Ex-Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina Used Ponzi Cash to Pay For Mistress, