7 million.
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
September 26, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 13A
LENGTH: 330 words
HEADLINE: IN '03, PAUL MASILOTTI LEFT ILLINOIS FOR FLORIDA
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WELLINGTON
BODY:
In the three years since moving to Palm Beach County from Illinois, Paul Masilotti has worked as a building
inspector for the village of Wellington, where he lives next door to his younger brother, the county commission
chairman.
Last week, Paul Masilotti was subpoenaed by the same federal grand jury investigating brother Tony.
Commissioner Masilotti has denied any wrongdoing; Paul Masilotti won't comment.
Raised in suburban Chicago, Tony, now 50, and Paul, 56, grew up in a family of three brothers and two sisters.
Neither Tony nor Paul graduated from college, both opting to go into business.
As an adult, Tony moved to Florida, where he started his prosperous State Farm Insurance agency in Royal Palm
Beach. Paul joined their father's small business in Illinois, Arlington Heights Heating & Cooling. He worked there for
25 years, eventually assuming an ownership position.
In 2003, the year after their father's death, Paul sold his share of the business to a partner and moved to Florida. He
and his wife purchased a home in Wellington's Olympia development for $333,300 in cash, property records show.
Seven months later, Tony and his then-wife bought the neighboring house for $355,335.
In November 2003, Paul was hired as a construction inspector by Wellington. With 25 years of experience in
heating and cooling contracting, he more than met the state requirements for the job.
Starting pay was $34,445, a third of what he told Wellington he was making in Illinois - and far less than the
$200,500 in pay that his brother reported on his public financial disclosure form for that year.
With his annual raise, Paul is now making $43,616, 26 percent more than when he started. His bosses rate him an
above-average worker.
"A team player," stated his most recent performance evaluation. "Paul sets an example for other inspectors to
follow on how to deal with customers and how to eliminate conflicts."
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IN '03, PAUL MASILOTTI LEFT ILLINOIS FOR FLORIDA Palm Beach Post (Florida) September 26, 2006 Tuesday
Staff researcher Melanie Mena contributed to this story.
- [email protected]
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
September 26, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1181 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI'S BROTHER SUBPOENAED AS PROBE EXPANDS
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ and SUSAN SPENCER-WENDEL Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed the older brother of County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti, widening
its probe of land deals pushed by the commissioner.
Paul Masilotti, a building inspector for the village of Wellington, has been summoned to testify, as has his personal
lawyer, according to criminal attorneys retained by both men.
Also subpoenaed, the lawyers say: financial records concerning a Central Florida land purchase last year that
involved an attorney for Palm Beach Aggregates, a major west county landowner. Two months before the land
purchase, Palm Beach Aggregates won approval for a controversial 1,200-acre development with backing from
Commissioner Masilotti.
The Central Florida land was purchased by Micco Eastern Holdings, a limited liability company whose manager is
Robert D'Angio, a Royal Palm Beach lawyer. Paul Masilotti is a D'Angio client. Attorneys for both D'Angio and the
commissioner's brother won't say who bankrolled the company's $7.7 million cash purchase of the property - or why
this year's property tax bill was paid with a personal check from Paul Masilotti.
Since June, the grand jury has been scrutinizing Tony Masilotti's participation in multimillion-dollar land deals in
Royal Palm Beach and rural Martin County. The now-mushrooming probe was triggered by stories in The Palm Beach
Post documenting how a secret Masilotti family trust profited from a 3,000-acre Martin County land acquisition by the
South Florida Water Management District. Masilotti had lobbied district officials for the $40 million purchase without
revealing his family's interest in the deal, district officials said.
Masilotti has denied any wrongdoing in those deals. He did not return phone messages Monday concerning the
latest developments in the grand jury probe.
Federal authorities now are examining Masilotti's pivotal role in the county's approval of 2,000 homes and up to
50,000 square feet of commercial space on Palm Beach Aggregates' land. Until then, development had been limited to
houses.
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MASILOTTI'S BROTHER SUBPOENAED AS PROBE EXPANDS Palm Beach Post (Florida) September 26, 2006
Tuesday
While issuing subpoenas for Paul Masilotti and D'Angio last week, federal agents also quizzed top Wellington
officials and collected records of the village's aborted attempt to annex Palm Beach Aggregates' property. Earlier, the
same grand jury subpoenaed the water management district's records of its land purchased from the company.
Both Wellington and Palm Beach Aggregates' property are in the heart of Commissioner Masilotti's district. He
had encouraged the village to annex the property for residential development, village records show.
But when the council postponed the annexation, Masilotti turned on the village, launching an offensive to stop it
from annexing not just Palm Beach Aggregates' property, but the vast sugar cane fields beyond.
"I think this is the tip of the iceberg here; I don't think this is the whole enchilada," he told county commissioners
April 22, 2004. "I think we've got some serious concerns as to thousands upon thousands upon thousands of acres to the
west also going in. And while Wellington is a wonderful community, I don't know that turning control over to 30,000 or
40,000 building lots in the future without having any say-so from this board is in the best interest."
Joined by Commissioners Karen Marcus and Mary McCarty, Masilotti launched a campaign to block any future
annexation by Wellington without the county commission's blessing. As part of the strategy, county staff was directed
to negotiate with Palm Beach Aggregates for development comparable to what it had sought from the village - as long
as the company agreed to keep the land unincorporated and under the county commission's control.
Marcus said it is customary to support other commissioners concerning matters within their districts. So on a
motion from Masilotti, the commission in April 2004 voted 6-1 to have county staff negotiate with Palm Beach
Aggregates.
After that vote, Masilotti was absent when staff sought various commission approvals for Palm Beach Aggregates'
development, including a key vote that December, when the county's master plan was amended to allow the
development. The amendment was approved by the commission in a 5-0 vote, with Marcus and Masilotti absent,
meeting minutes show.
As the development advanced, a corporation called Micco Eastern Holdings was formed - the company that now
figures in the federal investigation.
Micco Eastern, state records show, was registered Nov. 22, 2004, by John McCracken, a prominent West Palm
Beach attorney who for years has represented Palm Beach Aggregates and Enrique Tomeu, president of the company.
On Feb. 23, 2005, the company reported McCracken had become its manager. Five days later, Micco Eastern
purchased 305 acres in southern Brevard County for $7.7 million, property records show.
The land, now zoned for agricultural purposes, is bound to become even more valuable if a planned Interstate 95
interchange is constructed nearby. The property is on the outskirts of Palm Bay, one of Brevard's fastest-growing
communities.
Calvin Brown, attorney for seller Bradley Stanton Dismukes, said the company solely was represented by
McCracken in the deal. "I don't have any idea who they are," Brown said of Micco Eastern.
McCracken won't say who put up the money for the land. "Attorney-client privilege," he told The Post. "It is true
that I have represented Palm Beach Aggregates and Enrique Tomeu in the past, but beyond that I really cannot
comment."
Tomeu did not return messages left Monday at Palm Beach Aggregates headquarters.
On April 29, 2005, Micco Eastern reported to the state that McCracken had been replaced by Robert D'Angio as its
manager. D'Angio handled the closing for Commissioner Masilotti's former home in Royal Palm Beach, courthouse
Page 74
MASILOTTI'S BROTHER SUBPOENAED AS PROBE EXPANDS Palm Beach Post (Florida) September 26, 2006
Tuesday
records show. Royal Palm Beach records show he was involved in a private land purchase in that village from the
Diocese of Palm Beach - another deal pushed by the commissioner that's now under investigation.
Glenn Mitchell, D'Angio's newly retained attorney, said D'Angio first was subpoenaed several weeks ago for Micco
Eastern's records - then again last week for his testimony. Mitchell said he has challenged the second subpoena in
federal court, hoping to get it quashed or have the questioning limited.
"He wants to cooperate, but he doesn't want to get in trouble over attorney-client confidentiality," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said D'Angio has no financial interest in Micco Eastern, that he essentially was an administrator. Mitchell
would not identify who was behind the company, citing the investigation.
He also declined to identify the source of the cash to purchase the Brevard County property and why Paul Masilotti
paid the property taxes. Records show Paul Masilotti paid the $1,045.83 tax bill on Feb. 2, using a check from a
personal Washington Mutual bank account. A copy of the check was obtained from the Brevard County tax collector.
Paul Masilotti's attorney, Mitchell Beers, said he, too, was fighting the federal subpoenas. He declined further
comment.
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (2 C)
1. ROLE QUESTIONED: Tony Masilotti's brother Paul (right) paid a Brevard County property's tax bill. (mug) 2.
Tony Masilotti (mug)
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
September 7, 2006 Thursday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 677 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI PROFITED FROM CONTROVERSIAL DEAL, REPORT SHOWS
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ and JANE MUSGRAVE Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti emerged from his recent divorce $750,000 richer,
according to his latest public financial disclosure report - with most of the gain stemming from a Martin County land
deal now under federal investigation.
