Greenberg, wife finalize their divorce this week
Ex-Seminole tax collector awaits sentencing
Joel Greenberg and his estranged wife, Abby Greenberg, are now officially divorced after a circuit judge on Monday finalized the couple’s break up, according to court documents obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
The pair separated just over a year ago when the former Seminole County tax collector was last arrested on March 2, 2021. He was charged with 33 federal crimes and eventually pleaded guilty to six felonies — including sex trafficking of a child, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, creating fake driver’s licenses and conspiracy to bribe a public official.
Because Joel Greenberg is currently incarcerated at the Orange County Jail awaiting sentencing — and he likely faces several years in federal prison — Circuit Judge Christopher Sprysenski said the former tax collector will not be required to pay child support for the couple’s two young children until he “has the financial ability,” according to his order.
Sprysenski also awarded Joel and Abby Greenberg shared parental responsibility for their two children — a 4-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. However, how much time Joel Greenberg will be allowed to spend with his children will be determined by the courts when he is released from prison, according to the order.
Any money in Joel Greenberg’s cryptocurrency account will be distributed by the courts “should that ever be accessible” by the former tax collector, Sprysenski said.
Abby Greenberg, in court documents she filed this month, claimed Joel Greenberg had a cryptocurrency account that could be worth as much as $3 million. But he had not paid her “a penny” in children support or alimony, her filing said.
Her attorney, Clayton Simmons, said he did not know where the information required to access that cryptocurrency account is located and that federal investigators likely have it in their possession. Even so, Abby Greenberg “would have a claim to a share of that,” he said.
Greenberg’s criminal defense attorney Fritz Scheller cast doubt on the existence of a cryptocurrency account worth that much money.
Joel and Abby Greenberg married Feb. 29, 2016, in Seminole County, the same year that he defeated longtime tax collector Ray Valdes in the Republican primary in August. Greenberg then won the countywide election against a write-in opponent.
Last October, Abby Greenberg filed for divorce saying the “marriage is irretrievably broken and should be dissolved.”
She stated in court filings that during the marriage, Joel Greenberg, 37, sold their assets and invested the proceedings in cryptocurrency.
Abby Greenberg is a selfemployed real estate agent and works out of her home off Sand Lake Road near Altamonte Springs. According to a financial affidavit she filed with the court, her monthly expenses total $23,528, including $715 for counseling, $1,000 for clothing for herself, $200 for her children’s clothing, $1,000 for utilities, $1,000 for gifts and $1,000 for food.
Simmons said in a letter to the court that Abby Greenberg has supported herself and her children from IRS refunds and property insurance settlements.
According to county records, Joel and Abby Greenberg purchased a 4,680-square-foot home in the gated Heathrow subdivision near Lake Mary in November 2019 for $600,000, taking out a $480,000 mortgage.
The home was sold on Dec. 17 for $750,000, according to county records. The proceeds were distributed equally between Abby and Joel Greenberg, Simmons said in his letter.
This month, Abby Greenberg asked Sprysenski to finalize the divorce, mostly because Simmons plans to retire on May 1 and her husband’s criminal case has no bearing on the dissolution of their marriage. Otherwise, she would have had to seek a new attorney to represent her.
On Friday, Greenberg’s divorce attorney, Kenneth Cotter of Winter Park, told the court that Greenberg has no objection to finalizing the divorce proceedings. While in office, Greenberg used public money to delve into cryptocurrency investments, according to federal investigators. In June 2018, he became the first public official in Florida to begin accepting bitcoin as payment for new IDs, license plates and property taxes.
Last December, Seminole County Attorney Bryant Applegate announced that he had reached an agreement with the former tax collector toward the payment of nearly $1.9 million in restitution for public money that was misspent during Greenberg’s time in office. That includes $98,000 in equipment for blockchain transactions.
Greenberg resigned in June 2020, shortly after he was first arrested on federal charges of stalking and identity theft. On March 3, 2021, Greenberg was arrested again for violating the terms of bond release when he left his Heathrow home and drove to South Florida to visit Abby Greenberg, who was residing at her mother’s home at the time.
Scheller has said several times that Greenberg feels remorse for his crimes and is working with federal prosecutors.
This month, a rap video posted on YouTube about U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Pensacola, showed Abby Greenberg. Gaetz was friends with Joel Greenberg and is reportedly one of the people that federal prosecutors are investigating.