The US Attorney for the Northern District of Florida indicted Stephen M. Alford for attempting to defraud Don Gaetz, the father of Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz, our of $25 million in a scheme that involved freeing an American being held in Iran.
According to the charging document, Alford told the senior Gaetz in the Spring of 2021 that the $25 million would secure the release of Bob Levinson, a retired FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007, reportedly while on a mission for the Central Intelligence Agency. As part of the deal, Alford said he would arrange for a Presidential pardon for the younger Gaetz, who was the subject of a federal sex trafficking investigation. Levinson is believed to have died in Iran in 2020.
Matt Gaetz is implicated in a sex trafficking ring that involved a close friend of his, Joel Greenberg, who has since pleaded guilty to multiple counts relating to supplying young women and underage girls to an influential group of South Florida Republicans. Gaetz had claimed that the federal investigation into him was not related to sex trafficking but instead was solely a case where he was the victim.