Masilotti, who reached a confidential property settlement in May with his wife of 28 years, reported a net worth of
nearly $2.5 million, according to his filing Friday with the Florida Commission on Ethics.
In his latest filing, Masilotti reported owning $600,000 worth of vacant land in Martin County. The 40 acres, until
earlier this year held in a secret Masilotti family trust, came from a tangled series of real estate transactions involving
the South Florida Water Management District.
A federal grand jury began investigating the deal in May, after The Palm Beach Post reported that the Masilotti
trust made as much as $1.3 million in connection with the district's 2003 purchase of 3,000 acres. Although Masilotti
insisted he had no direct involvement - his wife was the trust's sole beneficiary, he said - interviews and documents
showed the commissioner pushed for the water district purchase that profited the trust. District officials said they had no
inkling of his family's financial interest.
The trustee holding the 40 acres quit on April 26, several weeks after the first Post story on the land deal. He
transferred the property to Susan Masilotti, who still holds the deed, Martin County property records show.
Tony Masilotti was out of town and not available for comment, according to Johnnie Easton, his administrative
assistant. When asked why the land still was in Masilotti's ex-wife's name, Easton wrote: "He asked that I let you know
that the Martin County property was just recently acquired."
Attorney Eddie Stephens, who represented Susan Masilotti in the divorce, said he couldn't talk about the couple's
property settlement, that he was bound by a confidentiality agreement stipulated in the Masilottis' final divorce
judgment issued May 4.
"It is understood between the parties that they will not be disclosing the (property settlement) agreement or terms of
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MASILOTTI PROFITED FROM CONTROVERSIAL DEAL, REPORT SHOWS Palm Beach Post (Florida)
September 7, 2006 Thursday
the agreement to any other third party or entity without the other party's written consent or pursuant to a court order,"
the final judgment states.
The judgment also acknowledged that the property settlement would not be placed in the court file.
A $50,000 deposit on property on Cat Island in the Bahamas, which appeared on Masilotti's 2005 disclosure, is not
mentioned on his latest filing.
Masilotti, through his assistant, said his Bahamian investment now is held in one of two companies that have been
added to his disclosure: "4 Girls 2 Boys," and "Boys 4 Girls 2." Both limited liability companies were registered July 25
with Masilotti listed as their manager. Masilotti reported he has a 50 percent interest in both corporations worth a total
of $170,000.
Masilotti did not respond to written questions about who owns the other 50 percent of the companies. Nor would
he elaborate on the purpose of the second company.
"Any and all lawful business," is all the corporate papers state.
A partner in the Cat Island venture, prominent rancher Billy Bowman, said he wasn't familiar with the companies,
but confirmed that Masilotti still is an investor in a multimillion-dollar plan to redevelop the property, an abandoned
nudist resort. Having gotten final government approvals within the past six weeks, Bowman said he is ordering
materials, lining up contractors to begin construction of the planned homes and hiring engineers to design a marina.
Bowman said he expects the construction of his house and those of three of the other partners to begin soon.
Masilotti's house, he said, is likely to be the fifth one built.
He declined to say how much Masilotti had invested.
"Same as everyone else, but I'm not going to tell you how much," Bowman said. "You need to ask him that
question."
Staff writer George Bennett and staff researcher Angelica Cortez contributed to this story.
[email protected]
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C)
Tony Masilotti (mug)
LOAD-DATE: September 10, 2006
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June 18, 2006 Sunday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2251 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI'S INVOLVEMENT IN LAND BUY QUESTIONED
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: ROYAL PALM BEACH
BODY:
When the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach sought bids on 50 vacant acres, one motivated buyer offered a unique
enticement: a plan for a village park promoted by County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti.
The diocese accepted that bid in 2003, but the village park never happened. Instead, a gated community is nearing
completion on the land. A federal grand jury is investigating the deal.
Despite written assertions from Masilotti and the buyer that the village was working with them, Mayor David
Lodwick contends that the village council never knew about the park proposal. Lodwick said he was unaware of the
deal's details until he reviewed purchase documents obtained by The Palm Beach Post - records showing the diocese
repeatedly was assured that both Masilotti and the village were involved.
The diocese wouldn't talk about it, citing the ongoing federal investigation.
Lodwick questioned Masilotti's role in the deal.
"Unbelievable," Lodwick said Wednesday. "I have been mayor for seven and a half years and have never located a
buyer for land. Why would a county commissioner?"
The mayor disputed a land purchase agreement and correspondence with the diocese that said the village was
working with Community Preservation of Palm Beach County, the company that successfully bid for the church land:
- In an April 22, 2003, letter to then-Bishop Sean O'Malley, Masilotti tried to steer the diocese to a buyer he said
was willing to include a park. "We have located a local company that has agreed to all the goals set forth," he wrote.
"Who is 'we'?" Lodwick said. Masilotti never told the village about any buyer, he said.
- As part of its bid in July 2003, Community Preservation was required to disclose how it intended to develop the
property. "Single Family & Village of Royal Palm Beach Park," the company wrote in its purchase agreement with the
diocese.
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MASILOTTI'S INVOLVEMENT IN LAND BUY QUESTIONED Palm Beach Post (Florida) June 18, 2006 Sunday
"This is the first time I have seen this," Lodwick said of the agreement. "Never was I made aware of a commitment
for a park."
- In an August 2003 memo to the diocese, Community Preservation said it had "met with village staff and council
of Royal Palm Beach" as well as Masilotti.
"Met with the council? Zero knowledge," Lodwick said.
- In a subsequent memo, Community Preservation reiterated that it was working with village officials on "the
development of a mutually approved plan for the Village of Royal Palm Beach in terms of parks and recreation
requirements."
"Nobody was working with me on park commitments," Lodwick said. "We would have been excited to have done
so."
It is unclear whether Masilotti, then vice chairman of the commission, knew about the representations Community
Preservation was making. Masilotti did not answer written questions sent to him June 7 concerning the documents and
his contacts with village officials.
In a May 30 letter to The Post, the commissioner said he had "no financial interest" in Community Preservation,
that his involvement simply was assuring that the property was developed with minimal impact on parks, schools and
traffic.
"Meeting with property owners and staff is part and parcel of the duties of all county commissioners and your
innuendo of any unusual or inappropriate activities are absolutely false," Masilotti wrote.
In a May interview, Community Preservation President Daniel Miteff said he knew nothing about Masilotti
pushing for a park - and that his company never intended to provide for one. He said he and his partners planned to flip
the property to a developer.
"What you do is you buy a piece of property and then sell a piece of property," he said. "How am I going to do a
park? There's no profit in it."
Weeks later, The Post obtained Miteff's memos to the diocese.
"When we submitted our offer on the subject property, we took into account that land would need to be designated
for the park," Miteff wrote. "We believe that our goals and objectives can be satisfied as well as being socially
responsible by cooperating with the Village of Royal Palm Beach and Palm Beach County in utilizing proper planning
and development principles to provide needed recreational facilities."
Miteff wouldn't talk about those representations. Community Preservation did not answer written questions
delivered June 2 to Miteff's Wellington home, which also is the company's corporate address.
Community Preservation was incorporated Feb. 24, 2003, a month after Masilotti first approached the diocese and
five months before the company bid on the diocesan property in Royal Palm Beach. In a memo to the diocese, its
owners were identified as Miteff, a governor's appointee to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, and David
and Jeffrey Lee, brothers who owned the Black Diamond nursery in Masilotti's commission district.
Other ties to Masilotti
Miteff and the Lees have other connections to Masilotti. In 2003, while involved in the church land deal, the Lees
agreed to sell 3,000 acres in Martin County to the South Florida Water Management District for about $40 million.
Masilotti's family made as much as $1.3 million in connection with that deal, through a secret land trust and a series of
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MASILOTTI'S INVOLVEMENT IN LAND BUY QUESTIONED Palm Beach Post (Florida) June 18, 2006 Sunday
complicated real estate transactions, records show. Masilotti pushed the deal with water district staff, records show.
Federal authorities have subpoenaed records concerning both the water district purchase and the land deal in Royal
Palm Beach.
This year, Masilotti attempted to insert Miteff in a deal to provide county land for a nonprofit children's shelter,
county officials said. The deal fell apart several weeks before the grand jury issued subpoenas concerning the church
and water district transactions. Masilotti insisted he never tried to steer the county land to Miteff, that he had nothing to
do with his business interests.
In early 2003, months before the Lees got involved in the church deal, Masilotti already was promoting the land
sale, meeting twice with Bishop O'Malley and writing letters on Palm Beach County stationery, records show.
