ORLANDO, FL \u2014 Florida\u2019s lieutenant governor resigned and nearly 60 other people were charged in a widening scandal of a purported veterans charity that authorities said Wednesday was a $300 million front for illegal gambling.<\/p>\n
Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll\u2019s<\/strong> resignation came a day after she was questioned in the investigation. Her public relations firm did work for the St. Augustine-based charity Allied Veterans of the World, but she has not been accused of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Authorities said the probe involved 57 arrest warrants and 54 search warrants issued at gambling operations in 23 Florida counties and five other states: South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Nevada and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/strong> said charges, which will be formally filed next week, include racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and possession of slot machines.<\/p>\n Authorities refused to discuss any ties between Carroll<\/strong>, a 53-year-old Republican, and the investigation. Her aides had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n Carroll<\/strong>, a Navy veteran who served in the Gulf War, appeared in a TV ad in 2011 promoting the organization\u2019s charitable work on behalf of veterans and their families.<\/p>\n Carroll\u2019s<\/strong> resignation letter to Gov. Rick Scott<\/strong> offered no details about her reason for leaving, but the Republican governor said in a statement she resigned so her ties to the company would not be a distraction for the administration.<\/p>\n Carroll<\/strong>, an immigrant from Trinidad, served 20 years in the U.S. Navy, working as a jet mechanic before retiring as a lieutenant commander. Elected to the state House in 2003, she\u2019s served as deputy majority leader and majority whip. She\u2019s also a former executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans\u2019 Affairs. She moved to Florida in 1986.<\/p>\n A married mother of three, Carroll<\/strong> has a son who plays defensive back for the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n Carroll<\/strong> was the brunt of late-night talk show hosts last summer after she apologized for offending lesbians when she said black women who engage in those relationships don\u2019t look like her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ORLANDO, FL \u2014 Florida\u2019s lieutenant governor resigned and nearly 60 other people were charged in a widening scandal of a purported veterans charity that authorities said Wednesday was a $300 million front for illegal gambling. Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll\u2019s resignation came a day after she was questioned in the investigation. Her public relations firm did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}