When it was revealed that private security firm Wackenhut was submitting false billing claims, it's fair to say taxpayers should have felt robbed of their safety -- guard posts were systematically left empty -- and of millions of dollars.
Turns out the cops thought so, too, and have arrested five former Wackenhut supervisors on racketeering charges, stemming from the Wackenhut security contract with the county, sources have told NBCMiami.
Robert Alvarado, Roberto Pereira, Elijah Pendleton, Nathan Holmes and William Acosta have all been arrested and charged with racketeering for their roles in an apparent timesheet falsification scam that garnered the name "ghost post" because security guards say they were being told to fill out false time sheets and paid while not actually being at their posts on the Metrorail.
In 2007 NBCMiami obtained an audit that revealed Wackenhut had overbilled taxpayers -- one whistleblower claims by nearly $22 million over the course of the multi-year contract, the county auditor claims between $3.3 and $5.8 million during a shorter period -- because of fraudulent time sheets. In 2009, the county threatened to fire Wackenhut and did not renew the company's contract, setting off a slew of legal battles.
For years, Wackenhut provided security for the Metrorail, Metromover and the Juvenile Assessment Center.
The sides reached a settlement in February that required Wackenhut to pay back $7.5 million.
But in return, the county would remove all references in the audit to whether Wackenhut was intentionally fraudulent, to get the county to say Wackenhut did not overbill the county on purpose, and to agree not to hold it against Wackenhut should anyone be “arrested in the future” in connection with this case.
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Clearly, they saw Friday's arrests coming.
In a statement, Wackenhut wrote that they were aware of the "small number" of arrests, that they had not received information from law enforcement and that they do not tolerate wrongdoing on the part of their employees.
Few details have been released on what the roles of Alvarado, Pereira, Holmes, Pendleton and Acosta were, but sources say the men were supervisors who had the power to authorize time sheets.
