Gillum redaction snafu reveals bank records, $15K deposit
Overall, Andrew Gillum had $23,000 in deposits and credits into the account, the largest of which was the $15,000 deposit, during the month period covered by the bank records. | Getty
TALLAHASSEE — Andrew Gillum’s campaign inadvertently released some of the Tallahassee mayor’s personal bank statements earlier this week as part of a public relations transparency effort — records that show, among other things, that Gillum received a $15,000 deposit to a checking account during a period now being scrutinized by state ethics investigators.
Gillum’s campaign says the $15,000 was a routine transfer from one savings account to another to pay bills. The unintended — and highly unusual — campaign release of a candidate’s personal bank records came as Gillum tries to kick off his general election campaign a week after winning the Democratic primary for governor.
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The bank statement covers April 21, 2016 to May 23, 2016, a time period that includes a May 2016 trip to Costa Rica that is now part of an ongoing Florida Commission on Ethics investigation.
That trip is also linked to an FBI corruption probe into Tallahassee’s Community Rehabilitation Agency, an investigation that has received new scrutiny since Gillum's victory last week. He has been accused of no wrongdoing in the federal probe, and his campaign says the $15,000 deposit has nothing to do with the Costa Rica trip or anything beyond bill payment.
“The deposit was a transfer from the mayor’s savings account into his joint checking account with his wife, an account they used to pay bills,” said Geoff Burgan, a campaign spokesman.
That comment came Wednesday night after POLITICO made several requests for comment throughout the day.
The same day as the April 28 deposit, an $8,500 "force pay debit" was made, a designation indicating that the withdrawal from the account was given priority over any other transactions for that account.
The bank statement was accidentally released by Gillum's campaign Tuesday night along with receipts for the 2016 trip to Costa Rica and another to New York City, both of which are being investigated by the Florida Commission on Ethics. The campaign said that it released the receipts as part of a transparency effort, but in the process released the bank statement, which was not fully redacted.
The lone portion of the bank statement that the Gillum campaign intended to release unredacted Tuesday night was a $400 cash withdrawal on May 3. Campaign officials wanted to highlight that transaction because they say it was used to pay for his portion of a $1,400-per-night resort during the Costa Rica trip. Gillum has long said publicly that he paid for his portion of the trip using cash. The trip also included Gillum’s wife, R. Jai, and lobbyists Adam Corey and Sean Pittman, both longtime Gillum friends. During the trip, Corey sent a meeting invite to Gillum to meet with a man known as “Mike Miller,” who is now believed to have been an undercover FBI agent.
But Christopher Kise, an attorney for Corey, who organized the trip, says Corey received no money for the accommodations, even though Gillum, who has met with ethics investigators, says cash payments were made.
“Adam Corey has not received any cash from or on behalf of the mayor for the Costa Rica accommodations,” Kise said Wednesday.
He stressed: “Mr. Corey is not a target of the federal investigation.”
Kise also denies claims he paid for tickets to the play “Hamilton” or hotel rooms on the New York City trip that is also under ethics investigation. During that trip, Gillum was photographed with the person believed to be an undercover FBI agent while on a boat tour.
Gillum has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the federal probe; he voluntarily met with investigators in June 2017, and says that agents have told him he is not a target of the instigation. But GOP gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis and other have focused on it since Gillum’s surprise Aug. 28 primary win.
Overall, Gillum had $23,000 in deposits and credits into the account, the largest of which was the $15,000 deposit, during the month period covered by the bank records.
The statements also indicate that Gillum made a $500 “loan payment” on May 5, and 11 days later had a “reverse loan payment” for the same amount. Gillum’s campaign would not comment on the specifics of those transactions. In 2016, Gillum’s only listed liability on financial disclosure forms was the mortgage for his Tallahassee home. That $403,655 mortgage, which Gillum and his wife received in 2014, was not originally disclosed on his annual financial disclosure forms. Gillum amended those documents after POLITICO noted the failure to report in June.
The bank statement also shows two $200 withdrawals in Los Angeles in late April from an address listed as the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. The campaign did not address questions about the trip, but Facebook posts from the time show Gillum in Los Angeles in April 2016 for a Frontline Leadership Academy event. It’s a program affiliated with People for the American Way Foundation, where he was once an official.
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Sloppy redaction shows large deposit into candidate’s account. No explanation given.
When Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum released some records Tuesday related to two trips he took with a lobbyist in 2016, he was trying to clear the air around an FBI investigation that has clouded his campaign since before he became the Democratic nominee for Florida governor.
But the campaign, which uploaded several documents after Gillum met with a state ethics investigator Tuesday, released a poorly redacted printout of his bank statement among some invoices and receipts for Gillum’s trips to New York City and Costa Rica that year. The bank statement included a $15,000 deposit into his personal checking account. On the same page and not redacted was an entry showing a $400 cash withdrawal that the campaign says was cash used to pay for lodging in Costa Rica.
