He has been indicted and now he claims it on politics
A Montgomery insurance executive indicted by a federal grand jury is blaming his legal problems on political retaliation by Republicans, including the governor, a politician the executive once supported but later sued.
Franklin announced last week that a federal grand jury indicted Goff on 26 counts of mail fraud, conspiracy and embezzlement. The charges accuse Goff of fraudulently collecting worker compensation insurance premiums for two companies and not sending about $3 million to them. Goff's company, the Goff Group, was once a major supplier of worker compensation insurance to businesses statewide and had more than 200 employees in a large office building along Interstate 85 in east Montgomery. Goff's fortunes changed in 2004, when the state Insurance Department filed an administrative complaint against it involving some of the same issues covered by the federal charges. Goff's statement Monday said he thought he had settled the matter by admitting to one count in the administrative complaint in 2005. In March 2007, Goff sued Riley, the governor's insurance commissioner, Walter Bell, former Republican Lt. Gov. Steve Windom and others, accusing them of working together to wreck Goff's insurance business. Goff's suit is still in the early stages.
The relationship between Riley and Goff was once different. Riley used Goff's plane twice during the former congressman's 2002 campaign for governor. Riley's campaign said they were in-kind contributions, but at Goff's insistence, the Riley campaign paid him $25,000 last year for the flights.
