Press Release
ATTORNEY FOR FORMER CHAIRMAN OF PALM BEACH COUNTY COMMISSION SENTENCED TO PRISON
January 25, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jonathan I. Solomon, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office (“FBI”), and Michael Yasofsky, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS”), announced that defendant, William R. Boose, III, 62, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, has been sentenced in Case No. 07-80107-Cr-Ryskamp for his involvement in a public corruption conspiracy stemming from Anthony R. Masilotti’s unlawful use of his official position as an elected county commissioner to promote and conceal Masilotti’s honest services fraud. District Court Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp sentenced Boose to serve 24 months in prison, a fine of $25,000, and 1 year of supervised release. Boose already had forfeited $400,000 as part of his agreed plea with the United States Government. Judge Ryskamp allowed Boose to report voluntarily to prison on March 18, 2008.
Boose previously admitted aiding Masilotti’s secret participation in a Martin County land deal, known as Nine Gems, which involved the sale of tract of land to the South Florida Water Management District (“SFWMD”), a state agency whose mission is to help protect and manage the region’s water supply. In this transaction, Masilotti previously admitted that he misused his official position to advocate and publicly endorse the SFWMD’s purchase of the Nine Gems parcel without disclosing his ownership interest in the property to Martin County officials, the SFWMD, the BCC or the public. To hide his ownership interest in the Nine Gems property, Masilotti utilized attorney William R. Boose, III to create a secret land trust to purchase the property. After a complicated series of transactions, during which the SFWMD was deceived as to the true sellers of the property, Masilotti profited $1.7 million from the Nine Gems sale to the SFWMD. Boose admitted knowing of the secret scheme and then taking steps to conceal the crime from federal law enforcement.
U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta stated, “Public corruption does not occur in a vacuum. Individuals like Mr. Boose enabled corruption to take place, and they must be punished.”
Mr Acosta commended the investigative efforts of Federal Bureau of Investigation, Miami Field Office, and Internal Revenue Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys John Kastrenakes, Stephen Carlton, and Antonia Barnes.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.
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