Former NC lawmaker indicted for embezzlement | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the Pete calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. Alrighty. So before I do this story, full disclosure, uh, I know one of the individuals involved in this story. I mean, I don't know them, but I, I don't know, know them, but I, I'm familiar with them, with him. One Jason Sane, former Republican state lawmaker from Lincoln County. I have interviewed him many, many times over the years, talked with him in the past about legislative issues and such. And so, He invited me one time. It was during an interview, but he did invite me to join them for playing some Call of Duty online. So, just for the record, I want everybody to know that. But Jason Sane is now at the center of an investigation and has been criminally charged in a public corruption probe. Now, he denies. that he did any of these things, and as I go through some of the details here, like I'm, and I tried to find the source material, but all it was was like a one-page or two-page indictment, and it didn't really outline all of the stuff. So I'm relying on different news articles, one from WRAL, one from WBTV, and another one from the Carolina Journal. And some of these reports seem to me to conflict with each other. So I'm not sure. And I have not called Jason saying to ask him about anything. He's put out a statement, which is I will get to, which he says, like, I didn't do this. So. But this it all goes back to. A. A tour of a bourbon facility distillery a couple of years ago. And. It was a bunch of North Carolina politicians and lobbyists or something. There was like– they had gone on one of these trips, junkets, whatever, and they toured a distillery and some of them got drunk. One of them puked in the bathroom I think was the story. And then one of the employees of– because it was in Kentucky I want to say. And they– one of the employees posted onto social media saying– you know, these North Carolina Republicans came in here and trashed the place. And I, I hate them and all this. And of course, like the, uh, you know, Democrats in North Carolina, uh, in the media, but I repeat myself, they, they, dare I say, pounced, they seized on, uh, on this social media post. So that's when I became aware, uh, of this, uh, story. I saw the story come across and they were complaining about these people. And then, uh, they ended up getting identified as this group, Greater Carolina. Okay? So, here's the story. I'm going to start with the one from WRAL. A former high-ranking Republican lawmaker, that would be Jason Sane, now faces criminal charges in a public corruption probe that has rattled politicians and lobbyists alike. Okay. Rattled everybody? Like, I don't know if it's rattling people. Will Duran, the reporter, never tells me about all of the rattled people. He doesn't name them. So I'm not sure who's rattled, how many, but whatever. That's how he wrote it. Wake County District Attorney Lauren Freeman made this announcement. And Jason Sainz, a Republican from Lincoln County, was indicted by a Wake County grand jury on charges of embezzlement and obtaining property by false pretense, according to the DA, Lauren Freeman. Sane was a former top state budget writer before his resignation from the legislature two years ago. He has close ties to a nonprofit group called Greater Carolina, which is at the heart of the investigation. Greater Carolina was founded by a former staffer for Jason Sane. And it was more recently run by what Will Duran describes as one of Jason Sane's political allies, David Coble. David Coble is a former Mooresville commissioner. Which, look, From Mooresville, at least he's not running around without his pants on. I mean, that's the bar, right? By the way, did I tell you that I went for a Halloween party as the former mayor of Mooresville? I did. I did. And nobody at the party knew the reference, which was surprising to me. I thought the story had broken through Like I've said, like Christy, my wife, she is sort of my canary in the coal mine where if she's aware of a story, then chances are it has broken through to the general population of non-news junkies. And so she knew about the pantsless mayor from Mooresville. One of her colleagues thought it was hilarious as well when Christy told her what my costume was. She knew about the pantsless mayor. So I thought I was like, this was going to be solid. I didn't expect everybody. Okay. To know the reference, but that's why I drew up a ridiculously oversized, uh, uh, name tag. You know, I got the, the Mooresville town, uh, logo on the name tag. And then I wrote, you know, mayor Chris Carney. And then I crossed out the mayor and I wrote former, um, I had a blazer on, I had a button down shirt and I spilled. A bunch of, you know, red wine all. Over the shirt. And I had a, a, a bunch of like a pill bottle, like prescription. Remember? Cause he claimed it was the prescription drugs that interacted with the wine that made him throw up all over himself. So he had to take his pants off to walk around city hall, but he was only at city hall because he forgot his phone there. And then he got sick, had to take his pants off. And he got a ride to the city hall from another woman, not his wife. And, Nothing