Joel Steinger

The Friends of Alan Mendelsohn

Alan Mendelsohn​Alan Mendelsohn -- the convicted government scam artist as well as a former Hollywood ophthalmologist, GOP fundraiser, lobbyist, and adviser to former Gov. Charlie Crist -- has a lot of friends.Mendelsohn was sentenced to four years in prisons after he pleaded guilty to a conspirac ... More >>

Alan Mendelsohn, Political Adviser and Government Scammer, to Be Sentenced Today

Alan Mendelsohn​Alan Mendelsohn -- the Hollywood ophthalmologist, GOP fundraiser, lobbyist, and adviser to former Gov. Charlie Crist -- will be sentenced in federal court today after pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge in December.Mendelsohn's conspiracy charge specifically claimed scheming to ... More >>

Alan Mendelsohn Sentenced to Four Years in the Slammer

Alan Mendelsohn​It turns out government scammer Alan Mendelsohn's hopes of being sentenced to home confinement, probation, and community service were a little optimistic -- he was sentenced today to four years in prison.U.S. District Judge William Zloch handed down the sentence this afternoon to t ... More >>

RIP "Herb Caen"

I regret to report that the often far-out and always lovable Pulp commenter known as Herb Caen died in real life of lung cancer on Saturday morning at the age of 58.A friend of Herb's who found my phone number in his phone after his death called to let me know. Herb called me only a couple of times, ... More >>

Democrats Honor Criminally Charged Politico With "Emeritus" Position

The Kings Point Condos have long been a tumor on Broward County's body politic. The Democratic-voter-packed condo complex for the elderly is in the heart of Tamarac -- and Tamarac, of course, is a nest of bribe takers that has recently become the corruption capital of not only Broward but also ... More >>

Total Recall: Can It Happen in Broward?

As we watch the images of the common folks -- and multimillionaire Norman Braman -- celebrating in Miami over the successful recall of Mayor Carlos Alvarez and Commissioner Natacha Seijas, it's easy to wonder: Can it happen here? Can the people in Broward County dump the co ... More >>

Mendelsohn Talking To State; Klenet And Ritter Remain Under Criminal Investigation

When convicted political operative Alan Mendelsohn was recently debriefed regarding his knowledge of corruption in Florida, it wasn't just federal officials at the table, according to multiple sources. Still on the hot seat​State prosecutors working under Michael S ... More >>

Exclusive: Feds Eyeing Lobbyist Ron Book, Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority

In Broward and Tallahassee politics, influence peddling comes in countless forms. Here's one currently under investigation by the federal government: A powerful lobbyist, seeking to curry favor with a state senator and benefit a major client, helps to secure the senator's boyfriend a job at th ... More >>

Political Money Man Mendelsohn's Sentencing Pushed Back

Wild art: The first edition of the official Tea Party mag. ​Hollywood lobbyist and political fundraiser Alan Mendelsohn won't be sentenced on his federal conspiracy conviction next week after all. The sentencing has been pushed back to April 28, according to court records. Sounds mundane ... More >>

He Still Has His Yacht, Right?

Lobbyist Russ Klenet better hope things are going well in D.C., because the situation on the home front has deteriorated rapidly. The yacht, "Symphony," owned by Klenet and Ginsburg​Last night, the Sunrise Commission voted him right out of his $60,000-ish contract with  ... More >>

Mendelsohn Singles Out Klenet During Guilty Plea

The illicit payments made to former legislator Mandy Dawson had been widely reported, but it is interesting that seedy lobbyist and political fundraiser Alan Mendelsohn, an eye doctor by trade, singled out Russell Klenet in federal court today. When Mendelsohn pleaded guilty to a fed ... More >>

Broward League of Cities Set to Drop Klenet

The hits keep coming for lobbyist Russ Klenet. As if investigations regarding his work for Mutual Benefits fraudster Joel Steinger, a State Attorney's probe into his Broward County Commissioner wife Stacy Ritter's involvement with dirty developers Bruce and Shawn Chait, and civil charges stemm ... More >>

Election Day Notes

Let's start this thing off with a couple of blog votes. On Amendments 5 and 6, it's pretty easy: If you like gerrymandering, vote against them. As for me, it's a yes vote on these two. On the judicial race between John Fry and John Howes for County Court Judge in District 1, I've made a decision. T ... More >>

UPDATED: Did Judge Lazarus Violate Judicial Canons?

