Joel Greenberg

Early life Joel Greenberg is the son of Andrew Greenberg, a dentist and founder of Greenberg Dental, a chain of over 90 dental clinics throughout Florida. Greenberg's father is Jewish. Greenberg was raised in a Christian family and attended a Christian church. As an adult, Greenberg has identified himself as being Jewish. Greenberg married his wife, Abby, in 2016 and has a son and a daughter. He suffered early academic and behavioral difficulties (including attention deficit disorder and Tourette's syndrome), and as a result of these challenges was enrolled at Florida Air Academy (now Florida Preparatory Academy), a military-themed boarding school in Melbourne, Florida. He also participated in a mentorship program run by then-Orlando Magic basketball player John Amaechi.

Greenberg attended Rollins College, a liberal arts college in Florida, but did not graduate. He subsequently wrote several freelance sports pieces for the Orlando Sentinel and later hosted a sports talk show, The Joel Greenberg Show, on Yahoo Sports Radio Orlando.

Greenberg resigned from his office on June 24, 2020.

Criminal charges Greenberg is accused of stealing $400,000 of public funds and sex trafficking. The government alleges that since 2017 he has used the state's driver license system to obtain names of minors for "commercial sex acts", and also created fake IDs to facilitate sex trafficking. Some of this money was funneled through a private company he created and ran from government buildings, called Government Blockchain Systems LLC. At one point the $90,000 server room running the cryptocurrency operation overloaded the electricity supply, causing $6,700 in uninsured fire damage.

During the reelection campaign in 2019, he is also alleged to have created fake Facebook accounts and sent falsified letters making claims of sexual misconduct against an opponent, The original June 2020 indictment charged Greenberg with identity theft and stalking. In August 2020, one count of sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl in 2017 was added to the indictment. On February 28, 2021, Greenberg violated his bond conditions by traveling during his curfew hours, reportedly to look for his wife. His bond was revoked on March 3, 2021, and a federal judge denied Greenberg a new bail, ordering him into custody for the remainder of the case. By the end of that March, the Justice Department added an additional 21 criminal charges to Greenberg's indictment, including cryptocurrency fraud, SBA loan fraud (allegedly receiving fraudulent Economic Injury Disaster Loans for two defunct corporations), wire fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public official and theft of government property.

Plea deal and cooperation After being arrested in 2020, Greenberg began to cooperate with federal investigators probing Gaetz, In April 2021, Greenberg's attorney announced that his client planned to plead guilty as part of a plea agreement with the government to avoid a possible life sentence. On May 17, 2021, Greenberg pleaded guilty to six federal charges: sex trafficking of a child, production of a false identification document, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, stalking, and conspiracy. As part of a plea deal, he agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice in an ongoing investigation, and will serve a 12-year sentence, the minimum sentence allowed by law. In exchange for his cooperation, prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining charges from the original indictment. The plea agreement documents state that Greenberg paid a minor to have sex with him and other men. He engaged in sex acts with a minor at least seven times while she was underage. In court papers for his plea deal, Greenberg did not implicate others by name but admitted that he "introduced the minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts". As part of the plea agreement, Greenberg must register as a sex offender. By early October, a lawyer for Greenberg had asked for another delay, this time to March 2022. On October 18, prosecutors also asked Presnell for the extension, stating that Greenberg was a "prolific criminal" who had made allegations that "take us to some places we did not anticipate." Presnell approved the extension. On February 14, 2022, Presnell granted a third delay, this time to May 2022, saying it appeared to be "in the interest of justice". A fourth delay was granted in May, with sentencing likely in August. Subsequently, a December sentencing date was set.

Greenberg was sentenced on Thursday, December 1, 2022, by a federal judge to 11 years in prison.