PINELLAS COUNTY, FL — The cousins and business partners of Florida state Sen. Nick DiCeglie say that he embezzled company funds to finance his political campaign, according to a lawsuit filed May 8 in Pinellas County.
DiCeglie is one-third owner of the Clearwater-based Solar Sanitation, Inc. Anthony DiNardi, Jr. and John DiNardi also each own a third of the company, and all three make up its Board of Directors, court records show.
Solar Sanitation, which offers residential and commercial waste disposal services, is seeking to recover more than $30,000 in damages — excluding costs, interest and attorneys’ fees — from the politician, the complaint against DiCeglie said.
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Solar has discovered that DiCeglie has engaged in a pattern of misappropriation of Solar’s funds and has abused his position as director, using Solar funds for a number of personal expenses and to advance his political career,” the complaint reads.
The Indian Rocks Beach-based politician who was first elected to represent District 66 in 2018.
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DiCeglie’s lawyer, Richard Salazar, characterized the lawsuit as a family dispute.
“Nick and his cousins are going through a business divorce, and like any divorce, each side attempts to gain leverage,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “This is nothing more than a desperate, last ditch attempt to wound Nick on his way to the negotiating table.”
The state senator inherited his third of the company from his father, who co-founded it in 1980, according to reports. Likewise, his cousins inherited their portion of the business from their own father.
The DiNardis claim that he used money from Solar Sanitation for political consulting services, loans to finance his political campaign, membership fees for political clubs and organizations, and rent for property in Tallahassee. Personally, he used funds for travel, watercrafts and vehicles, and monthly dining and entertainment expenses, they said.
He used more than $65,000 from the company’s bank accounts “no less than (40) times” between Jan. 20, 2015 and Oct. 26, 2020, according to the lawsuit.
“Upon information and belief, these payments did not serve any interest of Solar, but were solely for DiCeglie’s personal benefit in connection with his political career as a Florida legislator,” the complaint said.
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The lawsuit also claims he took a $125,000 personal loan from Solar in 2018 for his political campaign, the lawsuit said. While took out the loan “with the ongoing obligation to repay it … to date, he has largely not paid back this ‘loan.’ Nor has he, as a director of Solar, made any attempt to secure repayment.”
A separate lawsuit filed by his cousins against DiCeglie in November claims he misappropriated more than $800,000 in company funds and that he opened several bank and credit card accounts in Solar’s name without telling his cousins.
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