The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Shakedown Town

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

We've had the arrest of Miami commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla last week. Unfortunately for us (and maybe fortunate for you), Billy Corben was on a Disney vacation, so there was no episode last week. But much like the U, Billy is back, and he gets his say on the matter. Guests on the show today include former Miami police chief Art Acevedo, who talks about his dealings with the corrupt politics in this town. We also have lobbyist Manny Prieguez, who gives us a blow by blow on how he was shaken down by Commissioner Diaz de la Portilla prior to his arrest. Plus, we have Iris Mogul, a student who founded The Banned Books Club in Coral Gables. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. So, money's the thing, but it's not everything. I think you really look at the importance of what are you doing with your time. The conversations that we've had with our financial advisor is very much building what that framework looks like that helps support those important things. The places where you're investing your your time and your resources, your family clearly and those closest to you. Edward

Jones, we do money differently. Visit Edward Jones dot CA slash different. Fiamese City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla was arrested and charged with money laundering and criminal conspiracy. slash different. Now it's shitting on democracy Fabulously fun to bribe a real laundering dirty pay for play money Diaz de la partilla pansy post-elita Clandestinely plotting schemes Rascing and co-whife, be the corroyo Your corruption range supreme And my happy the jokes don't only write themselves It's sad, they get elected here as well

And my happy we're slowly sinking in the sea And my happy if you respond to me This one shit comes destruction Mafia's got that corruption And the worst, we're all cursed Hang around for a second bird Where else is the stat as quote to be a scum back? Praying on society

The feds are under swarrow as it's cleaner and wild As it's hard to take a serious lead And my amy Hard as a phado took a stand in Miami Then the commission had him canned And the amy No nothing happens of a boy And my amy

Got somehow it's all ignored And my amy The jokes don't only write themselves And my amy They get a lexin here as well I have you we're slowly sinking in the sea I have you I have you I have you

I have you I have you I have you I have you I have you I have you I have you I have you I have you I have you Stay with you, to pay no heed to the crime they do. Please do not record your shit. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, telling you that the city of Miami is a racketeering organization, a continuing criminal enterprise, masturbating as a municipal government.

And finally, this year, this year, Roy, we've had a federal civil jury find commission and jokoroel libel for weaponizing city government against business owners and violating their constitutional rights for political revenge to the tune of $63 million judgment. We've got the FBI investigating Miami mayor, Francis Suarez for alleged bribery. And now finally, we have city commissioner Alex Diaz Laprtia arrested

on charges including bribery money laundering and a litany of campaign finance laws. This guy was living off of campaign funds which I suspect will also bring the feds in and well all this is going on. Where's that? Where are you? I was at Disney World. I wasn't celebrating the indictment of Diaz Laprtilla, like I'm going to Disney World to dance on his grave per se, but while they were scraping his name off of the door of

his city hall office, taking the letters down off of his district office and his name placard off of his parking spot at City Hall. I was in the happiest place on earth. Did you pass by Nazis while you were there? Yes, actually, I was staying on that side of the park by Disney Springs, which is where the Nazis like to hang out. And here's actually something kind of interesting. I thought it was so clever. I was gonna go in September,

which is notoriously one of the lowest attended months. Well, I wasn't the only genius who thought of that. No. It was so packed, it was so hot. But here's the thing that I noticed. Everybody loves Disney World, right? Yeah. So all of this like, woke wars, bullshit,

this culture wars nonsense. This is probably one of the worst political miscalculations in the history of this country. DeSantis taking aim at Disney World, everybody was there, dude. There was folks in Pride shirts, there was folks in 1776 shirts. Nobody gave a shit. You've got not hundreds of thousands of acres, but miles of this place, right? And on one shelf in one out of a million gift shops, there's a little Star Wars droid collection with robots painted in rainbow. I'm like, is this what they're so upset about?

Yeah. Is that like, no, no, no, no, that's not what they're upset about. That's a smoke screen. They're just racist homophobes and anti-Semites. And they're like, no, we're angry about rainbow droids in a gift shop. Honestly, who cares? If you, okay, you don't want to bake a wedding cake

for a same sex couple. Apparently the courts say that's okay. You don't want to take their money, that's your business. Here's the thing about Disney and why come there, Disney. They want everybody's money. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, they don't care who you're stupping. They want your wallet.

They want to get in your wallet, and everybody is there. These, most of them are adults. They don't even have kids. These Disney adults, Roy, if someone said, hey, Roy, have you been to the new Disney fire pits? No. Oh, there's these big fire pits,

and you go to an ATM and you take out cash, and you just throw money into the fire pit. It's amazing. Wow. People, people, this throw money into the fire, but it's amazing. Wow. People, this isn't a real thing, but people would be excited about this. Always my money on it. There's dads walking around Roy in shirts, snarky shirts.

