Jim RosicaLobbyist Frank Tsamoutales and former Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos have settled their respective lawsuits against each other, court records show.
The terms of the agreement, reached earlier this month, were not available in online court dockets. Haridopolos and Douglas Marks, Tsamoutales’ attorney, did not immediately respond to separate emails sent Tuesday.
Tsamoutales sued first in February, in Leon County. He is based in Tallahassee but has clients across the United States.
Tsamoutales filed a fraud and breach of contract complaint, saying Haridopolos “trad(ed) on his former political positions to receive large sums of money” instead of “performing meaningful work.”
Haridopolos responded in kind in Brevard County courts. The former senator lives in Merritt Island. He was state Senate President in 2010-12 and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, ending his campaign in 2011.
His lawsuit charged Tsamoutales, a longtime friend, with never paying him for the lobbying work he did.
Each side denied the other’s accusations.
In August 2013, Haridopolos went to work as an independent contractor for Tsamoutales Strategies. The deal included pay of $240,000 a year.
In his complaint, Tsamoutales alleged that he paid Haridopolos “close to $500,000.” Haridopolos, on the other hand, said he was owed “in excess of $350,000.”
Jim Rosica ([email protected]) covers the Florida Legislature, state agencies and courts from Tallahassee.
