Olympus Pools owner to face jury this week in fraud case
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The man at the center of a Better Call Behnken investigation into hundreds of unfinished pools in multiple Tampa Bay area counties heads to trial Monday on fraud and grand theft charges.
James Staten, owner of Olympus Pools, faces 35 felony charges. The Florida Attorney General's Office of Statewide Prosecution accuses him of abandoning his customers' pool projects and using $1.3 million of their money for his personal gain.
If found guilty on all 35 counts, Staten faces a minimum of 20 years in prison.
Hot tub company permanently shut down for scamming Floridians, Attorney General says
State prosecutors said the case is about greed that led to fraud. Meanwhile, attorneys for Staten argue there was no intent to defraud customers and this is simply a case of poor business and what they call a 'civil matter.'
Staten was arrested in August 2023 and has remained in jail, as his attorneys claim he has been unable to meet his more than $1 million bond. The original bond was set at $2.8 million.
Staten is represented by the Office of Criminal Defense Attorney Rick Escobar, who has repeatedly said he believes his client is innocent.
'… What the public needs to understand is that sometimes businesses go belly up and just because a business goes bankrupt and people lose money, that does not make it a crime,' Escobar said in an interview with Consumer Investigator Shannon Behnken shortly after Staten's arrest in 2023.
Woman fires shots at ex during custody exchange he brought his new girlfriend to: affidavit
This case was investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Charges include aggravated white-collar crime, organized scheme to defraud, 20 counts of grand theft, eight counts of missed application of construction funds, and five counts of contractor fraud.
Better Call Behnken began looking into customers' complaints nearly four years ago as many complained they were encouraged to pay upfront in exchange for lower prices and faster service, but were left with dangerous holes in their backyards.
Numerous customers also had liens placed on their homes by subcontractors who said Staten failed to pay them for work they completed on the projects.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Miami Herald
School teacher tries arranging sex acts with 9-year-old in Florida, feds say
A third grade teacher in the Tampa Bay area tried arranging sex acts with a 9-year-old girl while messaging someone he believed was their parent, according to federal prosecutors in Central Florida. When Lee Hughes, 45, of Pinellas Park, went to an 'agreed-upon location' on May 1 to meet with the child for sex acts, he was instead arrested as part of an undercover sting operation, prosecutors said. Hughes taught at Pinellas Preparatory Academy, WFLA-TV reported. The school announced on May 2 that Hughes was 'immediately terminated' in connection with his arrest. Before he was taken into custody, Hughes had been communicating with an undercover officer since June 2024 and repeatedly shared his desire to sexually abuse the undercover officer's 'purported' 9-year-old daughter, according to federal court filings. Now Hughes faces federal child exploitation charges. A superseding indictment charges Hughes with attempted transmission of harmful material to a minor, attempted enticement or coercion of a minor and receipt and possession of child sexual abuse material, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a June 9 news release. Hughes' court-appointed federal public defender, Regine Soraya Lauren Etienne, didn't immediately return McClatchy News' request for comment June 10. In a motion seeking Hughes' pretrial detention, prosecutors wrote 'Hughes is currently employed as a third-grade teacher, which is the same age of child as he was attempting to coerce and entice over the past ten months to engage in illicit sexual activity with him.' On May 9, Hughes was ordered detained ahead of trial by U.S. Magistrate Judge Amanda Arnold Sansone, court records show. While messaging the undercover officer, Hughes sent them about 10 sexually explicit photos and videos of himself and asked the officer to show the images to their decoy daughter, according to prosecutors. In videos Hughes shared, prosecutors wrote in court documents that he was heard speaking with a noticeable British accent. Though he now lives in Pinellas County, Hughes is initially from the United Kingdom, according to prosecutors. 'Hughes had ample opportunity to cease his communications with the undercover officer regarding his desired sexual abuse of a nine-year-old child; however, Hughes persisted,' court documents say. On Hughes' cell phone, law enforcement discovered he had exchanged child sexual abuse material, according to prosecutors. If Hughes is convicted of all charges, he would face a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to life in prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Concerns or suspicions about child sexual exploitation can be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline online or by calling 1-800-843-5678.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Hope Florida Foundation to amend tax return to show golf tourney made more money