Okay, now the best shirts I saw was one guy had a Princess Leia shirt that said, I love you. And then the dude has yeah, a Han Solo shirt that says, I know, that's pretty cool. And then families have know. The dude has yeah, a Han Solo shirt that says, I know, that's pretty cool. Yeah. And then families have like, reunion, like customized reunion shirts. But then there's shirts that say like,

most expensive day ever. Or like there's a dad who was wearing a shirt that said, broke, but like in the beautiful Disney font, like the B was that big, like the D looked like the D, that big beautiful. And then I'm like, these guys paid $80 to Disney for a snarky shirt

about how we're all going, let me tell you this, Disney going woke made me broke. That's what I can tell you. And it doesn't matter if you're a Florida resident or not, it's still expensive. I got a discount, somehow. I got a Florida resident discount, and it still was like painful.

This is painful money, but we had a good time, right? It was. I used to go for free. Yeah. I don't know you more. I don't know, that's the price of independence, my friend. Yeah, yeah. The cost of doing business.

It is. I have a question, does metal arc give you like annual passes to Disney? Is that a perk, a metal arc perk? We need to have some discussions. Well, I was gonna say, you gotta negotiate that. You're gonna negotiate yourself out of the Disney company, you gotta negotiate yourself some annual Florida passes.

Instead of a health plan. Yes. Hey, listen, I know people who would opt out of the health plan to get those Disney tickets. Damn right. They're gonna die anyway. You got damn right, Meatball. Our first guest on because Miami today,

for the first time ever is going to walk us through and take us inside a Miami shakedown. You've heard me, again, talk about this in, I don't know, almost esoteric terms about this being a shakedown town, but this is actually what happened to former Florida Republican state representative, many preegas, who is now a lobbyist working down here in South Florida. And here's the funny thing, Roy, nine days before Alex Diaz Laportea was arrested

for bribery and money laundering and all this other shit. Many pre Priyaga sued DLP. He sued him for racketeering in an unlawful bribery scheme to shake down his client who was a long time marina operator, of course, because my- Oh, there we go. But here's the thing, totally unrelated set of facts. One had nothing to do with the other. So DLP's got his fingers and a lot of pies here. And Mani Priyagaaches is joining us now.

Many you were a friend of now former commissioner Alex Diaz Laportea who's been removed from office by Florida governor Ron DeSantis. I think you were involved in his campaign for city commission back in 2019. So how do you go from friend ally, maybe even you were a fundraiser and help get this guy elected to suing this guy for some pretty staggering crimes. Yeah, so you're correct. You know, I've known that Diaz Alportia family for many, many, many, many years. I grew up with Renear, the younger brother.

We went to middle school together and I have a long history with the family and with Alex Diaz the La Portea in particular. It's a very long history and as a lot of people often do with him they have their ups and downs in their relationships with him. He's that an easy guy to deal with or get along with but listen, I grew up with them, so I loved them very much. And there was a down period where I had not spoken to him in quite a number of years. And all of a sudden, late 2017, 2018, I started hearing that he was a different man, that he had strained things up in his life, that it

wasn't the same old Alex. And I reached out to him because I had also heard that he was going to run for city Miami Commission for Willie Gourdes, old seat in District 1. And so we met at the Yard House in Merit Place, and I purposely chose that place because I wanted to see what would happen in that environment. And I purposely chose that place because I wanted to see, you know, what would happen in that environment. And he was a different man. He was a completely different man. He didn't have a drink. I didn't drink. And we just talked about the old days. And at the end of the three or four hours that we were together, he asked me to help him, you know, be a city of Miami commission. And

and I went with it for that entire year that I was attached to the hip to Alex Diaz-Lopertia. He was a pleasure to work with. He was early to meetings. He was working his tail off. He was disciplined. He was on top of it. I was helping him meet the Miami people, the donors of, you know, City of Miami campaigns,

because he didn't know any of them. And, you know, I've been lobbying at the city for many, you know, City of Miami campaigns, because he didn't know any of them. And, you know, I've been lobbying at the city for many, many years since, you know, 2004, 2005. I basically, you know, used my reputation and my connections and my friendships to make introductions for him. And I think it worked out really well because we raised a lot of money

and, you know, he ended up winning. Do you regret that now? I regret that with every ounce of my heart. I believe it's one of the biggest mistakes that I have ever committed in my entire life. I've called people and I've apologized to them for having asked them for money for him, for having done the introductions,

for having mended fences for him. I apologize to these folks because although I didn't think in a million years, I didn't think that he would become what he has become, I still felt just horrible about the whole thing. And for him to have done what he did to me after the years of friendship, after that one year of helping him as much as I did to help him become a city by me commission. It was very, very, very, very hurtful. It maybe moves a lot of faith in things. When you say, become what he has become, what has he become? He is an extremely corrupt individual. He has led power overtake his decision making. Everything is, unfortunately,

for him, viewed through the prism of how do I make money off of this? And it's terrible. It's a shame. And to me, what's just most mind-boggling is, is the fact that after all that I did for him and after everything that he and I have been in our lives, that he would send these two guys to shake me down and to shake down my client. It just blew my mind away. To me, that harkens more to somebody with a,

unfortunately, a very, very sick mentality and basically a sociopath, the way I like to state it, because it was just unconscionable. How could he do that to me? I mean, whatever. And it stuck with me for two or three years. And then over the course of those two or three years,

at the beginning, right after it happened, I did my dam, this to look the other way. I had a client to represent. And I didn't want my client to be put in a tough spot. I fight hard for my clients. I feel that I have spot. I fight hard for my clients. I feel that I have a fiduciary obligation to my clients. And so I looked the other way. And I tried to kind of deal with the situation.

