Bombshell Investigation: Exposing the ACCENT Speakers Grift
The uf_politics seriousposting team has previously reported on the existence of The System, the century-old political machine consisting of Greek houses, Florida Blue Key, and the communities that historically and continues to dominate campus politics. Throughout its century of domination, the System has resorted to dirty tricks to maintain power: ballot stuffing, slashing tires, pouring sugar in their opponent’s gas tank, and smearing their political opponents as child molestors. The burning question that remains, however, is why? Why go through all this effort, engaging in political thuggery for over one hundred years, to maintain power in UF student government?
In this multi-part series covering numerous student government agencies, we will be presenting a simple answer to this question: the grift of millions of dollars of student tuition funds.
ACCENT Speakers Bureau: An AEPi Legacy Position
ACCENT Speaker’s Bureau is the student government-run and funded speakers bureau of the University of Florida. The budget of ACCENT runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars; the most recent Activity and Service fee budget allocated ACCENT Speakers $497,750 for FY 22–23. ACCENT Speakers funds notable guest appearances on campus, most infamously paying TikTok star Josh Richards $60,000 for his talk in the fall of 2022.
Past exposes on ACCENT Speakers focused on its status as an AEPi legacy position. Within the System, certain houses own certain student government positions, and such a deal is called a “legacy position.” Prior reporting by the Alligator in 2005, Gainesville Sun in 2010, and the Tab in 2017 have routinely exposed the relationship between AEPi and ACCENT Speakers going back to the 1990s.
Florida Blue Key plays an essential role in the ACCENT legacy position as many ACCENT chairs are later tapped into Florida Blue Key, a prestigious status which rewards those who comply with the corrupt bargains brokered among Greek houses (see Appendix B).
Following The Josh Richards Money Trail
The uf_politics team received an anonymous tip from someone claiming to be inside the System. The anonymous tipster stated, “the josh Richards thing was a way bigger [issue] than people will prob know about.” When asked to elaborate, they hinted that the real issue with Josh Richards was the money trail. Intrigued by the anonymous tip, we started to investigate ACCENT’s finances related to Josh Richards’s guest appearance. Referring back to the contract ACCENT signed with Josh Richards, he was represented by a talent agency known as United Talent Agency Speakers.
The UTA Speakers representative on Richards’s contract is David Buchalter. Based on previous public records requests, he was a former chair of ACCENT Speakers Bureau from 2004–2005. He was tapped into Florida Blue Key in Fall 2004. He is also an AEPi. Based on his LinkedIn, David Buchalter joined UTA Speakers in August 2005. This means that, in the span of a few months, Buchalter went from working for ACCENT to negotiating with ACCENT on deals worth upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In the ACCENT contracts for Bill Nye’s 2020 talk, Barbara Corcoran’s 2022 talk, James Lafferty/Chad Michael Murray’s 2023 talk, and Giancarlo Espocito’s 2023 talk, David Buchalter consistently appears as the UTA Speakers representative.
With only a few hours of research, our team had stumbled upon an appalling conflict of interest: Buchalter was a former ACCENT chair, AEPi, and Florida Blue Key yet negotiates contracts with ACCENT Speakers (controlled by AEPi and Florida Blue Key). We decided to investigate UTA Speakers further.
Greater Talent Network: It’s Florida Blue Key All The Way Down
In 2017, United Talent Agency acquired the Greater Talent Network (GTN). GTN was the agency ACCENT Speakers worked with prior to their acquisition and its name remains under UTA Speakers as seen in the excerpt from the Josh Richards contract.
GTN was founded in 1982 by Don Epstein. Don Epstein was also a former chair of ACCENT Speakers in 1976–77, tapped into Florida Blue Key in fall 1977, and a TEP. His tenure as ACCENT Speakers chair was mired in controversy over legacy positions. In 1977, ACCENT was dominated by the fraternities TEP and AEPi. Student Body President Dan Lobeck attempted to oppose Epstein for his TEP affiliation, but failed.
After leaving UF, Don Epstein worked as an agent at New Line Cinema before founding Greater Talent Network in 1982. The earliest evidence that ACCENT Speakers worked with GTN is found in an off-handed mention of the company by the Alligator in 1983.
