Miami Commissioner Alejandro “Alex” Diaz de la Portilla was arrested Thursday on more than a dozen serious charges including money laundering and bribery, authorities said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested Diaz de la Portilla and attorney William W. Riley Jr, on one count of money laundering, three counts of unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior, one count of bribery, and one count of criminal conspiracy.
Diaz de la Portilla, 58, is also charged with four counts of official misconduct, one count of campaign contribution in excess of legal limits, and two counts of failure to report a gift, according to a statement by FDLE.
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Riley Jr., 48, is also charged with failure to disclose lobbyist expenses.
The commissioner was present at a short City Commission meeting Thursday at City Hall, before being arrested in the afternoon.
According to FDLE, agents found evidence indicating Diaz de la Portilla and Riley Jr. accepted more than $15,000 in payments for Diaz de la Portilla’s brother’s Miami-Dade County Court judicial campaign, but did not report them, as required by Florida Statutes.
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Riley Jr. controlled a bank account in the name of a Delaware-based corporation to launder approximately $245,000 in concealed political contributions made by a management services company in exchange for permission to build a sports complex in Miami, the FDLE said.
“It is always sad and regrettable when an elected official is criminally charged with abusing the public’s trust, but the community should find some solace in the fact that today’s arrest will shine a bright light on the alleged criminal conduct,” stated Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust Executive Director Jose Arrojo. “The investigation leading to today’s arrest of City of Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla and local attorney William W. Riley, Jr. began as an inquiry into possible violations of local ethics ordinances. Once it became evident that a violation of criminal law was indicated, the matter was brought to prosecutors and law enforcement.”
Further investigation determined Diaz de la Portilla also operated and controlled two political committees used not only to support his brother’s campaign, but also for personal expenditures, authorities said.
Records obtained by the FDLE showed that one of the committees reported total donations of approximately $2.3 million and the other reported total donations of more than $800,000.
Diaz de la Portilla and Riley Jr. were booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Detention Center and were expected to appear in front of a judge in first appearance bond court in Miami on Friday.
In a statement after his arrest, Diaz de la Portilla denied the allegations.
"I have not done anything wrong. Clearly this action has been timed and executed for shock and awe purposes, to create the maximum damage to my political campaign and family. This is nothing more than prosecutorial abuse of our court system, abuse of process, and the unfortunate weaponization of law enforcement targeting conservative Republicans for political purposes and career advancement," the statement read. "When the smoke clears, I am confident that these spurious charges will evaporate into thin air. Any further comment will be through my attorney."
After his release on bond Thursday night, the Republican commissioner again denied the charges while speaking with reporters.
"This is a work of fiction by this prosecutor, this is a Democrat state attorney from Broward County who's targeting a Republican commissioner from Miami, the same thing that's happening to President Trump at the national level with four different false prosecutions is happening to me in Miami at the local level, we're seeing it on the national level and now we're seeing it on a local level. There's nothing true about this complaint," he said. "Not an ounce of truth in those allegations."
Diaz de la Portilla has served as commissioner for District One, representing Flagami, Allapattah, and parts of Little Havana, since 2020.
He was previously elected to the State of Florida House of Representatives in 1994 and served six years until being elected to the State of Florida Senate in 2000. He was a member of the Florida Senate until 2010.
He said he'd seek re-election and is determined to win.
"The people of that community, the people of my district, they know me as a state senator, a state representative, a commissioner and they trust me, they know I'm honest, I'm direct and I say the truth," he said. "There's no truth whatsoever to any of these allegations."
Diaz de la Portilla's attorney issued a statement Thursday to address the allegations against the commissioner.
"Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla has done nothing wrong. This arrest without notice or an opportunity to show that the charges are false and unsupported is an outrage and a political assault on the City of Miami voters timed to alter the outcome of the District 1 election," the statement said. "This action has been timed and executed for shock and awe purposes, to create the maximum damage to Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla's campaign and his family. This is nothing more than prosecutorial abuse of our court system, abuse of process, and the unfortunate weaponization of law enforcement targeting an effective and conservative Republican lawmaker by a Democrat State Attorney for political purposes and career advancement."
In a brief statement, City of Miami officials said they were informed of the commissioners arrest.
"We are not aware of the nature of the charges beyond what has been publicly released and cannot comment on any aspect of this situation," the city said in a statement. "City of Miami will monitor the situation accordingly."
