4/14/21
As new details emerge about Rep. Matt Gaetz’s role in an alleged sex ring, The Daily Beast has obtained several documents showing that the suspected ringleader of the group, Joel Greenberg, made more than 150 Venmo payments to dozens of young women, and to a girl who was 17 at the time. The payment from Greenberg, an accused sex trafficker, to the 17-year-old took place in June 2017. It was for $300 and, according to the memo field, was for “Food.” Greenberg’s relationship with Gaetz, and the money Greenberg paid to women, is a focal point for the Justice Department investigation into Gaetz. And the new documents obtained by The Daily Beast—containing years of online financial transactions—establish a clear pattern: Greenberg paid multiple young women (and at least one girl) hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars on Venmo in one transaction after another. Nearly a year after Greenberg’s June 2017 payment, Gaetz Venmo’d Greenberg to “Hit up ___,” using a nickname for the teen. She was 18 years old by then, and as The Daily Beast reported, Greenberg described the payment as being for “School.” It was one of at least 16 Venmo payments to 12 different women listed as being for “School.” Greenberg—who was a close associate of Gaetz—now sits in jail after being indicted on 33 counts, including sex trafficking, conspiracy to bribe a public official, and stalking.
The federal indictment claims Greenberg was “engaged in ‘sugar daddy’ relationships,” and he is said to be helping federal agents in their now-expanded investigation into the GOP congressman from the Florida panhandle. “I'm sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today,” Greenberg’s lawyer, Fritz Scheller, told reporters last week. According to three people with knowledge of the relationship, Gaetz was among the men who tapped Greenberg to access a large network of young women. And according to CNN, women would show up to parties at gated-community homes or hotel suites, where they would be supplied with alcohol and drugs like cocaine and ecstasy, and would have sex with the men. Greenberg would then later pay the women. One of the most significant countermeasures came from the woman who was first paid by Greenberg when she was 17. The day after The Daily Beast revealed one payment Greenberg made to her after she had recently turned 18—without identifying her by name—the woman changed all of her identifying information on Venmo. She also appears to no longer be Venmo friends with two other women Greenberg paid through the app. As of this week, she also no longer appears to be Venmo friends with Gaetz.
