UPDATE: The owner of CruisePort Destinations, a dba of America’s Gateway Inc., said that she was paid to pay her employees to canvass during the 2020 election because they were not working due to the COVID crisis. “It was really good because it helped my employees stay alive,” said Jeannette Pineiro. “During the pandemic, which paralyzed my industry for 18 months, I had hundreds of employees with nothing to do,” Pineiro said, adding that she referred them to Avon and Amazon as well.
In an email to Ladra, she said she and her employees worked on “various campaigns,” not just Renier DLP’s. But when we spoke on the phone, she could only name Raquel Regalado‘s commission campaign, and her employees only worked for her on election day.
“And I have all the records. I kept them all.”
When he ran for county commission two years ago, Renier Diaz de la Portilla paid an inactive corporation $75,000 for “canvassing” voters in Miami-Dade District 5.
It’s already strange because the company, CruisePort Destinations, doesn’t seem to have any canvassing or election experience. It’s a D/B/A for a larger corporation, America’s Gateway Inc., that provides portside operation and logistics for several South Florida cruise companies.
Then there’s this: It is owned by Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla’s neighbor.
Jeannette Rodrigues owns the house across the street from the house where ADLP and Renier — now a judicial candidate for the second time — grew up. It’s the house on 19th Street that Alex Diaz de la Portilla has run many campaigns out of. It’s the house he bought at a bargain price from his parents and is now losing to foreclosure.
Read related: Jenny Nillo campaigned for Renier Diaz de la Portilla while on the public job
The house is listed as the address for Cruiseport Destinations.
Rodrigues, who works under her maiden name, Jeannette Piñeiro, was interviewed in 2020 in “A Business Minute with Lily Lopez” for the South Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. And there was no talk about canvassing. It was all about the port and how lucky Piñeiro was to work in the industry, which at the time was surviving the COVID crisis.
Piñeiro’s company, when it was known as America’s Gateway Transportation, actually competed for part of a $21 million county contract awarded by commissioners in 2013 as a member of a pool of vendors recommended by Miami-Dade staff to service cruise companies at PortMiami. She told Ladra she didn’t get it.
Read related: andidate Renier Diaz de la Portilla doesn’t meet judicial canon standards
Fast forward back to 2020, when Cruiseport Destinations was paid $75,147.50 in nine separate checks from the two brothers’ political action committees from September to November, according to Florida campaign finance records. The checks came in every few days — in two instances, two checks were written with the same date — and for varying, uneven (read: suspicious) amounts: $8,192.25 on Sept. 10, then $6,982 eleven days later, then $9,050 five days after that.
Two of the nine payments came on the same day from Alex DLP’s PAC, for a total of $17,286.
Was it money for a cruise? Campaign finance laws do not allow candidates to use campaign funds for vacation or personal expenses, even though lots of politicians do it all the time. They pay their phone bills, their gas, their meals with campaign money.
Were these checks payments for kickbacks? This seems more likely.
Either way, it’s something for the authorities to look into. Something else. Authorities are already reportedly looking at his financing of that 2020 campaign, anway, and whether or not he was extorting contributions from city of Miami interests who wanted to influence his commissioner brother.
Renier Diaz de la Portilla paid $75K to his brother’s neighbor — for what? added by Ladra on
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Kickbacks? No surprise. All the Diaz de la Portilla’s abuse campaign contributions. Is anyone investigating?
Why Not Get in JAIL Some one Wonder ? Is a BIG FAMILY Like MAFFIA and Every one has Taken some Contribution/Bribe , Remember The HONOR System has Been Replaced by who has the Biggest Budget ( Who Got more Contributions and Owe More Favors ) like a Lay AWAY!
Grifters. Grifters all. And the sleazy land use attorneys and lobbyists who give these grifters money TO BUY THEIR VOTES deserve to be indicted.
‘ It’s a broken system that no politician wants to fix since it benefits themselves at our expense.’
Exactly and with the worthless enabling DA and interestingly enough a local FBI office in Miami , think 3 years going now which is only interested in foreign money laundering NOT local political corruption nothing here changes .
Besides PAC’s these assorted parasites can legally get a ‘ consultation ‘ fee from developers and other big money special interest thus the Miami political beast is bred to go bad .
Someone once said perhaps the FBI has given up because self serving , unethical, flagrantly corrupt politicos / officials in Miami are so abundant that it’s playing Whack A Mole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcGat64KTk4
Love the fact a short little Latina with a note pad and laptop consistently delivers better investigations than all the Dade County legacy media and SAO combined.
Who you calling little? Pft!
Love, Ladra
Authorities Are Always Looking , but Turning their Faces and Looking The Other Way ! Let’s Not Forget “The MIA Protocol” ( Rebeca Sosa ) Fiasco W/ The COE ETHICS 0ne Year Investigation . WE NEED a NEW SAO in So Fla . Not One part of the PINAPLE ?
These people are no different than the Washington DC insiders like Former Miami Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez who now is a Congressmen in DC. It’s a do on to thee but not to me ideal .A pay to play Scheme.Former Miami Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez is the Godfather along with his Lobbyist henchman like Brian May and Jorge Luis Lopez .This is the Culture all over the Place .Most of the FBI along with the United States Attorney General of the Southern District won’t handle Political cases unless it suits their own Agenda. Unfortunately we see how the Authorities meaning law enforcement pick and choose cases based on who put them in office. This goes for Republicans and Democrats .
Why do these, and other grifters, not end up indicted, in jail and stripped of their positions? I am so done with a justice system that protects politicians and terrorizes the poor. Thanks for continuing to out these creeps.. you may be the last remaining investigative reporter left in Miami.
I’m old enough to remember when PACs weren’t involved in local elections. Once candidates figured out how to use political committees to hide contributions and expenditures from prying eyes, it was the end of election transparency. Candidates shuffle money from one PAC to another, and it takes time and diligence to follow the money trail. It’s shady AF. The Florida Elections Commission can only do so much to wade through the thousands of complaints it receives each year, and it only meets quarterly, so do the math. By the time the FEC concludes its investigation, the respondents are running for re-election and the cycle of corruption starts all over again. Politicians know there are very little, if any, consequences for violating election laws, so they don’t even bother to try and hide it anymore. Even if they get fined, there’s no penalty for non-payment. North Miami Councilwoman Mary Estime-Irvin, for example, owes well over $10K in fines, has refused to pay, and is still allowed to run for office. It’s a broken system that no politician wants to fix since it benefits themselves at our expense.