The question still hangs in the air like a thick fog? Where is Michael Kesti?
And who exactly is Michael Kesti?
The South Dade lobbyist and paid FBI informant is really the only reason why former Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño is facing three and a quarter years in the slammer for bribery and extortion charges and why former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi is facing similar charges in a trial set for May.
Ladra is not saying these guys weren’t up to their armpits in evil shenanigans and didn’t deserve being led off in cuffs long ago. She has certainly been barking about both of them for years. But it took this nobody wannabe insider to take them down?
And we don’t get to know who he is?
Apparently prosecutors have no intention of calling him to testify in either of the cases, refuse to say even how much he was paid and have reportedly told him to stay away from the press.
Painted as a hero by some, and “a good lobbyist” even by journalists who ought to know better, Kesti has been MIA since the August arrests of the two bad mayors, which came on the heels of a two-year investigation that he, somehow, convinced the FBI to launch in the first place. I don’t know how since I know a few real (read: unpaid) do-gooders, like Hialeah firefighter Eric Johnson and other bloggers, who have been trying to get the FBI’s attention on real existing corruption that is already happening and that we don’t have to invent first — to no avail. But Kesti just waltzes in and was able to get the FBI to believe that he could hook a couple of local mayors on the take? Just like that?
“Well, they will be on the take after I finish with them,” he might have said. “But there will be a fee for this.”
I say might because we may never find out how Kesti made this magic happen. Did he ever even have information on preexisting corruption? In a pre-trial hearing earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s office said they don’t plan on calling their star witness to the stand to testify in their case against Pizzi, who, unlike Maroño, is fighting his charges and has a much better case (read: talks like an attorney). Why? Well, I can only imagine it is because he is a known liar. For two years, he lied consistently to Pizzi and to Richard Candia, another lobbyist and Pizzi’s alleged bagman in the scam, who by all accounts was never suspected of anything before he met Kesti, who apparently twisted his arm to justify his federal paycheck. I bet being a professional liar is not a typical characteristic for a good witness. Maybe he’s got something to hide on cross examination. Like how many times he had to hound Candia and Pizzi to get the graft done already. A source close to the investigation says that Kesti played an “equal or greater role” as Candia in terms of establishing trust and credibility. Was Kesti getting paid by the phone call? By the meeting? By the hour? Or per mayor?
Or maybe prosecutors don’t want Pizzi defense attorneys Ed Shohat and Ben Kuehne to ask Kesti why he got involved in this in the first place. Was it because he got into trouble with something else?
Because what we do know about Kesti independently of the FBI is that he has been involved in some shenanigans before. Relatively unknown outside South Dade political circles, Kesti was once executive director of Community Health Foundation, Inc., a funding source for the company that secretly hired former Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman, who was arrested on bribery charges for taking unlawful compensation in a totally separate case after Maroño and Pizzi. A source close to the investigation told Ladra that Kesti was trying to get Homestead in the bogus grant snare, also.
We also know he was tied to the Miami Beach Health Foundation — right before the executive director was indicted for embezzling somewhere around $6 million.
We know he currently lists his employment on Facebook as Chairman and CEO at Government Relations Group, a Tallahassee lobbing firm, and President and CEO of Health Ventures, Inc./Net Marketing. Active with names like those on the state Division of Corporations website are in Ocala and Orlando do not name him in their principals. Are they part of his cover?
We know that he says he went to high school in Pennsylvania and studied chemistry and biology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and business management at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He was also involved in the Rotary Club of Perrine-Cutler Ridge/Palmetto Bay and once presented the organization’s award for leadership to Miami-Dade School Board Member Larry Feldman (photo above with Superintendent Alberto Carvalho standing by).
We know that he has done lobbying, or says he has done lobbying for the Village of Palmetto Bay, in D.C., with Tew Cardenas when they were seeking federal dollars to buy the fire station property. He was important enough to be photographed with founding Mayor Eugene Flinn and then county Commissioner Katy Sorenson at the groundbreaking for the 1$10.8 million Village Hall.
We know that many political insiders said they always thought Kesti was “creepy” and “untrustworthy” and Ladra has to wonder what kind of scam he was trying to sell them. In fact, one chief of staff told me that he always seemed to be selling something.
We know that some of the local rainmakers for candidates don’t like him because he promises to bring in contributions he never makes good on and it’s just a ruse — they’re on to him already — to get his clients in front of incumbents running for re-election. Several political insiders told me he had been rejected from participating in a Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez re-election campaign event after he asked to be among the hosts.
We know that he had something to do with the promotion of a new Miami rum brand and its launch party, inviting a bevy of VIPs, including several electeds like Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado, for whom he also hosted a fundraiser.
Regalado did not return phone calls and emails for comment.
Kesti also had a fundraiser for Cutler Bay Mayor Ed MacDougall, one of a three viable Republicans running for the chance to unseat Congressman Joe Garcia in November. MacDougall, in fact, is the man who introduced Kesti to Rich Candia in the summer of 2011. The former was a friend who knew the owners of a property the city was looking at to open a charter school. The latter was the city lobbyist who was later fired because, MacDougall said, he was double dipping: taking money from the Miami Dolphins to push for a stadium and representing the international bankers who would have lost state subsidies to the stadium bill, which MacDougall was fighting.
