{"id":43963,"date":"2021-09-09T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T01:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43963"},"modified":"2021-09-09T18:44:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T01:44:00","slug":"former-tallahassee-city-commissioner-and-business-partner-sentenced-for-years-long-bribery-scheme-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43963","title":{"rendered":"Former Tallahassee City Commissioner and Business Partner Sentenced for Years-Long Bribery Scheme (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Former Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox and his former business partner Paige Carter-Smith were sentenced today in the Northern District of Florida to five years and two years in prison, respectively,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Courtroom.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14523\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both used their roles in a multi-year scheme to use Maddox\u2019s power as a sitting City Commissioner to extract bribes from Tallahassee companies with business in front of the City Commission. Maddox and Carter-Smith were also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $76,763 and $115,619, respectively, and ordered to pay a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $70,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In December 2018, a federal grand jury charged then-City Commissioner Maddox and Carter-Smith in a 44-count indictment for conspiring to operate a racketeering enterprise that engaged in acts of bank fraud, extortion, honest-services fraud, and bribery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That indictment also charged Maddox and Carter-Smith with bank fraud, making false statements to financial institutions, extortion, honest-services fraud, use of interstate facilities to facilitate bribery, making false statements to federal officers, conspiracy to interfere with the lawful function of the IRS, and filing false tax returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Maddox pleads guilty in Tallahassee probe\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-Vb-gmqYTIo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In May 2019, a federal grand jury returned a 47-count superseding indictment adding a third defendant, John Thomas Burnette, and charging him with participating in the racketeering conspiracy and extortion, honest services mail fraud, the use of facilities in interstate commerce to facilitate bribery, and making false statements to federal officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maddox and Carter-Smith each subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of honest-services fraud and one count of conspiring to interfere with the lawful function of the IRS. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to court documents, while serving as a sitting, voting City Commissioner, Maddox received payments from Governance, a government consulting and lobbying company based in Tallahassee that he started in 1999 and sold to Carter-Smith in 2010. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The payments were made to Governance by several companies in either monthly installments or lump sums, which companies sought favorable votes on City of Tallahassee issues<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Specifically, the defendants pleaded guilty to Maddox\u2019s acceptance and Carter-Smith\u2019s facilitation of payments from a rideshare company in exchange for favorable treatment on issues it had before the City Commission, and payments from another company in exchange for his favorable treatment on issues that were anticipated before the Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defendants also admitted to tax fraud that resulted in losses of more than $76,000 in total to the IRS.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In accordance with their plea agreements, both Maddox and Carter-Smith testified in the trial against Burnette, who was convicted on one count of extortion, two counts of honest services mail fraud, one count of the use of a facility in interstate commerce to facilitate bribery, and one count of making false statements, and who is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe democratic system on which our country was founded relies on the consent and trust of the governed,\u201d stated Acting U.S. Attorney Jason R. Coody for the Northern District of Florida. \u201cOur citizens deserve and expect that their elected representatives will honor their oath &#8211; acting in the public\u2019s interest, rather than accepting bribes and payments out of fear or favor. Today\u2019s sentences acknowledge betrayal of the public trust, the resulting erosion of confidence in our democratic process, and should serve as a significant deterrent to those who would seek to illegally profit from public service.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe individuals sentenced today abused\u00a0Maddox&#8217;s\u00a0public office for their own private gain,\u201d said Assistant Director Calvin A. Shivers of the FBI\u2019s Criminal Investigative Division. \u201cActions like this erode the trust that Americans place in our governmental institutions, and the FBI will not tolerate such contemptible disregard of public\u2019s trust by elected officials who promise to serve them.\u00a0The FBI and our law enforcement partners are committed to protecting the government\u2019s integrity by bringing corrupt officials and their cohorts, like Maddox and Carter-Smith, to justice, and we will never stop working to uncover others who think they are beyond the reach of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The FBI Jacksonville Field Office and IRS-Criminal Investigation investigated the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox and his former business partner Paige Carter-Smith were sentenced today in the Northern District of Florida to five years and two years in prison, respectively, Both&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Former Tallahassee City Commissioner and Business Partner Sentenced for Years-Long Bribery Scheme (video)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Tallahassee City Commissioner Scott Maddox and his former business partner Paige Carter-Smith were sentenced today in the Northern District of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=43963\" \/>\n<meta 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