Prosecutors: Miami man paid sham state Senate candidate $9K on behalf of Artiles

An acquaintance of former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles was unveiled on Tuesday as a new character involved in a public corruption scandal that has ensnared Artiles and a web of political organizations he did business with during the 2020 election cycle.

State prosecutors said Wade Scales, a Facebook friend of Artiles, withdrew $9,000 in cash from his bank account “at the behest of Artiles” and gave it to Alexis Pedro Rodriguez, a no-party candidate who investigators allege was paid around $45,000 to enter the race in an attempt to sway the outcome of Miami-Dade’s Senate District 37 election in favor of the Republican candidate. Scales has retained an attorney, court records show. The attorney has not responded to multiple attempts seeking comment.

The revelation came as state prosecutors, Artiles’ defense attorneys and lawyers representing media organizations, including the Miami Herald, argued in court which records should be considered relevant to the criminal case against Artiles and Rodriguez and released to the public.

“Mr. Scales’ bank account is relevant because he paid money to Rodriguez,” said Tim VanderGeisen, the lead prosecutor in the case, after one of Artiles’ attorneys brought into question the relevance of some of the transactions highlighted in Scales’ bank statements.

The argument over those bank records was a glimpse into a nearly three-hour tug-of-war in court over the release of records tied to the active criminal investigation, which has led to felony charges against Artiles and Rodriguez.

Artiles’ defense attorneys argued that some of the records were not relevant to the case against Artiles and that releasing people’s phone numbers and addresses would violate the privacy rights of third parties and make them prone to harassment.

“We don’t need witnesses in this case being harassed to the point where they come to court, upset, or under pressure from third parties and feeling to appease those third parties in the course of their testimony. I am concerned about that,” said Frank Quintero, one of Artiles’ defense attorneys.

But attorneys for the Herald and other media outlets argued the defense’s request was too broad and that redactions the defense team was seeking were already exempt from the state’s public records laws.

After reviewing the records and listening to the arguments, 11th Judicial Circuit Judge Andrea Wolfson agreed that some of the evidence in the case will need to be redacted, including medical information, photos of minors, bank account numbers, phone numbers and emails. All other documents can be immediately released.

Some of the records that could be released include a list of roughly 4,000 contacts in Artiles’ cellphone, and subpoenaed emails, contracts and invoices related to Artiles’ Miami firm, Atlas Consulting LLC, and Data Targeting Inc., a Republican-linked research firm in Gainesville.

Prosecutors allege Artiles recruited Rodriguez — a longtime acquaintance who shared the same surname of the incumbent Democrat in the race — and promised to pay him $50,000. In return, Rodriguez would change his party affiliation from Republican to no party affiliation and enter the race.

But investigators have also been searching for the “dark money” source of more than half-a-million dollars spent on political mail advertisements last election cycle to bolster Rodriguez’s candidacy and two other no-party candidates who ran in two other competitive state Senate races.

During the court hearing Tuesday, VanderGeisen said Artiles’ contact list, and clients, including various political organizations and individuals who paid Artiles during the 2020 election cycle, are “relevant” to the criminal investigation.

“He has consulted various organizations, some of which relate to this case, some of which we are still tracking down to figure out what their relationship is to this case,” VanderGeisen said.

“I know the people who were paying Frank Artiles,” he added, noting that they have been notified. “They are not only aware of it, but many of them have lawyers, and I have had contact with their lawyers.”

Artiles’ attorneys, however, argued that the list of political organizations that have done business with Artiles in the past is long and some have nothing to do with this past election cycle.

“Maybe they don’t want their name to come up and they had nothing to do with this election cycle, they have a right to get notice because otherwise they cannot come in and assert their rights,” said Jose Quiñon, one of Artiles’ defense attorneys.

VanderGeisen disagreed, noting that political organizations paying Artiles money are part of the scope of the investigation.

“The contacts … and I am talking about political organizations that were paying him money while this was all going on, those would be relevant,” he said.

This story was corrected to attribute two statements made by one of Frank Artiles’ defense attorneys. The statements were made by Jose Quiñon, but were misattributed to Frank Quintero, who is also a defense attorney.

This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 6:09 PM.