Rep.-elect Rivera being investigated for $500K in secret payments

Rep.-elect Rivera being investigated for $500K in secret payments

Rep.-elect David Rivera, R-Miami, is under investigation by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office for more than $500,000 in secret payments from the owners of the Flagler Dog Track to a company tied to him, reports The Miami Herald:

Most of the money was paid in early 2008, weeks after Rivera — then a member of the Florida House of Representatives — helped run a political campaign backed by the dog track to win voter approval for Las Vegas-style slot machines at parimutuel venues in Miami-Dade County.

The dog track — now called the Magic City Casino — made three payments totaling $510,000 to Millennium Marketing, a company currently co-managed by Rivera’s 70-year-old mother.

Rivera handily won the 25th district race in November vacated by Mario Diaz-Balart, who won in the 21st district. But he falsified claims on his state financial disclosure forms that he had worked as a contractor for USAID. He had to amend the forms to reflect that he had not, and questions arose over other sources of income beyond his $30,000/year salary as a state representative. He also faced allegations that he had run a truck containing his opponent’s flyers off the Palmetto Expressway in a 2002 campaign.