to see here, just walking around pantsless in City Hall with a woman in the... Anyway, so that was my costume. I wore shorts. Oh, I did... Okay, I was not pantsless. I wore shorts, but you couldn't really see the shorts because I got a shirt that was overly large, you know? Some people thought I was that guy from Ghosted, if you've ever seen the CBS TV show Or Ghosts. Yeah, Ghosts, I think is the name of the show. Or maybe it's Ghosted. Anyway, so when I saw, oh, Mooresville, former town commissioner, I was like, did he have his pants on? Apparently he did, so there's no pants-less connection here to this story. Anyway, Greater Carolina originally came under scrutiny for sending lobbyists and lawmakers on trips to Kentucky to tour bourbon distilleries. A subsequent criminal investigation revealed more details of its previously secret spending, including tens of thousands of dollars more spent on strip clubs, football and golf outings, a beach house, and more. Coble also was indicted on the same charges of embezzlement and obtaining property by false pretense. And she added that Sane also faces an additional charge of aiding and abetting Coble in his alleged crimes. Sane told WRAL that he is innocent and he did not understand why he's charged at all. He said, quote, this organization has an independent board that decided what and where to spend its money and how to raise it. I was not involved in those decisions, as I told the state, the investigators. I did not commit any crime, and I look forward to clearing my name. He has retained a lawyer named Joseph Sejotarski, the Raleigh criminal defense attorney, who is also the lawyer for Jim Comey, the former FBI director, because he has a North Carolina criminal case for posting the photo of the seashells That's spelled out 8647, right? Or 45, was it? Or 47? Either way, right? Which Donald Trump said was a threat against his life. 8647. Okay, so that's Jason Sainz's attorney. 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Go to createavideo.com or visit them in Mint Hill just off I-485. Your photos and videos are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you. And they will tell others to come who you are. Visit createavideo.com. The hellion on the text line says, greatest unappreciated costume I've ever heard of. OMG. Thank you. I appreciate that. You know how many times I had to tell that story? That's why I was able to tell the story so succinctly just moments ago about my costume as the pantsless mayor of Mooresville, former mayor. It's because I had to tell the story like a dozen times when people asked me, like there was this one, there was this one, this little old lady came up to me and she says, I think you forgot something. I said, yes, ma'am. My pants. And then I had to tell the story. That's how I know the story. Okay. So back to the story from WRAL. Again, full disclosure, I have known Jason Sane, the Republican former state lawmaker from Lincoln County who was indicted for embezzlement over this spending that was done through a nonprofit called Greater Carolina and I don't know what the actual dollar amounts are, what the breakdown is, like for what was spent and where and all of this. Like I said, I tried looking up some of the source documents but couldn't find the details. So I'm relying on these media reports, which you know me, I try not to solely rely on the media reports. I try to get the source documents. So the official mission of Greater Carolina, was, according to WRAL, was to promote free market ideals, particularly the legalization of sports betting. Okay? Jason Sane was a key force behind the legalization of sports betting in North Carolina in 2023. It has since become a multi-billion dollar industry in the state. Was that part of Look, I am not naive. When Jason Sane announced he was stepping down and retiring from the legislature, my assumption was he's going to go work for a lobbying firm. That's generally how that goes, right? You work in the legislature, you meet these lobbyists, they're making six figures and you have all these connections. And so then you go to work for the lobbyist. And so then you can use those connections to get in front of the lawmakers to make your pitches, right? So I, I understand how that works. That's, and that's, a bipartisan thing. It occurs in every state legislature. It occurs in Congress, like all over the place. And we can all hate it, but we all understand like that is, that's how that whole system operates. Right. Okay. So that's what I assumed he was going to go do. And I assume that's what this greater Carolina firm is about is it's a, it's a lobbying outfit of some kind right now it's a nonprofit, which means it has to do things for like the social welfare and that kind of like, there are these IRS rules about it. And if you're spending money that cannot be directly tied to social benefits, social welfare, whatever, then the nonprofit could be in trouble. Okay. Search warrants in the case detailing the group's spending on vacations, sporting events, and strip clubs. Just by the way, guys, not for nothing here. If you're a lobbyist, probably... not a good idea to put the strip club expenses on the company card, you know? Also, like, just don't do that, you know? Just don't make