Today’s Florida Man story involves a guy who defrauded Republican donors, particularly those backing Nikki Haley, out of just short of half a million dollars.
Jason Pallante, 52, of Orlando, was indicted this week on charges that he defrauded political donors through political fundraising websites that fraudulently promised to support presidential candidates.
According to the indictment, Pallante created websites claiming to support Haley, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence and Tim Scott through his America Great PAC, which was purportedly a super PAC able to receive unlimited contributions to finance independent expenditures and other independent political activity.
Pallante allegedly designed these websites to appear affiliated with a particular candidate or campaign, such as by using photos of the candidate, first-person language, and the same font as the candidate’s campaign. Pallante also accepted checks made out directly to presidential candidates or their campaigns.
The majority of the fraudulent campaign contributions came from websites about Haley, including one wire transfer of $250,000.
In all, per the indictment, Pallante brought in more than $162,000 in 2023 and $334,000 in 2024.
Pallante is charged with three counts of mail fraud and four counts of wire fraud. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.
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Chris Graham
