Former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg reportedly abused his power while in office to search a confidential database more than 700 times for the personal information of his political rivals, sexual partners and celebrities
Matt Gaetz's former wingman used his role as a Florida county tax collector to search a confidential database more than 700 times to get the personal information of his political rivals, sexual partners and even celebrities like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, records have revealed.
Joel Greenberg, 37, pleaded guilty in May to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted that he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.
As part of his plea deal, he admitted to accessing a driver and vehicle information database known by the acronym DAVID to 'investigate his sexual partners'.
The system contains personal information like Social Security Numbers, birth dates, addresses, signatures and medical and disability information.
But after a public records request by the Orlando Sentinel and the Florida Center for Government Accountability - a watchdog group - it was revealed he had also used the system to make hundreds of searches on political rivals, family members, county employees and even celebrities.
DailyMail.com has reached out to his attorney, Fritz Scheller, for comment.
The searches took place between August 2017 and mid-June 2020, when he was arrested and resigned in disgrace amid the sex trafficking scandal.
Greenberg originally faced 33 federal charges, but prosecutors dropped 27 of them because he agreed to cooperate with the FBI, informing federal prosecutors that he and others had drugged and sexually trafficked a 17-year-old girl across state lines.
The FBI is now examining allegations whether Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl in Florida, where the age of consent is 18. Gaetz, a Republican Congressman from Florida, has repeatedly denied the allegations, calling them a smear job. He has not been criminally charged.
Greenberg, though, pleaded guilty to six charges, including sex trafficking of a child, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official.
In his plea deal, Greenberg admitted to using the system to 'investigate his sexual partners,' including a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim, claiming he looked her up in September 2017 'because he had reason to believe she was underage.'
Greenberg is now awaiting sentencing for his crimes.
Officials at the Seminole County Tax Collector's Office (seen here) reportedly found out about the searches last month after receiving a public records request from the Florida Center for Government Accountability
Greenberg allegedly searched for the personal information of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears, seen here in 2000, though it is unclear why
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Greenberg had access to the DAVID system as the Seminole County tax collector because the office provides residents with driver's licenses and ID cards.
It is usually used by criminal justice and law enforcement officials, including police officers and deputy sheriffs while on patrol.
Current Tax Collector JR Kroll said he did not give himself access to the system because 'there's no reason why I would need to access anyone's information or use the system at all in the scope of my job.
'We have a very capable team of professionals,' he said.
Officials at the Tax Collector's office found out about the searches last month after receiving a public records request from the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
An agency spokesman said Greenberg's actions were 'not condoned,' but said that some of the searches could have been made for legitimate purposes if, for instance, someone asked him to check the validity of their driver's license or state-issued ID.
'This was an activity by the former tax collector that was not condoned by the DAVID system, and we are working to make sure that this sort of activity does not happen again,' Alan Byrd, a spokesperson for the Tax Collector's Office, told Newsweek.
The department now limits who has access to the system to about two dozen employees, mostly managers, who are required to review and sign a statement laying out the acceptable uses for the system.
They office also now conducts an audit every three weeks to review employees' use of the database.
Meanwhile, more than 900 state and local workers have been caught misusing access to the DAVID system since 2015, some of whom used it to track their former romantic partners.
As a result, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill, which requires officers to get training on how to use state databases appropriately and quadruples penalties for government workers who misuse electronic databases from $500 to $2,000.
Greenberg allegedly used the system in August 2017 to search for information about Seminole Commissioner Brenda Carey and her husband, Fairley Carey.
That same month, the Sentinel reports, Greenberg gave Brenda a trespass warning, forbidding her from entering any Tax Collector's offices after accusing her of using foul language at a branch office in Sanford.
He also allegedly pried into the personal information of two candidates for Orange County Sheriff in 2018: Darryl Sheppard and Joe Lopez, both of whom ultimately lost to John Mina.
Sheppard, whom the Sentinel described as a political newcomer with a history of legal and financial trouble, came close to winning the race as the only Democrat on the ballot in the deeply blue county because both Mina Lopez,