The recent ridiculous "Convicted Criminal" mailers targeting Broward County Commission candidate Chip LaMarca is indeed tied directly to Broward Mayor Ken Keechl's campaign. Another egregious Keechl mailer​Turns out that the address of the "Broward Good Government Commi ... More >>

Commissioner Ritter's Bunker Mentality

Stacy Ritter seems to be retreating deeper and deeper into perhaps the only place that takes her seriously as a politician anymore. No it's not her bedroom closet, but a place even more suspended from the real world, a place where voter ignorance isn't a problem but a path to victory.  ... More >>

Honey, I Rigged the Vote (Part II): With Wasserman-Rubin Charged, Time to Revisit the Juice's Corrupt Couples Watch-List

​Way back in October, this blog used the Tom Ridge terrorist threat chart to rank Broward County's power couples according to the threat they posed to the integrity of local government. The duo of Richard Rubin and Commissioner Diana Wasserman-Rubin posed an "elevated" risk of committing corruptio ... More >>

Greer Case More Proof That Crist Was a Magnet for Bad Guys

Flickr: linnette alissaAccording to the ​attorney for indicted former Republican Party Chair Jim Greer, both Charlie Crist and George LeMieux knew of Victory Strategies, the shell company to which Greer is accused of diverting party donations for his personal spending. Are you surprised? You shoul ... More >>

The Year of the Ponzi

Scott Rothstein is allegedly South Florida'a latest Ponzi king.​In 1921, Charles Ponzi began duping New Englanders with a bogus postage stamp investment scheme. He told them that by buying and selling foreign stamps -- yes, stamps --  they could see 40 percent returns. Instead, he simply took ... More >>

State of the County Speech Tomorrow Morning; Is 10 Too Early for a Drinking Game?

Flickr​After the year that Broward County has had, we may all need shot glasses to endure Mayor Stacy Ritter's State of the County speech. Her former vice mayor, of course, is now facing federal corruption charges. The top lieutenant of the county's top law man recently ushered a fugitive out of t ... More >>

For Next 10 Months, Rubio-Crist Will Be a National Story; Will Broward Scandals Play Role?

Flickr: CenFlaPoliticsRubio​It would have been a more fortuitous sign for Marco Rubio if Doug Hoffman hadn't lost his congressional race in upstate New York, but the fact that a Conservative Party candidate won 45 percent of the vote has Rubio more hopeful than ever. The same can be said for the r ... More >>

Honey, I Rigged the Vote: Broward Power Couples Screw Each Other; Then They Screw Us

Can Ritter and Klenet hold on to the top spot on our corruption watch list?​In light of the explosive findings Bob Norman's been posting over at Daily Pulp, it's time we identify a trend in Broward corruption: power-mad married couples, ruling the region like a king and queen, carving up our publi ... More >>

Morning Juice: Adventures in Bad Parenting

Time to get your Monday on. But first, a look back on what made news this past weekend.​Tamarac mayoral candidate Ed Portner gave a short interview to WPLG about why he went over to his daughter Stacy Ritter's home with a gun last week: "I wanted to scare the crap out of her." Mission accomplished ... More >>

"Stacie" Ritter -- not Stacy Ritter -- Is Hero of the Health-Care Crisis

That's Stacie Ritter: The Cindy Sheehan of the health-care crisis, she's known some tough times. But this plucky mom is ready to take her fight for health care to the front door of the Cigna CEO's mansion. Meanwhile, Stacy Ritter has a mansion of her own, courtesy her marriage to mega-lobbyist Russ ... More >>

Letters From the Issue of June 18, 2009

For Next Federal Prosecutor, a Million-Dollar Question

For the new U.S. attorney, who will come from among the 16 names on this list, busting financial fraud will be the top priority in South Florida federal courts. And although those cases are endlessly complex, it's fairly simple to get an overview of the region's candidates for criminal prosecution: ... More >>

Ritter Speaks! (Out of Both Sides of Mouth)

RitterIt's strange to be astonished at the news that this county's mayor actually gave an interview, but so it goes in Broward. Stacy Ritter has been refusing interviews with reporters for much of 2009, in vain hopes that she can keep her associations with con man Joel Steinger out of the news. Impo ... More >>

Joel Steinger and Mutual Benefits Corp. Stole a Billion Dollars by Peddling Bogus Life Insurance Policies

Mutual Benefits Con Man Joel Steinger Spent a Lifetime Getting Mobbed Up

Are The Feds Looking Into The L.I.E.?

  Doesn't this woman look like she's been taken by surprise? Or perhaps that a secret has just been found out? Actually, the woman in the photo, Stacy Schultz, has been flying under the radar just fine. Schultz is the "sole proprietor" of a life settlement company called LIfe I ... More >>

Steve Geller, You Dog

Former state Sen. Steven Geller is currently running for a seat on the Broward County Commission against incumbent Sue Gunzburger.           I just want to tell him to save his breath. He should quietly exit local politics stage left. Now. If he doesn't, the count ... More >>

Joel Steinger's Strange Sense of Priority

So I've been following this Mutual Benefits scam pretty closely, especially the actions of mastermind Joel Steinger. Following Steinger's divorce, I learned that there was a hearing this morning regarding alleged contempt by his ex-wife, Diana Steinger. I showed up at the h ... More >>

John Holland's Swan Song

-- John Holland this morning gives us a fairly in-depth look at Mutual Benefits' Colombian drug cartel connections. My favorite line: "The court records don't make clear whether Mutual Benefits was an active participant in the money laundering or a pawn."  Joel Steinger is nobody's p ... More >>

