Matt Gaetz, Fiancée Claim They Were Targeted in Botched Yacht Deal After Money Vanished

Representative Matt Gaetz and his fiancée Ginger Luckey are claiming they were targeted in a botched yacht deal after the money they wired to close on the sale "went missing."

A spokesperson for Gaetz told WFLA-TV that the couple "were the target of a financial crime" after they were "targeted by malicious actors" in the purchasing process of a yacht in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The local news outlet's follow-up questions about details of the transaction have not been answered by the congressman's office.

The boat, named Ol Pappy, was listed for $155,000 when Gaetz and Luckey were spotted inspecting the boat in a process known as the survey.

Jon Golly, who owns a yacht near Ol Pappy, told WFLA-TV that it was "definitely" Gaetz who was examining the boat that day.

"He was on the phone the whole time while they were doing the survey," Golly said. "And he stopped and said hi to Nancy and I sitting out in front of our boat. It was definitely him."

But about a month after the couple did the survey, the deal for the yacht fell through.

Gaetz's spokesperson said that "federal law enforcement is both aware of and actively pursuing" the alleged crime but did not specify which agency is investigating the matter.

The FBI neither confirmed nor denied the existence of such an investigation.

Witnesses say it appeared that Gaetz and Luckey planned to rename the boat after Ol Pappy was removed from the yacht and replaced it with the name Thirsty around the time the deal was supposed to close. The port of entry city on the boat was also changed from St. Petersburg to Niceville, a city in Gaetz's district.

Golly said he thought it was a little early for the couple to change the name of the boat given that the deal hadn't gone through yet.

"A little premature without ownership of the boat," Golly said. "If it was my boat, there'd be trouble. That's my baby."

Brett Harris, the owner of the the company that brokered the transaction, told WFLA-TV that the boat was eventually sold to another buyer in a deal that closed last week.

This is the latest in a series of financial controversies Gaetz has become embroiled in over recent months.

After being connected to the Joel Greenberg sex trafficking case, the congressman tweeted that the tie to Greenberg was false.

"Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name," Gaetz wrote on Twitter.