{"id":59992,"date":"2024-09-13T02:00:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T06:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=59992"},"modified":"2024-09-13T02:00:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T06:00:33","slug":"allegations-of-money-laundering-and-misappropriation-of-funds-were-made-against-lee-county-sheriff-marceno-and-yes-they-involve-a-former-gambling-buddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2024\/09\/allegations-of-money-laundering-and-misappropriation-of-funds-were-made-against-lee-county-sheriff-marceno-and-yes-they-involve-a-former-gambling-buddy\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegations of money laundering and misappropriation of funds were made against Lee County Sheriff Marceno. And yes, they involve a former gambling buddy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano didn\u2019t hide his association with Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The two men were allegedly close friends who shared a taste for gambling, bling and high-end cars. The 55-year-old Romano defended the sheriff in social media posts and displayed a framed \u201cKeep Carmine Marceno Sheriff\u201d campaign poster and badge-bedecked plaque from the sheriff\u2019s office at his jewelry store on Bonita Beach Road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the friendship blew up recently, and audio recordings <\/a>allegedly show Romano making serious allegations against the sheriff involving Romano\u2019s own employment as a \u201cconsultant\u201d with LCSO. In the recordings, Romano alleged Marceno gave him a no-work contract at LCSO paying him $5,700 a month, $1,700 of which was paid to the sheriff\u2019s father, Carmine Marceno Sr., for car payments on a Mercedes Benz. <\/p>\n\n\n

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 \u201c[E]very month I would just give his father the money,\u201d Romano said in the recording<\/a>. \u201cI would take cash, I would throw it on top of the medicine cabinet and [Marceno Sr.] would come in and take it. Like, it was secretive, you know?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 55-year-old Romano also claimed that Sheriff Marceno, an avid gambler who reported nearly half a million dollars in casino proceeds as income in the last two financial disclosure forms he filed with the state, owed him a lot of money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe kid [Sheriff Marceno] owes me almost close to a quarter of a million dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cI bailed him out of every single gambling debt. I gave him tons and tons of jewelry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audio recordings were made public by Mike Hollow, a retired 17-year Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office veteran who served as commander of internal affairs. Hollow is running as a write-in candidate against the 52-year-old Marceno for the purpose, he said, of exposing his corruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollow, the sheriff\u2019s only opponent in the race, said the recordings were made legally upon the consent of Romano, with whom he\u2019s been in contact for the past six months. Romano, whom he dubbed a \u201cghost employee,\u201d is also cooperating in an FBI investigation of his employment at LCSO, said Hollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is an active federal investigation that Ken [Romano] is part of,\u201d Hollow told the Florida Trident. \u201cHe\u2019s been given explicit direction not to talk to anybody about it. I wasn\u2019t given that direction, which is why I have no problem putting this out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hollow provided the Trident evidence of Romano\u2019s former employment status with LCSO, but the agency did not respond prior to publication to a public records request made on Sept. 6 for Romano\u2019s contract. When the Trident requested an interview with the sheriff to address the specific allegations, Lt. Todd Olmer asked for a deadline to respond. That deadline of Wednesday at 5 p.m. passed with no further response from the sheriff\u2019s office. A follow-up email was also met with silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romano didn\u2019t return a phone message left at his jewelry store, K & M Jewelers, for comment. On Sept. 8, four days after Hollow aired the allegations on Facebook, Romano cryptically posted a photo on the social media site of Al Pacino from Serpico, a movie about a real-life cop, Frank Serpico, who exposed corruption among his ranks in the New York Police Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody in the sheriff\u2019s office knew who Ken Romano was,\u201d said Hollow. \u201cEverybody knew who he was and what he represented. He has all sheriff\u2019s office apparel and honorary badges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former close Marceno associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, repeated the claim that Romano was given an honorary sheriff\u2019s badge, which are bestowed at the sheriff\u2019s will and are exact replicas of the real thing inscribed with the word \u201chonorary.\u201d  Marceno has run into controversy<\/a> with the way he doled out the badges in the past; one recipient was a court-adjudicated fraudster<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarceno made [Romano] an honorary sheriff\u2019s deputy and put him on a contract as a consultant,\u201d said the sheriff\u2019s former associate. \u201cThey didn\u2019t want him at headquarters. They were offended that he had a pass to go anywhere he wanted to go. He had complete access.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Romano said in the recording he rarely went to headquarters while working under his consulting agreement with LCSO, which he said was finalized on January 2022. It\u2019s not clear what, exactly, he was supposed to be consulting the sheriff about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI fuckin\u2019 showed up when I wanted,\u201d said Romano in the recording. \u201cIf I went five times in the six months I worked there, it was a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said his LCSO pay started at $4,000 a month, but then Sheriff Marceno, who often drives high-end sports cars, approached him about giving him a raise so Romano could make payments on the sheriff\u2019s father\u2019s car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe day [Sheriff Marceno] bought his Ferrari was the same day that he turned around to me and he said, \u2018Listen bro, I want to do something nice for my father,\u2019\u201dRomano said in the recording. \u201cI said, \u2018What do you want to do?\u2019 He said, \u2018I want to give him a [nice car] so he can travel back and forth from here to the east coast to get his [medical] treatments.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The father\u2019s car was a 2020 S-Class S560 Mercedes Benz, Romano said in the recording, with all-white leather interior and a cost he \u201cbelieved\u201d was $109,000. The raise, he added, was initially set at $1,500 before Sheriff Marceno remembered his father would have to pay insurance on the car \u2013 and then had Undersheriff John Holloway bump it up to $1,700. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got that raise and I was giving Carmine\u2019s father money,\u201d Romano said in the recording. \u201cI know it wasn\u2019t correct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said at one point he had a frank talk with Carmine Sr. about the arrangement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Can that be considered money laundering or you know misappropriation of taxpayer dollars?\u2019 And pops was like, \u2018Yea,\u2019\u201d Romano recounted in the recording. \u201cI said, \u2018That\u2019s great, now the kid [Sheriff Marceno] just involved me in a f\u2013king crime.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollow said he wasn\u2019t sure why Romano decided to tell his story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what triggered it for Ken,\u201d said Hollow. \u201cI think at some point in time he had enough of being used by [Sheriff Marceno], or he felt like he was being used.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides posting the audio on Facebook, Hollow posted a call-out to elected officials to review the evidence. He said none had contacted him yet. He also said he has heard nothing from the sheriff or his campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny of the county commissioners, Gov. DeSantis, any of the congressmen, senators, representatives,\u201d Romano said in the post, \u201cif you want to reach out to me, I will come to you and I will show you everything. \u2026 It\u2019s up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano didn\u2019t hide his association with Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.  The two men were allegedly close friends who shared a taste for gambling, bling and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":59996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[2808],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59997,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59992\/revisions\/59997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}