Sam SternThe Republican candidate for Palm Beach County state’s attorney recently stated that, like his Democratic opponent, he had “not accepted contributions from convicted felons.”

It isn’t true.

Stern accepted $100,000 in September from a company whose directors were found guilty of multiple counts of violating the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (TWO).

The “enemy” they illegally did business with? Cuba.

Stern threw shade in a statement to the Palm Beach Mail last week at the assistant state attorney Alexia Coxa Democrat running for State’s Attorney, for accepting a $1,000 donation from the vice president of the Broward Sheriff’s Advisory Council. Luis Stahl.

Stahl was sentenced in 2019 to 30 months in prison, a $75,000 fine and an order to pay $6 million in restitution after being found guilty of tax evasion in 2019. He has made many political contributions this cycle, including to the US representative. Carlos GimenezAttorney General Ashley Moody and the governor. Ron De Santis-appointed Palm Beach commissioner Michael Barnett – all Republicans – and the Democratic sheriff of Palm Beach Ricardo Bradshaw.

The Division of Elections shows that the $1,000 donation Cox received from Stahl last year is tied for the second-smallest statewide donation he has given this cycle, trailing only the Orange and Osceola State Attorney’s Republican campaign, which has since been aborted. Seth Hyman.

But a big contributor to Stern, who has raised and spent more than $1.4 million for the State’s Attorney’s race, was Philadelphia-based chemical manufacturer Wynnefield Brothers International. Stern’s political committee, Stern PCreported receiving $100,000 on September 9 from the company, which registered with the Florida Division of Corporations in 2022.

Wynnefield Brothers Directors Gift and Stefan Brodie are the former owners and operators of a biotech manufacturing and applications company called Bro-Tech, doing business as Purolite. In 2021, the same year as the Brodies sold Purolite to the company Ecolab, Stefan Brodie announced on the Purolite website that it was involved in a dispute with its accountants because they had unfiled tax returns on behalf of the company between 2010 and 2017.

That tongue-in-cheek tax fact isn’t the most interesting detail about the Brodie brothers and their company. That is: In 2002, a federal jury convicted Bro-Tech and the Brodies of violating an embargo imposed on Cuba under the TWEA to sell water purifying resins to the island nation.

Bro-Tech was convicted of 45 counts of violating the TWEA. Don Brodie was convicted on 34 charges, including “provoking” and “approving” the illegal sale of water purifying resins to Cuba. And Stefan Brodie was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate the TWEA.

After the trial judge granted the defendants a new trial because he determined that the language used by prosecutors prejudiced the jury, Don Brodie pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment and was sentenced to one year of probation. and a fine of $10,000. Bro-Tech did the same and was fined $250,000.

The US government appealed the judge’s decision to grant Stefan Brodie’s motion for acquittal. After reviewing the case, the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated his sentence.

In their written opinion, the judges Theodore McKee, Michael Fisher and Eduardo Becker wrote that “a reasonable jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that (Brodie) had actual knowledge of the law violated, the facts constituting the crime, and the unlawful purpose of the conspiracy.”

They added that evidence at trial showed that Brodie exhibited “willful blindness” and painted “a compelling picture of (him) as the president of a company that deliberately stuck his head in the sand” about the prohibited transactions.

Stern did not immediately respond to questions about whether he was aware of the TWEA violations, Stefan Brodie’s conviction, Don Brodie’s guilty plea and whether he plans to return his $100,000 contribution. Florida Politics will update this report if it does.

Federal and state records show Miami Beach resident Stefan Brodie donated $1.25 million to the Never Back Down PAC that backed DeSantis’ short-lived presidential campaign, $1 million to DeSantis’ Empower Parents PC political committee, $844,600 to a joint fundraising committee secondary donald trump presidential campaign, $20,000 to the Florida Republican Party, $6,600 to Trump directly and $5,000 to Trump’s Save America PAC.

Don Brodie donated $844,600 to Trump’s joint fundraising committee, $10,000 to the Republican Party of Florida, $6,510 to Trump and $5,000 to the Save America PAC.

Stern, a former federal and Palm Beach County prosecutor, is competing with Cox and a non-partisan lawyer Adam Farkas to succeed Palm Beach State Attorney David Aronbergwho is leaving after 12 years in office.

The Nov. 5 winner will earn a salary of $219,000 and will command an office of 115 prosecutors and 180 support staff charged with delivering justice in Florida’s fourth most populous county.

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