Joel Greenberg

Greenberg—the former Seminole County tax collector—has now been federally indicted on 33 counts, including sex trafficking crimes involving a 17-year-old. Greenberg’s defense attorney, Fritz Scheller, declined comment. But during a press conference after a hearing for the case, Scheller offered that Florida congressman Matt Gaetz would probably not welcome the news that Greenberg was taking a plea deal. Greenberg is the son of Andrew Greenberg, who in the 1980s founded an empire, Greenberg Dental, which now has over 90 practices across Florida. Joel Greenberg is a millionaire, mostly because of his stake in the dental practice. Audits show that Greenberg used public funds to pay for $384,000 in “body armor, unspecified weapons, ammunition, as well as a drone with thermal imaging capabilities,” News13, a local broadcaster, reported. He spent at least $2.65 million on a security force and for consultants; staffers could not say what the consultants did. Three of the people on the payroll were in his wedding party. On separate occasions, Greenberg used his tax collector badge to stop a woman he said was speeding and to try and persuade a traffic cop not to ticket him for speeding.