the strip clubs part of the lobbying experience. Do you need to do that? Is that necessary? Seriously, do you need to do that in order to close a deal? Like, you know. I'm not going to sign on to this legislation unless you take me to a strip club. Really? You could just go to any strip club, can't you? I don't know. So, the investigators believe that the... greater Carolina nonprofit strayed from the education purpose. Such groups must maintain in order to keep their nonprofit status. Okay. Well, this seems to me like, then you don't have a case. Are you telling me that things cannot be learned at a strip club? I mean, everybody that works at the strip club, they're all, they're paying their way through college. That's what I've been told. Right. Right. I mean, the philosopher Chris Rock explained all of this like 15 years ago. So are you telling me you can't get an education? There's no educational value to watching the Carolina Panthers play? Some other team that you learn from? I mean, you're not going to learn really much from them, but like not the Panthers. But the other team, like you could learn a lot about, you know, teamwork, leadership, focus, drive. You know what I mean? Freeman, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't mean to take the cheap shots at the Panthers. Go Panthers. I want them to win, but oh my gosh. Freeman previously charged four lobbyists for, lobbyists who worked for gambling and liquor companies as part of the same investigation. In September, she cut deals with them though, dismissing the charges against three of the four. Oh, wait a minute. So you charged a bunch of lobbyists and then gave them deals because they agreed to deferred prosecution deals promising to take ethics training and pay $ 1, 000 in fines. This is a massive scandal then. My goodness, you charged four and you let them all walk if they took an ethics class? That'll teach them ethics. That'll do it. It's an ethics class. Surely people who are ethically compromised will not cheat on an ethics class. Sure, that won't happen at all. They will learn a lot. Yes. Good Lord. All right, real quick. Every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real, it's in your name, and 10 minutes tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. So I mentioned earlier that there are multiple news outlets reporting on this story about Jason Sane being indicted, David Coble being indicted, former town commissioner for Mooresville, Sane, former state representative. But I'm unclear on what all of the charges are and to whom they apply, because as I read earlier, Sane was indicted. on charges of embezzlement and obtaining property by false pretenses. Okay. I go over to WBTV. Sane is facing four felony charges, including two charges of obtaining property under false pretense and two charges of embezzlement. According to the indictment, Sane is not accused of the embezzlement, but of aiding and abetting Coble. Okay, so which is it? So it's aiding and abetting. I'm not sure. See what I mean? Like, I'm not clear. That's what BTV reported. Carolina Journal says Sane faces two charges of obtaining property by false pretenses, two counts of embezzlement of more than a hundred thousand dollars. Coble faces the same four charges and an additional charge of embezzlement of less than a hundred thousand dollars. Okay. Now Sane says that all of these expenditures were approved by the nonprofits board, greater Carolina's board. Um, Coble was the treasurer of. The group of the nonprofit, saying, helped to create the nonprofit, apparently, according to WBTV's report by David Hodges. The indictments claim the money was solicited for Greater Carolina with the promise of promoting state policies in favor of business and free enterprise, when, in fact, the money raised was used for Coble and others. Personal benefit. Search warrants filed by the SBI earlier in 2026 show that a credit card for greater Carolina that was assigned to COBOL was used at numerous locations that were of interest to the SBI investigators. Like the strip clubs. I mean, well, the expenditures were, I don't know what their interest in the strip clubs were. Two of the companies were in the adult entertainment business. Which I guess makes sense if a lot of the lobbying work you're doing is for like gambling industry representatives and alcohol. Like that does kind of make sense. No? You got the gambling. You got the booze. And then you got the strip clubs. I feel like there's some overlap. Like if we're doing Venn diagrams, you know, I feel like there's a good bit of overlap there. Other expenditures included a men's clinic in Mooresville specializing in treating erectile dysfunction and other sexual-related medical issues. In Mooresville. Well, now, that could be related to the strip club. Right? Okay. The Giorgio Armani store in Beverly Hills, California. Two Carolina Panthers-related events. a vacation rental in the Outer Banks, and a hotel in Boca Raton, Florida. According to one of the search warrants, payments totaling in excess of $ 400, 000 were tied to the Greater Carolina credit card. But I don't know, like, are all of those expenses improper? Don't know. Um, The investigation into greater Carolina started after an ethics complaint was filed against