When the U.S. Attorney’s Office closed a criminal investigation into Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno in November, Marceno issued a statement calling allegations that he engaged in a kickback scheme “completely false.”
But in an undercover FBI recording obtained by the Florida Trident, Marceno, while not admitting personal involvement, is heard telling his alleged co-conspirator that he has his “back” regarding payments that may have been made and assuring him they were his “personal business” and the public had no way to discover they were made.
The call was recorded in the summer of 2024 as part of the now-closed FBI investigation and is included in a detailed complaint filed with the state against Marceno last week. On the other end of the line was Marceno’s close personal friend Ken Romano, who alleges the sheriff arranged for him to funnel $1,700 per month from his LCSO consulting contract toward car payments on a Mercedes Benz for the sheriff’s father, Carmine Marceno Sr.
Romano alleges in a separate ethics complaint filed against the sheriff and shared with the Trident, that Marceno specifically arranged for him to receive a $1,700 raise on his 2022 consulting contract — bringing the total to $5,700 per month – in order to make the car payments to the sheriff’s father, which he alleges were paid in cash at Romano’s Bonita Springs’ jewelry store.
After the FBI began its investigation in June 2024, federal agents provided Romano a recording device and instructed him to tape phone calls with Marceno and other potential witnesses in the case, according to Romano’s complaint.
In the 2024 recording obtained by the Trident, Romano feigned concern that Marceno’s political rival, then write-in sheriff candidate Mike Hollow, was going to expose the kickback scheme.
In reality, Hollow, a retired Lee County sheriff’s office commander, was already involved in the FBI case and had accompanied Romano to the initial meeting with federal agents. Hollow is the signatory on the criminal complaint filed with the state last week that was sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Commission on Ethics, and Attorney General James Uthmeier.
Prior to press time, the sheriff had not responded to an email requesting comment regarding the audio recording.
”What you do do with your money, nobody knows”
Marceno and Romano were best friends, “brothers,” for years, bonded through a love of gambling. Romano dubs Marceno a “gambling addict” in his ethics complaint and alleges the sheriff gave him his LCSO contract as a way to pay him back for gambling debts he paid off for the sheriff and jewelry and other gifts he supplied to the sheriff (allegedly totaling roughly $250,000).
On the call (listen to highlights here), Romano baited Marceno by bringing up the fact that the sheriff had given him the $1,700 raise on his consulting contract for the sole purpose of paying his father’s car payments of the same amount.
“Buddy, we adjust people’s salaries all the time,” a seemingly careful and circumspect Marceno countered.
“I know bro, but I don’t want [Hollow] to know it was there so I can give your father money to pay for your fathers car,” Romano said.
“Buddy, what you do with your personal money is your personal business, no one knows what you do with your personal money,” Marceno said. “I don’t tell you what to do with your money. If you choose to help someone, whoever that may be, that’s your business.”
“Is there any way possible [Hollow] can find out I used that money to give to your father for a fucking car?” Romano pressed.
“Buddy, I’ll say this again, whatever you use your money on, you and my father’s relationship has nothing to do with me,” said the sheriff.
Romano repeats his concern about Hollow finding out about the payments made toward Marceno Sr.’s Mercedes Benz.
“[Y]ou’re missing the point,” said Marceno. “No one knows what you do with your personal finances, not even me. Okay? Nobody.”
“Bro, not even you? Come on. I mean, what the f—? We were right there,” Romano says. “I’m asking you. I need help. … What are we talking about here? We’re talking real, or are we going to talk bulls–t?”
“Buddy, I’m talking real,” answered Marceno. “What you do with your personal money is your personal business, buddy. No one knows what you do with your personal money. I don’t tell you how to spend your money. If you choose to help someone, whoever that may be, that’s your business.”
Romano told Marceno he was worried a public records request, allowed under Chapter 119 of the Florida statutes, could expose the corruption. Marceno tried to quell those fears.
