Audio By Carbonatix
Let’s say somebody took you, your spouse, and another couple of family members on a luxury yacht cruise on the Intracoastal and gave all of you all the free booze and food you could stuff into your body and into bags to take home when the party was over.
How much would that be worth?
Well, if it’s worth more than $100 — and it definitely is — then School Board member Phyllis Hope should have gift-disclosed it with the State of Florida. Because that’s the freebie undercover agents provided to Hope this past December 10, when the FBI wrangled up a slew of Bev Gallagher’s friends and gave them a taste of the high life.
The state ethics commission reported to the Pulp that Hope disclosed no gifts during that time period.
So here’s the question: Who is going to take up that matter and a host of other state matters that the FBI has surely found during its four-year undercover investigation? The feds surely have found a slew of Sunshine Law violations and other state transgressions to report, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office doesn’t prosecute those.
Question: Who will get them? There’s been much made about the tense relationship — or lack of a relationship altogether — between the feds and the State Attorney’s Office. Maybe the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will get them.
— Speaking of that December 10 FBI yacht party, some of you have been asking who
else was there with these folks. Well, from sources who were there and clues in the federal complaint, here are two more. One is Bill Ellis, assistant vice president of prolific school builder James B. Pirtle Construction. Sources say Ellis became very close with undercover agents. Of course, it was the Pirtle company that federally charged, now-former School Board member Gallagher steered the Hollywood Hills High renovation project to in return for bribe money from agents representing another construction company that had been promised subcontract work on the project.
Another man on the FBI cruise was Skip Aniekwu, then a project manager at Gulf Building Corp. Aniekwu seems to be a major thread in this investigation. He was involved in illegal activity in Miramar and then was involved with the corruption at the School Board. Aniekwu’s company, Gulf, is owned by John Scherer, son of prominent attorney, landowner, and former North Broward Hospital District General Counsel Bill Scherer. Sources say Papa Scherer, who serves as registered agent for Gulf, is deeply involved with the company. Interestingly, School Board records show that John Scherer and Aniekwu were both present at the QSEC meeting during which committee members voted Pirtle as contractor for the Hollywood Hills job.
Aniekwu faces federal charges and has fled the area. Might see him on a Top Ten list one of these days.
