Article in The Tallahassee Democrat this morning.. This is not going away
Just a matter of time before all this seeps out of Tallahassee.. .. Agree or not , just the implication of wrongdoing is enough to hit the PPS.
In sentencing, prosecutors claimed Burnette, Beshears manipulated Florida medical marijuana law
Federal prosecutors argued that Tallahassee developer John "J.T." Burnette deserved a stiffer sentence, in part because he admitted to conspiring with childhood friend and former state Rep. Halsey Beshears "to keep out competitors" in the nascent medical marijuana industry.
Burnette, convicted in August on extortion and other charges, was sentenced to three years in federal prison Tuesday. His attorneys have vowed to appeal.
Prosecutors had asked for up to eight years, saying the once prominent businessman used his “power and wealth to corrupt the political process.”
Burnette sentenced:J.T. Burnette gets 3 years in federal prison, $1.25M fine in City Hall public corruption case
Such influence includes Burnette’s “leveraging of his personal relationships with
state legislators and undisclosed conflicts of interest to gain unfair advantage in the medical marijuana business,” prosecutors said.
Burnette is married to Kim Rivers, who is the CEO of Trulieve, the multimillion-dollar medical marijuana company.
"The Trulieve Board of Directors understands today is a deeply personal and private moment for our CEO Kim Rivers," the board said in a prepared statement about the sentencing of her spouse. "Our thoughts are with her at this time. She has done and is doing an outstanding job leading Trulieve and she continues to have our full support."
A spokesman for the company, Steve Vancore, has consistently maintained that Burnette "had no formal involvement or participation in the formation of Trulieve, Inc." and has never spoken or acted on behalf of Trulieve.
Burnette was convicted for his participation in a long-running bribery scheme involving former Mayor and City Commissioner Scott Maddox and his business and romantic partner, Paige Carter-Smith. Maddox and Carter-Smith pleaded guilty and in return promised to cooperate with prosecutors against Burnette.
Prosecutors presented reams of evidence from phone calls, text messages and taped meetings with undercover agents bragging about his business dealings.
Among those taped conversations was one where Burnette boasted to an undercover agent how he worked with Beshears, a Republican state legislator at the time, to “insert a barrier to entry into the legislation that would benefit both Burnette and the Beshears family.”
On the witness stand, however, Burnette walked back his comments from five years ago about Beshears, a childhood friend from Monticello, and said he gave a false impression to agents because he thought it was what they wanted to hear.
“The reality is I was kind of bragging about something that happened before my time,” Burnette said.
Vancore noted earlier that Burnette conceded at trial that his taped statement was not true, and that the undercover agents were egging Burnette on to expand his role.
Beshears was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2019 to run the Department of Business and Professional Regulation but stepped down two years later due to undisclosed health problems.
Beshears has repeatedly claimed he had nothing to do with the amendment inserting the 30-year rule. Beshears — who has not been accused of any crime — declined to comment for this story.
That barrier was an amendment requiring applicants to have been in business for 30 years prior to applying for a medical marijuana license.
The Beshears family owns Simpson Nurseries in Jefferson County, which joined up with Hackney Nurseries in Quincy and May Nursery in Havana that successfully applied for one of the state’s first medical licenses. That consortium became Trulieve, and Halsey Beshears’s brother Thad Beshears sits on its board of directors.
Peter Nothstein, deputy director of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Unit, noted during Burnette’s Tuesday sentencing the “blasé” way he talked to undercover FBI agents about legislation that would end up benefiting his spouse’s company.
“He explained it,” Nothstein said. “I just want to create a barrier to entry, which he was able to do because of his access to power.”
Vancore stood by his prior statements, adding that Trulieve was never a part of the case.
"The sentencing does not involve Trulieve, nor does the underlying case involve Trulieve or any of its employees. Since this matter is not about the company, we have nothing further to say," he said.
In an earlier court filing, prosecutors mistakenly said that Burnette had a $400 million stake in Trulieve.
It was an error Burnette's lawyers were quick to point out.
“As Burnette's financial disclosure to the Probation Office makes clear, Burnette does not own $400 million in Trulieve shares,” his lawyers said in a response filed Thursday.
By the time they got to court for Burnette's sentencing Tuesday, the error had been corrected, as U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle noted in court.
“They got that straightened out,” Hinkle said.
Burnette, whose net worth is $112 million, is a 10% owner of Burnette Construction, which according to Trulieve's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, has built its cultivation and processing facilities, and "provides labor, materials and equipment on a cost-plus basis."
Dear Wall Street,
I am sorry, but you can't take my money.