the entity following a bourbon trip to Kentucky with state lawmakers and lobbyists in 2024, where some of them got drunk, threw up in the bathroom. I believe they all kept their pants on, but. They threw up in the bathroom and the employee posted onto social media saying these North Carolina jerks came in here and puked in our bathroom. Okay. That's what launched all. That's what prompted all of this. Let that be a warning, okay? If you're using the nonprofit's credit card to pay for strip club visits and Panther tickets and vacation rentals and stuff, you probably shouldn't get wasted. While walking around with name tags on. You know? I mean, I know you're out of state, but still, probably not a great idea. Speaking of fiscal mismanagement... Mark Robinson, North Carolina's former lieutenant governor, and his wife are seeking federal bankruptcy protection. Again, I will add again, because I believe they did this once before he rose to prominence in political office. Robinson and his wife, Yolanda Hill, are seeking personal protection under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. Chapter 13 enables wage-earning detours to manage debt payments in a way that helps them pay off their debt over a period of years and possibly protect some assets, like their home, against foreclosure. This also from WRAL, signing a November 3rd court filing where Robinson and his wife report having $ 766. 98 in the bank. So they have just $ 767 in the bank. And they owe creditors nearly $ 800, 000. I do not understand this. I really, I don't understand this. I understand getting into debt. Don't get me wrong. But getting into this kind of debt? How? Like, he was making... When he was lieutenant governor.... He was making $ 173, 000 a year. How? How do you run up almost a million dollars in debt? I don't get it. And then have no assets to show for. It. This is what we call pre-gaming with Brett Winterbull. Brett Winterbull is here for the segment. I'm here. Coincidentally enough. Isn't that great? Doing well, sir? As much as I can. All right. Well, that's good. Good, good. Have you seen what Texas has in store? Yes. Your old stomping ground down there at the border. You mean talking about the abolishing the, oh, yes. They have some ideas on reducing the costs for everybody. Sure. As Roy Cooper might say, make stuff cost less. That's exactly right. And so some of the things that I saw come across the Twitter machine this afternoon. Yes. I believe this is day one. What they would like to do on day one when Democrats take control. They're going to make stuff cost less by introducing about three dozen gun control bills. Sure. Why not? Just go for it. So you being a former Texite? Yeah, I was a Texan. A Texian. Texian. Would that be Texian? Texian? Texian? Could be. I'm game if you are. All right, so. Explain to us non-Texans how gun control. Makes stuff cost less. It doesn't. Well, Brett, that's not possible. Look, that man is lucky to get up every morning and know where he is. Who? Mr. Who. Mr. Get, uh, you know, different, uh, sort of things. You know what I mean? No, I don't. Oh, come on. I, who is getting a Roy Cooper? Oh yeah. Well, that's what I'm talking. I got you, but he's not a Texan. I know he's not, but I do wonder what he support gun control as a way to make stuff cost less. Well, Oh yeah, probably. I may have cracked the Democrat code on this. Okay. Go for it. I'm just thinking, I'm just spit balling. I'm with you. If you, if you ban all the guns, then nobody can, can buy the guns. Yep. And then they would have more money to pay for electricity. Okay. That's a good take. Right? They're saving, right? Because maybe you're a gun hoarder. We all have friends. Yes. Right? Yes. Or you yourself are, who, like, they buy probably too many guns. And I know some people would say there's no such thing as that. Right? Well, yes, that's true. That's what I mean. It's like you're one guy. You own, like, 1,400 guns. Yeah. Like. I think you have like a hoarding problem here, you know. Yeah. So if we just take away your ability to buy the guns. Yep. Then you'll have the money. Mm-hmm. All right. So I figured that one out. Yeah. They are also interested in getting the kids the puberty blockers. Yeah. Oh, they're big on that. Right. So they want to reverse that. Austin. Austin. That area. Right. Regular people don't do that, but Austin does. Austin's all about it. So got to have the puberty blockers for the children. Correct. So as a former Texan, how does that lower the cost for everybody? Zero. It doesn't. There's no. You know what? And the reality is, you know, you do this and suddenly you never know. So the other one was abortion. Are we going to get abortions? Limitless. Are we going to have... Lift all of the restrictions. Did you say limitless? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's going to take a terrible toll on somebody's body. It's making stuff cost less. That's not going to... But that doesn't do that. Not really. Surely you're not suggesting that the whole campaign on affordability was a ruse. They're liars. Yes, they're lying. They're lying about everything. By the way, all my guns fell out of the boat. Mine too. Dang. Same boating too. Shoot. Shoot. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.