Ex-Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer charged with felony theft

The former chairman of the state GOP was jailed Wednesday on charges that he defrauded the party, creating more potential problems for party leaders and Gov. Charlie Crist, who hand-picked him for the job.

Jim Greer was shaving at his Oviedo home when Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents arrived to arrest him Wednesday morning on four counts of grand theft, one count of money laundering and one count of running a scheme to defraud the state Republican Party, said William Shepherd, Florida's statewide prosecutor.

Charges are a culmination of a state grand jury probe into allegations that Greer mismanaged party finances.

The scandal surrounding Greer is one of the lasting ties between the state GOP and Crist, who left the party in April to run as a no-party-affiliated candidate for U.S. Senate.

Crist personally selected Greer for the party leadership role and stood by him to the end, urging him not to resign when media investigations began roiling the party. Under pressure from other party leaders, Greer quit in January.

Wednesday, Crist said Greer's arrest was "obviously disappointing, and surprising. I have faith in our judicial system; I know that they will handle it appropriately."

Asked whether he felt responsible or complicit in the matter, the governor said, "I do not feel complicit."

Both Crist and the state GOP will suffer from the scandal's taint, said Tom Slade, a former chairman of the party.

"The Republican Party cannot defend allowing that kind of conduct to go on as long as it did, without someone stepping in and saying, 'whoa,'" Slade said. "But Charlie Crist was contacted on numerous occasions by very responsible people in the party, saying 'things were a mess and please, go get your guy out of there and stop this excessive expenditure of funds.' He just turned a deaf ear."

Shepherd, the statewide prosecutor, said Wednesday that Greer used a shell company called Victory Strategies to funnel money from the party into his own checking account. At the direction of Greer, who kept his 60 percent stake in Victory Strategies a secret, the party paid the company almost $200,000 for campaign-related work, much of which was never performed. At least half the money came from party donors.

The only other company stakeholder, former party executive director Delmar Johnson, is helping investigators in exchange for a deferred prosecution agreement.

Details unfold

According to the affidavit, Greer all but forced out the party's professional fundraiser, Meredith O'Rourke, after she rebuffed a fundraising deal that he proposed to "make even more money together." After that, O'Rourke told investigators, Greer restricted her access to the governor and excluded her from what he described as "men's only" meetings with donors.

At one point, Greer told O'Rourke while she was in the hospital that she would lose her job if she did not travel to Tampa that day to sign a new contract. O'Rourke left the hospital to make the trip, only to find that the new contract cut her salary by nearly 85 percent. She eventually signed the contract to keep her job for the rest of the year, the affidavit states.

Johnson, Greer's former travel aide, eventually became executive director, a position that Greer said would include fundraising. According to Johnson, Greer told him they would set up a company -- Victory Strategies -- through which they would take 10 percent of all major donations. Johnson said the party chairman told him he must conceal Greer's involvement.

The company's contract was never submitted for approval by the RPOF's attorney, the affidavit states. Nonetheless, through 2009, a time when his personal finances were in trouble, the party paid more than $199,254 to Victory Strategies, of which Greer took more than $125,161; Johnson was paid $65,093.

Under questioning later by party officials, Greer denied having any financial interest in Victory Strategies.

When the media and party members questioned Greer's spending, he made a public show of cutting up what appeared to be his American Express card. But according to Johnson's account in the affidavit, "RPOF staff retrieved the cut card immediately because reporters ... would have discovered that it was in fact not Mr. Greer's card at all, but that of an RPOF staffer."

Greer's attorney, Damon Chase of Lake Mary, did not respond to requests for comment.

Wednesday, current GOP chairman Jim Thrasher laid much of the blame for Greer at Crist's feet, while downplaying any lasting damage to the party.

"I think most people now believe that they have some confidence in our party, that we do have the right kind of leadership," said Thrasher, a former state House Speaker from Jacksonville who now serves in the state Senate.

But the indictment is already lending ammunition to challengers of GOP political candidates. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink and insurgent GOP candidate Rick Scott both issued statements stressing connections between Greer and Attorney General Bill McCollum, lead GOP candidate in the race.

McCollum issued his own statement lauding FDLE and stressing his office's role in the investigation and forthcoming prosecution.

For average voters, the scandal may do little more than reinforce their skepticism about the political process, said Darryl Paulson, a retired political scientist at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg.

The real trouble -- for both the GOP and Crist -- is likely going to be fundraising, now that donations have been squandered on their watch, Paulson said.

"It's a violation of trust," he said.