Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla arrested on money laundering, bribery charges

MIAMI – State law enforcement officials arrested Miami City Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla Thursday on multiple criminal charges.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, agents arrested the District 1 commissioner on one count of money laundering, three counts of unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior, one count of bribery and one count of criminal conspiracy, after he turned himself into the FDLE’s office in Doral.

Attorney William W. Riley Jr, 48, faces the same charges.

Diaz de la Portilla, 58, was also arrested on four counts of official misconduct, one count of campaign contribution in excess of legal limits and two counts of failure to report a gift. According to the FDLE, Riley was also charged with failure to disclose lobbyist expenses.

“During the investigation, agents found evidence indicating Diaz de la Portilla and Riley Jr. accepted more than $15,000 in payments for Diaz de la Portilla’s brother’s Miami-Dade County Court judicial campaign but did not report them, as required by Florida Statutes, Chapter 106,” an FDLE news release states. “Additionally, Riley Jr. controlled a bank account in the name of a Delaware-based corporation to launder approximately $245,000 in concealed political contributions made by a management services company in exchange for permission to build a sports complex in the city of Miami.”

The release continues: “Further investigation determined Diaz de la Portilla also operated and controlled two political committees used not only to support his brother’s campaign, but also for personal expenditures. Records showed that one of the committees reported total donations of approximately $2.3 million and the other reported total donations of more than $800,000.”

Riley is listed as the commissioner’s campaign treasurer in his most recent re-election filing.

Diaz de la Portilla has served as a Miami city commissioner since 2020 and previously served as a Republican state representative and senator.

Diaz de la Portilla was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $72,000 bond, while Riley was being held on a $46,000 bond, according to the FDLE.

Their mug shots weren’t immediately available Thursday afternoon.

FDLE officials said the Broward State Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case against the two.

This is a developing story. Stay with Local 10 News and Local10.com for updates.