Joel Greenberg
Joel Greenberg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Known for | pled guilty to 33 crimes, including sex trafficking a minor. |
Joel Greenberg was a politician, from Florida, until he was suspected of various crimes.[1][2] Greenberg had been appointed a Seminole County tax collector, a position that allowed him to divert used identity documents, which he later gave away in return for sexual favors.[3]
Greenberg eventually pled guilty to 33 charges, including: identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public official and sex trafficking of a minor.[4] He agreed to be a witness against long-term friend Matt Gaetz, who was then a Congressional Representative.
The Daily Beast reported they found that at least forty women had been recruited by Greenberg.[3] They said he paid them online, using the Venmo app, and other similar apps. They were able to track that, during one two year period, he spent over $100,000, using Venmo, and Cash app, alone.
The Daily Beast reported that twelve of the forty women they found agreed to be interviewed, while some of theother women blocked them.[3] They reported that, while none of the women used the term "sexual assault", many of them described feeling fear, and feeling they could not back out of what Greenberg and his associates expected of them. Several of the women broke down in tears, during their interviews.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑
Katie Benner; Michael S. Schmidt (2022-01-13). "Gaetz's Ex-Girlfriend Testifies Before Federal Grand Jury". The New York Times. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
She met Mr. Gaetz through one of his former confidants, Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty last year to a series of charges — including sex trafficking a minor — and is now cooperating in the investigation, the person said.
- ↑
Marc Caputo (2022-01-12). "Matt Gaetz's ex-girlfriend testifies to grand jury in sex trafficking probe". NBC News. Archived from the original on 2024-04-06. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
The investigation into Gaetz has lasted for more than a year and began when a former friend and ally of his, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, was charged with a host of crimes — from falsely smearing a political rival as being a pedophile to cheating taxpayers in a cryptocurrency scheme to sex-trafficking the same 17-year-old in the Gaetz investigation.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2
Roger Sollenberger (2021-05-11). "4 Women Say Matt Gaetz's Wingman Pressured Them To Have Sex". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
On just Venmo and the Cash App, Greenberg paid more than 40 young women nearly $100,000 over the course of two years.
- ↑
"Matt Gaetz associate will cooperate with federal investigators as part of guilty plea". NBC News. 2021-05-14. Archived from the original on 2024-05-10. Retrieved 2025-12-02.
In a copy of the plea agreement submitted in federal court in Orlando on Friday, Joel Greenberg said he will plead guilty to charges of identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public official and sex trafficking of a minor — a fraction of the 33 charges that prosecutors had already slapped him with.