Interestingly enough, there is a common denominator in the two different arrests this month of three local mayors on corruption charges: South Dade lobbyist turned FBI informant Michael Kesti.
Kesti, who served Sweetwater Mayor Manny “Maraña” Maroño and Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi up to federal authorities as a paid informant in a bribery sting, has also been executive director of Community Health Foundation, Inc., a funding source for the company that secretly hired the just-suspended Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman to help them grease government wheels.
Bateman was arrested Wednesday on charges of unlawful compensation for his hush-hush job in which he lobbied county officials and pressured city employees on behalf of Community Health of South Florida, Inc., and it’s proposed permits and projects.
Kesti is quoted in a 2005 South Florida Hospital News Report story about funding and “promoting awareness” of Community Health of South Florida, the clinics-constructing company that retained Bateman this past February at $125 an hour.
“If the funding were there, CHI could take care of a lot more patients,” Kesti is quoted as saying, stressing the need for neighborhood clinics as the number of uninsured grows.
He said that community health centers around the country care for patients at an average cost of only $412 a year. “We could do more to ease the burden on our health system.”
Ladra is not sure that Kesti is still involved with CHI. He has repeatedly hung up on me and refused to answer email and voice mail messages when I have wanted to talk about the other case, the one in which he approached the FBI with the idea that some elected officials would be amenable to stealing job-creation grant monies from the federal government but then had to go through fellow lobbyists Richard Candia and Jorge Forte. They were arrested a day after the mayors earlier this month for their parts as facilitators and bagmen in the scam.
But at the very least, the interesting connection shows that the 305 is a small political world.
FBI informant, lobbyist Michael Kesti tied to Homestead case added by Ladra on
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