By John Willoughby
Riverbend News
A federal investigation into a former State Attorney's public corruption has revealed further misdeeds. Now, Jeffrey Siegmeister's property in Live Oak could be seized after a complaint for forfeiture was filed by the United States District Court of the Middle District of Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 30.
The document alleges that Siegmeister's property “was purchased with proceeds of wire fraud or derived from proceeds traceable to wire fraud,” from a scheme that began two years before his election into office as State Attorney of the Third Judicial Circuit but continued during his time in office.
An investigation was initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigators (FBI) in the summer of 2018, which tied Siegmeister to a scheme to defraud Leonard Whitman Thomas and his estate of assets equating to $985,000, by way of making material representations to the Probate Court and transferring hundreds of thousands of dollars from Thomas and his estate to himself and his mother, Nancy A. Bowen.
The court documents do not formally charge Siegmeister, but the FBI reports that led to the court filing indicate that Siemeister violated Florida law by wrongfully taking money that did not belong to him.
Now deceased, Leonard Whitman Thomas was hospitalized with an injury in early 2010 at the age of 80. Thomas was living in a Motel 6 in Lake City at the time of his injury. On March 26, 2010, Siegmeister filed a Guardianship Petition with the Probate Court after he was referred to Thomas by Adult Protective Services, according to a late 2019 FBI interview with Bowen.
Siegmeister filed a guardianship petition and was later appointed as the voluntary guardian for Thomas in March of 2010, after disclosing to the Probate Court in his application that the approximate value of Thomas' property at that time was $664,751.93 in Coca-Cola stock and $36,992.58 in funds held at First Federal Bank and Fifth Third Bank.
The same day Siegmeister was appointed voluntary guardianship, he filed a Petition for Expenditure for Funds, notifying the court that Thomas desired to have a last will prepared and that Thomas had “Heirs that he would like to include in his estate.” $1,000, plus costs, to cover the preparation of Thomas' will was authorized. The will, according to the document, had Thomas' entire estate bequeathed to Bowen and appointed Siegmeister as the personal representative, authorized to handle the matters of Thomas' estate upon death. The documents later state that Siegmeister did not notify the Probate Court that Bowen became the sole beneficiary of Thomas's estate five weeks after he was appointed voluntary guardian.
As Thomas' voluntary guardian, Siegmeister was directed to take possession of Thomas' property and attend to Thomas's financial matters. His responsibilities included his duty to dispose of Thomas' assets to pay Thomas' expenses. Court documents note that on Jan. 10, 2015, just before Thomas' death at the age of 85, the probate court authorized Siegmeister to sell a portion of Thomas' Coca-Cola stock to pay Thomas' expenses as needed.
On Jan. 14, 2015, the day of Thomas' death, Siegmeister, who, at the time was operating Siegmeister Law Firm in Lake City, deposited stock sales in the amount of $40,458.20 into a guardianship account, withdrawing $2,000 in cash which resulted in a net deposit of $38,458.
The following day, Siegmeister wrote a check to himself from the guardianship account for $18,428.20 for “medical reimbursement. The check was deposited into a personal account shared by Siegmeister and his wife, Jamie.
Six days later, court documents state that Siegmeister wrote another check from the guardianship account, payable to himself in the amount of $20,000. The check – the memo reading “hospital/medical settlement” – was deposited into Siegmeister's personal account. The court documents allege that the $38,428 in funds Siegmeister transferred to his personal account were used on personal expenses, noting that no records exist “documenting any expenses for Thomas, that Siegmeister paid for with his own funds. Moreover, Thomas had sufficient funds in the Coca-Cola stock to cover his expenses.”
The court documents continue to claim that Siegmeister deposited liquidated stock funds in the amount of $190,460 into the guardianship account in February of 2015, before withdrawing $200,833.94 from the account (which was then closed on April 15, 2015). The final $200,833.94 was deposited into a Siegmeister Law Firm trust account.
The report claims that the FBI investigation did not uncover any reason for Siegmeister to have closed the guardianship account and to have deposited the remaining amounts into the Siegmeister Law Firm trust account. It was noted that Siegmeister had not been discharged as Thomas' voluntary guardian by the Probate Court, and final reports and documents in the estate were not filed until September and October of 2015.
Records revealed that three separate checks, totaling $50,000, were used as down payments for the purchase of Siegmeister's primary home in Live Oak – the property in question.
The report claims that pursuant to a marital settlement agreement filed on May 26, 2020, Jamie Siegmeister, Seigmeister's ex-wife, agreed to transfer her portion of the property to Siegmeister. As of Sept. 30, 2020, however, a Quit Claim Deed had not been filed in the Suwannee County Circuit Court to transfer that ownership to Siegmeister.