Royal Palm Beach Village Manager David Farber also wrote a letter. He said he wrote to Masilotti at the
commissioner's request.
"It has come to my attention that the Archdiocese (sic) of Palm Beach is contemplating sale of some or all of the
approximately 50 acres of land it owns to the west of Queen of Peace cemetery," Farber wrote to Masilotti on March 6,
2003. "I would appreciate your support in ensuring that a significant portion of that parcel be committed to public
recreational space by the potential purchaser."
Farber said he wrote the letter partly because the village needs more parkland and partly because he wanted to keep
Masilotti happy. He has worked with the commissioner since 1994, when Farber was hired as village manager and
Masilotti was village mayor.
"He's the emperor without clothes," Farber said of Masilotti's reputation as a powerful and aggressive politician.
"If you can accommodate him, and it's nothing adverse to the public, you do it. You avoid the pain. You just do it."
Farber said he never told the village council about the letter. At the time, it didn't seem important, he said.
Masilotti passed Farber's letter along to the diocese. In his own letters, Masilotti urged church officials to sell the
land without putting it on the open market. His pitch: Choose a buyer willing to provide for a much-needed park while
building fewer homes than the property's zoning allowed.
"I am not a real estate professional, and my only goal is to build a better community for everyone involved,"
Masilotti wrote.
Mayor says he didn't know
Lodwick said he never was briefed on what Masilotti was proposing.
"In a typical relationship, a county commissioner would call the mayor," Lodwick said. "But that was not our
relationship. I didn't know why a county commissioner was going to the diocese and suggesting they sell land."
Like Farber, Lodwick said he tries to keep a polite distance from Masilotti.
"He has the ability to go ballistic," the mayor said. "You want to avoid that at all costs."
The diocese turned down Masilotti's proposal and sought competitive bids on the property. On July 17, 2003, the
diocese sent bid packages to a variety of developers, as well as Masilotti and the village of Royal Palm Beach.
The requirements: a minimum $6 million bid with the property sold "as is."
A park wasn't mentioned. But the diocese did require bidders disclose their plans for the land, saying it could reject
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MASILOTTI'S INVOLVEMENT IN LAND BUY QUESTIONED Palm Beach Post (Florida) June 18, 2006 Sunday
any proposal it didn't like.
The village had tried for years to buy some of the property from the diocese. Yet when the bid solicitation arrived at
village hall, it never was publicly discussed. Village Clerk Diane DiSanto said she could find no record that the bid
solicitation was brought to the village council.
At first, Farber said he had no recollection of the solicitation and that such a document couldn't be found in village
files. His recollection changed after he was provided with a FedEx receipt showing that the bid package had been
delivered to village hall July 21, 2003. A copy of the document surfaced two weeks after The Post requested it.
"Now that you've jogged my memory, I think I did get it," Farber said in a June 2 interview. "I recall getting the
packet and chuckling to myself and saying, 'Yeah, we are really going to be able to compete with the big boys for this.' "
Diocese against land split
Farber said he called the diocese and was told it wouldn't sell a portion of the property. Because the minimum $6
million bid was out of the village's price range, Farber said, he didn't bring it to the council. Mayor Lodwick, however,
said he recalls Farber's mentioning the bid solicitation to him, but the park proposal never came up.
"There was no attempt on my part to deceive anybody," Farber said.
Farber said he met with Miteff on July 30, 2003, two days after the deadline for submitting bids to the diocese.
Farber said Miteff never mentioned his company had offered a village park.
"Clearly, they made representations that weren't correct," Farber said. "I had no control over that."
The company won the property in August 2003 with a $7 million bid. Farber said he met twice more with Miteff in
2003, on Sept. 29 and Oct. 7. Although they discussed a bike path along the edge of the property and general
development issues, Farber said the park never was mentioned.
Bill Morris, the village's community development director at the time, remembers differently: that the park did
come up.
"It was kind of hard to say what the need was because the property was right across the street from a county park,"
said Morris, who was reached at his new job in Ruidoso, N.M. "We didn't want to do a village park on top of it. It
wasn't necessary."
Farber dismissed Morris' recollection. "If he remembers that, he remembers that," Farber said Monday. "That's not
what I recall."
With no village park, 10 more acres were available for homes - an additional 30, based on the density of the
subdivision now under construction on the property.
In early 2004, Community Preservation sold its purchase agreement for an undisclosed profit to a unit of GL
Homes. The company has all but completed a gated subdivision called Nautica Lakes, with 219 townhouses and
single-family homes selling from $360,000 to more than $500,000.
GL Homes was billed $462,200 for county and village parks outside its project, a standard arrangement for gated
communities, village officials said.
Within Nautica Lakes' gates is a 2-acre recreation center with a clubhouse, swimming pool, tot lot and basketball
and tennis courts. Unlike a village park, it is off limits to the public.
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MASILOTTI'S INVOLVEMENT IN LAND BUY QUESTIONED Palm Beach Post (Florida) June 18, 2006 Sunday
A sign out front makes it clear: "For the use of Nautica Lakes residents and their guests only."
FROM A PLANNED PUBLIC PARK TO A GATED COMMUNITY
THE LAND
A park was pitched for Royal Palm Beach, but gated community Nautica Lakes is nearing completion on the
property.
The deal
In 2003, then-County Commission Vice Chairman Tony Masilotti promoted a private land deal that was supposed
to include a public park. The Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach sold the land after getting assurances from the buyer that
Masilotti and the village of Royal Palm Beach were working on it.
What actually happened
No park. Village Mayor David Lodwick says he knew nothing about any plan for it. A federal grand jury is
investigating the land deal.
THE DOCUMENTS
April 22, 2003:
Masilotti's letter to then-Bishop Sean O'Malley
Masilotti tried to steer the diocese to a buyer he said was willing to include a park. 'We have located a local
company that has agreed to all the goals set forth,' he wrote. 'Who is "we"?' Lodwick says. Masilotti never told the
village about any buyer, the mayor says.
July 2003: Buyer's bid for the land
As part of its bid, Community Preservation of Palm Beach County was required to disclose how it intended to
develop the property. 'Single Family & Village of Royal Palm Beach Park,' the company wrote in its purchase
agreement with the diocese. Lodwick says: 'Never was I made aware of a commitment for a park.'
August 2003: Buyer's memo to the diocese
Community Preservation said it had 'met with village staff and council of Royal Palm Beach' as well as Masilotti.
'Met with the council? Zero knowledge,' Lodwick says.
Buyer's later memo
In a subsequent memo, Community Preservation reiterated that it was working with village officials on 'the
development of a mutually approved plan for the Village of Royal Palm Beach in terms of parks and recreation
requirements.' Lodwick says: 'Nobody was working with me on park commitments.'
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C)
Tony Masilotti (mug)
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LOAD-DATE: June 21, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
June 9, 2006 Friday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 663 words
HEADLINE: U.S. PROSECUTORS PROBING 2 DEALS SEEK DOCUMENTS
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Federal prosecutors examining land deals involving County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti have requested
an array of county documents concerning lobbyists and principals in the transactions.
County Attorney Denise Nieman confirmed Thursday that the U.S. Attorney's Office had requested records about
their official contacts with commissioners and county staff. While declining to elaborate, she said the verbal request
concerned parties in two land deals that have been detailed in recent stories in The Palm Beach Post. Federal authorities
declined comment.
Nieman also confirmed she has been quizzed by federal prosecutors, in general about Florida conflict-of-interest
law governing county officials. Federal agents also have talked along the same lines with some commissioners.
Masilotti, who maintains he has done nothing improper, said last week that he had talked to federal agents three
times. Masilotti said he asked federal prosecutors to look into The Post's stories in an attempt to clear his name.
The county attorney's office asked commissioners to produce appointment calendars and visitor logs for the past
three years. Additionally, county staff is gathering lobbyist registration records as well as the meeting minutes and
related documents.
The records request followed grand jury subpoenas issued last month to the South Florida Water Management
District and the village of Royal Palm Beach.
The water district records concern a 2003 agreement to purchase about 3,000 acres in Martin County from David
and Jeffrey Lee, two brothers who once owned the Black Diamond nursery in Masilotti's commission district. The Post
stories showed how Masilotti's family, through a secret land trust, made as much as $1.3 million in connection with the
Lees' sale to the water management district.
The Lees were investors in a 2003 deal to acquire a 49-acre parcel from the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach,
records show. After getting government approval to build homes on the land in Royal Palm Beach, the Lee group
flipped the property to a unit of GL Homes for an undisclosed profit.