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis held a two-day golf tournament at a high-end resort in Panama City Beach last year to raise cash for the Hope Florida Foundation, the nonprofit associated with the First Lady that is under investigation. The May 2024 event at a resort that bills itself as the 'true gem' of Florida's Gulf Coast lost more than $17,000, according to the foundation's delinquent federal tax return filed in April — six months past its due date. But now the foundation said it will amend its tax return by attributing more donations to the golf fundraiser, ones it previously failed to report to IRS. The event, it claims, was an 'extraordinary success,' though by IRS rules it still lost money, even if the foundation's 990 tax form is amended. The problems with Hope Florida's tax return underscores the financial challenges that have plagued the two-year-old foundation and prompted state lawmakers this spring to launch an investigation into the charity, trumpeted by Ron and Casey DeSantis as way to help Floridians get off government assistance. 'The incompetence is astounding,' Rep. Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, said by email when he was told about how the group's tax return was to be amended. Andrade used his House Health Care Budget Committee this spring to investigate the Hope Florida Foundation, which was used as a pass through for $10 million from the state's Medicaid settlement. That money wound up in the account of a political action committee set up by DeSantis' former chief of staff, James Uthmeier, to defeat a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana. Andrade said it was illegal to shift state money that should have gone to help provide health care for the poor to a political operation. Uthmeier, who DeSantis has since appointed Florida's attorney general, has denied any wrongdoing. The House investigation also showed that the Hope Florida Foundation had not filed its tax return, produced a required audit or kept up with other paperwork. Andrade ended his investigation in April saying he there was evidence that DeSantis administration officials and others tied to Hope Florida had committed 'conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud' in moving the Medicaid money. The DeSantises and others involved also deny any wrongdoing. Andrade handed over information, he said, to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Leon County State Attorney's Office, which confirmed it is investigating the allegations. The golf fundraiser coincided with a press conference where DeSantis and his wife handed out $140,000 in checks to seven local nonprofits and churches. But it was not announced in advance by the governor's office or the Hope Florida Foundation and seemed to have little social media presence. Now the Foundation is spinning the initial loss claimed for the fundraiser into gold. 'The Governor's Cup was an extraordinary success that was not paid for at taxpayer expense and raised a net profit of nearly $700,000 for the Hope Florida Foundation,' the foundation said in a recent statement provided by Jeff Aaron, the outside legal counsel hired in October to help fix the foundation's finances and other problems. Aaron provided a list of donations that were not part of Hope Florida's tax form and said an amended form would be filed soon. Aaron said the tournament raised $785,000 donations and had $95,547 in expenses for a total profit of $689,452. But the foundation's tax return tells a different tale. It shows the Governor's Cup only made $22,000, and with $40,000 in expenses reported a loss of $17,000. The IRS requires the donations to be subtracted from the gross revenues to show how much the revenue the event generated selling event-related goods and services. So while the tax return notes the foundation received about $400,000 in contributions, that money is not counted as revenue for the fundraiser. And because the tournament didn't produce enough revenue to cover the expenses, the expenses come out of the donations, said Laurie Chaney, CEO of Charity Watch, an independent nonprofit watchdog. 'That isn't a good thing,' Chaney said. While the new numbers provided by Aaron show the golf tournament garnered more donations than originally reported, it still wouldn't help the bottom line, according to the IRS. Rather, the additional expenses Aaron flagged would mean the event lost even more than the foundation's 990 tax form shows, a total of $73,000. Chaney said she hasn't seen many successful charity-run golf tournaments. 