Posted on 04/21/2010 8:39:57 PM PDT by Brandonmark
Reeling from a criminal probe into the Florida GOP's finances, Republican leaders finally got a peek Wednesday at the spending habits of the man at the center of the long-running scandal: Jim Greer.
The ousted party chairman charged nearly $500,000 to his American Express card to eat well and live well: spa treatments, flowers, flights, fine hotels and pricey restaurants. In a month ending in March 2008, he spent $41,421.31 in Las Vegas, Washington and Beverly Hills, according to billing statements obtained Wednesday by The Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times.
Greer's spending is just a sliver of the $7 million charged on party AmEx cards between late 2006 and 2009. The Herald/Times on Wednesday also obtained the statements of Senate President Jeff Atwater, who charged $44,116, and former party executive director Jim Rimes, who has charged the most to date: more than $2 million.
Board members of the scandal-rocked state GOP are scheduled to meet behind closed doors Friday, where they will likely discuss not only the ongoing IRS and federal criminal investigations but also whether to release the credit card statements of all party leaders and staffers. Board members this week received only Greer's statements.
Gov. Charlie Crist never had a credit card, but he's not free from the controversy. FBI agents have asked about the Crist campaign, said Republican fundraiser Al Hoffman.
``They had Jim Greer's travel expense records and wanted me to react to some of the issues surrounding that debacle,'' said Hoffman, a former ambassador who helped lead the ouster of Greer and was interviewed by agents last month.
``Definitely they asked about the relationship between the Crist campaign and the party, relative to the co-mingling of funds . . . I believe they're after any federal election law violations, tax avoidance issues, and criminal
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
When you have a company issued Amex card you are a fool to put anything other than company expenses on it. I dont have any sympathy for a GOP staffer that goes down because of this. I prefered to use my own card and then recover my expenses from the company. That way they can never accuse you of using company credit.
A crooked person in politics, how unusual. /s
I've never had a company card, either. I do have a separate personal card that I use for business expenses -- then I can expense any interest charges if they are late with a reimbursement.
WOW
That’s a lot of extra miles.
Maybe he wrecked the rental, but seems like he could have used that for a down payment and bought a car.
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