Consultants working for America’s largest power company covertly monitored a Jacksonville journalist and obtained a report containing his social security number and other sensitive personal information, leaked documents reveal.
The surveillance happened after the journalist wrote critically about how Florida Power & Light (FPL) tried to sway city council members to sign off on its business plans. Text messages show an FPL executive was kept abreast of Florida Times-Union columnist Nate Monroe’s movements while he was on vacation in the Florida panhandle in November 2019, an investigation by the Florida Times-Union, the Orlando Sentinel and Floodlight has found.
Nearly a year later in October 2020, the consultants also obtained a photograph of Monroe and his girlfriend at the time outside their Jacksonville-area apartment, according to records shared with reporters by an anonymous source.
FPL denies that it authorized or knew about the surveillance. But the records show employees of Matrix LLC, an Alabama-based consulting firm employed by the utility, were shadowing the journalist throughout his critical coverage of a failed $11bn purchase of a smaller Florida utility. …
… FPL’s relationship with Matrix has come under scrutiny after reporting by the Orlando Sentinel revealed Matrix operatives orchestrated a campaign to promote spoiler candidates that diverted votes from Democrats so Republicans could retain control of the Florida senate. FPL denies knowledge of or involvement in that scheme. …
… The documents revealing the surveillance were sent to the Times-Union and shared with the Orlando Sentinel and Floodlight. The documents include a series of text messages to FPL’s vice-president of state legislative affairs, Daniel Martell, that show an apparent coordinated effort to follow Monroe while he was on vacation.
Monroe had been a frequent critic of FPL’s efforts to privatize and purchase Jacksonville Electric Authority, a community-owned electric, water and sewer utility. FPL, which controls the territory surrounding Jacksonville, has long coveted the utility. …