![\"marceno\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/LeeCountySheriffMarceno.jpeg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno is accused of serious wrongdoing by a political opponent and veteran of his own agency. (Courtesy: Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno is accused of serious wrongdoing by a political opponent and veteran of his own agency. (Courtesy: Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n
When the U.S. Attorney\u2019s 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 \u201ccompletely false.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 \u201cback\u201d regarding payments that may have been made and assuring him they were his \u201cpersonal business\u201d and the public had no way to discover they were made.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The call was recorded in the summer of 2024 as part of the now-closed FBI investigation and is included in a detailed complaint f<\/a>iled with the state against Marceno last week. On the other end of the line was Marceno\u2019s 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\u2019s father, Carmine Marceno Sr.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 bringing the total to $5,700 per month \u2013 in order to make the car payments to the sheriff\u2019s father, which he alleges were paid in cash at Romano\u2019s Bonita Springs\u2019 jewelry store.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the 2024 recording obtained by the Trident, Romano feigned concern that Marceno\u2019s political rival, then write-in sheriff candidate Mike Hollow, was going to expose the kickback scheme.<\/p>\n In reality, Hollow, a retired Lee County sheriff\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prior to press time, the sheriff had not responded to an email requesting comment regarding the audio recording. <\/p>\n \u201dWhat you do do with your money, nobody knows\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Marceno and Romano were best friends, \u201cbrothers,\u201d for years, bonded through a love of gambling. Romano dubs Marceno a \u201cgambling addict\u201d 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).\u00a0<\/p>\n On the call (listen to highlights here<\/a>), Romano baited Marceno by bringing up the fact that the sheriff had given him the $1,700 raise on his consulting contract for the purpose of paying his father\u2019s car payments of the same amount.<\/p>\n \u201cBuddy, we adjust people\u2019s salaries all the time,\u201d a seemingly careful and circumspect Marceno countered.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI know bro, but I don\u2019t want [Hollow] to know it was there so I can give your father money to pay for your father\u2019s car,\u201d Romano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBuddy, what you do with your personal money is your personal business, no one knows what you do with your personal money,\u201d Marceno said. \u201cI don\u2019t tell you what to do with your money. If you choose to help someone, whoever that may be, that\u2019s your business.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs there any way possible [Hollow] can find out I used that money to give to your father for a fucking car?\u201d Romano pressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBuddy, I\u2019ll say this again, whatever you use your money on, you and my father\u2019s relationship has nothing to do with me,\u201d said the sheriff.<\/p>\n Romano repeats his concern about Hollow finding out about the payments made toward Marceno Sr.\u2019s Mercedes Benz.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[Y]ou\u2019re missing the point,\u201d said Marceno. \u201cNo one knows what you do with your personal finances, not even me. Okay? Nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBro, not even you? Come on. I mean, what the f\u2014? We were right there,\u201d Romano says. \u201cI\u2019m asking you. I need help. \u2026 What are we talking about here? We\u2019re talking real, or are we going to talk bulls\u2013t?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBuddy, I\u2019m talking real,\u201d answered Marceno. \u201cWhat you do with your personal money is your personal business, buddy. No one knows what you do with your personal money. I don\u2019t tell you how to spend your money. If you choose to help someone, whoever that may be, that\u2019s your business.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can ask what you make, you\u2019re 119-able the same as any other employee,\u201d Marceno explained. \u201cThis is a government business. So it is what it is. What you do with your money, no one knows. They don\u2019t know how you spend your money. They don\u2019t know anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as it\u2019s only me, you, and your father that know, then that\u2019s fine,\u201d said Romano.<\/p>\n \u201cBuddy, I know you have a relationship with my father,\u201d said Marceno. \u201cMy father knows you longer than I do from what he tells me. What you do with my father, what you don\u2019t do with my father, your son, your daughter, it\u2019s your personal business. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n They continue on the topic for several minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWell, if anybody ever says anything, I could say that I just loaned him money, and he paid me back or something like that,\u201d Romano said at one point.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBuddy, no one\u2019s going to ever say anything because what you do with your money, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Marceno says. \u201cIt\u2019s not even going to get to that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[S]tay the fuck away from all these people,\u201d said the sheriff. \u201cBring your circle to zero, you know, like, three people. \u2026 Stay away from everybody, and enjoy your life, enjoy your car, go to work. November 5th comes, it\u2019ll be a different story. It\u2019ll be over.\u201d<\/p>\n Romano ultimately said he wants Marceno\u2019s assurance that no one will ever find out about the payments made to Marceno\u2019s father \u2013 and the sheriff abided him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t want anybody to find out about this fucking car payment shit, bro,\u201d Romano says. \u201cI just don\u2019t. I just don\u2019t. That\u2019s it. As long as I know you got my back on that, then I\u2019ll feel better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI got your back 1000 percent,\u201d says Marceno. \u201cI always have, always will.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not asking you for f\u2014ing money. I\u2019m not asking you for blood. I\u2019m not asking you for a f\u2014ing home,\u201d Romano said later in the call. \u201cI\u2019m not asking for any money back that I gave you. I\u2019m not asking for nothing. I just wanted to make sure that nobody knows about this fucking s\u2013t except me, you, and your father. That\u2019s all I\u2019m asking you, man. That\u2019s it. That\u2019s all I\u2019m asking you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI get it, I get it a thousand times Kenny,\u201d Marceno responds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lead prosecutor fired by Trump Administration<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Office in Tampa in November without explanation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Multiple sources close to the investigation say the case\u2019s fate was actually sealed on November 5, 2024 as well \u2013 not because Marceno easily defeated Hollow at the polls, but because Donald Trump was elected president.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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 <\/a>that it stemmed from his work prosecuting January 6 defendants, all of whom were pardoned by Trump on his first day in office.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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 \u201cTrump\u2019s Sheriff\u201d and Marceno told a conservative publication, \u201cI love Trump.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Though it closed the investigation, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office explicitly didn\u2019t absolve Marceno and left the door open for other agencies to investigate the allegations. Hollow\u2019s 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<\/a> and furniture from El Dorado Furniture.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is all about exposing the fact that we have a corrupt individual in charge of the sheriff\u2019s office,\u201d Hollow said. \u201cI 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 \u2013 not just Carmine \u2013 he will remove them. Well, here you go.\u201d<\/p>\n About the Author:\u00a0Bob Norman\u00a0is 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\u00a0norman@flcga.org.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Florida Trident<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.![](\"https:\/\/floridatrident.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/cropped-trident-only-180x180.png\")
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