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U.S. PROSECUTORS PROBING 2 DEALS SEEK DOCUMENTS Palm Beach Post (Florida) June 9, 2006 Friday
Masilotti promoted the land sale, meeting twice with the bishop and writing letters on Palm Beach County
stationery, records show. Once the Lee group had a contract on the property, Masilotti arranged a meeting with the
county engineer to resolve a dispute over the proposed development's impact on traffic. Ultimately, the county allowed
218 homes to be built on the property, despite concerns that its traffic would snarl the nearby intersection of Southern
Boulevard and State Road 7.
Records now sought by federal authorities concern the Lee brothers' past business with the county, including
county regulatory approvals needed to develop their former nursery in Wellington.
Sources familiar with the federal request said records are being sought for two attorneys involved in a Martin
County deal: William Boose, whose law firm represented the Masilotti family trust in the deal, and Harvey Oyer, who
represented the Lees. Both attorneys are registered lobbyists who appear regularly before the Palm Beach County
Commission on clients' real estate matters.
Federal prosecutors also want county records concerning Daniel Miteff and Tullio "Chic" Cecchinelli, two others
involved in the deal with the diocese.
Cecchinelli, a Royal Palm Beach retiree, for years was a political ally of Masilotti. Miteff, of Wellington, sits on
the board of the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.
The Post reported Tuesday that Masilotti this year had tried to insert Miteff into a deal to provide county land for a
nonprofit children's shelter.
County officials said Masilotti recommended that Miteff have a chance to purchase the surplus property for the
shelter as well as another surplus parcel. Miteff, in turn, was supposed to donate a parcel to KidSanctuary, which would
operate the shelter. The deal fell apart last month, several weeks before the grand jury subpoenas were issued.
[email protected]
NOTES: Did not run MSL.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (B&W)
Tony Masilotti (mug)
LOAD-DATE: June 11, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
June 6, 2006 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 917 words
HEADLINE: OFFICIAL: MASILOTTI URGED DEAL ON LAND
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ and HECTOR FLORIN Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti tried to insert a Wellington businessman into a deal to provide
county land for a nonprofit children's shelter, officials said Monday.
Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman said Masilotti recommended that the businessman, Daniel
Miteff, have a chance to purchase the surplus property for the shelter as well as another surplus parcel. Miteff, in turn,
was supposed to donate the 5.6 acres the shelter's operator sought.
The deal fell apart last month, several weeks before a federal grand jury issued subpoenas concerning another real
estate deal involving Miteff and Masilotti - a 2003 agreement by the Diocese of Palm Beach to sell land in Royal Palm
Beach to a company Miteff headed. Masilotti helped promote that deal, meeting twice with diocesan officials, writing
letters on county stationery and arranging a meeting with county engineers to resolve a dispute over the traffic impact
from developing the land, county records show.
Both Miteff and Masilotti have maintained that the commissioner didn't benefit from the church deal and that he
simply was aiding a constituent.
Masilotti on Monday insisted that he played no role in getting Miteff involved in the county land deal.
"I don't have anything to do with Dan Miteff or his company," Masilotti said.
Miteff did not return calls for comment.
Weisman and Ross Hering, the county's real estate manager, said they met with Masilotti to discuss involving
Miteff in the deal with KidSanctuary, a nonprofit corporation that provides short-term foster care for physically or
developmentally disabled children. Weisman said he found it puzzling. Among the reasons: KidSanctuary seemed to
want no part of it.
At first, Weisman said, Masilotti advocated donating 5.6 acres directly to KidSanctuary. Weeks later, Weisman
said, Masilotti voiced second thoughts. "He expressed concern about KidSanctuary's financial capability to do the
project they proposed," Weisman said. "He said Miteff was going to start a new foundation that would help
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OFFICIAL: MASILOTTI URGED DEAL ON LAND Palm Beach Post (Florida) June 6, 2006 Tuesday
KidSanctuary. It was a confusing situation because it wasn't clear how Miteff's proposal fit into what KidSanctuary
wanted to do. There was a question of what Miteff's interest was in the project."
KidSanctuary President Suzanne Maurno said the organization had turned to Masilotti in July for help acquiring
the land, a parcel on the west side of Florida's Turnpike south of Southern Boulevard, within the commissioner's district.
After months of delay, the deal took a twist. "It was a very strange thing," Maurno said. "Out of the blue, a man
called Dan Miteff called. He said he wanted to help us. Dan asked a lot of questions. He asked, 'Do you really need 5
acres?' and 'What if I found you another piece?' "
Maurno said Miteff was told KidSanctuary was not interested.
"He said he'd be in touch. We never heard from him again," Maurno said. Early this year, with the date of a big
fund-raiser approaching, Maurno said she again called Masilotti. Maurno said she wanted to announce the land
acquisition in hopes of raising money to build shelter homes on the site. She said she got Masilotti's assurance that
there was no problem.
"He said, 'Go ahead and make your announcement. The land is yours. I guarantee it,' " Maurno said.
But when the deal went to the commission in April, administrators provided other options: selling the land directly
to KidSanctuary or packaging the property with a nearby parcel and selling them to another party - with the requirement
that the purchaser donate the 5.6 acres for the shelter.
Pitching the new deal was Masilotti and a recently registered nonprofit called The Habitat for Forgotten Children,
Weisman said. Its president: Daniel Miteff.
Weisman said Miteff offered the commission a proposal that would give KidSanctuary free land and provide a
financial benefit for the county.
"Theoretically we were going to get more for the land instead of just donating (one parcel) to KidSanctuary,"
Weisman said.
Still, Miteff's involvement took KidSanctuary by surprise, said CEO Barbara McMillin. "There was no agreement
between KidSanctuary and Habitat For Forgotten Children," she said.
Miteff offered the commission $550,000 for both parcels. Miteff's nonprofit also offered to construct a building for
KidSanctuary for free and contribute $50,000 for roadwork and utilities - provided that the property not be put out for
competitive bids.
Miteff backed away after five commissioners - including Masilotti - decided to seek other bids. Commissioners
Mary McCarty and Karen Marcus objected at the April 4 meeting, saying they wanted to simply donate the 5.6 acres to
KidSanctuary and put the other parcel, 4.9 acres on the east side of the turnpike, out for a separate bid.
Miteff did not bid on the parcels by the May 8 deadline. The only bid, $150,000 from a landscaping firm, was
considered too low and rejected. Weisman said the firm's plan to expand its nursery on the eastern parcel also was
expected to draw objections from neighbors.
The administration now recommends the commission return to the original plan - donating the western property to
KidSanctuary. Sale of the eastern parcel is back on the shelf.
Among the proposed conditions: that the county gets the land back from KidSanctuary if the shelter isn't operating
within five years.
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OFFICIAL: MASILOTTI URGED DEAL ON LAND Palm Beach Post (Florida) June 6, 2006 Tuesday
Weisman said the matter is scheduled for commission discussion at today's meeting.
"It's a chance for us to explain what happened," Weisman said.
[email protected]
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: MAP (B&W)
TIM BRITTON/Staff Artist Location of 5.6 acre parcel and 4.9 acre parcel.
LOAD-DATE: June 8, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
May 31, 2006 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1839 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI PUSHED DIOCESE LAND SALE
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: ROYAL PALM BEACH
BODY:
County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti helped promote a second real estate deal involving two investors
whose sale of land to a government agency profited Masilotti's family, public records and interviews show.
The investors, brothers Jeffrey and David Lee, bankrolled a bid to acquire 49 acres in the village owned by the
Diocese of Palm Beach, participants in the deal confirmed. After getting government approval to build homes on the
land, the Lee group flipped the property to a unit of GL Homes for an undisclosed profit.
In early 2003, months before the Lees got involved, Masilotti already was promoting the land sale, meeting twice
with the bishop and writing letters on Palm Beach County stationery urging the sale, records show. Once the Lee group
had a contract on the property, Masilotti arranged a meeting with the county engineer to resolve a dispute over the
proposed development's impact on traffic. Ultimately, the county allowed 218 homes to be built on the property, despite
concerns that its traffic would aggravate snarls at the nearby Southern Boulevard-State Road 7 intersection.
Federal authorities last week subpoenaed records from Royal Palm Beach concerning the church land as well as
documents concerning the Lees' sale of 3,000 acres in Martin County to the South Florida Water Management District.
The subpoenas followed recent stories in The Palm Beach Post documenting how Masilotti's family, through a secret
land trust, made up to $1.3 million in connection with the Lees' sale to the water district.
After the stories were published, Masilotti withdrew from his third and final run for county commission, saying he
wanted to spend more time with his family.
Masilotti said he asked federal prosecutors to look into the stories. "It is an inquiry done at my request to clear my
name," he said. "I've met with the federal government three times, showed them my records and answered their
questions. There is nothing there whatsoever."
The Lees have not returned calls seeking comment.
