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Jun 21, 2007 5:52 pm US/Eastern
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11 Charged In City of Miami Corruption Scheme
Click Here To See Arrest Affidavit
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MIAMI (CBS4) ―
Nearly one dozen long-time City of Miami employees have been arrested on corruption charges.
The workers are accused of participating in private contracts which may have taken money away from the city.
According to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, eleven people, some current and others retired, from Miami's city capital improvement program are accused of doing design and planning work for outside firms on city time.
They are professional, executive-level employees, representing two-thirds of the city's division, operating their own private business.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández-Rundle, said, "They did it with official cars, and they acted like a firm that stole money from the City of Miami." Mayor Manny Diaz said it was "outrageous".
The group members, 10 men and one woman, called themselves ''The Firm'' and put together construction plans and designs for clients from the Keys to Ocala, using city computers and equipment to do the work on city time, Fernández-Rundle said.
Joe Arriola, former city manager, who started the investigation said, 'This has been going on for a long, long time."
The charges range from racketeering, theft, fraud and the crime of cheating, and ten of the eleven are in custody with the last to be arrested on his return from vacation.
The announcement was made at the city's administration building at Miami River Center on SW 2nd Ave.
Click Here to see the arrest affidavit.
Click Here to see 'The Firm's' chain of command.
Click Here to see who is charged.
Click Here to see who is charged (page 2)
Click Here to see who is charged (page 3)
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