The Herald/Times asked Tuesday and multiple times Wednesday for an explanation of the large deposit. Gillum’s campaign did not provide an explanation until shortly after this story was published. It then released a statement saying the deposit “was a transfer from the mayor’s savings account into his joint checking account with his wife, an account they used to pay their bills.”
About an hour earlier, the campaign released a statement from Barry Richard, the lawyer who is representing Gillum in the state ethics probe that is examining the trips. The statement from Richard did not address the deposit or its amount: “Mayor Gillum is not the focus of the investigation, and he’s been transparent in releasing to the public all information available regarding the false claims against him.”
But Richard said later Wednesday night the deposit was a transfer from Gillum’s savings account to his checking account. It never came up during Gillum’s meeting with the ethics investigator, he added.
When the bank statement was released, it appeared that the campaign intended to redact all of the transactions except for those ones relating to the trip. But the redactions didn’t completely cover most of the entries, allowing most of the transactions in his checking account between April 25 and May 23, 2016 to be read.
The deposit came during the FBI investigation into public corruption in Tallahassee and just days before Gillum took a now-scrutinized overseas trip with his friend and lobbyist, Adam Corey.
On May 5, less than a week after the deposit, Gillum went to Costa Rica with his wife, Corey, and several other couples.
His campaign said Tuesday in releasing the documents that Gillum paid cash to someone in the group for his and his wife’s share of a villa. The campaign has not said who received the money. Corey’s lawyer has said that he did not receive payment from Gillum.
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Tartisan Nickel announces initiates work program at the Kenbridge Deposit, Kenora, Ontario
tartisan_nickel_announces_initiates_work_program_at_the_kenbridge_deposit-_kenora-_ontario_45973.jpg Image Source: CSE x DOWNLOAD
Tartisan Nickel announces initiates work program at the Kenbridge Deposit, Kenora, Ontario
tartisan_nickel_announces_initiates_work_program_at_the_kenbridge_deposit-_kenora-_ontario_45973.jpg
Tartisan Nickel announces initiates work program at the Kenbridge Deposit, Kenora, Ontario
Tartisan Nickel Corp, is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company, announced that strategic exploration on the Kenbridge Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Project, Kenora, Ontario has commenced. As previously press released, Tartisan has a detailed three-pronged exploration strategy for the Kenbridge Deposit.
First, analysis of the structural and deformational setting of the Kenbridge Project through surface mapping and geophysics as Tartisan’s data analysis from the Canadian Arrow Mines Limited acquisition shows a number of very interesting mineralized zones that do not appear to have been fully explored.
Second, MineMap Pty Ltd of Perth, Australia has been evaluating the resource base of the Kenbridge deposit from both open pit and underground perspectives. Key to the relevance of this effort is that the principal resource consultant for MineMap is a past Falconbridge employee and has a detailed prior knowledge of the Kenbridge Deposit. This resource calculation, with the insights into potential future mine planning that a resource distribution can provide, is a key factor in updating the NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Kenbridge Nickel-Copper Deposit.
Third, as previously announced, Tartisan has contracted Abitibi Geophysics Inc. Thunder Bay, Ontario office to provide the geophysical surveys that will define the geophysical character of the Kenbridge Deposit from the mineralized outcrops at surface to the high-grade drill-intersected mineralization at the base of the 632m shaft and below within the Kenbridge deformation zone. Abitibi will use this data to survey the rest of the northeast-trending deformation zone as well as on subsidiary related structural settings seen on the Kenbridge property.
Mr Mark Appleby CEO of Tartisan Nickel Corp said that “Since the original magnetic survey by Falconbridge Nickel in 1955, approximately 10 detailed geophysical surveys have been conducted over the Kenbridge Deposit and Property, but none were deep-seeking geophysical studies. Since our purchase of the Canadian Arrow assets in February 2018, we have undertaken a careful review of the asset. Our geophysical programs should put our whole geophysical database into a real discovery context so that when we go to drill the Kenbridge Property, we will have the best possible target definition.”
Tartisan will continue the strategic exploration program by evaluating surface exploration works, evaluate core stored on site and facilitate the surface geophysical survey. Ryder & Associates of Bradford, Ontario and Steel & Associates of Brampton, Ontario are continuing to assist in advancing the Kenbridge asset and they have been an integral part of the Company’s review and analysis since the Canadian Arrow Mines Limited purchase.
As a note, the Kenbridge Deposit occurs within a vertically dipping, lenticular gabbro and gabbro breccia with surface dimensions of 250m by 60m and sits within a significant northeast-trending deformation zone, as shown by deformation textures and shearing in the deposit host rocks. Other structural deformation zone orientations have been mapped on the Kenbridge Project including north, east, and northwest-trending. East-trending deformation zones appear to be host the ultramafic rock units implicit in nickel mineralization at Denmark Lake and Overflow Lake, located to the southeast of the Kenbridge Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Deposit.