Russ Klenet

Reporter Accused of Stealing Notebook

Inside Baseball

The Pulp Wishes Ritter Good Rittance

SA Satz Back To Old Tricks

Judy Stern: All Clear For Profits

Stacy Ritter Gets Her Mouth On

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

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 >>

Obama's BFF (Best Florida Friend) Embroiled In Home Renovation Scandal

Sun-SentinelBroward County Mayor Stacy Ritter's involvement with a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme should finally wise Barack Obama up about his supporter, friend, and possible White House hire (that's the two of them pictured above at an Obama rally at the BankAtlantic Center la ... More >>

Stacy Ritter Misleads Herald, Public About Vote Scandal -- UPDATED

Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter should have just kept her mouth shut. The Miami Herald got a few words out of Ritter regarding her and her husband Russ Klenet's Ponzi scheme/home renovation/voting scandal. And what does Ritter offer? Obfuscation and lies. From the article: Ritter, ... More >>

Stacy Ritter Hits Back At New Times

Stacy Ritter was interviewed on WFTL 850-AM this morning about the Mutual Benefits scandal -- and she took the time to take a shot at the Pulp host. (Quotes were typed fast, so forgive a typo or two).   "The newspapers are in business to sell ink and if they don't have anything t ... More >>

The Stacy Ritter Corruption Compendium

After the Miami Herald over the weekend broke a story on yet another Stacy Ritter vote that benefitted the lobbying business of her husband, Russ Klenet, I think it's time we had a one-stop shopping spot for all the alleged misdeeds of the Ritter-Klenets. Because of its length, the post jumps. ... 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 >>

The Spoils of Ponzi

Want an 8,500 square foot home on the New River near Las Olas with eight bathrooms and a two-story pool house? Have $9 million? Buy Joel Steinger's house! The owner of scandal-ridden Mutual Benefits Corp. has his house (pictured above) listed for sale ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

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 >>

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

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 >>

The Dirty Dozen of 2007

Rush, Naugle, Loria... and, hey, what's going on in the criminal justice system?

Return to Sender

When it comes to the specter of corruption, the Ritter-Klenet-URS connection has it all

Family Ties

Broward Commission, lobbyists ooze coziness

The Stacy 'n' Russ Show

Ritter & Klenet sounds like a lobbying firm

Marital Law

Does Stacy Ritter's lobbyist husband swing her vote?

Lobbyist- Lovin' Lori

How cash-fueled politics and a grudge could cause another election fiasco

The Plot To Depose King Jenne

Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites, have banded together for one simple reason: to stop Ken Jenne from becoming Broward's first strong mayor.

"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 >>

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 >>

Fox Meets Henhouse

MC Model Citizen's Latest: Rick Headroom​So Florida Governor-Elect Rick Scott named his transition team which was stocked with former Jeb Bush staffers, hardcore state Republicans, and even our own U.S. Sen. George "The Maestro" LeMieux.   Mainigi​The transition t ... More >>

Bombshell: Stacy Ritter's Campaign Fund Fed Hubby's High Life

Klenet and Ritter​A recently released report from the Florida Elections Commission shows that Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter's 2008 campaign was an utter mess, replete with bookkeeping errors, acceptance of excessive contributions from special interests, failure to report contribu ... More >>

Stacy Ritter Received Thousands in Dubious Campaign Reimbursements Too

Here's what I don't understand about the Florida Elections Commission investigation of Stacy Ritter: Why weren't there more charges? As I reported yesterday, four of the charges against Ritter pertain to reimbursements made by her 2008 campaign to her lobbyist husband, Russ Klenet, for expensi ... 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 >>

Report: Ritter Used Campaign Cash To Pay For Russ's Lobbyist Phone

Up a creek​Well, we already had thousands in lavish dinners reimbursed to her lobbyist husband and an unexplained $1600 check to AT&T. Now we know that the Florida Election Commission found that more than $6,000 in phone bill charged to Ritter's 2008 campaign were ... More >>

Is Stephanie Kraft Working Off Time?

It's a question that keeps popping up: Is Stephanie Kraft cooperating with law enforcement? I've never seen anyone so disgraced try to retain such a high profile. She's running around town, claims she's going to beat the nails-hard case against her, and is trying to maintain a presence in scho ... More >>

Dirty Developers Sue City; Ritter on Diplomat Tab: "I Don't Remember"

Bruce and Shawn Chait paid off a who's who of Broward County public officials to get government approvals for their controversial housing development on two golf courses in Tamarac. ​The father-and-son team bought since-imprisoned Broward County Commissioner Joe Eggelletion a golf ... 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 >>

How Will Russ and Stacy Justify This One?

Some of the more suspicious expenses Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter and her lobbyist husband Russ Klenet ran up during her controversial 2008 campaign involve "unknown" dinner receipts. There are a few receipts that Ritter turned into the Florida Elections Commission during its inves ... More >>

Did Ritter Entertain Obama At The Diplomat With Campaign Money?

Did Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter use her campaign fund to help her gain sway with the Obama Administration in the hopes of getting a plum job in the White House? People forget that once upon a time it was supposedly a done deal that Mrs. Ritter was headed to Washington. &n ... More >>

Ritter and Klenet Kept Eating Out After Campaign Was Over

Okay, so you're tired of hearing about the Stacy Ritter and Russ Klenet campaign fund, but I just can't quit it yet. Revelations keep coming to the surface. We already have the extravagant dinners, the family phone bills, the dinner in Manchester VT, the bedsheets and pillows from Target, the ... More >>

A Ritter Campaign Lie, Illustrated

Florida Elections Commission ​    Above you see a check written by Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter's 2008 campaign to the Tamarac Cafe Diner for a cool grand. Notice that it was supposed to be for a "campaign event." That notation on the check is the first sign ... More >>

UPDATED: Klenet Out in Sunrise

It appears the controversy regarding the sheriff's absence at a benefit held over the weekend for slain BSO Sgt. Chris Reyka was prompted by miscommunication.  Sheriff Al Lamberti's executive assistant, Don Prichard, explained that the sheriff was asked to be a celebrity judge at the ... More >>

Joel Steinger's Ponzi Palace

Want to live like a Ponzi schemer? Buy Joel Steinger's house. Steinger​Steinger, the felon behind the giant Mutual Benefits viatical scam, is facing federal fraud charges. As I told you this morning, he's on house arrest while he awaits his day in court, assuming it will ever come af ... 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 >>

Stacy Ritter to Run For Congress Against Allen West?

​ Facebook posting from Democratic guy Steve Best from yesterday sent in by an astute reader. Ritter has made grumbling about running for Congress in the past, perhaps in part because her lobbyist-hubbie Russ Klenet shifted his business to D.C. Of course she also expected a position ... 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 >>

Rise of Anonymous: Former Tallahassee Staffer Tells of Lying, Cheating, and Stealing at Capitol

Coming up on April 15 is a local conference on political corruption that will have among its speakers dubious former state Sen. Steve Geller, Broward County Judge Ken "Mr. JenJen" Gottlieb, and lobbyist/fake ethics champion Norm Ostrau.With folks like that on board, there should be no shortage of co ... More >>