Florida CFO announces probe into court

clerks’ ties to collection agency snared in

bribery case
By STEPHEN HUDAK
ORLANDO SENTINEL |
FEB 02, 2021 AT 6:00 PM

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced this week his plan
to quiz Orange County Clerk of Courts Tiffany Moore Russell and other county
clerks who had business dealings with Penn Credit, a debt collection agency
entangled in a federal bribery case.
“The purpose of the review is to determine to what extent Clerk of Court
operations would be disrupted if Penn Credit’s license to operate as a
consumer credit agency is revoked,” Patronis spokeswoman Audrey Walden
said in an email Tuesday.
Patronis requested Florida court clerks to self-report within 30-days on
whether Penn Credit was among their approved vendors to collect debts,
including delinquent fines and court costs. Florida law allows companies like
Penn Credit to keep up to 40% of collections.
“CFO Patronis is concerned regarding the charges pending against Penn
Credit and the possible attempts to bribe Florida officials,” Walden said.
“Therefore, he requested all Florida Clerks of Court respond to his letter
within 30 days advising whether their Office contracts with Penn Credit.”
Russell, recently elected without opposition to her second four-year term,
cooperated two years ago with a federal probe of Penn Credit and its owner
and chief executive, Donald Donagher of Palm Beach Gardens, according to
spokesman Dain Weister.
He said Russell “stands ready” to provide assistance to Patronis’ office.
She terminated her office’s contract with Penn Credit in April 2019 after
learning that Donagher had been indicted, Weister said.
The state’s Office of Financial Regulation approved Penn Credit’s license in
November 2020, despite the pending indictment.
A spokeswoman did not immediately answer when asked Tuesday why the
license was approved.
“We are in receipt of the CFO’s letter. We are currently reviewing the issue,”
spokeswoman Katie Norris said in an email.
The office, responsible for regulatory oversight of Florida’s financial services
industry, reports to a commission made up of Gov. Ron DeSantis and his
cabinet, Attorney General Ashley Moody, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki
Fried and Patronis, the state’s CFO.
The federal indictment, filed in Illinois, alleged that Donagher spent tens of
thousands of dollars “for the purpose of corruptly influencing and rewarding”
elected officials in Illinois and Florida, including Russell and the clerk in
Brevard County.
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The case is not yet set for trial, though a status hearing is scheduled to be held
Feb. 19.
Lawyers for the parties are awaiting a judge’s ruling on a defense motion to
dismiss the indictment.
According to the indictment, Donagher contributed to some clerks’ re-election
campaigns and picked up a $936 tab at a strip club during a clerks convention
in West Palm Beach. He has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit
bribery and five counts of bribery.
Donagher, who lives in a $1.3-million home in Palm Beach County, attempted
to persuade clerks of court in Brevard, Orange and St. Johns counties in
Florida and in Cook County in Illinois to hire his firm by donating to their re-
election campaigns and by making contributions to their favorite charities,
court documents alleged.
The indictment said Orange County’s clerk, identified in the document as
“Clerk C,” ran the office from November 2014 through March 2019, when the
charges were filed. Russell was elected in November 2014 and Donagher met
with her about five weeks after her election.
He gave her a $2,500 check for LANES, which stands for Loving Assisting
Nurturing Educating & Supporting, a nonprofit mentoring charity for teenage
girls, according to the indictment. The day after Russell’s 2014 election,
Donagher also sent an email to his employees about her.
“Find out all you can about this woman,” Donagher wrote, according to the
indictment.
“It seems the deal is that when people want deals to happen in Orange County,
large contributions are made and then the deal happens the very next day.
Look into that. Look into Facebook to see who her friends are. Look at all the
articles in the Orlando Sentinel that involve these deals that she was involved
in getting passed through the commissioners,” Donagher wrote.
A Democrat, Russell had served two terms on the Orange County commission,
representing District 6, which spans much of the Pine Hills area, Tangelo Park
and the International Drive tourism corridor, including the Orange County
Convention Center.
She was the youngest candidate ever elected to serve on the commission.
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Donagher’s lawyer has denied his client had quid pro quo arrangements with
Russell or any other clerks.
Penn Credit served as a debt collector for the Orange clerk from 2011 to 2019,
hauling in $19.3 million while also serving Russell’s predecessors Eduardo
“Eddie” Fernández and Lydia Gardner.
Two debt-collection agencies currently hold contracts with Russell’s office:
Orlando-based Alliance One and Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, one of
the nation’s largest government debt collectors.
While Florida law allows government-debt collectors to keep up to 40% of
collections as their fee, Russell reduced the percentage permitted by her office
from 40% to 25% in 2016.
Collections for the past fiscal years were not immediately available, Weister
said.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com

Stephen Hudak
Orlando Sentinel

CONTACT

Stephen Hudak often writes about bears in Central Florida and weird things in the Orlando area,
including Orange County government. He likes snow and Ohio State but wound up in the Sunshine
State, which has been good to him. He was a Pulitzer finalist for work on the FAMU hazing tragedy.