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Former Commissioner Charged With Corruption

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Former Tamarac Commissioner Marc Sultanof has been charged with six felony counts for reportedly accepting $30 thousand from two developers in exchange for his commission votes on their projects.

The Broward State Attorney's Office charged Sultanof, 89, with three counts of official misconduct, one count of bribery, one count of unlawful compensation and one count of conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation.

According to the arrest warrant, Sultanof used the money from developers Shawn and Bruce Chait to help pay for Sultanof's 2006 Honda Accord. The warrant says he received the money from the Chaits, owners of Prestige Homes, between March 2006 through January 2007. His improper relationship with the Chaits reportedly continued through November 2008.

The bribery and unlawful compensation charges are both second-degree felonies with a maximum sentence of 15 years on each count. The official misconduct and conspiracy charges are each a third-degree felony with a maximum sentence of five years each.

Sultanof is not the first public official to be charged in connection with the Chaits. Last month suspended Broward School Board Stephanie Kraft, along with her husband Mitch, pled not guilty Wednesday morning to corruption charges.

The Krafts have been charged with unlawful compensation, bribery and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation. Stephanie Kraft is also charged with official misconduct.

According to the Broward State Attorney's Office, the charges stem from illegal assistance that the Krafts gave to the Chaits who pleaded guilty earlier this year to Unlawful Compensation charges of their own. Both were sentenced to probation.

According to the Broward State Attorney's Office the Chaits hired Mitch Kraft to help them get schools-required development fees for one of their building projects effectively reduced by $500,000. Investigators found Stephanie Kraft then pushed school staff to put the reduced development fee that her husband helped arrange onto the school boards' "consent" agenda.

Investigators say the Chait's wanted to develop a former golf course in Tamarac and wanted to avoid paying more big money in development fees to the School District.

Prosecutors say the Chait's hired Mitch Kraft to help them, considering it "insurance that nothing would go wrong," according to the arrest affidavit for the Kraft's. They paid him $10,000.

Stephanie Kraft is accused of putting the item to reduce the development fees on the school board's consent agenda nearly guaranteeing the Chait's would save hundreds of thousand of dollars.

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