Dear Fellow Floridian:
Our state is home to more than 2.2 million small businesses that
employ roughly four out of five Floridians.
This quarter,
Florida’s Bottom Line focuses on Florida’s small
business community and how we can provide a stable economic environment
so that we can continue to help businesses flourish and expand. Standing
behind our small business community is crucial to our recovery. These
heroes of Florida give me confidence that our future is bright.
This issue will provide you with the most up-to-date financial and
economic statistics for Florida, serving as a roadmap for your financial
future. I hope you find this edition interesting and informative.
Read Florida's Bottom Line.
Jeff Atwater
Chief Financial Officer
State of Florida
Workers' Comp Fraud Arrests in 'Operation Dirty Money'
CFO Jeff Atwater and Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti at a press
conference today at the Broward Sheriff’s Office announced
multiple
arrests in “Operation Dirty Money,” an investigation conducted by the
recently formed Workers’ Compensation Fraud Task Force, which has to
date netted more than $140 million in fraudulent transactions associated
with 12 shell companies. The task force, created jointly by the Florida
Department of Financial Services’ Division of Insurance Fraud and
the Broward Sheriff’s Office, charged eight individuals with
workers’ compensation fraud and money laundering for their involvement
in a large-scale check cashing scheme to evade the cost of workers’
compensation coverage.
Read more.
Forum Features Tony DiBenedetto
Partnering with The Jim Moran Institute to host the 2012 Small
Business Leadership Forum in Tampa on Sept. 6-7, 2012, it is CFO
Atwater's goal to connect business owners
with
the right tools and information to help them succeed. It is vital that
small businesses continue to grow and prosper in Florida. Along with
providing resources to businesses, the forum is
an opportunity to hear directly from Florida’s small-business community
with the goal of bringing feedback to Tallahassee to improve
our state’s business climate.
One session, "Dashboard Management," will introduce the fundamentals of supply chain management for small businesses, with a particular focus on cost control and supplier management. The session will be presented by Tony DiBenedetto, a Florida businessman of many talents.
Winner of the Ernst & Young 2009 Florida Entrepreneur Of The Year®
Award in Technology, DiBenedetto, chairman and CEO of Tribridge,
has dedicated his career to the areas of business innovation,
customer advocacy and servant leadership. DiBenedetto co-founded Tribridge in 1998 and has led the firm through the successful merger, acquisition and integration of seven companies, resulting in a compound annual growth
rate of over 50 percent each year. Under his guidance, Tribridge has
grown from a start-up company to one of the leading IT service providers
in the United States. For the third time in five years, Tribridge was
selected from among thousands of partners around the world as the 2012
Worldwide Microsoft Dynamics Partner of the Year.
To find out more information about the forum, including the complete
list of panelists and how to register, visit www.flsmallbusinessforum.com.