Masilotti participated in the Royal Palm Beach deal through most of 2003, records and interviews show. During
the same period, he met with water district officials, urging them to buy the Lees' land to expand a network of hiking
trails in Martin and Palm Beach counties. Water district officials said Masilotti never mentioned that his family had a
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MASILOTTI PUSHED DIOCESE LAND SALE Palm Beach Post (Florida) May 31, 2006 Wednesday
financial interest in the deal.
Masilotti's appointment calendar shows he met twice in early 2003 with then-Bishop Sean O'Malley regarding 49
acres the diocese owned north of Southern Boulevard at Lamstein Lane. Masilotti wanted the diocese to the sell the
land without putting it on the open market. His pitch: Choose a buyer willing to sell 15 acres to Royal Palm Beach for a
much-needed park while building fewer homes than the property's zoning allowed.
"We have located a local company that has agreed to all the goals set forth," Masilotti wrote to the bishop on April
22, 2003. "I am not a real estate professional, and my only goal is to build a better community for everyone involved."
At the time, Masilotti's prospective buyer was Wallace Sanger, a politically active Royal Palm Beach builder.
Sanger said Masilotti may have told him about the church property, "but I can't recall for sure."
The diocese wasn't interested in the deal proposed by Masilotti. Church officials informed the commissioner that
they would seek competitive bids on the property. In July 2003, the diocese sent bid solicitation letters to a variety of
developers, as well as Sanger and Masilotti.
Sanger wrote to the diocese saying he was no longer interested. Masilotti also wrote back - expressing outrage over
the bid solicitation.
"You state in your letter that I have expressed an interest in acquiring this property," Masilotti wrote on July 21,
2003, to Daniel Lewis, a real estate broker for the diocese. "NOTHING could be further from the truth. . . . Once again,
my only concern on this is if the diocese sells it, that it would be sold for reasonably low residential development to
allow for a park."
With Sanger no longer interested, two other prospective bidders emerged: Daniel Miteff, a former Royal Palm
Beach planning director who now sits on the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council, and Tullio "Chic" Cecchinelli,
a Royal Palm Beach retiree who was in Masilotti's political circle for years.
No longer was Masilotti pushing for a park, according to Miteff. The plan was to acquire the land, then resell it to a
developer, Miteff said. Miteff's job was to get the necessary traffic and environmental approvals so the property was
ready for building, increasing its market value, he said.
Cecchinelli said he was asked by Masilotti to bankroll the purchase, providing $600,000 for two down payments.
Masilotti denied involvement. "I have never had any financial interest in any of their business ventures," Masilotti
said.
Miteff and Cecchinelli won the property in August 2003 with a $7 million bid. Cecchinelli put up $50,000 when the
sales contract was signed and was supposed to come up with $550,000 within 45 days. In between, Cecchinelli said, he,
Miteff and Masilotti had a sudden falling-out.
"I told Miteff, 'I want my $50,000 back. I don't care if you have to go to Tony, but I want it back in three days,' "
Cecchinelli said.
Cecchinelli believes Masilotti arranged for the Lee brothers to reimburse the $50,000. Miteff wouldn't say how the
Lees got involved. Masilotti said that while he was aware of the Lees' investment, he had nothing to do with it.
Miteff said the deal hit a roadblock when his consultant and the county engineering department disagreed over how
to tally the cars going in and out of the proposed development. With negotiations at an impasse, Miteff said he turned to
Masilotti, asking him to set up a meeting with George Webb, the department's director.
The problem, Webb said, was that even though Southern Boulevard and State Road 7 were being widened, the
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MASILOTTI PUSHED DIOCESE LAND SALE Palm Beach Post (Florida) May 31, 2006 Wednesday
proposed development still would add an unacceptable amount of traffic.
On Nov. 24, 2003, Webb and Miteff met at Masilotti's commission office. Masilotti said arranging the meeting
was nothing special.
"I do that for countless people," the commissioner said. "I don't tell staff what to do. As a matter of fact, I told them
not to give them approval. George Webb's records can show you that."
Webb said there's nothing in his files showing Masilotti opposed the project.
"He's been good with us as far as not crossing the line and interfering," Webb said. "I don't have any sense or
recollection that he felt this was a bad thing. My recollection is that he felt that if something can be done, why not?"
A month later, the county engineering department approved 153 homes on the property. While that was less than
they wanted, Webb said, it allowed the deal to advance. The group also was allowed to pursue a traffic impact waiver
that would allow 218 homes on the property.
Miteff said he and the Lees then sold the contract for the property to Palm Beach Associates IV, a unit of GL
Homes. The company has all but completed a subdivision called Nautica Lakes, with townhouses and single-family
homes selling from $350,000 to more than $500,000. Plans for a village park never happened.
Beyond the $7 million purchase price for the land, the company bought the sales contract from Miteff and the Lees.
Typically the fee is 3 percent, or $210,000. But Miteff said the price was substantially more because the property had
government approval for development.
At a Dec. 13, 2004, commission meeting, the county engineering department recommended a traffic impact waiver
for the property, saying it expected that future widening of State Road 7 would relieve congestion at the Southern
Boulevard intersection.
When it came time for the county commission to vote, Masilotti was not present. The traffic waiver was approved
in a 5-0 vote, with Masilotti and Commissioner Karen Marcus absent.
Masilotti said his position on development has been consistent, with no favors for anyone.
"I am opposed to any new development along Southern Boulevard that will add to the traffic," Masilotti said. "The
record will show I never voted for that project."
[email protected]
Key players in the deal
The Rev. Sean O'Malley
Palm Beach County Commissioner Tony Masilotti met twice and corresponded with then-Bishop O'Malley in
early 2003, urging the Diocese of Palm Beach to sell 49 acres to Masilotti's proposed buyer, public records show.
O'Malley declined, and the diocese decided to seek competitive bids on the property. O'Malley, elevated to cardinal,
now heads the Archdiocese of Boston.
Wallace Sanger
Masilotti wanted the diocese to sell the land to this politically active builder, saying Sanger in turn would sell 15
acres to Royal Palm Beach for a park and build a modest housing development on the rest.
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MASILOTTI PUSHED DIOCESE LAND SALE Palm Beach Post (Florida) May 31, 2006 Wednesday
Daniel Miteff
Miteff stepped in during the summer of 2003 after Sanger decided not to bid on the land. Masilotti arranged a
meeting with the county's chief engineer to resolve a dispute over the development's impact on traffic.
Miteff, a former Royal Palm Beach planning director, is a real estate consultant who specializes in acquiring vacant
land, getting government approvals for building and then flipping the land to major developers. He was appointed to the
Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council last year by Gov. Jeb Bush.
Tullio 'Chic' Cecchinelli
The Royal Palm Beach retiree said Masilotti asked him to bankroll Miteff's bid for the property. Cecchinelli
invested $50,000, then demanded his money back after a falling out with Masilotti and Miteff.
He and Masilotti had been allies for years. They now consider each other political enemies.
David and Jeffrey Lee
The two brothers bought into the deal in late 2003, when Cecchinelli bowed out, investing $600,000. They are the
former owners of the Black Diamond nursery in Masilotti's district and contributed to his 2002 reelection campaign.
The Lees have made millions selling Martin County land to the South Florida Water Management District, a deal
that Masilotti pushed with district officials as the Royal Palm Beach deal progressed.
Before selling the 3,000 acres to the district, the Lees sold a 147-acre sliver of it at below market value to a
Masilotti family trustee. Real estate documents show the Lees later guaranteed a big profit on the Masilotti family's
investment - but only if the water district went forward with the $40 million purchase of their land.
The commissioner repeatedly has said his ex-wife was the beneficiary of the deal, that he didn't know specifics,
including the source of the $367,500 his family invested in the Martin County property. A federal grand jury has
subpoenaed records concerning the water district sale.
GL Homes
The major home builder bought the Royal Palm Beach land from the diocese for $7 million in February 2004, after
acquiring the sales contract from Miteff and the Lees. Miteff wouldn't disclose the price but said it was substantial
because it came with government approval for development.
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (3 B&W) & MAP (B&W)
1. David Lee (mug) 2. The Rev. Sean O'Malley (mug) 3. Wallace Sanger (mug) 4. MARK HEMPHILL/Staff Artist
Location of Nautica Lakes
LOAD-DATE: June 2, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
May 26, 2006 Friday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 795 words
HEADLINE: FAMILY'S LAND DEAL IS SUBJECT OF PROBE
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
A federal grand jury is investigating a South Florida Water Management District land deal that enriched the family
of Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti, The Palm Beach Post has learned.
A federal subpoena was issued to the water district Thursday seeking all records regarding the district's 2003
purchase of 3,000 acres in Martin County, district spokesman Roberto Fabricio confirmed. He did not provide details.
