When Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno won the Republican primary on Aug. 18, 2020, he celebrated in a Bonita Springs hotel suite, where close colleagues and friends stood in a circle around the room as he addressed each one. Among those in the circle were fellow sheriff’s office employees like Capt. Chris Lalor, whom he called “heaven sent,” and John Holloway, who would later become his undersheriff and whom he dubbed the “brains of the operation.” But saved for the end was someone Marceno said came from “a different place,” his closest friend, 56-year-old Ken Romano, a Bronx and New Jersey-raised jeweler with both the look and voice of a backroom character on "The Sopranos."

The raid at a city department was the second such action in two months.

A Sarasota man is now under indictment on charges of wire fraud, money laundering and making a false tax return. The indictment was unsealed Thursday against Brent Adam Seaman, 51. He is facing five counts of wire fraud, four counts of money laundering, and two counts of making a false tax return.

The FBI and U.S. U.S. Attorney's Office said this week that their case against Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno has been closed. A letter sent Monday to an attorney representing Marceno referenced a Nov. 17 date and confirmed the closure. The letter, to Attorney Donald Day, said the decision was based on “information presently known to the government.”

A former Naples property manager sought in connection with alleged fraudulent money practices at a number of Southwest Florida condo developments has reportedly been arrested and imprisoned in Colombia.

During an October meeting of Sarasota MAGA Patriots — a rightwing coalition pursuing a range of issues, from anti-vaccine activism to emergency preparedness — attendees railed against a new state law curbing local oversight of development and the Republican lawmakers who backed it.Their ire reflects tensions inside Florida’s dominant party, between Tallahassee’s power brokers and the populist base that helped put them there.

After Richard Corcoran left his role as Florida’s education commissioner in 2022, he joined the lobbying firm Continental Strategy LLC, where he began cashing in on his political connections. State records show Corcoran lobbied for his clients almost exclusively the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a close political ally who’d appointed him not only as education commissioner but also to the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system.

Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano, a key witness in the federal investigation of Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, stares into the camera and addresses an audience of one about rumors circulating that the corruption case against Marceno is going to be killed by the Trump Administration.In the video, Romano, whom Marceno once called his “most loyal friend,” singles out trash mogul Anthony Lomangino – a large campaign donor to both the sheriff and President Donald Trump – and U.S. Attorney General Palm Bondi.

Websites of the Florida Center for Government Accountability and the Florida Trident were hit by what was described as a “massive and sophisticated” cyber attack Sunday.Barbara A. Petersen, CEO and publisher of the center and the Trident, said the denial-of-service attack on the flcga.org and floridatrident.org websites were discovered early on and caused only minor disruptions.

A video, which can be seen here, shows Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno driving south on six-lane South Tamiami Trail in a black Lamborghini Huracan convertible with the top down on a sunny day in Estero. Shooting the video is Marceno’s former friend, Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano, who drives in the lane to the right of the sheriff in the same direction. A brief race begins at Romano’s prompting.