State Investigation of Sarasota County & Benderson Corporation

[Media]

A state investigation is underway after discovering over $30 million [misspent] tax dollars that were given to Benderson Park beneficiaries through Sarasota County commissioners.

Randy Benderson owns Benderson Development and runs the Benderson Park Foundation, which was supposed to raise private money for the park. Benderson also owns land surrounding the park, that has the UTC mall, a hotel and restaurants.

Benderson Park was supposed to include a:
- finished row tower costing $5 million
- state of the art boathouse costing $10 million
- other structures

Pat rounds said, "There is one unfinished building, instead of five finished buildings."

Bill Zoller said, "They dug a pit for a lake and then kept asking for more tax dollars to bail them out."

State House Rep. Chris Sprowls wants answers. He said, “We don't know what the private investment was."

House Speaker Richard Corcoran is demanding accountability. He sent a letter to Sarasota County and SANCA (a private company that was created by Benderson and paid by Sarasota County to manage Benderson Park). The State wants all financial records, contracts, and other documents for an investigation by the House Public Integrity and Ethics Committee.

This $30 million public investment has been significant, but there has not been a…

Full story:
http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/lo...asota-row-park

[Unregistered]

The Benderson Park fiasco has scammed 30 million tax dollars from the public. It's been a fleece job since day one and it's surprising that it made it this far without more scrutiny.

[Unregistered]

This is taken from the other thread:

The people who are in charge of the corporate cronies that are involved in the Benderson Park mess are the same corporate cronies that financed both of Knight's elections. Knight is the tip of their spear and he must do what they ask.

Knight cannot legally investigate any of this because the same corporations that are illegal beneficiaries (of scammed tax dollars) are the same people that supported Knight's campaign treasury. Knight subsequently has a conflict of interest. The crooks that orchestrated this ponzei scheme are the same crooks that supported Knight's campaign treasury. Sarasota County is a small financially inbred world.

[Unregistered]

The people who are in charge of the corporate cronies that are involved in the Benderson Park mess are the same corporate cronies that financed both of Knight's elections. Knight is the tip of their spear and he must do what they ask.

That is true, but in addition to that, SSO detectives cannot work this kind of case for other reasons too:

• There are victims outside the jurisdiction of Sarasota County e.g. the State of Florida is a victim.
• A lot of the deal making happened outside of Sarasota County.
• And most of all, the case is really too big and too complicated for our detectives. We don’t work those kind of cases. It will take a forensic expert, such as a forensic accountant, to examine all the financial documents. Then it will take a lawyer to articulate a criminal and/or civil case.

[Media]

Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran is raising questions about 40 million tax dollars provided to SANKA (a private corporation) for Nathan Benderson Park.

Sarasota County also reimburses SANCA for about half of its annual operating budget, now up to $843,000 so far this year.

“The House will not tolerate attempts to shield from public scrutiny financial information relating to the expenditure of tax dollars...”

Full story:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20...benderson-park

[Unregistered]

Sarasota County reimburses SANCA (a private corporation) for about half of its annual operating budget to run Benderson Park. It is up to $843,000 so far this year.

Why are Sarasota County commissioners giving a private corporation almost a million tax dollars a year to run a park?

[Unregistered]

Sarasota County reimburses SANCA (a private corporation) for about half of its annual operating budget to run Benderson Park. It is up to $843,000 so far this year.

Why are Sarasota County commissioners giving a private corporation almost a million tax dollars a year to run a park?

A million dollars a year to run one (1) county park is scamish. An audit is in order to account for the expenditure of taxpayers money. It would be interesting to tally the costs of operating ALL other county parks in Sarasota County (combined) -- and then compare it to Benderson Park.