Mayor suspended after felony arrest
Hallandale Beach’s Cooper also sought cash for allies, records say
HALLANDALE BEACH – Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, who was removed from office Friday after being snared in an FBI sting, solicited illegal campaign contributions not only for herself but for two political allies, court documents say.
Gov. Rick Scott suspended Cooper a day after she was arrested and accused of accepting contributions funneled through Alan Koslow, a once-prominent attorney who has since been disbarred after a conviction on federal charges.
In August 2012, undercover agents handed Koslow a Dunkin’ Donuts bag filled with $8,000 in cash — all in $100 bills, investigators said in court records.
Former commissioner Bill Julian received two
$500 checks for his campaign, but there was no indication he knew they were illegal, according to the arrest affidavit.
“People stop me and ask what’s going on,” Julian said Friday of Cooper’s arrest. “I tell them I only know what I read in the news.”
Cooper also solicited funds for former commissioner Anthony Sanders, court records show, but they do not say whether Sanders received illegal checks.
Sanders resigned in August after being accused by the Broward Inspector General of using his elected position for financial gain. He was accused of voting to award nearly $1 million to a nonprofit that made monthly payments to his church and family.
Sanders told the South Florida Sun Sentinel he was not aware of any backroom dealings involving Cooper. He and Julian often voted in tandem with Cooper, leaving their political foes Keith London and Michele Lazarow on the losing side of many decisions.
Cooper, 57, has been charged with money laundering, official misconduct and exceeding the limit on campaign finance contributions — felony charges that each carry a maximum five-year sentence. She also has been charged with soliciting contributions in a government building, a first-degree misdemeanor with a one-year maximum sentence.
Cooper, mayor since 2005, said Thursday in a prepared statement: “I can assure you that I will vigorously fight these allegations in court.”
She could not be reached Friday for further comment despite calls to her cellphone and to her husband.
According to a highranking official at City Hall, Cooper cleared out her office the night before reporting to the Main Jail in downtown Fort Lauderdale on Thursday morning. She had been released by Thursday night.
Developer Eric Fordin said he was shocked by Cooper’s arrest because she “has always been so aboveboard. I recall her writing a check for $2.45 for a soda at the grand opening of one of our hotels because she could not accept a drink.”
Fordin, who left The Related Group for Mast Capital last year, said he has never been pressured by Cooper or any other Hallandale Beach politician for campaign contributions.
But court records paint a different picture.
The mayor met with who she thought were wealthy developers from California, court documents say. They were actually undercover FBI agents pretending to seek political favor for a project in Hallandale Beach.
Koslow told the undercover agents he had influence with the city commission and “had the vote of the mayor,” court documents show. Koslow declined to comment Friday.
The agents met with Cooper and Koslow over several months in 2012 and secretly recorded their meetings, court records say. Koslow did not become aware his developer pals were FBI agents until August 2013, when they confronted him in a Fort Lauderdale hotel room, records show.
During a meeting in July 2012 among Cooper, the undercover agents and Koslow, Cooper was recorded saying she and two other commissioners were a “team of three” and could ensure a favorable result for their project, according to the arrest affidavit. The meeting took place in City Hall.
“Alan Koslow showed Mayor Cooper a number representing a proposed contribution and asked her if it was a good number. She replied, ‘No. Add a zero.’ Koslow confirmed, ‘Three zeros, is that fine?’ and Mayor Cooper replied, ‘Yes,’ ” according to the arrest affidavit.
Later that month, Koslow told Cooper she would receive $10,000 in the form of two $5,000 contributions – one before the August 2012 primary and one after, the records state.
Koslow told them he’d arrange for individuals to write personal checks to Cooper and Julian in the amount of $500 each, the records show.
Two of seven people who wrote checks said they got cash back for writing the checks, records say. Five claimed they did not recall.
In September, Koslow told one of the agents he’d personally handed 20 checks totaling $5,000 to Cooper at a Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce fashion show, court records say. “That’s fantastic,” Cooper told Koslow when he turned over the checks, according to what he told the undercover agents. Cooper’s campaign reported nine contributions from eight teachers and a retired person in the amount of $500 each, matching names on a list of donors Koslow had given the so-called developers, the affidavit said.
“You guys have been great,” Cooper told the undercover agents during a meeting with Koslow at the Flashback Diner on Oct. 3, 2012, court documents state. She told them one of the checks had bounced.
Koslow gave a sworn statement in November 2017 confirming he participated in the events disclosed in the arrest affidavit.
With Cooper suspended, Vice Mayor Keith London will serve as the acting mayor on a fivemember commission that now has two vacancies.
London was out of town Friday and could not be reached for comment.