Johnny `Roadblock,' indeed.
Here's the deal. Seven years ago this month, Joannou was hired by Mutual Benefits Corporation (MBC), one of the largest "structured settlement" companies in the nation. What are structured settlements, you ask? Well, some folks call them "dead peasant" scams instead - buying the insurance policies of elderly or terminally ill patients for pennies on the dollar and then cashing in when they die.
A futures market in death, in other words.
Johnny Roadblock's new employers had a specific request in return for the checks they wrote him: to use his status as a lawyer-legislator to file legislative continuances that would delay the investigation into their fraudulent activity.
And Johnny Roadblock was only to happy to help them out. He filed at least two legislative continuances on behalf of MBC, which only weeks earlier had lost a court challenge to stop the Florida Insurance Commission from examining its books. "The court found that a preliminary review by the department indicated `obvious fraud' in life insurance applications on file with the company," according to a statement by Bill Nelson, then-Florida Insurance Commissioner (and now U.S. Senator), who busted eight men for fencing fraudulent life insurance policies for Johnny Roadblock's new bosses.
In the wake of the scandal, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought charges against MBC and other "dead peasants investors" in 18 states on behalf of people who were defrauded of more than $400 million over a three-year period.
As for Johnny Roadblock, he disappeared from the case after getting the second legislative continuance - proving that he was hired by MBC just for his ability to delay justice, not for any legal expertise.