But when you hear a story about this guy shaking people down every couple of months, it just becomes a barrelable. It's like I couldn't handle it anymore. And so, I decided to do what I did, and I filed a lawsuit against him and his caucus version. When we come back, many pre-aggress will take us into the shady rooms with the shady people and talk about how this shakedown happened.

At Public Mobile, we do things differently. From our subscription phone plans to throwing a big sale right now when no one else is. Well maybe they are, but who cares, our sale is better. And it's on right now, no waiting necessary. You have the latest phone, now take advantage of a great price on a 5G subscription phone plan. It's the perfect deal for anyone who could use some savings right now me and Miami at the local level. There's no truth to any of this.

The people in my district know me as a state center, a state representative, a commissioner, and they trust me. They know I'm honest, I'm direct, and I say a truth. There's no truth whatsoever to any of these allegations. Many pre-aguse URA former Florida Republican State Representative, yes, the state attorney in Broward County is a Democrat. However, Alex Diaz-Lapurtheia is in a nonpartisan seat. Of course, the FDLE is under the governor's office, not a Democrat. And

of course, the Republican governor, Floor Ron DeSantis, removed Alex Diaz-Laportia from office. This strikes me as a rather bipartisan, if not nonpartisan effort. Is that what this is? Is this just partisan politics as Diaz-Laportia claims? This is not partisan politics, nothing. Donald Trump doesn't know who Alex Diaz-Laportia is. Ron DeSantis doesn't know who Alex Diazolpertia is. This is all nonsense. And the fact of the matter is, is that politics did not in any way shape or form play into this. They've gotten a myriad of tips, and the FDOE was able to set their sights on this particular set of allegations with the sedeners and with Bill Riley, and they were able to do good police detective work for what I can see,

and eventually we were able to connect the dots, and that's why at the end of the day, this guy was arrested, and let the record reflect that the reason why that Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office didn't take it was because Kathy Fernandez-Rondle declared a conflict because of her previous relationship with Bill Riley and his family.

So she didn't want to have the investigation tainted by her personal relationship with Bill Riley and his family. So she didn't want to, you know, have the investigation tainted by her personal relationship with Riley Soch. The governor said, okay, it seems like there's a lot of stuff here to investigate. I'm going to switch it over to Broward County. And Broward County had it for a year. They asked the governor's office for an extension. When they were granted the extension, that's when it became public that there was an ongoing criminal investigation of city Miami government and they continued their investigation and then came the charges. Before we get into the particulars of your lead shakedown, the DLP did against you and

your client. What happened to you happened in 2020? That's three years ago. So why was that not the subject of a criminal case and were you surprised to see the DLP and Bill Riley were charged in this other matter relating to The setners and this public park that they wanted to take over basically for their private purposes Like I've reported in previous accounts to the press and as it stated in my complaint against the Isla Portilla After I was shaken down by him on October the 1st, 2020, I indeed went to law enforcement and I reported the crime to

law enforcement. Past that reporting, I don't know why what happened to me didn't evolve into what we saw last week, but I have to tell you, Billy, there was so much going on, there was so much corruption going on that was emanating straight from District 1, Alex Diaz, the Lepertia's office, that law enforcement basically had the pick of, of leaders from where to choose. And I guess they gravitated towards this particular set of circumstances, and that's why they ended up charging him with this. I'm telling you, there could have been three or four different instances where a thorough

investigation would probably yield the same results. So you're saying it wasn't just you, it wasn't just the case for which he was criminally charged. This is a pattern or practice of Alex Diaz-Lapurty is office to basically bribery, shake downs, and money laundering. Yes, no doubt about it. And quite frankly, it's because of that, had my situation been completely isolated,

and then I had not heard of anything else happening in the city of Miami. Who knows if I would still have done what I did, you know, a couple of weeks ago. But that wasn't the case at all. It's like every two or three months, one would hear stuff of going on, and people getting really upset and and and it struck me Mani that everybody in city government was to some extent aware of this

This was not a secret in city hall. Is that right? I want to I want to answer that question carefully Because you know, I really don't know what people know or what they don't know quite honestly So um, but you were hearing about it though. You just, I was hearing about it. Okay. I will assume that other people were hearing about it. That's fair. That's a fair, that's a fair statement for me to make.

Okay. So let me ask you about what happened. You're clearly, this is what happens. You have a client in this case who needs something or wants something from the government. You have to lobby on their behalf and theners, or in this case, a commissioner comes out either with their handout or they say, in order to get my vote, you need to do something for me. That's what happened here. Yeah, that's exactly what happened.

