Brokerage firm cleans house after corruption arrests, drops Vince Lago   

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Brokerage firm cleans house after corruption arrests, drops Vince Lago   
  • Sumo

It didn’t take long for Bill Riley Jr.‘s name to disappear from the list of licensed real estate salespeople at Rosa Commercial Real Estate, the brokerage firm owned by former Hialeah Councilman Oscar de la Rosa, stepson of Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Stevie” Bovo. The brokerage firm that got $640,000 fee for the sale of the 1505 Ponce de Leon building to Location Ventures and developer Rishi Kapoor, who we have learned was paying Miami Mayor Francis Suarez to speed the process along.

Riley was arrested afternoon with Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla on charges of public corruption that include money laundering and bribery. Authorities say he funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into the commissioner’s political action committee in exchange for a vote to give away a public park to his clients, the anti-vax Centner family that owns The Centner Academy.

By Thursday evening, he was gone from the list of licensed real estate associates with the firm.

By Monday, de la Rosa’s firm had also dropped Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago and his chief of staff Chelsea Granell Lindsey (she went first), as well as someone named Anthony Casas. They were replaced with Amanda Bonvecchio, de la Rosa’s wife.

This is the brokerage firm that got a $640,000 fee for selling the 1505 Ponce de Leon building to Location Ventures, the company owned by developer Rishi Kapoor, who is under FBI investigation after the Miami Herald exposed that he had been paying Miami Mayor Francis Suarez $10,000 a month for consulting (read: to help with the permitting process in his Miami projects).

It looks like Rosa Commercial Real Estate is cleaning house.

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22 Responses to "Brokerage firm cleans house after corruption arrests, drops Vince Lago   "

  10. Lago will tell anyone that will listen that Francis is his Best Friend. Almost like a little boy gushing over the older kid, vying for his attention. Ultimately, they are both just Bros with no real concept of leadership or morals.

    Reply

  11. Last we knew Francis and Lago are best friends. Isn’t the phrase, show me your friends and it will show you as some amateur money grabber? They share everything, even trips on boat.

    Reply

  12. After reading the article, I could not understand what illegal or irregular activity was conducted by Mayor Lago.

    Unless, Ladra thinks that Lago is guilty by association. If we were to think that way, then starting with President Biden and below, we have lots of people doing irregular activities in the White House.

    Reply

  14. Coral Gables Resident, they are only “cleaning house” now because there partners have either been arrested or about to be arrested. You think the timing is coincidence that the company is purging people when the heat is turning up considerably? Please, the arguments do not pass the smell test. At the end of the day, investigations are on the way. Only time will tell.

    Reply

  15. How Quick This Rats Abandon Ship ? Could it be said This Cities Mayors and OTHERS Where Well Awake of The Skims W/ some Commissioners Involve . IT’S A Dirty World and The Mayor of Miami What? He Paid the $ 14,000. Grand PIX Money but What About The $160,000.from The Other Kapoor Deal ?

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  16. SO MISLEADING! The Brokerage Firm that you love to say is corrupt because of Oscar de la Rosa is now a model company ‘cleaning house’???

    I won’t say there isn’t something in the water but, this is literally a political hit piece. Don’t care about the barrage towards the Mayor because I get the sense that there is something personal between him and Ladra which we will never know but, this is ‘tin foil hat’ syndrome.

    There are a TON of brokerages in Miami, some corrupt and some with corrupt individual agents. That doesn’t make everyone guilty by association.

    I get the message and think it’s good to have reporters dig but, sometimes the phrase ‘No Shit Sherlock, Keep Digging Watson’ doesn’t universally apply.

    Reply

  19. Does Greenberg Traurig still employ Vince Lago’s lobbyist brother Carlos? Carlos Lagos is a lobbyist for many of these scammers. Will the lobbyist Marc Sarnoff be asked to leave his firm?

    Reply

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