The Post reported in April that Masilotti's family made as much as $1.3 million in connection with the district deal,
through a secret land trust and a tangled series of real estate transactions. Although Masilotti insisted he had no direct
involvement, interviews and documents obtained by The Post showed he pushed for the water district purchase.
Sources familiar with the grand jury investigation said agents from both the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service
are involved in the probe, which appears to track The Post's examination of the district deal. The U.S. Attorney's Office,
which is directing the case, does not comment on pending investigations.
Masilotti could not be reached late Thursday. Publicly, he has maintained there was nothing improper about the
deal. He said his wife at the time, Susan Masilotti, was the sole beneficiary of the trust. The couple recently divorced.
Last week, Masilotti abruptly quit his third and final commission run just days after Republican Party leadership
raised questions about the Martin County transactions - warning that unless Masilotti fully disclosed his involvement, it
could mean trouble for him at the ballot box.
The commissioner repeatedly has said he didn't know specifics, including the source of the $367,500 his family
invested in Martin County property.
The profit to Masilotti's family came from two landowners who have made millions off the sale to the water
district: David and Jeffrey Lee, Palm Beach County farmers who are political supporters of the commissioner and
owned land in his commission district.
Before selling the land to the district, they sold a 147-acre sliver of it at below market value to a Masilotti family
trustee, Richard Crum. Real estate documents show the Lees later guaranteed a big profit on the Masilotti family's
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FAMILY'S LAND DEAL IS SUBJECT OF PROBE Palm Beach Post (Florida) May 26, 2006 Friday
investment - but only if the water district went forward with the $40 million purchase of the 3,000 acres assembled by
the Lee brothers.
Crum is an administrator at Boose, Casey, Ciklin, a law firm that regularly lobbies the county commission for land
developers. The federal subpoena specifically requests all documentation concerning the roles of Crum and the law firm
in the district acquisition.
Crum earlier acknowledged he was a "straw man" in the deal and said he knew little about the land transactions. He
declined comment Thursday and representatives of the law firm could not be reached.
The Lees have declined to talk about Masilotti's involvement in the deal. Their attorney, Harvey Oyer, said
Thursday he was unaware of the federal probe and had no comment.
When the district's board of governors agreed in December 2003 to purchase the 3,000 acres, the Lees were
required to disclose who would profit from the transaction. In an e-mail from Oyer's firm, Crum was identified as
representing the Lee brothers, not the Masilotti family.
Under state law, Crum was required to file a sworn statement - "subject to the penalties prescribed for perjury" before the district signed a purchase contract with the Lees. The affidavit turned out to be unnecessary. On the same day
the contract was signed in March 2004, Crum swapped the 147 acres for a 150-acre parcel the district wasn't buying.
The land in the swap was valued at $14,000 per acre, the same rate the district was paying.
While the Masilotti trust was out of the district deal, its profit still was tied to it under a purchase agreement signed
the same day as the land swap. According to real estate documents, the Lees agreed to buy back 110 acres from Crum,
provided the district deal advanced. The profit to the Masilotti trust: $1.3 million, records show.
In the months before the water district board approved the purchase, Masilotti pushed for the acquisition, meeting
repeatedly with then-water district Executive Director Henry Dean and taking Dean on a boat outing with David Lee.
Masilotti also lobbied water district staff, attending a meeting with Jeffrey Lee.
Dean and staffers said they had no idea Masilotti's family had a stake in the transaction. All the while, Masilotti
said he was interested in establishing a network of hiking trails on the property to promote ecotourism in Martin and
Palm Beach counties, never mentioning his family's interest.
Staff writers Andrew Marra, Tony Doris and Jose Lambiet contributed to this story.
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C)
Tony Masilotti (mug)
LOAD-DATE: May 28, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
May 17, 2006 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 1048 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI ENDS REELECTION CAMPAIGN;
ACTION FOLLOWS DISCLOSURE OF ROLES IN TWO LAND DEALS
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ, JENNIFER SORENTRUE and HECTOR FLORIN Palm Beach Post Staff Writers
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH
BODY:
Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti has quit his reelection campaign, just days after
Republican Party leadership raised questions about his involvement in a controversial land deal.
Masilotti, a former Royal Palm Beach mayor first elected to the commission in 1998, made no public
announcement. Instead he delivered a letter - after business hours Monday - to Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson
asking that his name be pulled from the Sept. 5 ballot.
Term-limited Masilotti had been making his third and final run for the commission. With no incumbent and no heir
apparent, the District 6 race is certain to become a political free-for-all.
Masilotti's retreat from public life was the second in two weeks to rock the county's political establishment. Last
week, two-term West Palm Beach City Commissioner Ray Liberti resigned, days after being charged with public
corruption by federal prosecutors.
For weeks, Masilotti has been defending his connection to two multimillion-dollar land acquisitions in Martin
County and in the Bahamas, deals detailed in a series of stories in The Palm Beach Post.
The Martin County deal and Masilotti's reelection race were central topics at Wednesday's meeting of the
Republican Executive Committee, where Chairman Sid Dinerstein was noncommittal about Masilotti's campaign signaling that the commissioner's support was eroding within the top ranks of his own party.
Dinerstein said The Post's stories raised "huge red flags" that Masilotti needed to address. "If you're going to be in
public office, you need to be above reproach," Dinerstein said.
In an interview Tuesday, Masilotti said he had been considering leaving elected office well before the land deal
controversy.
"I promised my children six months ago if I got all my work done, I wouldn't run again," said Masilotti, a divorced
father of four daughters. "I wasn't concerned about winning reelection. I was concerned about spending some time with
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MASILOTTI ENDS REELECTION CAMPAIGN; ACTION FOLLOWS DISCLOSURE OF ROLES IN TWO LAND
DEALS Palm Beach Post (Florida) May 17, 2006 Wednesday
the people I cared about."
In the letter to Anderson, Masilotti reflected on his leadership during eight years on the commission - his role in
the just-approved Scripps Research Institute contract, park and library expansion, money to build a new Glades water
plant - then said it was time to go.
Masilotti, 49, made no mention of his May 4 divorce after 27 years of marriage. Nor did he mention the land deals.
Masilotti has maintained that he did nothing wrong, that the stories are an attempt to oust him from office. On
April 4, two days after the first story was published, Masilotti defended his integrity and threw down an unusual
gauntlet.
"There is nothing inappropriate about buying or selling land," he said from the commission dais. "And in fact I
would put out a challenge to the publisher of The Post: If I or any of my family members did anything illegal, I will
resign from this post, if in fact the editor of The Post will resign when they admit I did nothing wrong."
Friday, he demanded The Post retract "any comments suggesting that I did anything illegal or improper" and
threatened legal action.
Citing public documents and interviews with key officials, The Post reported that Masilotti took an active role in a
South Florida Water Management land acquisition that enriched his family despite his assertion that he had no direct
involvement in the deal. Masilotti's family made as much as $1.3 million last year from the district purchase in Martin
County, using a secret land trust and a tangled series of real estate transactions.
In the Bahamas, The Post reported, Masilotti is one of 10 partners in a multimillion-dollar plan to resurrect a resort
on Cat Island, according to Billy Bowman, a politically connected cattleman who put the deal together. Masilotti,
however, insisted he only was purchasing land in the development for a personal vacation home.
Whatever Masilotti's role, one of the partners in the Bahamian deal had been before the county commission twice
in recent weeks to win accounting-contract approvals. The Bahamian connection prompted a pending county
investigation into a possible conflict of interest.
Masilotti did not attend Tuesday's commission meeting, after writing to commissioners that he would be late. On
the agenda was a key safety issue for his district: Evacuating the Glades area in the event of a hurricane.
At the meeting, commissioners also voted to sell 75 acres in the county's Agricultural Reserve for $3.15 million to a
group led by Richard Bowman - one of Masilotti's partners in the Bahamas. For Masilotti, the vote posed a potential
conflict of interest.
Masilotti said he didn't attend the meeting because he had a personal matter to handle. "I was getting the house
painted," he said.
As news of Masilotti's bow-out spread, several county commissioners reached spoke respectfully about him.
"I think Tony has done an excellent job of representing the western communities," Commissioner Warren Newell
said. "Personally, I'm sorry to see him go. One of the things people don't realize is that Tony has a tremendous concern
for his children."
Added Commissioner Burt Aaronson: "I guess that with all the press and the divorce, it's been a strain on him."
His political rival, Commissioner Mary McCarty, also was tempered in her remarks. "He was a strong advocate for
his district," she said.
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DEALS Palm Beach Post (Florida) May 17, 2006 Wednesday
But Masilotti's relationships with his fellow commissioners haven't always been collegial. On the dais, Masilotti
has been known to show his temper, make abrasive comments and occasionally skip controversial votes.
