Archive for May 11th, 2017

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#40 in a series)

Thursday, May 11th, 2017

In a bit of a hurry here: this just broke, and I’ve got stuff to do.

But: remember Corrine Brown, the former Democratic House rep from the 5th District of Florida? (I didn’t know this, not being an avid follower of Florida politics, but she lost her primary.)

Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

The verdict came after prosecutors outlined a pattern of fraud by Brown, 70, and her top aide that included using hundreds of thousands of dollars from the One Door for Education Foundation for lavish parties, trips and shopping excursions. She was convicted of 18 of the 22 charges against her, including lying on her taxes and on her congressional financial disclosure forms.

More:

Key to the government’s conviction was the testimony of Brown’s former chief of staff, Elias “Ronnie” Simmons, and the charity’s president, Carla Wiley. Both pleaded guilty after their federal indictments for misusing the charity’s funds, and testified against Brown.
Federal prosecutors said Brown and her associates used One Door to bring in more than $800,000 between 2012 and 2016, including a high-profile golf tournament at TPC Sawgrass. Brown’s indictment said the Virginia-based One Door only gave out one scholarship for $1,200 to an unidentified person in Florida.

(Hattip to Mike the Musicologist, who points out that former Rep. Brown’s party affiliation isn’t mentioned until paragraph 22 (edit: 18) of the linked story.)