The Florida Times Union in Jacksonville reports that Jennifer Carroll has submitted her resignation to Rick Scott.
The resignation comes two days after Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers interviewed Carroll about her involvement with Allied Veterans of the World, a non-profit that operates internet cafes in Florida.
Officials from Allied Veterans and Nelson Cuba, the president of the Jacksonville Florida Order of Police, were arrested on racketeering charges after an investigation by the IRS and Secret Service.
Carroll gave her resignation letter to Gov. Rick Scott Tuesday. It gives no details about the decision, but in a statement, Adam Hollingsworth, Scott’s chief-of-staff, said fallout from the Allied Veterans investigation spurred the resignation.
Carroll, who is of Trinidadian descent, helped Scott peel off just enough votes of women and black voters to win a close election against Alec Sink. She had been under fire for more than a year because of rumors of involvement with a female staff member.
Several of my friends wondered then if Scott would keep her on the ticket for his re-election bid. Now come the corruption allegations. She's gone.
More from the Times Union:
Allied Veterans is accused of money laundering, using money from a nonprofit for personal gain and misrepresenting the amount donated to charities. Authorities say the group donated just 2 percent of its $290 million in proceeds to charities over about five years. They also say the former president received more than $1.5 million and the national commander got $250,000 from the organization.
A firm Carroll owned, 3N & JC, did consulting work for Allied Veterans, and she starred in a commercial for the nonprofit in 2010.
This type of activity brings down Democratic politicians quicker. Not sure why this took so long to catch up with Carroll. It will be interesting to see the fallout, and the list of names to replace Carroll on the ticket.
7:45 AM PT: In the comments, Kossack JaxDem adds more info from Jacksonville area media about all the Internet cafes run by this Allied Veterans group, which brought in millions in revenue per year. Less than 2 percent actually went to the "intended" beneficiaries.
http://www.news4jax.com/...
This really makes me want to holler. ACORN did legitimate work in Florida, and actually helped people, but were run out of business based largely on false charges. The GOP continues to use ACORN as a whipping post.
It will be interesting to see if Preibus, JEB! or anyone in GOP leadership says anything about Allied Veterans.