Florida Governor Ron DeSantis used $92 million of coronavirus stimulus funding from the U.S. tax payer for an interchange that will greatly enhance the value of a gated community being developed by one of his major donors, the Iranian-born, British-educated ICI Homes owner Morteza ‘Mori’ Hosseini.
Hosseini has dished out at least tens of thousands to DeSantis’s campaigns, as well as loaning him a golf simulator worth $30,000, and providing private jets for the use of the Governor and his wife Jill, who prefers to go by Casey. Hosseini and the Republican presidential hopeful have “a long, close relationship” due in no small part to the Iranian-American’s willingness to make his jet available at short notice.
Conveniently, Hosseini was also appointed to the University of Florida Board of Trustees, while his sister Maryam Ghyabi-White was appointed by Governor DeSantis to the same St. John’s River Water Management District Governing Board which approved the interchange costing federal tax payers $92 million. Morteza’s wife, Forough Hosseini – a senior vice president at ICI Homes – was also appointed to the Florida Children and Youth Cabinet, completing a DeSantis donor swamp hat-trick with the Hosseini family.
Asked about the near $100M injection from Governor DeSantis, Hosseini said he would’ve gone through with the plan anyway, but “it certainly helps.”
