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Clearwater man admits to spending late mother's VA benefits

 
Published April 22, 2015

TAMPA — The former front man for a proposed $200 million luxury transportation mart pleaded guilty in federal court this week to stealing $29,400 in veterans benefits mistakenly paid to his deceased mother.

Elliot Kahana, 68, of Clearwater had shared a bank account with Anne Kahana.

Benefits kept arriving even after her death in April 2009, and Elliot Kahana admitted to spending them through January 2011, according to a court record.

Federal agents confronted him in July, after the Department of Veterans Affairs noticed the irregularity, and Kahana "acknowledged that what he did was wrong," Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Kaiser wrote.

He pleaded guilty Monday to theft of government funds and was allowed to remain free on bond until sentencing. He could face up to 10 years in prison.

Kahana was a longtime car salesman in Pinellas County. And until an indictment against him was unsealed in December, he was managing partner of a central Florida project called the World Transportation Exchange, a proposal to build a car, yacht and jet mart in Eatonville, a town made famous by author Zora Neale Hurston. Partners asked him to step aside and take care of personal matters.