Broward Politics: Penny Sales Tax Hike Consultant Was Scammer Scott Rothstein’s Fundraiser
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Cheryl Seinfeld has gone from raising thousands to trying to sell a penny.
Seinfeld of Fort Lauderdale is one of the political consultants marketing a penny sales tax increase to voters.
A few years ago, Seinfeld was raising thousands of dollars in political campaign contributions for Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.
Cheryl Seinfeld
She was charged with no crime in the multi-million dollar scam that sent Rothstein and other attorneys in his firm to prison.
On October 5, the pro-penny sales tax increase committee Moving Broward Forward paid Seinfeld’s CLS Strategies LLC $17,600 for consulting. The firm was first registered with the state on June 30.
Before Seinfeld was the Rothstein law firm’s $100,000-a-year government relations director, she was the finance director of the Florida Republican Party earning $65,000 annually. She worked for Rothstein roughly from 2008-2010, according to published reports.
In testimony in Rothstein’s bankruptcy, Seinfeld denied any knowledge of the scheme of laundering money from phony legal settlements through RRA staff members in the form of political donations, according to a report in the South Florida Business Journal.
She was responsible for raising money for political figures such as Alex Sink, the Democratic nominee for governor, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She traveled to 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota in a chartered plane with Rothstein, his law partners and political figures like Roger Stone, a political operative who is now helping Donald Trump.
Scott Rothstein and Alex Sink
Rothstein pled guilty of using political donations to launder money from investments in phony legal settlements. Seinfeld testified she had no knowledge of the scheme.
After the Rothstein firm collapsed, Seinfeld became known for her work with charities in Fort Lauderdale. She was named one of the 100 Outstanding Women of Broward County earlier this year.
The committee Seinfeld is now helping, Moving Broward Forward, is funded by businesses and lobbyists who stand to make tens of millions if voters approve the tax increase. It has raised $473,500 to date from entities such as the Broward Workshop business group ($50,000), Calvin, Giordano architects ($10,000) and Nova Southeastern University ($10,000).
The group has spent $162,750, including the money for Seinfeld’s CLS Strategies.
October 26th, 2016 at 1:52 pm
Must be a slow news day, Buddy.
October 26th, 2016 at 4:06 pm
Appropriate. The sales tax increase and Rothstein are both scams.
October 26th, 2016 at 6:21 pm
Nova is a non profit is it not? Isnt it questionable they are spending money lobbying on a political issue?
October 26th, 2016 at 8:06 pm
The bottom feeders who are in back of the sales tax increase will be outsmarted by the voters. There is no written plan for spending the money raised by the increase. Voters are aware of this and will deny this latest raid on the limited budgets of working people in Broward County.
BTW, construction booms are supposedly a huge source of income for city and county budgets. Can one of the geniuses behind this tax increase please explain why they think a new tax is needed to fund transportation when construction has been booming for a few years now? And, shouldn’t transportation be considered before building permits are issued? Anyone, anyone?
October 26th, 2016 at 11:41 pm
going to be a lot of sad faces on November 9 in Broward County.
October 27th, 2016 at 7:41 am
Talks: I think the unspoken intent is to shift as many costs of development to the public sector (i.e. us taxpayers) so the developers, big investors, real estate industry etc. can make even bigger profits. Why should the rich pay for roads and other true costs of their projects if they can get John Q. Taxpayer to do it? By the way, does this vaguely sound like the approach of one of our leading presidential candidates?