A jury recently awarded $3 million to a waste management company that did business with the city of Opa-locka, following allegations of attempted bribes.
Universal Waste Services had a contract with the city years ago to pick up trash and recycling.
"We were going to use it as a model city – to clean up the city, which we did," Michael Gianatasio, who helped run the company, exclusively told NBC 6.
Gianatasio said they went out of business after the city decided not to renew their contract.
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"Our company was completely destroyed by the city of Opa-locka. People's lives were ruined. Jobs were lost," he said.
The company filed a lawsuit in 2018, and on Friday, a jury in Miami-Dade ruled Opa-locka and its representatives didn't act in good faith when doing business with the company.
“The message here is companies should be allowed to do business in cities without being extorted,” Gianatasio said.
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During the trial, the company’s chief operating officer at the time testified that Terence Pinder, a former commissioner from Opa-locka, asked for huge sums from the company to renew their contract.
He said Pinder told them, “You guys are doing very well. You’re making millions of dollars here, and you’ve got to share the wealth,” adding, “He said that $125,000. Period. ‘You get five votes for that.’”
Police say Pinder died by apparent suicide a day before he was scheduled to turn himself in on corruption charges involving a different case.
Mike Pizzi is the lawyer for the company.
“They improved the quality of life, of all the Opa-locka residents," Pizzi said. "When they refused to pay bribes…when they refused to yield to extortion by city officials, the city abruptly canceled their contract and gave the work to somebody else and left the company destroyed."
He said it is unfortunate taxpayers in Opa-locka now have to pick up the bill.
"Juries will hold the city itself accountable to the tune of millions and millions in damages," Pizzi said. "If these cities do not root out corruption and do things the right way. So these cities have to be vigilant and rule out corruption.”
The city hired the law firm of Holland and Knight, who told NBC 6 in a statement the jury came back with a mixed verdict and didn’t award the company damages for any breach of contract, noting jurors partly ruled in Opa-locka’s favor. They went on to say they plan to appeal to get the verdict set aside.