Greater Talent Network, the company that ACCENT Speakers has been using for four decades, is founded by a Florida Blue Key, TEP, and former ACCENT chair. Its current representative for ACCENT contracts is also a Florida Blue Key, AEPi, and former ACCENT chair. Both transitioned relatively quickly from their positions at ACCENT to a position that benefitted from negotiating with ACCENT.
Quantifying the Grift
According to articles about Greater Talent Network, GTN receives a cut of 20–30% of the fees paid to speakers depending on the client.
Based on contracts and news articles that explicitly mention GTN, our team has documented that ACCENT has spent at least $1,237,900 since 1983 on speakers through GTN (see appendix A). Assuming a low estimate of 20% for each speaker, GTN received at least $247,580 from ACCENT Speakers since 1983. Because our documentation is limited to instances where GTN was explicitly identified, and we have multiple-year gaps in our list, the real numbers are likely in the millions of dollars.
Conclusion
For forty years the System has been grifting ACCENT money with a revolving-door scheme (ACCENT chair to Greater Talent Network), extracting speaker fees paid by student tuition funds and shoveling it into a company founded by a Florida Blue Key. The scale of the grift is immense — at least $250,000, but likely in the millions of dollars. In context, the desperation of the System this semester makes sense. Why go through the effort of rebranding to Vision Party, gerrymandering, and pulling defectors unless you were grifting millions of dollars from the student body?
In the course of our investigation, our team has faced harassment, hacking attempts, and threats of expulsion from System operatives. They are desperate because they know losing this election will mean the end of their million-dollar grift. When the System first formed in 1918, their first scam involved raising the price of student pictures by ten cents, requiring new pictures, and pocketing the extra cash. For over one hundred years, the System has been grifting the student body blind, engaging in thuggish political activity for their personal enrichment.
This following week, the System will engage in an aggressive effort to deflect from its million-dollar grift. They will employ every dirty trick to divert attention from their corruption: releasing the dox of the uf_politics team, labeling their political opposition as equally corrupt, and defending themselves from their obvious moves to rebrand and gerrymander this election. But this is all a misdirection.
Only one party — Vision Party — is part of a corrupt political machine that has controlled this university for over a hundred years. Only one party — Vision Party — has grifted millions off the student body for their own personal enrichment. Only one party — Vision Party — is corrupt enough to attempt to steal an election to continue that grift.
The next part of this series will expose the grift of Student Government Productions. For a sneak peek on how much money the System grifts off SGP, feel free to look into Florida Blue Key’s tax records and study how much revenue they make from Homecoming/Gator Growl (hint: it’s in the hundreds of thousands of dollars every year).
Update 1
In response to an article in The Alligator, Florida Blue Key President Brady Alexander reached out to The Alligator with the following statement:
Florida Blue Key, Inc. is an independent student organization, separate from Accent, and not affiliated with Greater Talent Network (GTN), as referenced in the article…While an alumnus of Florida Blue Key may have founded GTN, Florida Blue Key, Inc. does not have any investments and has never owned GTN.
Appendix A: ACCENT Speaker and GTN Fee (Incomplete)
ACCENT Speaker, Agency, Fee, 20% of Speaking Fee Provided to GTN
