SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – A federal jury convicted Michael Shirley of paying a $6,000 kickback to former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg in 2017 in exchange for maintaining a lucrative consulting contract with the tax collector’s office.
Shirley faces up to 20 years in prison after jurors found him guilty Thursday of four counts of honest services fraud and one count of conspiracy.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed in the results today,” Shirley’s attorney, Dr. Gavin Clarkson, said after the verdict was announced. “There are some objections that we raised to the jury charge and the overall vagueness of the statute that the government was using.”
During closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors that Shirley was paid $634,000 in taxpayer money over three years while doing little work as a contractor for Greenberg’s office.
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The government also accused Shirley of submitting inflated invoices to the tax collector’s office, including one with a markup of more than 90%.
To maintain that high-paying contract, prosecutors said Shirley paid Greenberg a $6,000 cash bribe, which Greenberg later used to pay off an American Express credit card.
“This is a case about corruption,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Daniels. “It’s about a corrupt tax collector and a corrupt consultant who colluded with him.”
Greenberg is serving an 11-year sentence in federal prison for child sex trafficking and other offenses.
As is common following similar criminal convictions, the judge allowed Shirley to remain free while awaiting his sentence hearing, which is tentatively scheduled for late October.
But before the court adjourned, Daniels asked the judge to place Shirley in federal custody after they claimed Shirley and his attorney “threatened” a fellow prosecutor.
According to Daniels, Shirley approached Assistant U.S. Attorney Chauncey Bratt during the trial and informed him that Shirley found personal information about Bratt on the internet.
Shirley’s attorney later told Bratt there was also information about Bratt’s family online.
“It feels like it was a veiled threat,” Bratt told U.S. Circuit Court Judge Gregory Presnell.
Clarkson insisted he and his client were simply trying to make Bratt aware of the information on the internet, which Clarkson claims they found while researching the prosecutors’ professional backgrounds.
“It was an act of kindness,” Clarkson told the judge. “It was in no way threatening. In fact, it was just the opposite.”
The judge declined to place Shirley in custody but encouraged prosecutors to file a motion with the court if they believed there was evidence of a threat.
“I’m sorry this happened,” Presnell said.
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