So, you know, I began representing, we come back from Marina and few months after that, I get work from my client that Alex Diaz-Lapordia had reached out to him and said, hey, I want to get together for lunch and I want to introduce you to somebody. And that person that he wanted to have lunch with is a guy called Anival Dhuattati. They had lunch with the capital, Ril. And it was purely for the purpose of an introduction and to let my client know that Anival was interested in quote-unquote getting into the marine of business.

And they were, you know, they exchanged pleasantries, they exchanged phone numbers and a couple days later or later that day, you know, Mike Mayan calls me and said, this just happened and I felt very uncomfortable and I'm just going to ignore these people. And I said, that's what you should do. And obviously, I didn't like it. Sounded terrible. The insinuations were bad. And so forth.

So fast forward a few months to October. And I get a text from Aniva Duarte. Now Aniva Duarte and I were not really friends, per se. We knew of each other. And we would maybe hang out a few times and high and buy and so on and so forth. But we were not really friends per se, we knew of each other and we would maybe hang out a few times and high and buy and so on and so forth, but we were not friends friends. And he tells me, he sent me a text and he says,

hey, I need to talk to you, come to my house. It was October the first. And when I saw that, my gut was like, I'm not going to this guy's house because I was worried that he was coming in with this whole marina thing. And he said, oh, by the way, Bert's going to be with us.

And when I heard that, that actually made me feel a lot more comfortable because I did consider myself a friend of Bert Hernandez. I've known him for a very, very long time since he was a commissioner the first time around. And at that point, I thought, OK, he's not going to talk about the marina because Bert's going to be there.

And I thought, you know, Bert would not be a part of anything, you know, like this, you know, the guy has had a fast, he's a friend of mine. You really thought that, manny? I can be very nice. I just wanna tell the audience, because we talked about Bertor Nendes in the show before Bertor Nendes is a convicted felon.

He is disbarred attorney. He was twice removed from office in 97 and 98 by the governor at the time of Florida lot and Childs. It was a long time ago, but he's you know, okay, you walk into that situation and you're thinking the best of everybody. Right. Well, I'm certainly feeling that maybe they wanted to talk to me about something that's unrelated to the marina. I get to an e-wast house. Sometime later, Burnt finally arrives. We go to a separate room where it's just a three of us. And the guy didn't waste any time. He says here, I'm here to talk about the marina. This is what's going on. And he was very, very, very clear in telling me that they had just met with Alex Diaz Al Portia at his office at the mattress factory. The three of them have been together. That Alex Diaz

Al Portia knew that I was coming to his house and that they were going to speak to me about the marina and that everything is great and everything is fine and that Alex knows what's going on and he knows that the three of us are getting together. And then he went out to tell me, you don't have the votes to get this for your client and you're not going to have the votes unless I am made a partner of this deal and I need to have one side of the marina you know your client can keep the other side of the marina and if that happens we'll have the three votes and we'll move forward and maybe we can even get four votes and we'll move forward and everybody's going to happy. And I was like, what? I'm like, dude, there's other marinas

that are gonna be coming online. Why don't you work towards those marinas? I mean, and then I started getting agitated, I started getting nervous, I started, you know, then it became a little bit more heated and we kind of went back and forth and at the end or near the end, he said, listen, this is nothing to get upset about. It is what it is.

You should be happy that I'm offering you a path where your client can stay there and maintain a presence there. And you know, I'm getting new three votes because without me being involved in this, if I'm not involved, you're not going to get to the third vote. And he knew exactly what was going on because oftentimes one can discern where commissioners are on certain things. And everybody knew that Keon Harteman was with the other firm. Everybody knew that Ken and Joe Corroyo were with my client. And everybody knew that Manolo was on the fence but leaning towards wanting to throw everything out and not give it to anybody and just having a brand new process started.

Everybody knew that. So the leverage and the swing boat was all in Alex Diazalapu's hands. So recognizing that because he's an astute guy who's been around the block with these kind of situations for many, many, many, many years in Tallahassee and so forth, he says, I got these guys by the balls. You're going to have to come in and capitulate or also going to lose their marina. And I left in a puff, I left very upset and I said, see you later, man. And I basically told them, no, I get home and my knees are shaking. Look, I've been a lobbyist at the city of Miami, like I said at the beginning of the show since 2004, 2005. Never in my life, Billy, had I ever experienced anything like this?

Never. You like to say that there's all sorts of shakhanory and corruption and all of this kind of stuff going on. And, you know, I don't think it's as bad as you think it is. And I certainly had not witnessed anything like this before. And certainly never had I experienced firsthand anything like this before. And it just shook me and it hurt and it was coming from a guy And it just shook me and it hurt and it was coming from a guy. Why new for ages and it was very, very bad. You know, I reported to my client, he like brushed it off and he's like, dude, you know, you think this is the first time this happens?