Robert Gronkowski (2023), Greater Talent Network, $105,000, $21,000
Giancarlo Esposito (2023), Greater Talent Network, $40,000, $8,000
James Lafferty/Chad Murray (2023), Greater Talent Network, $50,000, $10,000
Josh Peck (2023), Greater Talent Network, $40,000, $8,000
Barbara Corcoran (2022), Greater Talent Network, $115,000, $23,000
Stephen Smith (2022), Greater Talent Network, $66,000, $13,200
Josh Richards (2022), Greater Talent Network, $60,000, $12,000
Oscar Nuñez/Brian Baumgartner (2021), Greater Talent Network, $70,000, $14,000
Cody Ko/Noel Miller (2021), Greater Talent Network, $60,000, $12,000
David Dobrik (2021), Greater Talent Network, $60,000, $12,000
Bill Nye (2020), Greater Talent Network, $35,000, $7,000
Kevin O’Leary (2019), Greater Talent Network, $95,000, $19,000
Dewey Bozella (2012), Greater Talent Network, $12,500, $2,500
Valerie Wilson (2011), Greater Talent Network, $23,400, $4,680
Matisyahu (2010), Greater Talent Network, $28,000, $5,600
Christopher Hitchens/Dinesh D’Souza (2010), Greater Talent Network, $33,000, $6,600
Andy Samberg (2010), Greater Talent Network, $72,000, $14,400
Steve Wozniak (2010), Greater Talent Network, $70,000, $14,000
Jeremy Piven (2009), Greater Talent Network, $85,000, $17,000
Alberto Gonzales (2007), Greater Talent Network, $40,000, $8,000
Michael Moore (2004), Greater Talent Network, $50,000, $10,000
Morton Downey Jr. (1988), Greater Talent Network, $14,000, $2,800
Andrew Young (1986), Greater Talent Network, $9,000, $1,800
Gene Rodenberry (1986), Greater Talent Network, $5,000, $1,000
Appendix B: History of Accent Chairs and Greek/FBK Affiliation (Incomplete)
1966–67, Charles Shepherd
1967–68, Frank Gramling, FBK Spring 1986
1968–69, Larry Berrin
1969–70, Joe Hilliard
1970–71, Ed Boze, FBK
1971–72 Rodney Margol, FBK Spring 1971
1972–73, David Arons, FBK Fall 1971
1973–74, Mike Snyder, FBK Fall 1972
1974–75, John Fuller, TEP (see page 9), FBK Fall 1973
1975–76, Steve Weiner, FBK Fall 1974
1976–77, Donny Epstein, TEP see page 6, FBK Fall 1977
1979–80, Kevin Hanks
1980–81, Marilyn Stern, FBK Spring 1980
1983–84, Brian Paternak/Bruce Goss
1984–85, Huber Cooney, FBK Spring 1984
1985–86, G. Mark Shalloway, FBK Fall 1984
1986–87, Lloyd Gilick (Gillick), FBK Fall 1983
1987–88, Seth Bruckner/Evan Polotka
1988–89, Greg Kirby, Sigma Phi Epsilon, FBK Spring 1989
1989–90, Evan Plotka, FBK Fall 1984
1990–91, Richard Brilliant, AEPi, FBK Fall 1990
1991–92, M. Scott Thomas, Phi Delta Theta
1992–93, Marshall Rothman, AEPi, FBK Fall 1992
1993–94, David Seifer, AEPi, FBK Spring 1993
1994–95, Michael Cotzen, AEPi, FBK Spring 1995
1995–96, Michael Namath, AEPi, FBK Spring 1995
1996–97, David Meade/Adam Sheinkopf, Meade TKE, Sheinkopf AEPi, FBK (Mead: Spring 1995, Shenkopf: Spring 1996)
1997–98, Andrew Rosen, AEPi, FBK Fall 1997
1998–99, Jason Collier, AEPi, FBK Fall 1998
1999–00, Justin Sternberg, AEPi, FBK Fall 1999
2000–01, Mike Mosseri, AEPi, FBK Fall 1998
2001–02, Rob Heekin, Sigma Chi, FBK Spring 2000
2002–03, Erin Trabin, AEPi
2003–04, Ian “Seth” Denison, AEPi, FBK (Fall 2004)
2004–05, David Buchalter, AEPi, FBK Fall 2004
2005–06, Evan Tyroler, AEPi FBK Fall 2005
2006–07, Andrew Brown, AEPi, FBK Spring 2006
2007–08, Steven Blank, AEPi, FBK Spring 2006
2008–09, Andrew Guglielmo, AEPi, FBK Fall 2008
2009–10, Jason Attermann, AEPi, FBK Spring 2009
2010–11, Zach Goldstein, AEPi
2011–12, Corey Portnoy, AEPi, FBK Fall 2010
2012–13, Josh Holtzman, AEPi, FBK Fall 2011
2013–14, Daniel Landesberg, AEPi
2014–15, Corey Flayman, AEPi, FBK Spring 2013
2015–16, Kevin Gerson, AEPi, FBK Fall 2014
2016–17, Mike Greenberg, AEPi
2017–18, Shelby Buchanan, Kappa Kappa Gamma
2018–19, Gregory Wolf, AEPi, FBK Fall 2018
2019–20, Henry Fair, FBK Fall 2019
2020–21, Steven Wolf, AEPi, FBK Fall 2020
2021–22, Jordan Klein/Jason Scheuer
2022–23, Tyler Kahan, AEPi, FBK Fall 2022
2023–24, Sam Hendler, AEPi
