Federal prosecutors will bring two of the most interesting witnesses to the stand Wednesday in the tax evasion and fraud case against former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina and wife Raiza, in connection to their alleged shadow banking business that boomed in the City of Progress during Robaina’s reign.
Expected to testify today: Councilwoman Vivian “I’ll Notarize That!” Casals Muñoz, whose signature as a notary public is on most if not every single allegedly illegal loan that Robaina made. Also expected is Rolando Bolaños, Jr., a former Hialeah cop and son of the ex chief — who served time for robbing a bank, of all things — who may testify about what he saw or knows in connection with a business he had with Roberto Blanco, another trial witness and one-time board member of the First Hialeah Bank of Julito. Ladra is betting it’s cash transactions.
Both have been given immunity, sources say.
Not expected: Mayor Carlos Hernandez, whose sheer and jarring absence from the witness list may have been remedied Monday, and may testify after all. That’s when convicted Ponzi schemer Luis Felipe Perez — the feds’ star witness who dropped a dime on the whole banking operation to shave time off his sentence — identified Hernandez as well, saying the current mayor had also loaned him money at an illegal 36% interest.
Hernandez has inexplicably been given a pass on these allegations, which come with accompanying documentation and go as far back as at least 2011.
Why? The U.S. Attorney’s office — which I thought worked for us — will absolutely not answer one way or another. Ladra has asked repeatedly.
“Unfortunately, we will not be able to answer your question,” spokeswoman Annette Castillo told me in an email. “It is against Department of Justice policy and Local Rules to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.”
But while he has escaped involvement so far, some people watching the trial more closely than others say he may now be called upon to testify since his name has come up in the proceedings.
Hernandez — who was implicated in the same illegal shadow banking industry as Robaina as far back as 2011 — is 
widely considered to have cooperated already with authorities and, well, maybe he was a pansy about it and insisted he would not testify, just provide information and the avenues for them to get that information themselves. But now that his association in the business has been introduced in court by their star witness, no less, they have to bring him in. No?
A watchdog can hope, can’t she? I mean, we can fully expect any such testimony to be explosive. And damning. To both of them.
But even with no Hernandez surprise, today’s testimony — which follows the prosecution’s presentation of unreported financial windfalls during Robaina’s rise to political power and Tuesday’s testimony that a loan to a city employee was handled by the former mayor, and not his wife whom he threw under the bus — should be the best day of testifying so far, just because La Vivian, who doesn’t return calls ever, will finally be forced to talk about this in public.
Ladra hopes I can get there in time for all the fireworks.
Julio Robaina trial continues with key testimony; surprise? added by Ladra on
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