TALLAHASSEE — On Tuesday, March 12, it was announced that Florida Gov. Rick Scott had accepted the resignation of Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, just days after she was questioned by state agents concerning her connections to a controversial chain of strip-mall casinos which operate as “internet cafés.”
Nelson Cuba, the President of the Jacksonville Florida Order of Police, along with officials with Allied Veterans of the World, the non-profit that operates the casinos in Florida, were arrested on racketeering charges following an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service.
“Lt. Gov. Carroll resigned in an effort to keep her former affiliation with the company from distracting from the administration’s important work on behalf of Florida Families,” said the governor’s chief of staff, Adam Hollingsworth.
Federal investigators have charged Allied Veterans of the World with money laundering, using money from a nonprofit for personal gain, and misrepresenting the amount of money that was donated to charities.
Prosecutors allege that the non-profit donated a mere 2 percent of the $290 million it received in proceeds to charities.
A consulting firm owned by the lieutenant governor, 3N & JC, performed work for Allied Veterans, and Carroll herself was featured in a 2010 commercial for the nonprofit.
Carroll, 53, had previously sponsored legislation as a member of the state House of Representatives that would have legalized the internet café industry, which now operates under Florida’s sweepstakes laws. Opponents say they are illegal gambling enterprises. Carroll withdrew the measure, acknowledging the conflict of interest. The federal internet café probe may provide the momentum lawmakers need to pass a statewide ban.
In 2010, Scott tapped Carroll, a 20-year Navy veteran, to serve as his running mate.
As we reported last year (Agenda, July 18, 2012, “Is She or Isn’t She? Ex-Staffer Claims She Found Florida Lt Gov in ‘Compromising Position’ with Female Aide”), a former aide to Carroll, Carletha Cole, was arrested after giving to a reporter the recording of a secret conversation between her and Carroll’s chief of staff.
As part of the legal defense in her criminal trial, Cole said that she caught Carroll in “a compromising position” with another aide, shortly before she was fired in 2011. Cole claimed that she interrupted Carroll and a female staff member in an intimate embrace. “When she entered the office,” court documents allege, “[Cole] found the Lieutenant Governor and her Travel Aide, Beatriz Ramos, in what can only be described as a compromising position.”
The examiner who took Cole’s polygraph tested wrote that, “Her charts, in my opinion, are indicative of a non-deceptive examinee (truthful),” adding, “Ms. Cole passed her polygraph.”
Carroll denied the allegations of a gay affair, telling a Tampa television station, “Black women that look like me don’t engage in relationships like that.” She also emailed a video to supporters, denying the lesbian rumor.