This is like, you know, this has happened to us. God knows how many times. And you know, we never play ball with these kind of people. We don't do things that are criminal or corrupt. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen on our watch for, you know, on this property. Why now? I mean, this is the eve of an election in which Alexeus LaPortia is running to be reelected into why after years of taking this to law enforcement. Why did you file a case now?

I thought that it was the right time because I had had enough. I needed to do something about it. I wasn't seeing anything happening from the had had enough. I needed to do something about it. I wasn't seeing anything happening from the law enforcement side. I allowed that to simmer and I allowed people to presumably do their work and try to do their thing and catch this guy. It had not happened. Now, to be completely transparent, a month before I filed my action, I started catching wind of potentially something happening, but I couldn't rely on it. I didn't, you know, the only guarantees in life are death in taxes. There's nothing else guaranteed. So no matter what I'm hearing about it, any kind of imminent arrest, I don't know whether that's true or not. So I said, I've had enough of this enough time has passed. I keep on hearing about all sorts of crap happening in the city of Miami, enough is enough, and I'm going to do this now. And then, no one behold nine days later, the guy gets arrested.

And you were the victim of crime, of course, here. I mean, you were. Of course, I was a victim of crime. I was an absolute victim of a crime. And it hurt me, you know, from a personal perspective, it hurt me from a business perspective. I believe that I'm entitled to damages from these guys, and I'm going after them, I'm going after them because, you know, enough is enough. Mani, we're at a time, but I would love for you to come back. I know that third and last shakedown meeting is crazy. It happened during a lunch break

of the actual city commission meeting, where there was to be a vote. And this just sort of like, I mean, it just brings all of the shady shit into the light. And I appreciate you, and good luck to you, and thank you for being here. Yeah, I'll come back whenever you have some time and we'll talk about it some more. After review, the call on the ice is a whole new season of NHL action with Skip.

Every order earns you a shot at winning one of over 200,000 prizes, including NHL Shop.ca and Skip Gift Cards, Skip Game Time Tires, and the Grand Prize, a trip for two to the 2024 Rogers NHL All-Star Game in Toronto, order, shoot, win, with skip, no purchase necessary, ends November 30th for rules visit winwithskip.com. This eight-page memo to the city manager, Chief Acevedo says he contacted the Department

of Justice on Commissioner Zarez, Diaz de la Portilla and Corrollo for unlawful interference and obstruction of internal investigations, intimidation, and violating the city charter. It came to a head last month when Commissioner Joe Corrollo even challenged the Chief to arrest him then and there. He himself to come down and have the guts to do it in a public meeting. If not to shut his big mouth. That was six months after Arda Siveta was hired as chief of the City of Miami Police Department. When he was hired, the handpicked choice of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, he was referred to as by the mayor, the Tom Brady and Michael Jordan of police chiefs.

Six months later, when he wrote that memo and sent it to the feds saying that he had witnessed effectively crimes being committed by at least three of the city commissioners, Joe Corralio, Alex Diaz, La Portia, Manolo Reyes, days after that bombshell whistle blower eight page memo, he was fired by the very same commissioners who he had called out for corruption. After a 37 distinguished career in law enforcement that began, he was born in Havana, Cuba, wound up at the famous California Highway Patrol, the Chips, where he eventually became chief that he became chief in Austin, then in Houston before he came to Miami. And now with one of those three who he has referred to as the three-headed monster in

the Miami City Commission, who he witnessed committing crimes infringing upon police investigations, internal affairs investigations, and in the case of Joe Corroyo, weaponizing city government, including the police department to infring upon the rights of business owners for political retaliation. Chief Osivado now in Aurora, Colorado as the police chief. First I want to say I'm sorry for what you were put through here. You were basically run out of town for doing what you were hired to do, which was be an outside objective chief who could bring back some, you know, improve morale in a broken

department. And second, you feel some sense of indication that two years later everybody in my amy is saying artos evato was right well you know what's not about me but i'm happy for the people my amy that they're slowly but surely going to get their city back that people that are by the law but in the constitution and quite honestly using city halls or

personal, you know, playground for their own gain. That's here again, of the people in Miami that there's movement. And so I'm really happy for folks earlier this year, you testified in the federal civil trial down here in South Florida, where the little Havana business

owners who own, among other properties, the ball and chain, the historic bar on Kayaocho, one of the most famous, if not the most famous neighborhoods in Miami. You testified in that trial, which resulted in a $63 plus million dollar judgment against Joe Corroyo. It's the first time, this is a quote, it's the first time I've seen a city manager, city attorney, and entire city engage in a pattern or practice a political retribution

you've been around a while you've dealt with a lot of bureaucracies with a lot of elected officials and city officials tell me about what was unique about your experience in my amy well look i mean uh... my experience in my am in Miami was an embarrassment as a Cuban American to come work for a government where I thought I was going to come to end my career on a high note, help a department that's got a lot of good officers, but quite honestly their leadership is lacking. Former department, that's how I was recruited and told they wouldn't need reform, come to

