Florida state Rep. Scott Plakon cleared in ethics complaint over financial disclosures

TALLAHASSEE – The Florida Commission on Ethics dismissed a complaint lodged against Longwood Republican state Rep. Scott Plakon last week because it lacked “legal sufficiency,” according to a press release from the board.

The original complaint was filed in November by Dan Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, a Washington DC-based ethics watchdog group founded in 2015 that has filed several complaints against prominent Republicans.

It alleged that Plakon hid several real estate holdings in his financial disclosure forms, citing property records and court filings showing companies owned or partially owned by Plakon bought and sold several properties in Lake, Seminole and Volusia counties during his time in office. Those subsidiaries and the property they owned, however, never showed up on his required annual financial disclosure forms.

Plakon said he followed the advice of his attorneys when filing the financial disclosure forms, and they told him his disclosure of his stake in Nationwide Publishing, which owned the subsidiaries involved, was enough to satisfy state requirements. In his most recent disclosure form, Plakon’s stake in Nationwide Publishing was $1.3 million and his net worth was $2 million.

The complaint also stated Plakon, who was first elected to the House in 2008, left office in 2012 but returned in 2014, funneled $35,000 in campaign funds to friends, employees and his own businesses over the course of his five House campaigns.

The ethics panel’s release didn’t delve into the details of the complaints, only listing Plakon among a number of cases that were dismissed because they “lacked legal sufficiency.”

Plakon’s reaction to the original complaint kicked off controversy, as he tied it to the recent entrance of Democrat Tracey Kagan into the campaign against him for his seat in 2020.

Kagan, who is Jewish, took his assertion that Campaign for Accountability was affiliated with George Soros, a billionaire Jewish financier of liberal causes, as an anti-Semitic slur. Plakon vehemently denied that claim, and Rep. Randy Fine, a GOP colleague from Brevard County who is also Jewish, came to his defense, saying his statements weren’t anti-Semitic.

With the dismissal of the complaint, Plakon again made the connection between the complaint, George Soros and Kagan’s campaign against him.

“I am pleased that the Florida Commission on Ethics quickly dismissed this frivolous and ridiculous claim from a Washington, DC-based, George Soros-affiliated group,” Plakon said in a statement. “Of course, my opponent claims to know nothing about this and denies coordinating this disgusting attack on my character, even though the complaint was filed immediately after she filed to run.”

Officials with Campaign for Accountability have denied coordinating with each other to file the complaint. Kagan also rejected Plakon’s claim.

“I find it ludicrous,” Kagan wrote on her Facebook page. “I don’t even know anyone in D.C. I’m a local, grassroots, business owner, mother, who is running to protect our children, protect our drinking water and environment, and protect public education.”

The matchup between Plakon and Kagan is a rematch of 2018, when Plakon won by 1,503 votes, or 2 percent.

grohrer@orlandosentinel.com or (850) 222-5564