As chairman, Masilotti annoyed other commissioners last year by missing a key budget workshop and several
other critical meetings.
Masilotti apologized, blaming his absences on diabetes and chronic back problems. Once, he explained, he had
fallen in the shower.
Masilotti said he needed several surgeries after he injured his back riding dirt bikes in 2004. Masilotti has said he
has had no problems with pain medications typically prescribed for back injuries.
After discussing the injury with The Post last year, Masilotti suggested in a memo to County Administrator Bob
Weisman that he, and all commissioners, submit to random drug testing.
Staff writer George Bennett contributed to this story.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
NOTES: Ran all editions.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (C & B&W)
1. (C) 'While I am proud of the tasks completed during my tenure, I have an obligation to spend more quality time with
my loved ones.' TONY MASILOTTI 2. (B&W) A copy of Tony Masilotti's letter to Elections Supervisor Arthur
Anderson.
LOAD-DATE: May 18, 2006
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Palm Beach Post (Florida)
April 2, 2006 Sunday
Correction Appended
FINAL EDITION
SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. 1A
LENGTH: 2836 words
HEADLINE: MASILOTTI DIVORCE PAPERS REVEAL LAND DEAL
BYLINE: By TOM DUBOCQ Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
BODY:
The family of Palm Beach County Commission Chairman Tony Masilotti made as much as $1.3 million in
connection with a government land purchase in Martin County, using a secret land trust and a tangled series of real
estate transactions.
The profit came from two landowners who stood to make millions by selling 3,000 acres to the South Florida Water
Management District: David and Jeffrey Lee, farmers from Palm Beach County. Before selling the land to the district,
the Lees sold a sliver of it to a Masilotti family trustee. Documents show that the Lees later guaranteed a big profit on
the Masilotti family's investment - but only if the water district went forward with the 3,000-acre deal.
The Lees wouldn't say why that was a condition.
While acknowledging that his family profited, Masilotti maintained he had no direct involvement in any of the
transactions. He said his wife, Susan Masilotti, was the beneficiary of the family trust.
Property records indicate the Masilotti trust purchased the land for $366,618. Masilotti said he didn't know the
source of the money, that he and his wife of 27 years have kept their finances separate.
"I have no ownership interest in the Martin County property which you described. Not now or in the past,"
Commissioner Masilotti wrote in response to questions from The Palm Beach Post. "It is owned solely by a trust of
which Susan Masilotti is the beneficiary, which to my understanding is a completely legal and accepted practice to
conserve and protect personal assets."
Susan Masilotti wouldn't comment. Now divorcing her husband, she is described in court papers as a homemaker.
She reported that while she didn't work outside the home, she collected a $39,000 salary from her husband's insurance
business. Masilotti reported his income was $450,000 a year.
The first public clues to the Masilotti trust's existence surfaced in January, when Susan Masilotti filed financial
papers in Palm Beach County Family Court mentioning a trustee named Richard Crum.
Crum, an accountant, is an administrator at Boose, Casey, Ciklin, a West Palm Beach law firm that regularly
lobbies the county commission for land developers. Tony Masilotti has counted its lawyers among his political
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MASILOTTI DIVORCE PAPERS REVEAL LAND DEAL Palm Beach Post (Florida) April 2, 2006 Sunday
Correction Appended
supporters. The law firm, as well as partners William Boose and Alan Ciklin, contributed a total of $1,500 to
Masilotti's 2002 reelection campaign.
Asked why his name was mentioned in the Masilotti divorce, Crum had little to say.
"I'm strictly a straw man," he told The Post. "I didn't know anything about it."
The law firm did not respond to questions sent to its offices via certified mail.
As the Masilotti family trustee, Crum was operating under a state law enacted in 1963 that Walt Disney used to
quietly acquire 27,000 acres in Central Florida - without the sellers knowing who was behind the deals.
"The average Joe who wants to find out who owns a property won't be able to," said Julius Zschau, a Clearwater
lawyer and chairman of the American Bar Association's Land Trust Committee. "You would not be able to go to the
public record to find out."
While trustees sign all of the paperwork, they usually are directed by the trust's beneficial owners, Zschau said.
Under the law, Crum was not required to identify his clients in real estate deals - unless he sold property to a
government agency such as the water district.
In December 2001, the district announced plans to acquire thousands of acres of pasture and swamp in southern
Martin County. It was a key segment in a plan to conserve a vast swath of land from Lake Okeechobee to John D.
MacArthur State Park on the coast. Restoring the land to pristine conditions would help clean up the Everglades and the
Loxahatchee River, while creating hiking trails and preserving hunting grounds for wild turkey, deer and hogs.
The property sought by the water district included 3,000 acres owned by David and Jeffrey Lee. The brothers
belong to a longtime Palm Beach County farming family and once owned and operated Black Diamond Nursery on
State Road 7, in Masilotti's county commission district. The Lees also were political supporters of Masilotti,
contributing $1,000 to the commissioner's 2002 reelection campaign.
Masilotti said that as a commissioner, he never had a conflict of interest in commission votes concerning the Lees,
Crum or any of the lawyers involved with the district land deal. "I have absolutely no interest in any of their businesses
whatsoever, now or in the past," he wrote.
The Lees wouldn't talk about the water district deal or their dealings with the Masilotti trust. "These are farmers,
simple people," said their attorney, Harvey Oyer.
While described as simple farmers, the Lees also were smart investors who turned to Oyer's politically savvy law
firm for negotiating with the water district: Gunster Yoakley, a West Palm Beach law firm that, like Crum's employer,
regularly lobbies the county commission for landowners and developers.
In January 2001, the Lees were selling Black Diamond Nursery for development - it now is a high-end community
of the same name - and looking for a place to reinvest. They ended up acquiring 3,566 acres in Martin County for $7.9
million.
Real estate records show the Lees purchased the land for $2,216 an acre, then sold it to the water district three years
later for $14,000 an acre - six times what the brothers paid for it.
In September 2002, nine months after the district announced its intention to buy the Lees' land, the brothers sold a
147-acre sliver to trustee Crum. The price was just $2,494 an acre - so cheap that it later raised the curiosity of water
district appraisers. Crum picked up the land for $366,618, about $40,000 more than the Lees paid for it. A year later, the
district would agree to pay $2 million for that parcel as part of a $43 million deal.
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MASILOTTI DIVORCE PAPERS REVEAL LAND DEAL Palm Beach Post (Florida) April 2, 2006 Sunday
Correction Appended
Water district appraisers, in a November 2003 report, pointed out that Crum paid much less than others who bought
land from the Lees. The report noted that the Lees had sold nearby land for nearly $3,600 per acre the month before
selling to Crum at $2,494 per acre. The appraisers said one of the Lees explained that Crum got a lower rate because he
"was instrumental in putting the transaction together."
Crum told The Post that he had nothing to do with the inner workings of the trust.
Masilotti, meanwhile, took issue with the notion that Crum got a bargain.
"Susan's trust purchased a piece of property (outside of Palm Beach County) at fair market value which was
available to anyone," Masilotti wrote. "In fact, the seller realized a profit from the sale, so it is clear she received no
preferential treatment. . . . She is a private citizen and enjoys the same rights to invest her money as any other
American."
On Dec. 11, 2003, the water district's governing board approved a $43 million proposal to acquire 3,000 acres from
a group headed by the Lees.
Included in the package was the 147 acres sold to Crum. An e-mail to the district from a paralegal at the Lees' law
firm identified Crum's clients as Jeffrey and David Lee, with no mention of Susan Masilotti.
Oyer said he did not recall the e-mail. He said he had no idea that Crum represented Commissioner Masilotti's
wife.
Henry Dean, then the water district's executive director and now a $60,000-a-year lobbyist for the Palm Beach
County Commission, said he, too, had no inkling that Masilotti was connected to the deal - but in retrospect, he said he
saw nothing wrong with it.
"No one ever told me," Dean said in a recent interview. "If he did have an interest in the property, there is no legal
prohibition that I can think of that would have prevented him from participating in the sale."
But disclosing Masilotti's connection might have caused a political stir. Sitting on the water district board: Kevin
McCarty, husband of Mary McCarty, Masilotti's arch rival on the county commission. Masilotti also had run-ins with
Kevin McCarty.
The district's governing board approved the purchase price, which was 16 percent more than the highest appraisal
of the property. But appraisers noted that rural Martin County prices were rising, propelled in part by a newly
announced economic development project. The Palm Beach County Commission had approved purchase of nearby
Mecca Farms for The Scripps Research Institute.
"The recent announcement of Scripps relocating to northern Palm Beach County has further fueled an already hot
fire," the appraisers reported. "Prices in this region have been escalating dramatically."
