By: Sharon Aron Baron
More clues about William Rankin’s shady past are coming forward. Rankin is the Democratic candidate for Chief Financial Officer of Florida who’s running against Jeff Atwater (R) and residents need to have a good hard look before voting based on party in this race.
Details first emerged in the fall of 2013 after Chaz Stevens of MAOS uncovered campaign expenditure checks written from Rankin’s personal account – a big no no.
Don’t forget: This is the race for Chief Financial Officer for the State of Florida.
Stevens filed an official complaint with the The State of Florida Elections Commission which agreed that William Rankin did violate Section 106.07(5), Florida Statutes, when he certified his 2013 M11 Report was true, correct, and complete when it was not.
Rankin has also been exagerating his military experience on the campaign trail as well, saying that as a mid-level enlisted, he spent 11 years creating and implementing policy for the US Army Criminal Investigation Command. Brooke Knight, former Navy Veteran and writer of Imaconstitutionalist was shocked at this embellishment, and wrote that Rankin was a Staff Sergeant at an E/6, E/7 level and far from being a policy maker.
Rankin, a former Republican who said that the Republican Party “abandoned” him, said that he was the Director of Asset Management for the State of Ohio’s Treasury Department. According to Rankin‘s bio, his experience with the Ohio State Treasury included “overseeing and safekeeping the state’s $120 billion dollar public trust and retirement funds.”
The truth is, his position wasn’t as important as that, but still important. According to the December 17, 1997 Toledo Blade, Rankin was touted for exemplary measures in organizing the office.
“Technology improvements have enabled the treasurer’s office to operate more efficiently, even enabling the vault to be used as a conference room as the need for storage space has declined dramatically, said William Rankin, director of asset management.” – Toledo Blade.
Rankin’s experience makes him more worthy of being a stock boy at Office Depot rather than CFO of Florida.
It’s also been revealed that Rankin doesn’t own a home in Florida, but has had dozens of rented residences, mostly short-term. There is absolutely no record of home ownership for Rankin in the State of Florida says writer Chaz Stevens who discovered that Rankin has lived in over 51 different addresses since 1983. This would be like moving close to twice a year for 30 years. Surely, the publisher of the failed Millionaire Lifestyle Magazine would own property.
Also, for someone who caters to the “Millionaire Lifestyle,” Rankin is short on his own resources for his campaign. His latest financial report shows he only has $17,480.99 to fund a state election. There is no way he can match his competitor Jeff Atwater who has received $2,935,184.55. Unlike a real millionaire like Rick Scott who spent $73 million of his own family’s money to fund his election, Rankin merely believes he’s a millionaire.
Millionaire Lifestyle Magazine couldn’t even afford to pay their own staff an appropriate salary for their work and posted an ad back in November 2013 in search of an editor which Snipe London teased that they were only offering $8,000 British pounds annually. This is equivalent to paying $12,869.57 per year!
Can you create compelling editorial for millionaires? Are you familiar with the latest luxury brands? Can you mix with the swells at their country piles? Then Millionaire Lifestyle magazine has a job for you. As long as you can live the millionaire lifestyle on £8,000 per annum. And, just like the Big Society, there are no employee benefits.” – From Snipe London
In recent news, it has been discovered that Rankin may have swindled several people in Europe out of money while trying to raise funds for his magazine. According to Nancy Smith of Sunshine State News, She received a phone call claiming a state candidate in Florida was a con man. She dismissed the first call from “Amber” on March 25, thinking it could be a woman with a personal grudge.
Then on April 22, she received a second call from a woman named Avi who had a heavy Scandinavian accent. Avi told Smith that she had come across her stories and wanted the people of Florida to know Rankin stole as much as $4 million from her.
It didn’t stop there. Just last month Smith received a call from a “Pandora Newby” in Bath, England who told her story and sent Smith a copy of a promissory note with Rankin’s signature. She’s been trying to get her money back in the amount of $8,000 with interest he owes her, but he never responded.
Newby met Rankin through a friend and hoped if she helped him find investors in Britain, he would give her a job at his magazine. She was working in Wales at the time and wanted to move back to London. She loaned him money to help get his friend out of jail. “He was desperate for bail money, so I offered to loan him the money under a conventional loan agreement. See the promissory note here.
The fact that there are several people Rankin owes money to is more than a coincidence and should raise a lot of red flags for voters.
Rankin told Broward County Democrats in February that he’s concerned with the lack of trust people have for the Republicans. However, his sketchy background is the one voters should be examining. Rankin’s only hope is that Florida voters are so disenchanted with Rick Scott, they’ll vote for anyone with a “D” next to their name.
Video by Tamarac Talk
