Appeals Court Affirms Conviction of Jacksonville Port Official for Bribery
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the 2010 conviction of Tony Nelson, a former member of the Jacksonville Port Authority’s board, for bribery, mail fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy resulting from his advocacy for the port’s use of a particular dredging contractor’s services. According to the indictment, Nelson was paid as a lobbyist for the contractor in return for his advocacy, but didn’t disclose the payments. A jury convicted Nelson despite the fact that he never voted on board matters concerning the contractor.
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According to the appeals court, Nelson’s relationship with the dredging contractor, Subaqueous Services, Inc. (SSI), began in 2005 when he was introduced to SSI’s owner, Lance Young, by Marty Fiorentino, another member of the JaxPort board. Fiorentino was at the time paid to lobby on behalf of SSI, and was told by a city of Jacksonville official that he could do so as long has he refrained from voting on board matters involving SSI or Young. At the time, SSI was not contracted by the port to perform dredging.
After developing a friendship, Nelson advised Young on how to bid for work at the port. Nelson also pressured JaxPort staff to favor SSI in selecting contractors. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Young voiced his frustration to Nelson, at which point Nelson, now president of the JaxPort board, requested payment from Young as a “consultant." SSI, meanwhile, was selected to perform dredging at the port, and some funds set for release to SSI at completion of a project were released early at Nelson’s insistence.
JaxPort authorized an investigation of Nelson’s ties with Young and SSI in 2007. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also began investigating the relationship in 2008. That same year, Nelson resigned from JaxPort’s board.
The appeals court affirmed Nelson’s 2010 conviction in federal district court. According to the Court of Appeals, Nelson was a public official that agreed to represent SSI’s interests, without disclosing such an arrangement, in a clear case of honest-services fraud. Nelson used his position to further SSI’s interests by directing members of his organization to take specific actions, the court said. And the fact that payments were routed through a middleman was evidence that Nelson knew his actions were illegal, the court said.
Judge Hill dissented from the ruling, finding it hard to find a difference between Fiorentino’s legal actions and Nelson’s illegal ones. According to Hill, Nelson’s crime was concealment of the payments, not honest-services fraud. The government failed to prove corrupt intent to a jury required to find corrupt intent, he said. Nelson’s concealment of the funds does not prove such intent either, because he could have been hiding the payments for a number of reasons. Nelson agreed to perform a legal act, and never took the illegal action of voting on board matters involving SSI, said Hill.
(United States v. Toney Devaughn Nelson, 11th Circuit Court No. 12-11066, dated 03/13/13)