As federal prosecutors and a defense attorney argued in an Orlando courtroom last week about how much time a convicted Joel Greenberg associate should spend in prison, new details emerged of a shady real estate scheme by the former tax collector and his friends that federal investigators say bilked Seminole County out of $262,000.
That deal may now play a key role in how much time former Greenberg consultant Michael Shirley serves in prison.
“This was a straw purchase, for-profit scheme,” said Nevada Gump, an investigator with the U.S. Secret Service, as he testified at Shirley’s sentencing hearing on Wednesday. Shirley, who was found guilty last July on fraud charges, is likely to be sentenced this week.
Gump was referring to the complicated 2017 deal in which another Greenberg acquaintance bought a vacant bank property in Winter Springs for $680,000 and then flipped it hours later to the Seminole Tax Collector’s Office for $942,000.
Although Shirley was not criminally charged in the transaction, prosecutors and U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell said Shirley profited from it, and that it should be considered in setting his sentence.
“The evidence supports Mr. Shirley was involved,” Presnell said at Wednesday’s hearing. “Mr. Shirley was carrying Mr. Greenberg’s baggage and helping him in carrying out his various schemes.”
It was that same real estate transaction, involving a former BB&T bank building at the corner of State Road 434 and Vistawilla Drive just four months after Greenberg took office, that initially drew the attention of the Secret Service and FBI investigators to begin looking into the tax collector.
Greenberg was eventually charged with 33 federal crimes, and ended up pleading guilty to six felonies in May 2021, including sex trafficking of a child, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Prosecutors dropped 27 charges in exchange for Greenberg accepting a plea deal and helping federal investigators in other cases, including Shirley’s prosecution.
Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year sentence at a low-security federal prison in Miami.
At least seven other Greenberg associates, including Shirley, have either been charged or found guilty of federal crimes over the past four years.
Shirley’s sentencing hearing will resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Orlando. He was found guilty last July of fraud charges, including that he netted his company $466,625 in public money as part of a bribery-and-kickback scheme with Greenberg, according to court records.
On the day Greenberg took office on Jan. 3, 2017, he hired Shirley’s newly formed company Praetorian Integrated Services at $12,500 a month for consulting and “providing transition services,” according to the contract.
A former political consultant, Shirley had helped Greenberg in his campaign to unseat longtime tax collector Ray Valdes in the Republican primary in August 2016 and defeat a write-in candidate in the following November’s general election.
In January 2017, Greenberg also hired his longtime friend and real estate investor Keith Ingersoll as a consultant to search for properties in east Seminole County on behalf of the Tax Collector’s Office to open a branch office in the fast-growing area.
Ingersoll’s business partner Keith Adamczyk had formed a company called Shooters a few months earlier.
On May 1, 2017, Adamczyk then bought the bank building, along with the vault and furniture, for $680,000 under the Shooters name, according to county records. Hours later he sold it to the Seminole Tax Collector’s Office for $810,000 for the building and $132,000 for the furniture, safes and fixtures, according to county records. Shooters dissolved a few months later, according to state records.
Federal prosecutors presented bank records at Shirley’s sentencing hearing that showed Ingersoll giving him a check for $20,000 days after the bank sale closed. Shirley then used part of the money to help Ingersoll gather data for Joe Lopez’s 2018 campaign for Orange County Sheriff, prosecutors said.
Greenberg’s onetime friend, Joe Ellicott, testified that he went to Shirley’s office in 2019 to pick up $6,000 to deliver to the tax collector. Prosecutors said that money came from the sale of the bank building to the Tax Collector’s Office.
“That money served as the source for the kickback,” said Amanda Daniels, assistant U.S. Attorney.
Ellicott — once an Orlando radio sports host known as “Big Joe” — added that Shirley also presented him with a “fake” contract for a 10% stake in Ellicott’s now closed business, “Uncle Joe’s Coins, Currency & Collectibles” in Maitland. Prosecutors said the bogus contract was a cover up for the cash bribe payment.
In all, Shirley was convicted for five fraud charges, including four counts of honest services fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Nielsen is requesting that Shirley, 40, serve between 21 and 27 months in prison. Federal prosecutors recommended a prison term between 8 and 10 years.
“The defendant grew up in a loving home and had a really nice childhood,” Nielsen said. “Mr. Shirley’s background, including his professional background and status as a model citizen, calls for a lesser sentence.”
mcomas@orlandosentinel.com