With the governing board's approval, lawyers began finishing up the sales contract and other details. Among the
loose ends: getting a sworn statement from Crum identifying the owners of his trust, a requirement of all government
land purchases in Florida.
Under state law, Crum was obligated to "make a public disclosure in writing, under oath, and subject to the
penalties prescribed for perjury, which shall state his or her name and address, and the name and address of every
person having a beneficial interest in the real property, however small or minimal."
But the affidavit wouldn't be necessary when the Lees signed the water district contract on March 29, 2004. At the
last minute, the Lees swapped land with Crum, taking the trustee out of the deal.
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MASILOTTI DIVORCE PAPERS REVEAL LAND DEAL Palm Beach Post (Florida) April 2, 2006 Sunday
Correction Appended
Property records show that on the same day the contract was signed, Crum swapped the 147 acres for 150 adjacent
acres that weren't in the district deal. The land in the swap was valued at $14,000 an acre, public records show - the
same price the district was paying.
The Masilotti trust was out of the district deal, but its profit still was tied to it - under a purchase option agreement
signed by Crum and the Lees the same day of the land swap. While the option agreement was not publicly filed, a key
provision was mentioned in a memorandum recorded with the Martin County Court Clerk.
According to the memorandum, the Lees agreed to buy back 110 of the 150 acres from the trust - provided the
water district bought 975 acres from the Lees by April 11, 2005.
Oyer said he vaguely remembered the transactions. He recalled that one of the landowners involved in the district
deal didn't want to sell and agreed to swap land so the deal could go forward.
Oyer said he didn't remember why the Lees agreed to buy 110 acres back from Crum, and would need the Lees'
permission to review the matter. Neither Oyer nor the Lees responded to written questions sent to Oyer's office.
The use of a land trust, coupled with the last-minute real estate transactions, seem designed to hide the Masilotti
connection to the water district deal, according to Richard Rampell, a Palm Beach certified public accountant who
reviewed documentation of the transactions for The Post.
"Someone is trying to conceal the chain of ownership," Rampell said. "It smells fishy."
The district bought 975 acres from the Lees in October 2004. In turn, on April 11, 2005, Crum sold 110 acres to
David Lee for $1.7 million. The trustee still holds the remaining 40 acres, real estate records show.
The cash profit was $1,332,500, considering the $367,500 that the Masilotti trust first invested in the Lees'
property.
Three days after the sale, according to Susan Masilotti's divorce filings, she and her husband began buying $1.3
million in certificates of deposit.
Masilotti wouldn't say whether that was the $1.3 million from the trust. He said it was his wife's private business.
In an interview with The Post in November, Masilotti said his wife had inherited some money.
Masilotti last month maintained that his family never benefited from the district's purchase.
"The fact that I, or anyone in my family (past or present) have never sold any assets to any government agency is
clear," Masilotti wrote to The Post.
"Now that you have been enlightened to the truth with the facts, your concerns should be completely alleviated."
Staff writer Jane Musgrave contributed to this story.
[email protected]
How a Masilotti trust made $1.3 million from a land deal in Martin County
The profit was connected to the South Florida Water Management District's purchase of land once owned by the
trust - but swapped for another parcel before the purchase was made.
JANUARY 2001
Lee brothers buy 3,566 acres
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Correction Appended
Who they are: David and Jeffrey Lee are farmers who owned Black Diamond Nursery in Wellington before it was
developed into homes.
Price for 3,566 acres: $7.9 million, or $2,216 per acre.
Later that year, the South Florida Water Management District announces plans to acquire thousands of acres in
Martin County, including the Lees' land.
SEPTEMBER 2002
Lees sell 147 acres to Richard Crum
Who he is: Crum - an administrator for the law firm Boose, Casey, Ciklin - represents a trust whose beneficiaries
are confidential. Palm Beach County Commissioner Tony Masilotti now says his wife, Susan Masilotti, was the sole
beneficiary.
The price: $366,618, or $2,494 per acre.
That's approximately $1,000 per acre cheaper than what the Lees charged two other buyers for nearby parcels as
recently as one month before. Appraisers said they were told Crum's trust got a better deal because Crum 'was
instrumental in putting the transaction together.'
DECEMBER 2003
Water district agrees to buy 3,000 acres
District asks about secret trust: The Water District Governing Board agrees to buy up to 3,000 acres from the Lees,
including the land sold to Crum's trust. The district asks whom Crum represents - by law, sellers must be named when
the government buys land - and is told Crum represents David and Jeffrey Lee.
The price: Up to $43 million, or $14,000 an acre.
MARCH 29, 2004
Three crucial events occur
Lees buy back 147 acres from Crum
They pay $2.1 million for land that the water district wants. This means Crum no longer must identify his clients in
a sworn statement.
Lees sell adjoining 150 acres to Crum
Crum pays $2.1 million for land that the water district isn't buying. The Lees agree to buy back 110 of those acres provided the water district deal goes through.
Lees sign $43 million sales contract with water district
They advise the agency that Crum no longer is in the deal.
DECEMBER 2004
Susan Masilotti files for divorce
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Her 1978 marriage had been strained for more than a year, and the couple had separated in the mid-1980s. In her
divorce suit, she accuses Tony Masilotti of 'marital waste' - without elaboration - and is demanding compensation.
'Upon the husband's request, the wife will amend her petition to provide specifics of the marital waste,' her lawsuit
states.
APRIL 2005
Trust makes $1.3 million profit, and Masilottis buy $1.3 million in CDs
David Lee buys 110 acres from Crum for $1.7 million - a $1.3 million cash profit for Crum's trust. Lee would try to
sell the land to the water district for $3.85 million.
Three days later, Tony and Susan Masilotti begin purchasing $1.3 million in certificates of deposit, according to
her divorce filings. From April 14 to Dec. 16, 13 CDs - each for $100,000 - were purchased at Washington Mutual,
Fidelity Federal and Palm Beach County banks. The divorce filings identify Tony Masilotti as the owner of one CD and
the beneficiary of two others.
Connection revealed in January 2006
JAN. 17
Connection revealed between Richard Crum and the Masilottis.
Susan Masilotti files divorce papers that refer to real estate transactions involving "Richard Crum, Trustee" and
David and Jeffrey Lee.
MARCH 7
Tony Masilotti identifies his wife as beneficiary of the trust represented by Crum.
The county commission chairman also distances himself from the transactions. 'There have been absolutely no
inappropriate actions by me,' he tells The Post. He says he doesn't know where his wife got the $366,618 to invest in the
land. She wouldn't comment. Trustee Crum still holds the deed for 40 acres.
HOW THEY WERE INVOLVED
Tony Masilotti
Owner of a State Farm insurance agency and a Palm Beach County commissioner since 1998. He denied any direct
involvement in the water district land deal but acknowledged his wife was the beneficiary of the land trust involved.
The couple, married in 1978, are battling over property and alimony in divorce court.
Susan Masilotti
Her divorce filings provided the only public clue that her family profited from the land deal. She's described in
court records as a stay-at-home mother of four daughters who collected a $39,000 salary from her husband's insurance
agency - but never worked there. Now she's seeking permanent alimony.
Richard Crum
As a trustee, his name appeared in all public real estate documents involving the Masilotti trust. Crum, a certified
public accountant, is an administrator at Boose, Casey, Ciklin, a law firm whose partners frequently lobby the county
commission and contribute to commission election campaigns.
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MASILOTTI DIVORCE PAPERS REVEAL LAND DEAL Palm Beach Post (Florida) April 2, 2006 Sunday
Correction Appended
David and Jeffrey Lee
After assembling 3,000 acres in Martin County, they sold 147 acres to the Masilotti trust at a time when the water
district was interested in buying it. As part of a land swap, the Lees agreed to buy 110 acres back from the trust for a
$1.3 million profit - provided the water district deal didn't fall through.
NOTES: Ran all editions. Info box at end of text.
CORRECTION-DATE: April 4, 2006
CORRECTION:
Because of an editing error, The Palm Beach Post Sunday misstated the purchase price paid by a trust that benefited
the family of Palm Beach County Commissioner Tony Masilotti. The trust paid $367,500 for 147 acres in Martin
County, according to real estate records. In some parts of the story, the amount was incorrectly listed as $366,618. The
error appeared in a story on the front page.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO (1 C & 2 B&W) & MAP (3 B&W)
1. (C) File photo Tony and Susan Masilotti, married for 27 years, have four daughters. They separated in 2004. Court
records describe Susan as a stay-at-home mother who drew a $39,000 salary from her husband's insurance agency but
never worked there. 2. David Lee (mug) 3. File Photo Tony and Susan Masilotti BRENNAN KING/Staff Artist 4. The
Lee's Land 5. Crum's 147 acres 6. Land the Lees swapped with Crum.
LOAD-DATE: April 6, 2006