Miami. To me, it was embarrassing. It's for the first time my life, I was embarrassed to be Cuban. I was like to say I'm Cuban by birth, but American by the grace of God, and they come to a place where the city machinery is used and directed by commissioners

to be used as their personal muscle to retaliate, to target, to violate the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans, and including Americans of Cuban descent, I might add, that are basically exercising their own rights by doing whatever they do under the First Amendment. And it's just, I'll tell you, I've been around the block a few times I'd like to say that and this may not be this isn't my first rodeo maybe not my last rodeo but it was unprecedented for me it was shocking to see the way that the police department operated and other entities operated as a political instrument

and basically the muscle for elected officials. We didn't know each other so I couldn't warn you, but did others warn you coming in, you're leaving Houston. I mean, the city of Miami is a fraction of the size of Houston. That's a major duty department that you were leading there. And you decided to come to Miami for whatever reason. You can tell me why, but also did anybody give you a heads up that anybody say chief, listen man, like me, you know, there's just, it's a different world down there. Maybe you want to rethink this decision.

I'll tell you this, right? So last summer, most 10 years in the city of Austin, a city of a million folks. I was in Los Angeles, most of my career at the California Africa for 21 years, I went to Houston, which is the fourth, really third largest in the country, and handled so many challenges. But it's easy to do police work when you're focusing on police work, when you're focusing on public safety. And people are telling me, you know, Miami is different. And I think, why aren't you guys different? You know, I went there every summer as a kid with my family,

the visit family, and hang out on the beach, shared in sunny aisle, with my dad, the visit family, and hang out on the beach there. And Sunny Isle, my dad and mom, and those little motels they used to have, that were just great, those little two stories. And so I was warned, you don't know you're getting yourself into, and boy, were they right. I knew there was gonna be challenges because I was brought into conduct reforms,

but nobody else got the memo, it's just me. I mean, think about it, Billy, Assistant Chiefs telling you, this is Miami, a police chiefs, assistant police chiefs. This is Miami. Sometimes you have to put your integrity aside. I was almost off my chair when I was told that and I told them, I don't know about you all, but last time I checked Miami's part of the United States and no, we don't put our integrity aside. We're soldiers of the law, the rule of law, the constitution, and maybe you're going to put your integrity aside, but I've

got options. And my option is to keep maintaining my integrity. I came in with my integrity and it clandered with my integrity. So why did you take the job? I've been described as a type A on steroids. I love a challenge. And to me, the challenge of reform is always something that appeals to me. I like to make the departments moving outside better. I think I've done that everywhere I've been. Also, to think about being finally for the first time my career being able to serve my community, right, the Cuban community that I'm so proud of or I was proud of and just to come find out that while the people of Miami are great, the people they elect are just crucks. And my heart really aches because Miami is a working class city with a lot of really

hard working people and quite honestly they're getting run over by some of these people that are an office and an hour. I was struck by your testimony at the trial where you basically said that the first red flag happened within days if not hours of your arrival in Miami. Is that accurate? Yeah, I landed on a Thursday. I landed on April 1, 2021. April fulls day, right?

That's pretty ironic. That's it. That's an event of my clue. I wasn't even on the payroll yet, but first impressions or last impressions, you need to hit the ground running. I went straight to the office and introduced myself to some of the staff.

And then that Saturday night, I told the city manager, I'm going to go out and patrol with the lieutenant and charge with the downtown area coming in. I think his last thing was a Harrison, a really good guy. And I get a call at about 11, 30 at night from the city manager on a Saturday. He says, hey, are you out?

Like you said, you work? Well, yeah, I am. Has me go out to Las Aasera Southwest, H Street, to a taqueria owned by a guy I came to find out was Bill Fuller. The city manager's out there with the new chief of police. There, Manny, I will sell my soul to Corroyo and the Mafia for another star. So the field division chief is out there, Manny would it Morales or should be Morales,

if you know what I mean is, toward Morales. And they're out there personally leading a raid into this takarilla. And they're so openly talking about, hey, you know, this guy, this fellow named Bill Fuller, he had a fundraiser for Correo's opponent. And you're going to be busy. Still away from the, they started talking about the, the Baldwin chain. And they're just openly talking about how they're out there at the directional Correo for political retribution.

I was disgusted and I was thinking, well, maybe this, maybe I'm just not reading this right, but that was on Saturday, I swore on Monday and then by my first meeting, which was April 21st for 23rd of that month, where they started giving me Target List and telling me who they wanted this to target. It's on the day, yes. I mean, you don't have to, you don't take my word for this. This is the stuff they did in the open. That's how brazen they are. And I remember telling folks, oh my God, where have I landed? And so from that point forward, I knew that we're going to have a challenging time, Miami. But I'm a hopeful guy. I've never lost the bad guys. That's just not the way I was raised. And guess what? We might have had a setback,

but thankfully we're starting to see justice is starting to prevail for the people of Miami. And I know that you have some litigation with the city so you're limited to some extent for what you can discuss but on that note that you said we're starting to see justice here at the city of Miami. My question for you is do you think this is just the beginning? Is Diaz de la Portia just the first domino to fall and we may continue to see some arrests and account legal accountability here in the city of Miami. Well, I sure hope so. I can just say that if they feel back to onion, I don't know where the Department of Justice is at the federal level kind of giving them a pass because they've

been busy with January 6th, but they should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, right? There's a lot of testimony from very credible individuals under oath that they have. And I would venture to guess that we've got a state attorney in Broward County that is, you know, there's cases open and I'm very thankful to the state attorney for actually taking this challenge on. I'm hopeful that there'll be more accountability

because you know what, the only way that you can deter this kind of behavior is to hold people accountable. And I think the more you shine this light on Miami, the more you peel back the onion, the more they're gonna find out that there's other folks that need to be able to handle. Hey, Chief, you know, there is a election next year for Sheriff here in Miami-Dade County.

