Billionaire GOP Governor candidate Rick Scott says he has conservative values, but the kind of companies he invests in don't seem to. One company Scott invested in was shown to help send money from illegal immigrants back to Mexico even though he backs Arizona's immigration laws. Another had a business relationship with Mexican Playboy.
Now it seems that XFONE, Inc, a company of which Scott owned 10 percent, received $60 million from President Obama's stimulus bill.
Scott, of course, has been a vocal critic of the stimulus bill, despite the fact he seemed to financially profit from it. XFONE's stock more than tripled after getting the funds.
"This strategy took a huge leap forward recently with the notification that our wholly-owned subsidiary PRIDE Network had been awarded $63.6 million in stimulus grants and long-term loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)," wrote XFONE, Inc. president and CEO Guy Nissenson wrote in a March 2010 press release according to Politico.
Scott himself has been a vocal critic of the stimulus, saying that Florida "should not have accepted that money, because we're all going to have to pay for it and our kids are going to have to pay for it."
A rep for Scott didn't elaborate on the investments to Politico, but points out that Scott's chief Republican rival Bill McCollum has made investments of less than $10,000 in three companies that either sought or received stimulus funds.
