Brian Butler's background full of question marks

Jeff Burlew
Tallahassee Democrat
This photo shows a blurred image of Brian Butler.

He got an invitation from lobbyist Adam Corey to watch from luxury box seats as Chance the Rapper performed at the Tucker Civic Center.

And he dined over tapas and drinks at the city-backed Edison restaurant with Mayor Andrew Gillum and the mysterious Mike Miller.

By all accounts, Brian Butler was one of Miller’s sidekicks during meetings and social outings last year with some of Tallahassee’s most notable politicians and business people.

But like Miller, Butler has a background full of question marks and dead ends.

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'Mike Miller': Developer or FBI agent?

Miller, Butler and another man, Mike Sweets, are believed to have been undercover FBI agents using aliases and posing as businessmen while investigating possible public corruption in Tallahassee.

Miller blew into town around August 2015, when he attended a Chamber of Commerce retreat, and hobnobbed with Tallahassee’s elite through 2016 before disappearing from view. He was supposedly a big developer from Atlanta, the owner of a company called Southern Pines Development.

Butler, bald-headed and stocky, presented himself as a businessman, too. He passed out brochures about his company, Intelligent Utility Conservation of Nashville, Tennessee, and its energy-saving products and consulting services.

The brochures are glossy but nondescript, with generic product photos, blurry brand names and corporate mumbo jumbo about Butler and his business.

Intelligent Utility Conservation lists its address as this strip mall on the outskirts of Nashville. However, the address is actually home to a UPS store. IUC's purported owner may be an undercover FBI agent and his business an FBI front.

“Founder and owner Brian Butler embarked on a mission to provide building efficiency solutions to private and public entities in an effort to focus on overall cost savings,” the brochure says. “To this end, Mr. Butler has structured, developed and mentored a division of IUC aimed specifically at addressing bottom line solutions through unique product lines.”

The company lists a Mufreesboro Road address on its brochures and website. But the address actually leads back to a UPS store, sandwiched between a dry cleaner and a barbershop in a strip mall on the outskirts of Nashville.

The suite number for Butler's business happens to match a mailbox inside the store.

Intelligent Utility Conservation lists its address as 2479 Murfreesboro Road, Suite 184. A UPS store is the only business located at 2479 Murfreesboro Road. There is no Suite 184. But there is a postal box with that number inside the store.

Calls to the business go to voice mail, with options to contact members of the “Butler Solutions Team,” including Butler himself and another man, Chris Lancaster. Numerous messages left by the Tallahassee Democrat were never returned.

Butler Solutions Team pops up in Google searches as a heating and air conditioning contractor, located at the same address as Intelligent Utility Conservation. Neither company is listed in Tennessee corporate records.

A company by the same name as the Butler firm registered in Delaware in 2012 and was listed in good standing as of last year. Its registered agent, another Delaware company, doesn't release information about its clients. 

There are a few other traces of the Butler Solutions company: a $4,000 contribution in 2013 to a Maryland congressman and a mention on a website for black contractors.

Intelligent Utility Conservation, LLC, and Butler Solutions Team, LLC, share similar company logos.

The Butler Solutions website, created in 2012, appears to have been taken down last month. The website for Miller's company, Southern Pines, also went dark recently.

Intelligent Utility Conservation's website is still up, though it's generic. It has no staff directory, no list of clients or projects and no way to connect via Facebook or Twitter.

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Instead, there are stock images, vague references of work in the public and private sector and a mission statement about advanced lighting, electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems.

“We want all of our customers to unlock their building’s true potential in the first year, the tenth year and beyond," the website says.

Invite to see Chance the Rapper

Butler’s name popped up in a couple of City Hall records, including Gillum’s calendar for May 16, 2016. The calendar notes Gillum was scheduled to meet for an hour that evening for “tapas and drinks with Mike Miller, Brian Butler, Adam Corey" at The Edison.

