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 | Speaking Fee | 20% of Speaking Fee Provided to Agency |
| 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)
| Year | ACCENT Chair | Greek Affiliation | Florida Blue Key |
| 1966-67 | Charles Shepherd | ||
| 1967-68 | Frank Gramling | Yes (Spring 1968) | |
| 1968-69 | Larry Berrin | ||
| 1969-70 | Joe Hilliard | ||
| 1970-71 | Ed Boze | Yes (see page 255 of 1971 yearbook) | |
| 1971-72 | Rodney Margol | Yes (Spring 1971) | |
| 1972-73 | David Arons | Yes (Fall 1971) | |
| 1973-74 | Mike Snyder | Yes (Fall 1972) | |
| 1974-75 | John Fuller | TEP (Page 9) | Yes (Fall 1973) |
| 1975-76 | Steve Weiner | Yes (Fall 1974) | |
| 1976-77 | Donny Epstein | TEP (Page 6) | Yes (Fall 1977) |
| 1979-80 | Kevin Hanks | ||
| 1980-81 | Marilyn Stern | Yes (Spring 1980) | |
| 1983-84 | Brian Paternak/Bruce Goss | ||
| 1984-85 | Huber Cooney | Yes (Spring 1984) | |
| 1985-86 | G. Mark Shalloway | Yes (Fall 1984) | |
| 1986-87 | Lloyd Gilick (Gillick) | Yes (Fall 1983) | |
| 1987-88 | Seth Bruckner/Evan Polotka | ||
| 1988-89 | Greg Kirby | Sigma Phi Epsilon (Obituary) | Yes (Spring 1989) |
| 1989-90 | Evan Plotka | Yes (Fall 1984) | |
| 1990-91 | Richard Brilliant | AEPi | Yes (Fall 1990) |
| 1991-92 | M. Scott Thomas | Phi Delta Theta | |
| 1992-93 | Marshall Rothman | AEPi | Yes (Fall 1992) |
| 1993-94 | David Seifer | AEPi | Yes (Spring 1993) |
| 1994-95 | Michael Cotzen | AEPi | Yes (Spring 1995) |
| 1995-96 | Michael Namath | AEPi | Yes (Spring 1995) |
| 1996-97 | David Meade/Adam Sheinkopf | Meade TKE, Sheinkopf AEPi | Yes (Mead: Spring 1995, Shenkopf: Spring 1996) |
| 1997-98 | Andrew Rosen | AEPi | Yes (Fall 1997) |
| 1998-99 | Jason Collier | AEPi | Yes (Fall 1998) |
| 1999-00 | Justin Sternberg | AEPi | Yes (Fall 1999) |
| 2000-01 | Mike Mosseri | AEPi | Yes (Fall 1998) |
| 2001-02 | Rob Heekin | Sigma Chi | Yes (Spring 2000) |
| 2002-03 | Erin Trabin | AEPi | |
| 2003-04 | Ian “Seth” Denison | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2004) |
| 2004-05 | David Buchalter | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2004) |
| 2005-06 | Evan Tyroler | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2005) |
| 2006-07 | Andrew Brown | AEPi | Yes (Spring 2006) |
| 2007-08 | Steven Blank | AEPi | Yes (Spring 2006) |
| 2008-09 | Andrew Guglielmo | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2008) |
| 2009-10 | Jason Attermann | AEPi | Yes (Spring 2009) |
| 2010-11 | Zach Goldstein | AEPi | |
| 2011-12 | Corey Portnoy | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2010) |
| 2012-13 | Josh Holtzman | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2011) |
| 2013-14 | Daniel Landesberg | AEPi | |
| 2014-15 | Corey Flayman | AEPi | Yes (Spring 2013) |
| 2015-16 | Kevin Gerson | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2014) |
| 2016-17 | Mike Greenberg | AEPi | |
| 2017-18 | Shelby Buchanan | Kappa Kappa Gamma | |
| 2018-19 | Gregory Wolf | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2018) |
| 2019-20 | Henry Fair | Yes (Fall 2019) | |
| 2020-21 | Steven Wolf | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2020) |
| 2021-22 | Jordan Klein/Jason Scheuer | ||
| 2022-23 | Tyler Kahan | AEPi | Yes (Fall 2022) |
| 2023-24 | Sam Hendler | AEPi |
