Miami-Area Affordable Housing Developer Cops Plea To Theft Of $700K+ In County Funds; Agrees To Squeal In Related Probes

In Miami, Florida, The Miami Herald reports:

• Oscar Rivero, the developer at the center of Miami-Dade County's affordable-housing scandal, was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Friday after admitting he used more than $700,000 from a county loan to buy a house for himself in South Miami. After a judge refused a request to dismiss the charges against him, Rivero pleaded guilty to one count of theft and also agreed to provide evidence to prosecutors in other corruption probes. Rivero's sentence could be reduced, depending on how much reliable information he turns over.

• Rivero, 38, was one of several developers who received millions of dollars in up-front loans from the Miami-Dade Housing Agency but failed to build any homes. Police arrested him in August 2006, a month after his housing deals were exposed in The Miami Herald's House of Lies investigation.

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• The county loaned him about $806,000 in November 2004 to finance a 54-unit apartment complex for low-income residents in Little Havana. The apartments were never built. Just two weeks after receiving the county loan, Rivero withdrew $711,000 of that money to purchase [a] South Miami house and to install a pool and appliances. He and his family lived in the home while they built a sprawling 11,000-square-foot Mediterranean-revival estate with an elevator, wine cellar and billiard room.

For more, see Dade developer Rivero gets 21 months in jail (In a plea deal, developer Oscar Rivero admitted using $711,000 from a Miami-Dade affordable-housing loan to buy a home for himself and install a swimming pool) (if link expires, try here).

Go here for The Miami Herald's House of Lies investigation, a year-long probe that exposed a series of ill-fated government deals that played out under the noses of county leaders, enriching well-connected developers at the expense of the community's coveted funds for affordable housing, effectively stealing from the poor.