The Mayor’s Office previously acknowledged Gillum's attendance at the get-together. The meeting, like others between Miller, Butler and various public officials, was arranged by Corey, who served as Gillum’s treasurer during his 2014 run for mayor.

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Jamie Van Pelt, a spokesman for the Mayor's Office, said he couldn't comment on whether Butler attended because it's related to the FBI investigation.

Butler’s name also appeared on a Google calendar invitation from Corey to Gillum’s chief of staff, Dustin Daniels, to see Chance the Rapper’s concert in Tallahassee on Oct. 12, 2016.

Chance the Rapper  arrives at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards Feb. 12, 2017, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The calendar item shows Corey invited about a dozen others to the concert, including Miller and Butler, Gillum, City Commissioner Curtis Richardson and employees of Corey’s lobbying firm, Unconventional Strategies, and the Edison, which he co-owns.

But Gillum, who's running for Florida governor, went with former state Rep. Alan Williams instead, Van Pelt said.

“Mayor Gillum was among the numerous people Adam invited to the concert,” he said in an email, “but the mayor had already agreed to another invitation from Rep. Alan Williams, who knew Chance’s manager.”

Williams confirmed he went with Gillum. Facebook photos show Gillum posing for pictures with the rap star and social activist along with Williams, lawyer and lobbyist Sean Pittman and others.

"I knew the mayor was a big fan of the work Chance was doing outside his musical career, so we went to the concert," Williams said.

Daniels went, too, but he said he watched from the Florida State University’s president’s box, down the hall from Corey’s.

“I basically ended up taking a different invitation," he said. "So I’m not sure who attended" Corey's gathering.

Richardson went solo.

“I was there by myself,” he said. “I don’t even remember seeing Adam or the mayor there. I kind of sat out in the audience. I didn’t meet with anybody or talk with anybody.”

Memories of Butler mostly hazy

Several Leon County officials who met last year with Miller say they don’t specifically remember Brian Butler or his businesses by name.

County Commissioner Kristin Dozier met in June 2016 with Miller and Nick Lowe, who worked for Corey’s lobbying firm at the time. She said it’s possible another person was with Miller, but she can’t recall him or anything he might have said.

This photo shows the three men believed to be undercover FBI agents who used aliases and cover stories as part of an investigation in Tallahassee. Pictured from left are Mike Miller, Mike Sweets and Brian Butler. The Democrat decided to blur the physical characteristics of the men after discussions with the FBI.

“This was a brief introduction,” she said. “A third person does not stand out to me.”

Dozier, who was shown a photo of Miller, Butler and Sweets, recognized only Miller.

But Commissioner Bill Proctor immediately recognized Miller and his companions when shown the picture. He said he met with them at Nick's restaurant and possibly on another occasion at his office to talk about plans they had for a south-side development.

“I’ve seen those jokers — definitely have,” he said. “I could pick them out of a lineup anywhere. Pretty amazing how they disappeared. They had such an interest in the south side and then suddenly you can’t find them anywhere.”

FBI probe in Tallahassee

The FBI’s investigation became public in mid-June, after the agency served grand jury subpoenas at City Hall and the Community Redevelopment Agency demanding records involving eight local business people and more than a dozen of their companies. The subpoenas asked for records including proposals, bids, payments and communications involving the city and the CRA and the named individuals and their firms. Named in the subpoenas are J.T. Burnette, a principal with Hunter & Harp; his partner Kim Rivers, CEO of medical marijuana company Trulieve; Melissa Oglesby, president of construction management company KaiserKane, Inc.; Adam Corey, a lobbyist, co-owner of The Edison restaurant and treasurer for Mayor Andrew Gillum’s 2014 campaign; Frank Whitley, owner of Whitley Contracting; Paige Carter-Smith, owner of Governance Services and close friend of City Commissioner Scott Maddox; and Chad Kittrell, a principal with Hunter & Harp.

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or follow @JeffBurlew on Twitter. Executive Editor William Hatfield and Nashville Tennessean reporter David Boucher contributed to this story.