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| Mel Sembler hired his
good friend Walter Loebenberg
(who is also the founder of the
concept for the Tampa Bay
Holocaust Museum) to be
president of Straight. Mr.
Loebenberg in turned hired
Bernadine Braithwaite to be
Straight's executive director.
She had worked for him before at
U.S. Health Corporation where he
had been president. In 1992 the
US attorney filed suit against
Walter Loebenberg, Bernadine
Braithwaite and a third person.
I seems that Medicare was to
have reimbursed USHC a portion
of $300,000 required to pay
medical malpractice insurance,
but had made a mistake and paid
$950,000. In the meantime US
Health had dissolved--with the
money. [Saint
Petersburg Times, 9-24-92, p.
6E., City Ed.] In
February 1991 Bernadine
Braithwaite made an emotional,
video-taped appeal to Straight
parents for increased
fund-raising efforts. Citing a
65% reduction in enrollments she
had made this statement: Straight
has experienced a severe drain
on its financial resources . . .
In order for Straight to keep
its remaining facilities
operating we need the help of
all our families in the area of
client referrals and fund
raising . . . I’ve
restructured the organization,
laid-off personnel, cut salaries
at all levels . . . [Kim
Keeler, Channel 13 Eye Witness
News special serial report
"Straight: Healing or
Harming?", c. 1992] But
whose salaries "at all
levels" had she cut? Tax
returns for the years 1990 and
1989 show that five months
before she made the plea for
additional fundraising efforts
by the parents, her own salary
had increased from the previous
year from $132,000 to $145,200.
Her last salary reported to the
IRS five months before that
broadcast showed an increase to
$145,200. Her salary for 1991,
the year she made the broadcast,
increased even more to $151,417.
In fact, in 1990, including
contributions to employee
benefit plans and her expense
account, Mrs. Braithwaite’s
share was $172,098. In the same
period Page Perry’s salary
increased from $72,000 to
$86,400, Anthony Agliardi’s
from $73,425 to $88,110. The
fact is that all of the top five
paid employees (other than
officer’s, directors and
trustees) received salary
increases over the previous
year. So just whose salaries had
been cut at all levels. |
| In 1989 Florida state
regulators charged 15 agents
from Diversified Health Services
for posing as investigators, mis-stated
coverage, lying about
competitors and helping
customers cover-up past
illnesses on application forms
in a fraud scam directed towards
the elderly. Two years earlier
in March 1987 Melvin Gross, the
owner of Diversified Health
Services and a Straight board
member, had personally been
fined $5,000 for misleading
clients. [Saint
Petersburg Times, 6-8-89, Ed
City, Sec Tampa Bay and State,
p. 1B], [Saint Petersburg Times,
9-23-89, Sec Tampa Bay and
State, Ed City, p. 1B 3-29-87],
[Saint Petersburg Times, Sec
National, Ed City, p. 1A
3-14-87], [Saint Petersburg
Times, Sec Metro and State, Ed
City, p. 1B] |
| In 1988 Straight
board members Mel Sembler,
Joseph Zappala, Alec Courtelis
and Roy Speer (founder of cable
TVs Home Shopping Network [HSN])
each gave at least $100,000 for
Republican causes. In return
George Bush made Sembler and
Zappala ambassadors and did a TV
commercial on Speer’s Home
Shopping Network for Straight.
Zappala got the ambassadorship
to Spain where plans were
underway for the summer Olympics
to be held in Barcelona. Roy
Speer got the concession
agreements for the summer
Olympics in Spain. Allegations
concerning HSN surfaced in 1993
about commercial bribes, secret
investments and misleading
filings with the SEC. Allen
Alweiss, formerly one of Russell’s
assistant state attorneys and in
1989 a member-at-large on
Straight Foundation, Inc.’s
board of directors, had left
Russell and gone on to work for
HSN. He alleged that one HSN
executive had ties to John Gotti.
He also made claims of a
proposed business venture
between HSN and a convicted drug
dealer named Doc McGhee. [Wall
Street Journal 5-14-93. Sec A,
p. 1] [Wall
Street Journal, 3-18-94 Sec B,
p. 4] [Saint
Petersburg Times, 12-8-88, Sec
Business, p29A, Ed: City] |
|