Tamarac mayor arrested for public corruption

State prosecutors charged Tamarac Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco with four counts of public corruption for allowing developers to contribute $21,000 to a political action committee to support her 2006 campaign.

Tamarac Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco turned herself in to the Broward County Jail Wednesday after state prosecutors charged her with four counts of public corruption related to her 2006 mayoral campaign.

Flansbaum-Talabisco, whose bond was set at $9,000, was charged with unlawful compensation, bribery, official misconduct and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation. She had been under investigation by the Broward State Attorney’s Office for allowing developers Bruce and Shawn Chait to contribute $21,000 through a political action committee to support her 2006 campaign in exchange for favorable votes involving the development company, Prestige Homes, which had planned to build more than 700 single-family homes on two former golf courses.

The charges against Flansbaum-Talabisco stem from statements given to prosecutors by the Chaits, who have been cooperating with a state investigation since pleading guilty in August to charges of unlawful compensation. In exchange for their cooperation, the Chaits received four years probation and prosecutors dropped charges of bribery and perjury.

Since then, investigators have been following their money trail.