Court records continue to show that on May 8, 2015, a check for $46,000 was withdrawn from the Siegmeister Law Firm trust account for $46,000, which was written to Heritage Title Services as a final payment on Lafayette County property that was purchased for $48,500.
Toward the end of May 2015, Siegmeister wrote a $55,000 check to himself from the Siegmeister Law Firm trust account, supposedly for “settlement fees Hudson/Thomas.” The court documents say that the check was deposited into Siegmeister's personal account and used to pay personal expenses.
In the 10 months following Thomas' death, during which Siegmeister still served as Thomas' voluntary guardian, the report alleges that Siegmeister diverted over $235,000 in Thomas' assets to himself. During the same 10-month period, the FBI report claims that Siegmeister wrote over $15,500 in checks to Bowen, his mother – many of which referenced “reimbursement” in the memo section.
Bowen told investigators in August of 2020 that she did not recall receiving those checks, reporting that she did not pay for Thomas' expenses aside from minor expenses for personal items and perhaps an item of clothing, according to the records.
In September of 2015, Siegmeister, under penalty of perjury according to the report, signed the annual accountings for the guardianship for the periods of April 13, 2012, through April 12, 2013, and April 11, 2013, through April 10, 2014. Siegmeister also signed a final accounting of guardian property for the Thomas guardianship for the period of April 11, 2014, through Jan. 31, 2015. The report states that Siegmeister certified to the Probate Court that he had obtained a receipt or canceled check for all expenditures made on behalf of Thomas.
In the final accounting of guardian property for the Thomas guardianship, in the expenditures schedule, the documents omitted the $18,428 and $20,000 checks Siegmeister wrote to himself from the Siegmeister Law Firm trust account on Jan. 15, 2015 and Jan. 21, 2015 respectively. False expenditures were also listed in the schedule, claiming that Siegmeister paid Lake city Medical Center over $143,000, when records indicate that they only received nearly $20,000.
In February of 2016, Siegmeister deposited almost $314,000 of Thomas' liquidated Coca-Cola stock funds into the Siegmeister Law Firm Trust Account. Later in March of 2016, Siegmeister deposited over $11,600 in Thomas' liquidated Coca-Cola stock funds. The court records show that in 2016, First Federal Bank worked with the Federal Reserve Bank to negotiate deposited checks. “The Federal Reserve Bank would have received interstate electronic wire transmissions from First Federal Bank in Florida to their processing center in Dallas, Texas,” the report reads.
The FBI investigator reviewed a check dated for March 8, 2016, written from the Siegmeister Law Firm trust account, in the amount of $264,500, payable to Bowen or Siegmeister. The memo of the check referenced “Estate Gift, Mr. LW Thomas,” and was deposited by Siegmeister into his personal account. Siegmeister then used those proceeds to pay for three months of mortgage payments of $1,646.73 each month.
In March and April 2016, a total of $49.914.95 was written out to Bowen from Siegmeister, from the Siegmeister Law Firm trust account. The memo of one of the checks referenced “Settlement of Estate LW Thomas.”
The court documents continue to claim that in April of 2016, Thomas' remaining Coca-Cola stock was transferred by Siegmeister (the estate's personal representative) from the deceased's stock account into Bowen's name. The 7,000-plus shares of the stock were valued at approximately $321,000. The current value is more than $359,000.
According to records, Bowen has received more than $50,000 in Coca-Cola stock dividends since July of 2016.
In August of 2020, Ernest Maloney Page IV, a former assistant state attorney hired by Siegmeister, plead guilty to his role in a bribery scheme involving a high-ranking attorney, only identified in charging documents as “J.S.,” who received a discount on a tractor in exchange for favorable prosecution treatment.
Siegmeister resigned from his post in December of 2019 with one year left in his term. Reports swirled in February of 2020 that Siegmeister was under federal investigation. Bobi Frank, Siegmeister's attorney, told The Florida Times-Union in an email that “if he [Siegmeister] was under investigation for any reason, he would fully cooperate with federal agents and prosecutors.” It was added by Frank that Siegmeister “has nothing to hide.” Frank added that Siegmeister's marriage of 13 years had come to an end and “he intends on taking this time to reflect and heal.” Siegmeister's now ex-wife told the Lake City Reporter that Siegmeisters impending-divorce reasoning for leaving his post as State Attorney was “false” and an “insult.”
Siegmeister had served as State Attorney over seven North Florida counties, including Hamilton, Suwannee and Lafayette counties. A native of Union County, Fla., Siegmeister was elected into the Office of the State Attorney for the Third Judicial Circuit in 2012.