Local Real Estate Developer to Under Cover Agent: “Scott Maddox can kill this”

Listed below are unedited passages from the “AFFIDAVIT IN SUPPORT OF AN APPLICATION FOR A SEARCH WARRANT” detailing the FBI’s undercover investigation into corruption in Tallahassee.

The Undercover Investigation

In 2015, the FBI initiated a covert investigation into alleged corruption by local officials in Tallahassee. During the course of this investigation UCs (Under Cover) posed as out-of-town real estate developers and medical marijuana entrepreneurs in order to gain access to various city officials, including MADDOX.

During the course of the undercover investigation, the UCs met with JB., a real estate developer. According to JB, MADDOX helped gain the City’s approval for JB’s real estate development with MADDOX’s assistance based on his personal relationship with MADDOX.

JB told a UC that he had spoken to MADDOX and that MADDOX preferred to have one point of contact-JB-in his dealings with the UCs because MADDOX “doesn’t want to have conversations, inappropriate conversations with anybody but [J.B.].” When asked whether MADDOX wanted to be paid, JB said that he does, but that the money would need to “run … through Governance.”

On November 8, 2016, a UC had a conversation with MADDOX in which the UC asked MADDOX how much the UC would have to pay to “start this ball rolling.”

When the UC proposed paying MADDOX’s law firm, MADDOX stated that the UC should instead pay GOVERNANCE so that MADDOX “would not be conflicted out” of the UC’s venture.

MADDOX instructed the UC to pay GOVERNANCE $20,000 per month.

Later that same month, MADDOX introduced a UC to CARTER-SMITH. MADDOX described CARTERSMITH as his partner in GOVERNANCE. MADDOX then advised the UC that CARTERSMITH was on board with how and why money would be paid by the UC’s company to GOVERNANCE. MADDOX also advised the UC that CARTER-SMITH and he had been in business together since he was Mayor of Tallahassee and that he held no secrets from her.

After this meeting, beginning in November, 2016, the UCs made four payments of $10,000 each to GOVERNANCE by checks mailed to GOVERNANCE.

Each check was deposited into a GOVERNANCE bank account. After the UCs had begun paying GOVERNANCE, JB advised a UC that, once the UC started paying GOVERNANCE, they should not stop because “Scott Maddox can kill this.”

J.B. also stated that he would no longer stay involved in the deal if the UCs stopped paying GOVERNANCE.

  City Commissioner Scott Maddox, City of Tallahassee, Paige Carter-Smith