When contacted by Tallahassee Reports, Marcus Gillum refused to comment on the FBI investigation.
Mayor Andrew Gillum has refused to communicate with TR since 2015. Mayor Andrew Gillum won the Democratic primary for governor of Florida on August 28th.
Marcus Gillum’s name has surfaced in relation to the federal investigation several times. Most notably he was mentioned in public reports as part of a group that vacationed in New York in August 2016. The group included FBI agents posing as developers, Adam Corey, and Mayor Andrew Gillum.
Adam Corey, the former campaign treasurer to Mayor Andrew Gillum, is a central figure in the federal investigation and, at the time of the New York Trip, was a city lobbyists and a city vendor.
The FBI investigation was revealed in June 2017 after a federal grand jury served subpoenas to the city of Tallahassee. The subpoenas demanded records involving eight local business people and a number of their companies. Corey and the city-subsidized Edison restaurant, which he co-owns with other investors, were named in the subpoenas.
The trip to New York was first reported by WCTV in August 2017 . Following WCTV’s initial report, Tallahassee Reports broke new information about the outing.
At the time of the trip Marcus Gillum told TR that he was in New York working for the People of the American Way. When asked about the FBI investigation, Gillum said “he would never comment” and ended the call.
Mayor Andrew Gillum has refused to answer questions posed by a Tallahassee Democrat reporter about who paid for activities on the trip. He later said he “either paid his own way or had his brother Marcus, who was also on the trip, pay some of their expenses.”
The Tallahassee Democrat wrote in 2017 that the “FBI may have tried to entice Mayor Andrew Gillum through one of his close friends to see a Broadway show, catch a Mets game and stay at a hotel in New York City as part of its investigation into alleged public corruption in Tallahassee.”
Payments to Marcus Gillum -who was on the New York trip – would have also been an enticement for Gillum to meet with FBI agents posing as developers.
The trip was the subject of a complaint filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics and is still under investigation.
Following the trip to New York, people attending FSU football games during the 2016 season indicated that Marcus Gillum received tickets for a stadium skybox provided by Adam Corey. At times, these people said Marcus Gillum was in the skybox with the undercover FBI agents who were posing as developers.
Adam Corey’s FSU football skybox was revealed as a central part of the federal investigation when TR reported that the undercover FBI agents purchased four tickets from Corey. It was later confirmed the tickets were provided to City of Tallahassee employees through Corey. The scandal led to the resignation of Tallahassee City Manager Rick Fernandez.
