Singh maintains he did ‘nothing wrong’
Prosecutors say documents from his office were altered
Prosecutors say documents at his office were altered for an audit.
Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh on Monday dismissed criticism over a state attorney’s findings that his office altered documents for an audit, though he conceded he should not have posed for a photo that was staged to justify his travel to a Curry Festival in Tampa.
The photo of Singh next to a festival banner was actually taken at a park near his Windermere home years after the event, prosecutors said. At a press conference Singh called to address the findings released last week by State Attorney R.J. Larizza, who opted against charging him with official misconduct, Singh was asked why he agreed to participate in the photo.
“I could have declined, in hindsight,” said Singh, a Democrat who is facing two opponents in the August primary in his bid for a third term. “This was a phone call I received on a Saturday morning where I just was told to come take a picture for promotional purposes. In hindsight, I should have asked more questions. I will ask more questions moving forward.”
But Singh denied that his office altered documents about his fuel purchases on an office credit card and some other expenses despite Larizza’s 10-page memorandum, which concluded, “there is no question that each of the documents submitted to the (Orange County Comptroller’s Office) auditors in these counts was altered from the original.”
Singh told reporters: “Nobody altered any documents. Who said that?” He asserted that the documents were “put there for the purposes of clarification we were instructed to do by our CPA and our attorney.”
“I know the truth,” he said. “I know I have done nothing wrong.”
Agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement recommended Larizza charge Singh with 10 counts of official misconduct, a third-degree felony, after investigators found Singh “engaged in a pattern of official misconduct by knowingly and intentionally ordering” employees to do so.
But prosecutors for Larizza said they couldn’t determine that Singh ordered changes to the documents and questioned the credibility of former employees of the property appraiser’s office who made the accusations.
Throughout the investigation, Singh has denied wrongdoing and described his accusers, Laverne McGee, his former communications director, and Aisha Hassan, formerly his finance director, as disgruntled ex-employees. Both first wrote a letter to Singh expressing their concerns about his conduct and shortly after filed a whistleblower lawsuit that also alleged that Singh used derogatory language for Black people and women.
On Monday, he called both of the former employees liars who “decided that they wanted to take me down” and “created a hateful, toxic environment.”
Orange County State Attorney Aramis Ayala, who recused herself from the case because a third former employee of Singh and one of his accusers now works for her, lambasted Larizza’s findings. She said Larizza found the “truth,” which is that Singh’s office altered documents, but did not serve up “justice.”
Ayala called the case “an example of how the law can be used to justify a desired outcome” and took a swipe at one of the candidates vying to replace her as state attorney. She is not seeking a second term.
She questioned why former Chief Judge Belvin Perry, who went to work for trial attorney John Morgan, didn’t disclose that documents were altered when Singh hired him to conduct an internal investigation on the matter.
“These facts were unfortunately hidden from the public when Belvin Perry denied them in the internal investigation he was hired to conduct on behalf of the Orange County Property Appraiser’s Office,” Ayala said in a statement.
McGee and Hassan also said in a statement through their attorney on Monday that Singh’s “narrative that he was proven innocent is false” because prosecutors acknowledged that his office failed to follow protocols for the audit and changed documents to avoid political criticism.
Prosecutors wrote that it was possible the documents were edited to help Singh avoid “political scrutiny,” because he was simultaneously collecting a $540-$575 monthly travel allowance for him to use his personal vehicle for work. Investigators found that Singh’s office changed the documents to say that “staff” had used the vehicles, and Hassan said she was told by Singh to shred the originals.
However, Singh’s accountant, Farlen Halikman, told investigators there was nothing that prohibited Singh from using using office funds for an office vehicle while also collecting a vehicle allowance.
Halikman, who during the probe was shown the original and altered documents, also told investigators that he only directed the office to supplement documents with a handwritten note if the justification for a purchase was not clear. He said changing the documents “would not be appropriate.”
Singh did not address a question submitted to his office before his press conference about why he used public vehicles for travel and charged fuel to taxpayers at the same time he also collected a monthly stipend for his personal vehicle.