Not the Russians the FBI is looking for. Update to this story.
Via Tampa Bay Times:
Joy Cooper knew the value of her political power.
On a summer day in 2012, the Hallandale Beach mayor met in her City Hall office with two men she thought were wealthy landowners from California as well as a close acquaintance, South Florida attorney and lobbyist Alan Koslow.
The landowners — FBI agents working undercover — would help finance Cooper’s re-election run. In return, she would push their construction project through the city commission.
Koslow showed the mayor a proposed donation and asked if it was a “good number.”
“No,” Cooper said. “Add a zero.”
“Three zeros. Is that fine?” Koslow responded. “Yes,” she said.
Cooper went on to win re-election in November 2012, after soliciting and receiving thousands of dollars that state prosecutors now say were illegal campaign contributions. Cooper, 57, who had served as mayor since 2005, was suspended by Gov. Rick Scott on Friday after she was charged with campaign finance violations, official misconduct and money laundering.[…]
A day after her high-profile arrest, details of Cooper’s alleged corruption have emerged in an arrest affidavit filed by state prosecutors in Broward County Circuit Court. Many of her words and actions were documented with undercover audio and video recordings.
The document outlines a chapter of the FBI’s 2012 probe of political corruption in South Florida, and how undercover agents posing as developers hired Koslow as their attorney to target Cooper. It also reveals a seemingly improbable tale of how $8,000 stuffed into a Dunkin’ Donuts bag was converted into campaign checks written by several Russian donors.[…]
The undercover agents posing as the developers gave Koslow — still unaware of their true identities — a Dunkin’ Donuts bag filled with $100 bills totaling $8,000. They agreed that Koslow “would channel these funds” to Cooper and two of her allies on the city commission, according to the affidavit.
Koslow, aware of the $500 limit on local campaign contributions, told the agents that he would use their funds and his connections to two Russian organizations to have them write checks to Cooper’s campaign.
In September, the mayor met Koslow at a fashion show organized by the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce. There, she collected 20 campaign checks totaling $5,000.
“That’s fantastic,” Cooper told Koslow, acknowledging that the donations came from a bunch of Russians living in the United States.