The mayor of a town in Florida laundered corruption money with the help of Russians

Photo: Facebook / Joy Cooper

Mayor Hallandale Beach Joy Cooper was arrested on January 25 on charges that donations to her election campaign in 2012 were received by corruption and then laundered with the participation of Russians living in the US.

Cooper was charged with “multiple campaign finance violations” identified during an FBI covert operation in May 2012, including three criminal offenses.

Among the charges: money laundering, official misconduct, exceeding the limits on contributions to the election campaign.

Photo: Broward County Sheriff's Office

As it was

It all started in May of 2012, when undercover agents set up a fictitious real estate company and hired lawyer Alan Koslow (Koslow) who helped them get to Cooper, presenting the policy of agents as wealthy businessmen from California. Koslow, who worked in a well-known law firm Broward Becker & PoliakoffI did not know that his new clients were FBI agents.

Cooper and the agents discussed the construction project proposed by the agents and the upcoming re-election campaign policy. During the conversation, Cooper pledged to promote the construction project under the cover of FBI agents through the city commission, and for this they were supposed to finance her election campaign.

Koslow wrote and showed the mayor the amount of the donation they are willing to make as a donation, and asked if that was enough.

“No,” Cooper replied. “Add zero.”

“Three zeros. It's enough?" Koslow asked.

“Yes,” she agreed.

Later that month, the mayor met with Koslow, and they agreed on a contribution to her 10 campaign 000 dollars by two payments from business agents-FBI agents.

In August, FBI agents, Koslow and Cooper met at a house on Hallandale Beach to negotiate an agreement. Koslow then met with undercover agents to receive the first payment. He got it in the bag Dunkin 'donutsfilled with 100 dollar bills, the total amount was 8 000 dollars.

Koslow realized that he could not exceed the limit of donations for local election campaigns, which was 500 dollars, and told agents that he would use his connections with two Russian organizations to resolve this issue.

In September, the mayor met with Koslow at a fashion show organized by the Chamber of Commerce Hallandale beach. There she took 20 checks for a total of 5000 dollars.

“This is fantastic,” Cooper Koslow said after seeing that receipts showed donations came from a number of Russians living in the United States.

In her financial report of the campaign, Cooper indicated donors as “teachers” and one “pensioner”.

A month after her election victory in 2012, Cooper met again with agents and Koslow.

“You guys are great,” Cooper said, unaware that she was talking to FBI agents.

By the end of the investigation, in October 2012, Cooper still did not know that she was under the gun of the FBI. It took more than five years to get her arrested.

The reason for the delay was that the undercover agents launched an investigation into Koslow, who agreed to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars from the illegal gambling and sale of drugs.

After the lawyer made a series of illegal transactions, in 2013, the agents told him about their real business, but did not arrest him. The lawyer began to work undercover, helping the FBI agents in the disclosure of other politicians engaged in illegal lobbying.

In 2016, a lawyer stopped working with the FBI; he was sentenced to a year in prison on charges of conspiracy to launder money. In 2017, he confirmed his participation in the illegal deals of Mayor Cooper, and the woman was arrested.

In a statement to her voters, Cooper promised to "vigorously fight these accusations in court."

In connection with the suspension of Cooper's powers, in anticipation of the outcome of her criminal case, Vice Mayor Keith London will act as mayor.

Cooper before the court was released on bail of $ 12 thousand.

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