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TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Attorney General's office has recovered $1.2 million for Florida taxpayers through a settlement in a case that involved telemarketing fraud, kickbacks and the bribery of government employees. Those who carried out the scheme have already faced individual criminal charges.
The civil settlement calls for former executives of Stone Cold Concerts Inc., also known as Stone Cold Chemicals Inc., to pay the state $1.2 million by the end of 2006. The state has already seized almost $300,000 of that amount. If the defendants fail to live up to the terms of the settlement agreement, the state will also seize three valuable Volusia County properties that were purchased in part with the proceeds of the illegal scheme.
The four principals of Stone Cold previously pleaded guilty for their role in the racketeering and telemarketing scheme and are now facing various penalties, depending on the level of cooperation they provided to authorities. Eight of nine government workers charged with taking bribes either were convicted in a trial or pled guilty. The civil case was developed by the Attorney General's Economic Crimes Division, while the criminal case was prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution.
"It is immensely disappointing that employees paid by the taxpayers assisted the masterminds of this scheme," said AG Charlie Crist. "Through this settlement and previous criminal prosecutions, the taxpayers will see justice."
The civil and criminal cases revealed that Marilyn Frederick Meek, Lloyd Glynn Barnard, Thomas D. Stone and Pam A. McDaniel operated a scheme that violated Florida racketeering and telemarketing laws and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. Through their unlicensed telemarketing activities, the defendants offered gift certificates and personal items to city, county and state government purchasing agents in exchange for ordering overpriced office cleaning supplies. The defendants also allegedly offered 10 percent kickbacks for ordered items.
The case was investigated by Statewide Prosecution, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
The settlement amount was based on the amount of illegal proceeds generated by the defendants' telemarketing activities. The settlement is pending review by Circuit Court Judge W. Watson III of Daytona Beach.
A copy of the settlement agreement is available online at: http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/MRAY-6JKS5X/$file/Stone_Cold_settlement.pdf 11-29-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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