Is ‘ghost’ candidate probe still ongoing?

State attorney’s office won’t disclose status of case tied to ’20 scheme

More than a year after Miami prosecutors told three people and one organization involved in Florida’s 2020 “ghost” candidate scheme that they were targets of an investigation, it’s unclear if the probe has progressed, with the prosecuting office unwilling to say whether it’s still active.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office sent “prior to” letters in December 2021 to political consultant Alex Alvarado, former Democratic fundraiser Dan Newman, nonprofit chair Richard Alexander and Let’s Preserve the American Dream, a nonprofit with close ties to Florida’s big business lobby, Associated Industries of Florida.

The probe emerged from the investigation that resulted in the arrest of former state lawmaker Frank Artiles and a man he was accused of paying to run for a competitive state Senate seat in 2020.

Last week, a spokesperson for State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office declined to say whether the investigation was still ongoing.

“There is no record of filed charges for these individuals/entities in our computer data base,” spokesperson Ed Griffith wrote in an email.

The letters, dated Dec. 23, 2021, said Let’s Preserve the American Dream and the three individuals were under investigation for “possible violations of Florida elections laws and campaign finance laws.” They did not provide any details about what those violations could entail.

Alvarado is a consultant who ran two committees that spent a combined $550,000 on ads championing three independent state Senate candidates, including one in a Central Florida race, as part of an apparent vote-siphoning scheme in 2020. According to records and interviews in the case against Artiles, Alvarado paid two young women to list their names in the committees’ registration records while he controlled the groups

behind the scenes.

An attorney representing Alvarado did not respond to questions from the Sentinel about the status of the investigation. Records in the Artiles case show investigators surveilled Alvarado’s Tallahassee home and his wife’s workplace in October 2021 in preparation for a possible search warrant, though it’s unclear if a search was ever conducted.

Those committees received all of their money from Grow United, a nonprofit organization controlled by consultants working closely with Florida

Power & Light. Executives for the utility said they had no knowledge of the “ghost” candidate scheme that has resulted in the arrests of five people, including Artiles. Alexander was listed as the chairperson for Grow United on incorporation filings but documents released as part of the case against Artiles suggest he had no role in running the organization. He did not respond to a phone call seeking comment last week.

Newman is a former Democratic fundraiser who worked with Grow United and Let’s Preserve the American Dream. He declined to comment on the status of the state attorney’s investigation.

Mohammad O. Jazil, an attorney for Let’s Preserve the American Dream, wrote in an email that the organization complies with state and federal laws.

“Its executive director met voluntarily with state prosecutors—without the promise of immunity and without invoking any Fifth Amendment privileges— to assist the prosecutors with their work,” Jazil wrote. “Any attempt to suggest otherwise because of a selective reading of a letter sent over a year ago is irresponsible and does a disservice to the Sentinel’s readers.”

Let’s Preserve the American Dream’s executive director, Ryan Tyson, sat for a nearly two-hour-long interview with investigators in September 2021, in which he acknowledged ordering a $600,000 contribution to Grow United the previous year, according to a transcript of an interview.

He said he also told the political consultant who controlled Grow United to expect a request for a donation from Alvarado, another operative who was working as a subcontractor to Let’s Preserve the American Dream. But Tyson said he had no control over whether Grow United ultimately passed the money on to Alvarado’s political committees.

Tyson and Let’s Preserve the American Dream are closely linked to Associated Industries of Florida, the big-business lobbying group whose members include FPL, sugar grower Florida Crystals and phosphate miner Mosaic Co. The nonprofit, which was originally named “Associated Industries for America’s Future,” is run out of AIF’s headquarters in Tallahassee. Tyson is a former AIF vice president and a longtime political advisor to the organization.

Artiles, who was accused of paying Alex Rodriguez nearly $45,000 to run in a South Florida Senate race, is awaiting trial. Rodriguez pleaded no contest in August 2021 to taking the bribes. As part of his plea deal, Rodriguez agreed to testify against Artiles during his trial.

In Central Florida, political consultant Eric Foglesong, former candidate Jestine Iannotti and former Seminole County GOP Chairman Ben Paris also were charged in connection with the scheme. Foglesong and Iannotti, who are accused of submitting falsified campaign contribution reports, pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

A jury found Paris guilty in September of causing his cousin’s name to be falsely listed on Iannotti’s contribution reports.