{"id":1758970,"date":"2022-12-01T20:47:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T01:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1758970"},"modified":"2022-12-01T20:47:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T01:47:57","slug":"former-florida-tax-collector-sentenced-to-11-years-for-child-sex-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-florida-tax-collector-sentenced-to-11-years-for-child-sex-trafficking\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Florida Tax Collector Sentenced To 11 Years For Child Sex Trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-florida-tax-collector-sentenced-to-11-years-for-child-sex-trafficking%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1758970&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A federal judge sentenced a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/florida\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florida<\/a> tax collector to 11 years in prison on Thursday for sex trafficking a 17-year-old female and other criminal offenses.<\/p>\n<p>Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector, was accused of several crimes, including stalking a political opponent, public corruption, creating fake licenses, and plotting to submit false claims for a federal loan.<\/p>\n<p>Greenberg pleaded guilty to six federal crimes, including identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, and conspiracy to bribe a public official.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing justifies my actions,\u201d Greenberg said before U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell in an Orlando courtroom, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/crime-arrests-florida-congress-government-and-politics-d657eda08a857f4c0a07d293bb109308\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cMy conduct is so shameful. I feel remorse for what I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Greenberg further issued a list of apologies in court \u2014 to the minor, the people of Seminole County, and his parents, children, and ex-wife.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI deserve punishment no matter how long that may be,\u201d he said, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/12\/01\/us\/politics\/matt-gaetz-confidant-greenberg-sentence.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times reported that Greenberg initially faced up to 30 years in prison for several crimes, including trafficking a 17-year-old girl, stalking a political rival, and stealing $400,000 in taxpayer money to buy cryptocurrencies and sports memorabilia.<\/p>\n<p>However, federal authorities reduced his sentence in exchange for cooperation with the government, which led to investigations of 24 people, including eight for sex crimes.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who had ties with Greenberg, was probed by federal investigators after allegations were made that he paid for sex with a minor in violation of federal sex trafficking laws.<\/p>\n<p>Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations, claiming they were part of an extortion plot from \u201cpeople at the Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sources familiar with the investigation of Gaetz reported last month that prosecutors informed their superiors that they would not be pursuing charges against the representative in connection with a sex-trafficking investigation that has been ongoing since 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors argued that the charges would be dropped because Greenberg and another central witness in the case have questionable credibility.<\/p>\n<p>Greenberg, a former associate of Gaetz, allegedly tried to smear the Republican congressman, similar to other accusations he made against politicians.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Presnell said, \u201cHe has provided substantial cooperation to the government \u2014 more than I\u2019ve seen in 22 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 22 years, I\u2019ve never experienced a case like this,\u201d Judge Presnell said. \u201cI have never seen a defendant who has committed so many different types of crimes in such a short period.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorney Fritz Scheller said Greenberg\u2019s cooperation brought four federal indictments, with more expected to come soon.<\/p>\n<p>Scheller also reportedly requested to the judge that Greenberg only get a portion of the sentencing, arguing that his client had changed since committing the crimes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Greenberg was using money and sex to get access to political circles,\u201d Scheller said. \u201cHe came from a dark place, a lack of self-worth, and tried to ingratiate himself with a collection of people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg for the Middle District of Florida described Greenberg as a \u201chardened criminal who never did the job he was elected to,\u201d according to The New York Times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was not deterred when he found himself under criminal investigation,\u201d Handberg said, according to The New York Times. \u201cHe was not deterred when he was brought into this building.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge sentenced a former Florida tax collector to 11 years in prison on Thursday for sex trafficking a 17-year-old female and other criminal offenses. Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector, was accused of several crimes, including stalking a political opponent, public corruption, creating fake licenses, and plotting to submit false claims &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":1758973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1758970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1758970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1758973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1758970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1758970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1758970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}