“People can ask what you make, you’re 119-able the same as any other employee,” Marceno explained. “This is a government business. So it is what it is. What you do with your money, no one knows. They don’t know how you spend your money. They don’t know anything.”
“As long as it’s only me, you, and your father that know, then that’s fine,” said Romano.
“Buddy, I know you have a relationship with my father,” said Marceno. “My father knows you longer than I do from what he tells me. What you do with my father, what you don’t do with my father, your son, your daughter, it’s your personal business. That’s it.”
They continue on the topic for several minutes.
“Well, if anybody ever says anything, I could say that I just loaned him money, and he paid me back or something like that,” Romano said at one point.
“Buddy, no one’s going to ever say anything because what you do with your money, it doesn’t matter,” Marceno says. “It’s not even going to get to that.”
An increasingly annoyed Marceno urged Romano to pay no attention to Hollow and to lay low until election day, when he would no longer be a problem.
“[S]tay the fuck away from all these people,” said the sheriff. “Bring your circle to zero, you know, like, three people. … Stay away from everybody, and enjoy your life, enjoy your car, go to work. November 5th comes, it’ll be a different story. It’ll be over.”
Romano ultimately said he wants Marceno’s assurance that no one will ever find out about the payments made to Marceno’s father — and the sheriff abided him.
“I just don’t want anybody to find out about this fucking car payment shit, bro,” Romano says. “I just don’t. I just don’t. That’s it. As long as I know you got my back on that, then I’ll feel better.”
“I got your back 1,000 percent,” says Marceno. “I always have, always will.”
“I’m not asking you for f—ing money. I’m not asking you for blood. I’m not asking you for a f—ing home,” Romano said later in the call. “I’m not asking for any money back that I gave you. I’m not asking for nothing. I just wanted to make sure that nobody knows about this fucking s–t except me, you, and your father. That’s all I’m asking you, man. That’s it. That’s all I’m asking you.”
“I get it, I get it a thousand times Kenny,” Marceno responds.
Lead prosecutor fired by Trump Administration
The recordings made by Romano for the FBI were at the heart of a federal grand jury investigation into Marceno which was closed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa in November without explanation.
Multiple sources close to the investigation say the case’s fate was actually sealed on November 5, 2024 as well — not because Marceno easily defeated Hollow at the polls, but because Donald Trump was elected president.
The Trump Administration fired not only U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg, who led the Middle District of Florida overseeing the Marceno investigation, but also lead prosecutor Mike Gordon. No official reason was given for the firing of Gordon, a well-respected veteran prosecutor, but Gordon has claimed in a lawsuit that it stemmed from his work prosecuting January 6 defendants, all of whom were pardoned by Trump on his first day in office.
While Marceno has never answered questions from the media about the FBI investigation, he appealed to Trump through the media while floating a run for Congress. Close allies dubbed him “Trump’s Sheriff” and Marceno told a conservative publication, “I love Trump.”
Though it closed the investigation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office explicitly didn’t absolve Marceno and left the door open for other agencies to investigate the allegations. Hollow’s complaint alleges a slew of ethical and criminal violations, from acceptance of gifts to unlawful compensation to an organized scheme to defraud, and includes physical receipts of gifts given by Romano to Marceno that appear to have gone unreported as required by law, including a previously reported $9,000 grand piano and furniture from El Dorado Furniture.
“This is all about exposing the fact that we have a corrupt individual in charge of the sheriff’s office,” Hollow said. “I believe the residents of our county deserve to have an investigation conducted. The governor previously said if he has evidence of wrongdoing against any politician — not just Carmine — he will remove them. Well, here you go.”
About the Author: Bob Norman is a senior editor for the Florida Trident. His work as an investigative reporter has won dozens of awards and led to criminal charges and the removal of several corrupt public officials. He can be reached at norman@flcga.org. The Florida Trident is an investigative news outlet focusing on government accountability and transparency across Florida. The Trident was created and first published in 2022 by the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a non-profit organization that facilitates local investigative reporting across the state.
