Ex-Florida Sen. Frank Artiles arrested in shill candidate scheme

Source: WPLG

Warrant alleges he paid a plant to confuse voters in November election

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – The former Florida state senator accused of masterminding and funding a sham candidate to manipulate voters last November is now facing charges of felony campaign finance crimes.

Frank Artiles is being booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Thursday morning, a day after his Palmetto Bay home was raided.

Shill candidate Alex Rodriguez was also booked Thursday morning.

Their charges include:

• Making or receiving campaign contributions over or in excess of limits
• Conspiracy to make or receive two or more campaign contributions over or in excess of limits
• False swearing in connection with voting or elections

According to a warrant obtained by Local 10 News, investigators say Artiles offered to pay Rodriguez $50,000 — half during the election and half afterward — for Rodriguez to enter November’s District 37 state senate race, where he shared a last name with the incumbent Democrat candidate Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Republican challenger Ileana Garcia ultimately defeated Jose Javier Rodriguez by just 32 votes for that seat. The plant candidate Alex Rodriguez got over 6,000 votes despite not actually campaigning, nor having actual political aspirations.

Warrants show that the investigation began Nov. 11, one day after a Local 10 News story outlined evidence that some state senate candidates in the November election were plants funded by dark money.

Alex Rodriguez, a deep-in-debt machinery rep, told investigators that Artiles contacted him on May 15, 2020, through Facebook Messenger. They had known each other for over 20 years but hadn’t spoken for about a year.

Rodriguez was living in Boca Raton, two counties away from District 37, but he still owned a home in Palmetto Bay. According to the warrant, the two met at Artiles’ Palmetto Bay home that afternoon where Artiles outlined the scheme for Rodriguez enter the race to confuse voters and siphon votes from the Democratic candidate.

The warrant shows text message communications between the two.

In a later in-person meeting, investigators allege that Artiles instructed Rodriguez how to fill out a form needed for candidacy, which included Rodriguez using his Palmetto Bay address despite both knowing he didn’t actually live there.

The warrant also outlines multiple instances of money being paid by Artiles to Rodriguez, including receipts.

In total, investigators found that $44,708.03 was paid by Artiles to Rodriguez “for changing his party affiliation, qualifying as an independent candidate for Senate Seat 37, and attempting to [siphon] votes from the incumbent candidate.”

Masterminding a sham candidate is not illegal, but financing one is.

Miami, Florida: Joint press conference at the Office of the State Attorney to announce filing of criminal charges as the result of the investigation into November’s Florida Senate District 37 election.

A news conference is set for 2:30 p.m. when State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, acting City of Miami Police Chief Ron Papier and members of the State Attorney’s Office Public Corruption Task Force will discuss the case.

Investigators served a warrant at Artiles’ home Wednesday, seizing electronics including his cell phone and computer, and the contents of a safe.

Artiles, now a lobbyist, resigned his state senate seat in 2017 after using a racial slur among colleagues and amid reports that a former Hooters calendar girl and a Playboy model with no political experience were hired as “consultants.”

There is no evidence that suggests Garcia, who was elected to the District 37 seat, was involved or had any knowledge of the shill being planted in the race.

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Republished by the Law Office of Scott A. Ferris, P.A.