Presenting the GOP's first corruption scandal of the 112th Congress:
The Miami-Dade state attorney's office is investigating more than $500,000 in secret payments from the owners of the Flagler Dog Track to a company tied to Congressman-elect David Rivera, The Miami Herald has learned.
Most of the money was paid in early 2008, weeks after Rivera -- then a member of the Florida House of Representatives -- helped run a political campaign backed by the dog track to win voter approval for Las Vegas-style slot machines at parimutuel venues in Miami-Dade County.
The dog track -- now called the Magic City Casino -- made three payments totaling $510,000 to Millennium Marketing, a company currently co-managed by Rivera's 70-year-old mother. Investigators are still trying to determine if Rivera himself received any of the money, or if anything about the transaction was illegal, according to sources close to the inquiry.
Rivera, a Miami Republican elected to Congress on Nov. 2, has previously denied working for the dog track, though he played a public role in supporting the pro-slots referendum campaign. Rivera never reported receiving any money from Flagler during his eight-year tenure in the Legislature.
The full article makes it pretty clear that Rivera has gotten himself into a heap of trouble. According to the casino, Rivera approached them about tapping him to run their campaign for slot machines and served as director of their political strategy. Rivera directed payments to Millennium Marketing, the company run by his mother. Despite serving in the state legislature at the time, Rivera never reported any of this income. The casino says it never paid Rivera directly -- all the money went to Millennium. So by all appearances, it seems as though Millennium was operating as a front to allow Rivera to hide his role in the campaign and to allow him to launder his payments. And that adds up to a big cloud over Rivera's head even before he's officially been sworn into Congress. Expect Rivera, who won with 52%, to be a top target in 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment