ORLANDO, Fla. — Just four months into his tenure as Seminole County tax collector, Joel Greenberg inked a curious property transaction through his public office: He purchased a former bank building on State Road 434 for $810,000 in public cash — hours after a recently formed company bought it for $680,000.
On top of that, records show Greenberg gave the company, Shooters Orlando Inc., an extra $132,000 for the office furniture and a bank vault. Shooters Orlando was formed a few months earlier by a close friend and former business partner of Keith Ingersoll, who was hired by Greenberg as an “adviser” soon after he took office as tax collector in January 2017 — and who, records show, was involved in the deal on behalf of the tax collector’s office. Records also show that some of Greenberg’s other top advisers helped broker the deal, too.
When auditors took an in-depth look at the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office following Greenberg’s arrest and resignation last year, they identified numerous examples of waste in his spending and hiring practices. But with the Shooters Orlando deal, they went further, calling it “possible fraudulent activity.”
