May 29, 2021- 4:23 p.m.
Rep. Matt Gaetz claims money he wired to ‘malicious actors’ to close the sale on a $155,000 yacht his fiancée Ginger Luckey wanted to buy ‘went missing’.
Both ‘Rep. Gaetz and Ms. Luckey were the target of a financial crime‘, though Luckey was the yacht’s potential buyer, a spokesperson for the Florida congressman said in a statement to WFLA.
His office declined to reveal to the outlet how much Gaetz and Luckey paid for the 41-foot boat named Ol’ Pappy before the deal fell through.
Gaetz did not identify who the ‘malicious actors’ were other than saying they were ‘first domestic and now foreign.’
His office claimed that federal law enforcement officials are ‘aware of and actively pursuing’ the case, though it was not clear what agency is investigating.
Gaetz claims he was targeted by ‘malicious actors’ but did not indicate who they were, other than saying they were ‘first domestic and now foreign’
Gaetz and his fiancée were spotted on a 41-foot yacht docked at Pier 4 at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina in March – about a week after it was revealed he may be connected to the sex-trafficking case involving his former ally Joel Greenberg.
Several boat owners recalled seeing Gaetz and Luckey onboard the yacht to survey the boat during an inspection. The deal allegedly fell through a month later in April, WFLA reported.
‘He was on the phone the whole time while they were doing the survey,’ said Jon Golly – who owns a yacht in a slip across from the one Gaetz and Luckey boarded.
The yacht had been listed for sale on a number of websites. Mediate noted that those listings have since been removed from those websites.
Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, is central to the federal probe into whether Gaetz trafficked a minor for sex.
Greenberg was arrested last year and immediately started telling the feds about Gaetz and how they ‘sex trafficked’ together to get himself a deal.
Federal prosecutors recently dropped 27 charges against Greenberg in exchange for his cooperation and testimony.
Greenberg admitted to introducing the minor he trafficked to other adult men, who allegedly engaged in sex acts with the minor in Greenberg’s presence, court papers showed.
The papers did not identify the other adult men. Gaetz has not been charged with any crimes and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. He was not mentioned in the plea agreement or during the court hearing.
It was also revealed in a letter obtained by Daily Beast, which Greenberg penned to Trump confidante Roger Stone seeking a pardon, that the pair paid for sex with the minor who ‘was involved in sexual activities’ with Gaetz.
Investigators are seeking to determine whether Gaetz had sex with the same 17-year-old Greenberg was accused of trafficking, according to reports and a law enforcement source who spoke with Reuters.
Court papers show that Greenberg, who is married, is thought to be ready to accuse Gaetz of paying at least 15 young women for sex including an escort named Megan Zalonka after a cocaine-fueled party at a Trump fundraiser.
A recent report alleged Gaetz snorted cocaine and had sex Zalonka, an escort and amateur Instagram model, who was Gaetz’s date in October 2019 at the Trump Defender Gala in Orlando.
After the gala, an after-party was held in Gaetz’s hotel room, The Daily Beast reported. Zalonka, 28, chopped up lines of cocaine, which she and Gaetz took together, the report claims.
She is also said to have been paid up to $15,000 of government money by Greenberg after he hired her for a social media manager job in Seminole County that did not require Zalonka to do any work, the report claims.
Two sources told the site that Zalonka and the Florida congressman had an ongoing financial relationship in exchange for sex. However, the Daily Beast could not confirm that Zalonka and Gaetz had sex the night of the gala.
A former Capitol Hill intern who dated Gaetz has also reportedly agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors.
The unnamed woman worked on Capitol Hill and was linked to the Florida congressman as far back as 2017, CNN reported.
The ex-girlfriend, who is not being named publicly, was on a trip Gaetz took to the Bahamas in 2018 that allegedly involved drug use and arrangements with women, including paying them for sex.
Gaetz’s ex is considered key to helping prosecutors piece together transaction records, which they believe to be payment for sex.
In April, Politico reported that the former girlfriend had told friends she was worried that the 17-year-old tried to get her to incriminate him after the teen called her to discuss the Bahamas trip.
The call took place sometime after Greenberg was indicted for the sex crime in August, it was reported.
Gaetz was accompanied in the Bahamas by two other Florida Republican political players – Jason Pirozzolo, a former Orlando-area aviation authority member, who has acted as a fundraiser for Governor Ron DeSantis; and Halsey Beshears, a former state representative.
Federal authorities are examining the Bahamas trip to see if it violated the Mann Act, which forbids transporting people across state lines to engage in prostitution.