For the first time since the 1960s, I know that you feel that a lot of the people in Miami have been victims of Corroyo and DLP and some of these other characters. Is that something that you would ever consider? Well, you know, I'm not looking to do that, but I never say never or anything. So, you know, first of all, she would have God's house in store for me, but I'm in the interim chief here in a rural Colorado department that is under a, the first department under state consent decree in the attorney general. We're making a lot of great changes for them.

And so I'm just going to take it one day at a time and see what happens. But I just implore the people of Miami. This is the time to press the gas as a society, as a community, and demand justice, and come forward. And so there's a lot of victims for all the victims. We know about of this corrupt government in that city. There are more victims, and there's no better time

than now for people to come forward and be heard. Chief Arda Siveto, thanks for being here. Good luck to you. Stay safe. Thank you guys. Be safe. State Farm helps you score an affordable price when you button the Home and Auto Insurance with the Personal Price Plan. The Personal Price Plan lets you call the plays so you can choose the Home and Auto Insurance coverage that fits your need at a price you can afford. And bundling Home and Auto, that's a pro move and just another way to save with State Farm's Personal Price Plan. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can afford. And bundling hominato, that's a pro move and just another way to save with state farm's personal price plan. Talk to a state farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and

save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. Prices are based on ratings plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. We thank God and our proud to be citizens of the great free state of Florida. Hundreds of books were removed from school districts in Florida just last year alone. This is what happens under fascism and communism, which so many people in our community have fled. It should not happen in our democracy.

My family came to the United States to escape censorship and oppression. I grew up in Iran, where censorship had no boundaries. I grew up in a partite South Africa in the 1980s. I grew up in bookbans. We opened the newspaper, and there was whole blocks of white because those articles couldn't be shared. A few extremists with a loud voice held the power and took away our freedom

in the name of morality and religion. Fascist, communist, and religious extremists are the ones who try to ban books. Never people who are for liberty. When we look historically, regimes which believe in book banning and believe in not sharing information, I don't think there are regimes that we want to be a part of.

Banning is not the answer unless we want to be the next Iran, unless we want to be North Korea, unless we want to be the part of. Fanding is not the answer, unless we want to be the next Iran, unless we want to be North Korea, unless we want to be the Soviet Union. I'm a Cuban-American. I know two people that have banned the books, if you then go and run to Santa's. The great, free, shape of Iran. That video pretty much answers what my first question was going to be for our next guest, Iris Mogul, who is a junior in high school here in South Florida and the founder of the band Books Club, which meets the last Thursday of every month at the Books and Books flagship store in Coral Gables.

My question, Iris, was going to be, why do we need a band Books Club? But I would think that that's abundantly clear here in the state of Florida, the free state of Florida mind you. But what I will ask you is, what was the inciting incident for you? What did you see or hear or do or happen that you're like, you know, that you said, I need to do this? Well, I definitely have been thinking about starting a book club for a while just because

I love reading and I wanted a place to talk about books and everything, all the thoughts of that provokes. But I think this past summer, I heard about APA African American history and how that wasn't going to be taught anymore. And I decided that I think resisting censorship was important through books. Did you get, I mean, was there a rebellious side of you that said, like, well, the more you tell me I can't do something, I'm going to want to, you know, I, maybe there's these books that I wasn't even interested before, but now they're, they're being banned in my public school.

I'm going to go read them, like you were more interested in them. Yeah, definitely. I'm going to go read them like you were more interested in them. Definitely. I mean, a lot of the books that are banned are challenged. We're on my reading list, but I think it's really dangerous to try to, you know, dissentism, Florida legislature, try to erase impactful writing and honest history. I think like most of the books that have been banner challenged surround topics like white supremacy and colonization and genocide and like reading about those obviously makes people uncomfortable, but I don't think that's a valid reason to try to erase history. Because if you don't talk about and come to terms with kind of horrific history It's gonna repeat itself, but doesn't it make you feel bad? Doesn't make you feel guilty to be white? Isn't that a problem?

Yeah, that's that's a whole another thing, but yeah I definitely recognize my privilege What are some of the books that you are reading or making your band books reading list here? This month, we're reading their eyes were watching God, takes place in Florida, so perfect. I definitely want to try to go tell it on the mountain with the club. James Baldwin, it's great.

