Court Exhibits Show Florida Gov. Candidate Fishback Directed Fake Accounts, Bought Likes

A 45-page exhibit filed in federal court in October shows James Fishback, a long-shot candidate for Florida governor, directing his campaign treasurer to use fictitious email accounts to pitch journalists, buy social media likes, and anonymously promote his own published work — a coordinated deception campaign documented in his own text messages.

The exhibit is part of a Manhattan lawsuit stemming from Fishback's departure from Greenlight Capital, the hedge fund where he worked as an analyst from early 2021 until August 2023. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer ordered Fishback to produce the texts after the court rejected his claim that they were protected as attorney work product.

The messages, sent May 16, 2024, show Fishback, 31, instructing campaign Treasurer Alex Munguia — then 24 and listed as chief strategy officer of Fishback's now-defunct Azoria Capital — to ghost-write a pitch email to Wall Street Journal reporter Gregory Zuckerman in the voice of a fictional Tesla investor named "Richard Lopez." Munguia sent the email verbatim from a fake Gmail account, court records show.

In other exchanges, Fishback directed Munguia to purchase 350 likes for an X post using an anonymous email address and personal credit card, to anonymously tip The Free Press praising an article Fishback himself had written, and to respond to critical X comments from multiple fake accounts. When Munguia appeared to flag between replies — he was in and out of classes at the University of Florida that day — Fishback wrote, "Dude… I need this now. We are at war."

Fishback launched his gubernatorial campaign roughly one month after the Greenlight exhibits became part of the public court record. He faces mounting legal and financial setbacks: a federal magistrate judge ordered him to pay Greenlight approximately $229,000 in January after he missed a court deadline, and the court authorized the U.S. Marshals Service to seize his assets, including Azoria stock certificates and items described in filings as luxury purchases. He has said publicly he will not pay the judgment. His Tesla was repossessed in November.

Campaign finance records show Fishback raised less than $19,000 through the end of 2025, a fraction of what primary rivals U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds and former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner have collected.

For Treasure Coast voters in Martin and St. Lucie counties — part of the statewide electorate that will decide the 2026 Republican primary — the exhibits raise direct questions about a candidate who has made Everglades restoration and property tax elimination central to his platform. [NEEDS VERIFICATION: eligibility status under Florida's seven-year residency requirement for gubernatorial candidates, given Fishback's dual voter registration in Florida and Washington, D.C., and a homesteaded D.C. property.]

Florida's 2026 gubernatorial primary has no confirmed date as of press time.

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