Broward County’s first man admits deep ties to Mutual Benefits

Russ Klenet Was Owned By Joel Steinger

We have the latest on lobbyist Russ Klenet, his wife Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter, his former boss Joel Steinger, and the Mutual Benefits fraud saga.        Sun-SentinelThis brand-spanking new article is based largely on a 2007 deposition taken of Klenet during S ... More >>

Con Man's Lobbying Dream Team Included Will McKinley

With his fraudulent viatical company Mutual Benefits coming under fire from state regulators, convicted felon Joel Steinger decided he needed to buy the influence of the state legislature. To do that he first purchased the people who had their ears -- the lobbyists. McKinley: A Man For Sale ... More >>

DeGroot Picks Apart Ron Book, Lobby Racket

The legislative session, marking the real advent of springtime in Florida, begins in Tallahassee this week. And the busiest bees working the capital are the lobbyists, who are buzzing about, putting their noses in everything they can, spreading their demon seed far and wide.  If you d ... More >>

A Blind Date With Stacy Ritter

Embattled Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter staged a not-for-media-consumption town hall-style meeting Wednesday at a Tamarac condo community, seeking to sway constituents toward believing her explanation of the Mutual Benefits scandal. Not the version in newspapers and blogs. And it actually seemed ... More >>

Ritter's Last Refuge: The Condo Circuit

When Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter goes out in public, she feels the eyes on her -- and they're telling her she's on her way to jail. So yesterday afternoon she escaped into the last refuge of any corrupt Broward politician -- the retirement condo circuit. There, as the intrepid Thoma ... More >>

The Steingers: Like Father, Like Son?

When people talk about where Ponzi schemer and Mutual Benefits czar Joel Steinger might have stashed some of his millions, many point at his son, West Palm Beach lawyer Michael Steinger. Steinger, a founding partner of personal injury (ambulance-chaser) firm Steinger, Iscoe & Greene, was n ... More >>

Sun-Sentinel Insults Joel Steinger

In the lead story on this morning's local section, the Sun-Sentinel took off its little white glove and slapped Mutual Benefits' mastermind in the face with it. The newspaper reports that the Ponzi scheme called Mutual Benefits poured $1.4 million into political coffers to help keep state ... More >>

Charlie Crist Adviser Mendelsohn Tied to Ponzi Scheme

   Hollywood ophthalmologist Alan Mendelsohn is one of Charlie Crist's closest political allies, a leader on the governor's transition team who helped raise Crist and other Republicans huge amounts of cash for their campaigns during the past decade. Mendelsohn may ... More >>

The Line To Lansky: Steinger Linked To Ben-Veniste, Jewish Mafia

We know that Joel Steinger, the mastermind of the billion-dollar Mutual Benefits Ponzi scheme with ties to several Broward politicians (Steve Geller, Stacy Ritter, Ellyn Bogdanoff, and others), had connections to Colombian drug cartels. Now we have evidence of another intriguing ... More >>

Mutual Benefits czar Joel Steinger manipulated local politicians and the state legislature. But divorce court too?

Some Mutual Benefits Boys Pose In Colombia

For those of you following the Mutual Benefits story, here's a photograph to bring some visuals to the table. It was taken in Bogota, Colombia, in 2001, as Mutual Benefits was trying to round up South American investors in what feds say was a billion dollar Ponzi scheme. The ra ... More >>

Did Drug Money Fund Renovation of Mayor's Home?

The answer: Maybe, maybe not. But it's a fair question. Mutual Benefits, the fraud-filled firm that employed Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter's husband and paid $117,000 to renovate her Parkland home, was just a moderately successful (and moderately dirty) firm in 2001. Then it made its ... More >>

Mutual Benefits' Joel Steinger: Stacy Ritter 'Can't Seem To Tell The Truth'

So I got former Mutual Benefits czar and current federal indictee Joel Steinger on the phone this afternoon. I didn't know what to expect from a guy with a past like his, but the Brooklyn-bred Steinger seemed ... laid-back and funny. He said he couldn't answer questions directly, but ... More >>

Newsflash: Ritter Invited "Creepy" Joel Steinger To Her New Year's Party

A Sun-Sentinel article this morning details the luxury items the fraudulent Mutual Benefits Corp. purchased for the Parkland home of Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter and her husband Russ Klenet. That's fine, but what's really interesting is that Ritter ... More >>

Mutual Benefits may have collapsed, but the fallout for South Florida politicians is still coming.

Russ Klenet and Stacy Ritter Mutually Benefited From Fraud

Scott Wyman writes this morning of a lawsuit filed against lobbyist Russ Klenet, the husband of Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter, by a former vice president of viatical company Mutual Benefits Corp. You might remember the name of the company -- it is, after all, accused of ripping off investors ... More >>

Stacy Ritter Voted For Company That Renovated Her Home

While serving as a state representative in 2004, Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter voted on legislation that benefited the fraudulent company that paid her husband $20,000 a month, renovated her Parkland home at a cost of $100,000, docked her family's boat, and provided ... More >>