Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla following his arrest for corruption crimes, including bribery and money laundering.
DeSantis suspended Diaz de la Portilla as commissioner of the city of Miami, District 1 of Florida, which he represents, with an executive order with immediate effect, for the alleged crimes of which he is accused linked to the exercise of his office.
The executive order also prohibits him from “performing any official act or function of public office, receiving any payment or allowance, and being entitled to any emolument or privilege” for the position he held.
The statement published by the governor’s office mentions the arrest this Thursday of Diaz de la Portilla and the charges against him: money laundering, bribery and misuse of public office, criminal conspiracy, misconduct, failure to report of gifts and campaign contributions that exceed legal limits.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) announced this Thursday the arrest of the 58-year-old councilman and the lawyer William W. Riley Jr., 48, both from Miami.
Riley Jr., the FDLE statement details, is also accused of failing to disclose “lobbyist expenses.”
At the center of the corruption allegations is a $10 million publicly owned sports complex for a public school.
According to an arrest affidavit released Friday, Diaz de la Portilla pushed to build the sports facilities in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
The sports complex built by Centner Academy was proposed by Diaz de la Portilla and received unanimous approval.
During the investigation, agents found evidence that Diaz de la Portilla, of the Republican Party, and Riley Jr. accepted more than $15,000 in payments for Diaz de la Portilla’s brother’s judicial campaign in Miami-Dade County Court. , “but they did not report them, as required by Florida Statutes, Chapter 106.”
Additionally, Riley Jr. controlled a bank account in the name of a Delaware-based corporation to launder approximately $245,000 in “hidden political contributions” made by a management services company in exchange for permission to build a sports complex in Miami, he detailed. .
Likewise, an additional investigation determined that Diaz de la Portilla also operated and controlled two political committees used not only to support his brother’s (Renier) campaign, but also for personal expenses.
Records showed that one of the committees reported total donations of approximately $2.3 million and the other more than $800,000, the FDLE adds.
On the Florida Bar website, attorney Renier David Diaz de la Portilla (“Renier David Diaz”) appears as a member of the eleventh judicial circuit of Miami-Dade County.
According to local media, this case arises from an investigation being carried out by the State Attorney’s Office of Broward County, adjacent to Miami.
“It is always sad and unfortunate when an elected official is criminally charged with abuse of the public trust, but the community should find some comfort in the fact that today’s arrest will shed light on the alleged criminal conduct,” said the director. of the Ethics and Public Trust Commission of Miami-Dade County, Jose Arrojo.
Born and raised in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, Diaz de la Portilla, the son of Cuban exiles, was a member of the Florida Senate until 2010.
Diaz de la Portilla and Riley Jr. were being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Center and are expected to appear before a judge in bond court in Miami tomorrow, Friday.
Diaz de la Portilla and Riley were released from jail yesterday after facing the imposed bail of $72,000 and $46,000, respectively.
In statements to the media, Diaz de la Portilla said that his arrest was the result of “a work of fiction (…) This is a work of fiction by a Democratic state prosecutor directed at a Republican municipal commissioner.”
With information from EFE
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Source: La Opinion