'For organizations that use golf tournaments as their primary means of raising funds, it sometimes appears that charities are using them more to subsidize their board members' golf hobbies than as an efficient means of raising donations to support their charity's mission,' she said. The foundation's tax return was prepared by Carroll & Company, the same Tallahassee accounting firm that handled the books for the political action committee Keep Florida, the one set up by Uthmeier that got money from Hope Florida. It also did accounting for DeSantis' Florida Freedom Fund, another political committee set up to combat the marijuana legalization initiative as well as a ballot amendment to overturn a six-week abortion ban and expand women's reproductive rights. Kelly Kundinger, currently a senior advisor to Sen. Ashley Moody, was the chief operating officer for the Florida Freedom Fund and responsible for the golf tournament's billing. She did not return an email seeking comment. 'At its most basic, the accounting of the event should match the 990,' said Glen Casel, a former Central Florida nonprofit executive with 30-plus years of experience, who called the addition of hundreds of thousands of dollars 'alarming.' 'It is not normal to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in corrections,' he said. Among the donors to the golf tournament was Centene Corp., the state's largest Medicaid managed care provider, which has played a notable role in the Hope Florida foundation controversy. It was Centene that made the legal settlement with the state, totaling $67 million, that spun off the $10 million the Hope Florida Foundation channeled to two political nonprofits aligned with efforts to defeat the marijuana initiative. Centene gave the golf tournament $100,000 more than was reported to the IRS, according to Aaron's list of donors.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
A Florida Dog Was Enjoying His Backyard When 'All of a Sudden' an Alligator Dragged Him Away
An alligator attacked a German shepherd dog outside the pet's home in Wesley Chapel, Florida, on June 2 The dog, Zeus, suffered multiple injuries, including a fractured jaw and several puncture wounds at the neck, according to a GoFundMe page for the pup Zeus' family says the attacking alligator dragged the dog into a nearby pond, but eventually let the pet go, giving the canine a chance to escapeA German shepherd dog narrowly escaped death in an alligator attack just outside of his home in Wesley Chapel, Florida, according to the pet's parents. The dog, named Zeus, suffered multiple injuries after "a large alligator broke through [the] fence" of his owner's home and "attacked him" on the night of June 2, according to a GoFundMe page created by the dog's distraught owner, Susan Alkhatib. "Our beloved dog Zeus was sitting peacefully in the lanai with my dad when he heard a small animal in the backyard," wrote Alkhatib. According to the owner, Zeus "ran out the doggy door to investigate" and "within seconds," the alligator "grabbed the dog and dragged him back into the water." "We rushed outside with a flashlight and were shocked to see Zeus swimming back toward us, wounded but fighting to survive," Alkhatib continued. "My mom waded into the water to help him out, and we rushed him to the nearest emergency vet as he was bleeding heavily from his mouth." One family member recalled the attack to WFLA, "All of a sudden, I couldn't hear him anymore. My dad came in frantic. I'd never seen him like that. He said, 'The alligator just took Zeus.'" "The alligator had just let go of Zeus," Alkhatib told the outlet. "We started yelling at him to come toward us. When he got closer, he got tired. So we had to kind of go into the pond a little bit to get him." Zeus suffered a displaced jaw and multiple puncture wounds to his neck in the vicious attack, according to the GoFundMe page. The page has raised over $6,800 of its $10,000 to help cover veterinary bills. Photos released by the dog's owner show the pooch bleeding from his neck and his injured jaw. Alkhatib called the dog's escape from the attack "a miracle" on her GoFundMe page. "The vet told us the gator had just missed his jugular — it looked like Zeus's entire head had been in the gator's mouth. The fact that he made it out alive is nothing short of a miracle," she wrote. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. "We're doing everything we can to help our boy heal, but the cost of his care has become overwhelming and unexpected. If you know Zeus, you know he's a fighter … We just want to see him happy and healthy again," the page concluded. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has trappers searching for the attacking alligator, per WFLA. Read the original article on People