And unfortunately, we have a whole list of Tony Morrison books that we can choose from. Sure. Handmaid's Tale, yeah. So, what is the reaction bin? What is the support bin like from whether it's classmates or adults coming to this club? It's been really great. It's been supportive. People have definitely been encouraging me and expressing gratitude for starting something like this.

Yeah, I think that there's only been one meeting and I think we already created a great community and I hope that more and more people join. Iris Mogul, sorry, you have to grow up at this time in our history that you are subject to, not just the collateral damage, the victims of this censorship culture and these enane culture wars that are keeping you from learning, full stop. You know, it's just nuts. And thank you for taking a stand

and doing what you're doing. Iris Mogul, founder of the Band Books Club, here in South Florida meets last Thursday of every month at the Books and Books flagship store in Coral Gables. We are not helping Iris' education by pulling her out of class to do a podcast. I went, all right. Madness is not mad as flawed or anywhere.

It's well, yeah, she's really not missing anything about other than what books her teachers cannot have her read. In fact. Yeah, not fun. I know. I know. Thank you, Iris, for being here and good luck to you. Yeah, thank you guys so much. Frances Suarez is losing it, dude.

I don't know if it's Roy Dredge. She never had it. I don't know if it's the pressure of the FBI investigation, the fact that now commissioners are being arrested in City Hall. I mean, you have FDLE coming in the front door. The commissioners running out the back door. I mean, it's getting crazy. Rishi Kapoor, the real estate developer who allegedly bribed Mayor Suarez. He's fled to the Bahamas. He's under investigation by a, we've said an alphabet soup of like federal agencies. He's being accused of fraud. His cocaine plum house, cocoa plum.

It's the DEA used to call it cocaine plum. His $6 million house is being repossessed. Shits bad out there for the city of Miami right now. By which I mean great for the people of the city of Miami. It's bad for these politicians and criminals in city hall. But for the rest of us, it's a good time. But I think he's cracking under the pressure. I mean, there was that failed, you know, GOP presidential primary run. If you can call it that.

No, but if you put garbage in, you're going to get garbage out. And now, you know, the herald has been doing some outstanding work. Sarah Blaskey, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, friend of the show, who's doing extraordinary work over there. He had been ignoring her emails, her calls. We're looking at questions answered about these ethics complaints against you and unexplained tickets to VIP events and World Cup and Qatar, F1 weekend VIP dinners and everything in Miami. And they finally go to City Hall, a public building during a public meeting to ask him questions as a reporter does.

Journalism is like the only constitutionally protected profession in this country. And it's not and they go to do their job and you've seen the video that's gonna be our Miami moment Roy, what do you make of this battery? So for those on video, she prepared her phone for this interview, right? So he should have known that, but he grabbed a phone.

Now, come on, you need to realize that she's preparing for an interview, it's gonna be a video so it could be on the website. You can't grab a reporter's phone. That's just, oh man, that's bad. Or a reporter puts a mic in your, that's what reporters do. They come to ask questions in public meetings.

I'm sorry, this is in a public place during a public meeting that's being broadcast live to the world. And like, there's no reasonable expectation of privacy. He's a public official. She's doing her constitutionally protected job. And Mayor Soir is puts hands on her. And it's not even an office. It's the hallway.

The hallway outside his office. Yeah, it's a public area of a public building during a public meeting. And he puts hands on a journalist, he puts hands on a woman. Assault. Battery. I believe under Florida law, by definition, that is battery. You know what's interesting about it? Concerned what happened to Alex Diaz, the Portia.

What's that, Billy? If she was not the outstanding professional that she is and cool under pressure. She could press charges against him. He could be arrested under the letter of the law for battery and then Florida governor Ron DeSantis could suspend him and remove him from office. I'm sorry to get you too excited about that. How can I help? But here is our Miami moment, the mayor of Miami battering a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter just trying to ask him questions in a public building during a public meeting. The U.S. back, baby! Cocans.

We're wondering about some of the allegations and the ethics complain. We're going to make an appointment and we'll be happy to talk to you. What day? I'm not going to put him with you now. You can talk to my assistant. I have a comms director. He knows that our protocol is to go through the comms director. Please do not record me. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, We're recording the mayor of man. That's bad. Don't put the phone in anyone's face. The one public property.

I understand. You can type it inside. You can do it. Yes, I do. Just don't put the phone in. Sorry, this is public property, sir. Yeah, I think it's property. Just make it a point.

Yeah. Okay. I already have a response from your office. This wouldn't happen to me. Okay. I'll be happy to wait. If I ever got a response from your office. But Joey, you have a comment.

I have a comment director. You know it proceeds you. Yeah. You know the rules. The rules are simple. OK? The rules, call my office, and you put the questions in writing or make an appointment with me. Be happy to talk to you.

Mayor, have you been talking to for years? And I will continue to talk to you. OK, Mayor, have you been approached by federal investigators? No? All right. Approach by. Yeah. I'm gonna approach my federal investigators.

No? All right. I'll be approached by. Yep, yeah.