Friends of Candia — who also lobbied for Miami Lakes and connected Kesti to Pizzi — have suggested that MacDougall, who requested the lobbyist’s presence at a tour of the property, may have known Kesti was going to set him up. The former police officer laughs at the notion and says he was just interested in finding out if and how the city could use the property. A source close to the investigation says that it was that very day that Kesti first broached the subject, telling Candia that he’s “got a friend” in DC at AmeriCorps that could provide grants to small cities like the ones he represents.
MacDougall says he will take a lie detector test to prove he knew nothing of Kesti’s ulterior motives, if that’s what they were. Maybe Kesti used the mayor without his knowledge.
“Michael asked me if I was interested in that property and I was, because it wasn’t being used,” MacDougall said of the land once discussed for Bay Point Schools before the city went in another direction.
“He said, ‘I know Kathleen Kennedy,'” the mayor said, referring to the owner of the property. That was apparently the bait for Candia, who Ladra could not reach for this article (pssst, Rich, call me!).
Kesti is known for dropping names. Several sources who spoke to Ladra on the condition that they I do not quote them by name said that the lobbyist-informant pretended to be a player, and boasted about knowing Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, even Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He told quite a few people that he was lobbying in D.C. And a different source very close to the investigation said that Kesti gained the confidence of Candia and Pizzi by saying he had “practically invented AmeriCorps,” the government agency that was giving the economic development grants, and had personally secured $13 million in health projects.
MacDougall is the only person I could find with nice things to say about the guy. He told Ladra that he called Kesti to “thank him” after the world found out, through Prohibido Callarse when I worked there, that the lobbyist was behind the arrests. He was quoted in the media right after as saying that Kesti was “one of the good guys.”
“I was proud of him. Very few people are willing to stick their neck out to do the right thing,” MacDougall told me.
But was he a good guy? Had he stuck his neck out? Had he done the right thing? Or did he just do easy?
Again, a lot of that might depend on how much Kesti charged the feds to concoct this scheme and then look for flaccid, low-hanging fruit like Maraña and Muscles? I mean, where is the challenge in that? Was Kesti already being paid by the FBI to set up the scam for willing politicians when he met Candia? We don’t know. Prosecutors won’t say when they started paying or how much Kesti made off this scam of his own making. Which sort of smells like a different sort of graft. It could be a half a million dollars for all we know. Ladra has asked the FBI for public records on any payments made to Kesti. It would be interesting to know if he was on their clock at that meeting in Cutler Bay. And they will have a hard time claiming any exemption to the Freedom of Information Act since it is impossible for Kesti to continue working. His cover is blown. And I don’t think he’s going to find more work as a lobbyist now. Maybe he can start a consulting company for lobbyists, teach them how to spot the feds.
But the take home might suffer. Because how much do you want to bet that, precisely because prosecutors do not want to disclose how much he was paid, he got far more than the $60,000 to $70,000 taken by the two disgraced electeds, mostly Maraña.
Look, Ladra wants to think of the guy who finally nabbed these two mayors — who certainly are no angels and have been accused of far more than just this here bribery — as our hero. But he seems more like a conman. A very smart conman who duped both the government and the marks. Anyone seen American Hustle? We can call this Miami Hustle. Although why in the world the feds would have to go to someone to concoct corruption when all you have to do is sit in the government body chambers and pay attention. Y porque un gringo who looks like the lovechild of John Denver and Michael McKean (Lenny from Laverne and Shirley)? Someone tell me how that makes sense!
The whole thing is just weird.
And anyone who calls Kesti a whistleblower is doing Ladra and the real watchdogs in this community a real disservice. Kesti didn’t happen to stumble upon graft, notice it and call the authorities like a whistleblower would. He concocted graft. Fabricated and sold graft. He called the authorities and said, “Hey, I can make up a new scam and get some ethically challenged politicos to buy into it.” Then he went and pitched the scheme and pitched it and pitched it until he got results. That’s way different. That would be like Ladra asking the state attorney’s office to pay me a fee so I can press some viejita in Hiealeah — using whatever means I find necessary — to collect ballots for me for a particular candidate, then turn her in as a boletera.
Here’s another telling tidbit: Real whistleblowers love media attention, by the way. You cannot get them to shut up. Kesti has been in hiding since his cover was blown. He has routinely hung up on me when I’ve called. He’s done the same thing to other reporters. He wasn’t at his home in Palmetto Bay, the one covered with weeds and with what looked like an illegal electrical hookup running outside the house, when I stopped by weeks after the arrest. The grass was overgrown and the house looked deserted.
Meanwhile, Pizzi answers the phone now more than ever. He’s suddenly Ladra’s biggest fan, since I was the first to question Kesti and to say that the federal case against Pizzi was weaker than the one they had against Maroño, whose mouth is his biggest enemy. Pizzi can’t talk about the case — well, much, of course. Because he is bursting to. He urged me to keep digging and congratulated me on the blog.
Ugh. Ladra needs a bath.
Siding with Pizzi was never something I intended to do or would be proud of. Especially since now, after months of dodging the question, he says those $3,000 he took from Candia in the closet of his office were to reimburse him for money he had fronted the PAC. How convenient. And still illegal, I think. But it may be reduced to a Florida ethics commission or campaign violation.
Let’s face it: Pizzi’s got that gift of gab. And more wiggle room than Maroño ever did.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Muscles became the feds’ next Michael Kesti.
As bad mayors go down, where and who is Michael Kesti? added by Ladra on
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