Press Release
VETERAN PALM BEACH COUNTY COMMISSIONER PLEADS GUILTY AND HUSBAND IS SENTENCED IN PUBLIC CORRUPTION PROBE
March 27, 2009
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 Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (“IRS”), announced that former Palm Beach County Commissioner, defendant Mary B. McCarty, 54, of Delray Beach, FL, pled guilty today before the Honorable Donald M. Middlebrooks in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Defendant Mary McCarty is charged and pled guilty to a mail and wire fraud conspiracy to deprive the citizens of Palm Beach County of their intangible right to her honest services as a county commissioner. As set forth in the charging document, and as the defendant admitted at her plea, defendant Mary McCarty engaged in a pattern of defrauding the public of her honest services as an elected official, by misusing her position as a Commissioner on the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners (“BCC”), to personally enrich herself, her husband, and their associates through a series of municipal bond transactions and through her receipt of gifts and gratuities from entities and persons doing business before the BCC. Further, Mary McCarty advocated and voted on numerous matters before the BCC while she concealed her true financial interests, received significant and material gifts and gratuities from individuals and entities doing business before the BCC, and failed to file or filed incomplete or false disclosure reports to conceal from the public her true financial interests.
Defendant Mary McCarty faces a maximum of 5 years’ imprisonment and the forfeiture of substantial assets derived from the conspiracy. Sentencing is scheduled for June 4, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. in West Palm Beach, FL, before Judge Middlebrooks. Defendant Mary McCarty remains on bond pending sentencing.
Also, the former Commissioner’s husband, defendant Lawrence Kevin McCarty, 59, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp in West Palm Beach to 8 months of imprisonment. He was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and to self- surrender to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons on May 4, 2009. Defendant Kevin McCarty had previously pled guilty to an Information charging him with misprison of a felony for participating in and not reporting his wife’s, crimes, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 4. During his guilty plea, McCarty admitted that he was aware of and benefitted from his wife’s receipt of material benefits, gifts, and gratuities, he was aware of and benefitted from her concealment of this, and he failed to act on that knowledge.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the IRS and FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys John Kastrenakes, Julia A. Paylor, 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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