The Beshears scandal is growing

Unregistered · 04-24-2021, 06:01 PM

Pot, planes and politics: How medical marijuana links players in Matt Gaetz sex trafficking probe

Matt Gaetz, Halsey Beshears and Dr. Jason Pirozzolo have more in common than a plane trip to the Bahamas that led to the Department of Justice launching an investigation of Gaetz and sex trafficking allegations.

Gaetz sponsored the first legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Florida, Beshears’s family would profit off the law through their nursery and*Pirozzolo and a partner would create a consulting*firm that would lead*to a stake in a major medical marijuana company.
Through that tight bond*they rose through the ranks of the GOP apparatus. Gaetz went on to Congress in 2016 where he has continued to advocate for marijuana reforms;*Beshears was appointed head of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019; Pirozzolo became a medical marijuana entrepreneur and GOP fundraiser.

“It was a generational thing,” said Ben Pollara, one of the state’s biggest medical marijuana advocates. “They were all a young, politically active group.
“And they were iconoclasts for being Republicans involved in what is still considered a controversial issue for a lot of Republicans.”*
Federal officials are investigating whether that Bahamas trip was part of a larger pay-to-play scheme to influence Gaetz, CNN has reported, according to*sources close to the investigation have said.
It’s also the most recent*political corruption case where marijuana is a part of the narrative.

The FBI case that led to the conviction of former Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox*featured an undercover agent posing as a medical marijuana entrepreneur.

It also led to indictments against developer J.T. Burnette, whose wife,*Kim Rivers, heads up Trulieve, the most successful medical marijuana company in Florida with 51%*of the state’s market share.
And then there were Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Ukranian-born businessmen who were associated with the Trump-Ukraine scandal*looking to invest in the nascent Florida medical marijuana business.
In all three instances, marijuana never appeared to be a focus of the federal investigations. And in the*Gaetz and Maddox cases, neither Trulieve nor any other Florida medical marijuana licensee has been publicly implicated or mentioned as a part of the investigation.

The medical marijuana thread that runs through these high profile Florida cases*are coincidental, said John Morgan, the Central Florida trial lawyer who primarily bankrolled*the Amendment 2 ballot initiative in 2016. The amendment*received 71% voter approval to expand who could qualify for medical marijuana as well as increase its potency and permit people to smoke*curative cannabis.

“Marijuana is the 1800s Gold Rush of today,”*Morgan said. “Everybody knows there’s gonna be money, but it’s more*fool’s gold than real gold. That’s why you’re seeing so many fools.”

Gaetz –*son of powerful, former Florida Senate President Don Gaetz –*was elected to Congress in 2016. He now is being investigated by the Department of Justice for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl he allegedly paid to travel with him across state lines, according to The New York Times and other outlets.
Investigators also are looking into whether he used campaign funds for travel expenses, CNN reported.*Gaetz has vehemently denied all allegations against him, and denied he ever paid for sex or slept with underage*girls.*No*charges have been filed against Gaetz, Beshears or Pirozzolo.*
The investigation of Gaetz branched out from a federal investigation of former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who last August was indicted on 33 counts, including sex trafficking, involving the same 17-year-old girl who is the focus of the Gaetz investigation, according to several news outlets.

Greenberg met women through a website and introduced them to Gaetz, who had sex with them in exchange for cash, according to The New York Times. The Daily Beast reported it obtained Venmo receipts showing Gaetz paying Greenberg $900 to then divvy up and send to three different women, one of whom was 18 at the time.

Greenberg’s attorneys said he is cooperating with prosecutors and is expected to strike a plea deal by May 15, various news outlets have reported.
According to Politico, that same girl, who had turned 18 several months earlier, was on the September 2018 trip to the Bahamas arranged by Pirozzolo, along with several other young women.
Gaetz, Beshears and Pirozzolo all flew out of Orlando on separate flights, Politico reported.*Gaetz took a commercial flight, while Beshears and Pirozzolo, both pilots, flew private planes.

On the return flight, the plane Beshears was piloting was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents when he landed in Florida. Beshears was briefly questioned because three of the passengers looked so young, Politico reported.
Beshears, whose family owns a Jefferson County nursery that joined forces with Hackney Farms to get a medical marijuana license, was first elected to the House in 2012 and subsequently reelected. He vacated his House seat in January 2019 when DeSantis named him to head*the*Department of Business and Professional Regulation

Beshears and his wife of 19 years were divorced in July*2019. He resigned from the DBPR post, saying he had contracted a rare, serious illness – not COVID as previously reported – but was on the mend.
Reached by phone this week, Beshears said he had no comment on the investigation.
The DOJ investigation is apparently looking into whether Pirozzolo had procured the women and paid them to have sex with Gaetz in return for access to the congressman, according to several news reports.

When the full House voted on an amendment to the bill that required licensees to have a medical director on May 1, 2014,*Pirozzolo was on the floor as doctor of the day, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The report said Pirozzolo suggested the amendment as a way to get the support of medical lobbyists*to then-Rep. Jason Brodeur, now a GOP state senator who is also from Seminole County.

A week later, Pirozzolo created a consulting firm called “Florida Health Privilege.”
The bill was also amended to add a fifth licensee on May 1, before the House sent the amended bill back to the Senate for final approval. And language was added at the last minute to protect the interests of Florida’s well-established nurseries in what had the potential to be a multibillion-dollar industry.
Medical marijuana lobbyists said Beshears, who had been elected to the House in 2012, was said to have played*a behind-the-scenes hand in writing that amendment, supported by the Florida Nurseries, Growers and Landscapers Association.*

Beshears, a past president of that organization, has repeatedly denied having any role in*writing that amendment.

He also came under fire by medical marijuana licensees for not disclosing at the time that his family’s business, Simpson Farms, was part of a consortium seeking one of the coveted licenses.
Beshears previously explained that he resigned as the company’s financial officer shortly after he was elected to the House and was no longer involved in the family’s business.
The consortium went on to become Trulieve, the state’s largest medical marijuana company and the first to be traded on the Canadian Stock Exchange.

Unregistered · 04-24-2021, 06:04 PM

We now know why honorable men TB and FF had to be replaced with men who are not. There was a game plan and fortunes to be made. Do you know how many at TCO have bought stock in Trulieve?

Unregistered · 04-24-2021, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by Unregistered

We now know why honorable men TB and FF had to be replaced with men who are not. There was a game plan and fortunes to be made. Do you know how many at TCO have bought stock in Trulieve?

I bet all did. It will be a $$$$$ maker.

Unregistered · 04-24-2021, 07:34 PM

But stock in ISIIs, their value keeps rising.

Unregistered · 04-24-2021, 08:11 PM

While employed by DBPR can you actively disassemble / downsize the presumptive regulatory agency of your personal financial interests? Asking for a friend. Also, what flavors are the Ramen meals at Wakulla CI?