Leila and David Centner caught up in Miami commissioner’s corruption scandal

A push by a wealthy Miami couple to build a sports complex for their private school in a city park near downtown is at the core of public corruption charges against Miami Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla, who is accused of championing their proposed $10 million athletic facility in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash, hotel rooms and food and drinks.

An arrest affidavit made public Friday alleges that a lobbyist pursuing a deal to build the complex for David and Leila Centner’s Centner Academy conspired with the commissioner to funnel $245,000 from the couple into two political committees “secretly controlled” by Díaz de la Portilla.

The lobbyist, William Riley, routed the money through a newly created Delaware corporation “to conceal the origin of the funds,” according to the affidavit, which was filed Wednesday under seal by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics.

In return, investigators say, Díaz de la Portilla pushed the no-bid deal through a city redevelopment agency and City Hall over a period of two years — all while enjoying thousands of dollars worth of accommodations at a Brickell hotel that were quietly footed by the Centners.

The allegations place the Centners — heavyweight GOP donors who caused an uproar after telling the academy’s teachers not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in 2021 — at the center of a criminal case that has rocked Miami City Hall.

“Please know that at this time the Prosecutor has asked us not to comment,” the Centners said in a statement posted Friday on the Centner Academy website. “With that being said, we wish to assure everybody that we are not being accused of any wrongful acts nor have we done anything wrong. We wish we could share more freely, we imagine matters will clarify in the coming weeks.”

Díaz de la Portilla and Riley were arrested Thursday and charged with money laundering, bribery, and conspiracy, among other charges that largely revolve around Riley’s work for the Centners. The two men deny that they did anything wrong. The commissioner, who was suspended from office Friday evening by Florida’s governor, has alleged that the charges are politically motivated.

“This is a work of fiction,” Díaz de la Portilla told reporters as he left the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center late Thursday. “Absolutely not true. Not an ounce of truth.”

Riley’s attorney, Kendall Coffey, said in a statement that the arrest affidavit is “fraught with error and we are looking forward to the opportunity to correct the record through the judicial process.”

“These charges reflect an unfortunate attempt to criminalize entirely legal lobbying and fundraising activities,” Coffey said. “The lobbying activities, as well as sources of monetary contributions to campaigns, have all been matters of public record.”

Money and influence

The affidavit lays out a scheme that investigators say began in 2019, when Díaz de la Portilla, a once-powerful Florida senator, returned to public office for the first time in nine years upon his election to the District 1 seat on the City Commission.

Around that time, the Centners hired Riley to be their lobbyist and in-house zoning attorney for $500,000 a year, investigators say. Early on, the couple relied on Riley to lobby his old friend Díaz de la Portilla — a strategy memorialized in invoices reviewed by investigators. Riley allegedly spent thousands of dollars on meals and drinks with the commissioner and city staff to push a deal to redevelop a city-owned park north of downtown, and frequently sought reimbursement from his clients.

One such invoice to the Centners read: “Work on political initiatives regarding Alex DLP campaign.”

A key period flagged by investigators came in early 2020, when Díaz de la Portilla took control of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency and jettisoned plans to partner with the Miami-Dade School Board to redevelop Miami’s Biscayne Park and adjacent land into an affordable housing and office space.

That May, Díaz de la Portilla’s younger brother Renier — who investigators say was seen at the CRA offices attending high-level meetings and soliciting campaign donations from developers — launched a campaign to run for Miami-Dade County Commission.

Three days later, Riley created a Delaware corporation called Pristine De LLC, with himself as the sole owner and president of what he called a “real estate holding company” on paperwork when he opened the entity’s bank account, investigators says. He used an address that matches one used by DLC Capital Management, the investment entity founded by the Centners, according to its website.

Tapping the Centner-affiliated company officially behind the proposal to build the sports complex, investigators say Riley steered nearly $250,000 through Pristine De LLC into political committees supporting the younger brother’s unsuccessful political campaigns in 2020 and in 2022, when he ran for Miami-Dade County judge.

As Riley steered the money to the Díaz de la Portilla brothers, the Centners were pushing to build a sports complex on Biscayne Park, located across the street from the Centner Academy’s middle and high school campus on Northeast 19th Street.

The affidavit says the commissioner introduced Riley to Miami’s city manager in his commission office, where the lobbyist pitched the athletic complex proposal. The commissioner would eventually sponsor a no-bid proposal in April of 2022 for the city to negotiate with the Centners to create their sports complex, which was valued at $10 million.

When commissioners unanimously approved the proposal, investigators say Riley billed the Centners $1,528.39 for a “Celebratory Dinner with City Commissioner, Manager and Staff.” Weeks later, Díaz de la Portilla was pictured celebrating with Riley and their significant others at the Liberty Hotel in Boston, according to a social media post investigators included in the affidavit.

“Boston with good friends,” wrote Riley’s wife.

Eventually, in November of 2022, investigators say the commissioner summoned city staff to stay in his office with Riley and negotiate an agreement late into the night until agreements were completed.

The fate of the sports complex is unclear; City Manager Art Noriega did not respond to the Herald’s questions on Friday about its status.

Other allegations

Investigators say the Centners also paid for election night expenses in 2020 at the East Miami hotel, which one lobbyist described as a “base of operations” for the younger Díaz de la Portilla brother’s 2020 campaign.

The commissioner stayed at the hotel that year for 57 nights, racking up charges totaling more than $28,000, according to the affidavit, which states that roughly half of that bill was footed by Riley and another lobbyist working on the campaign.

Records reviewed by investigators show that Riley covered almost $8,000 in charges in August 2020 to host an election watch party for the County Commission primary. Renier Díaz de la Portilla finished in second place that night. Riley was later reimbursed by the Centners for the expenses. According to the affidavit, the payments should have been reported as political contributions but were not disclosed, which agents flagged as a campaign violation.

Díaz de la Portilla is also accused of violating campaign finance laws that prohibit political committees from coordinating directly with candidates or any “agent” of candidates.

Investigators say Díaz de la Portilla used his two political committees to pay for roughly $75,000 worth of political mailers on behalf of his brother’s judicial campaign against incumbent Judge Fred Seraphin, breaking a law that caps campaign donations at $1,000. Investigators wrote that they received a sworn statement from Renier Díaz de la Portilla pursuant to a state witness subpoena, and he testified that his older brother “helped run his 2022 political campaign” for judge.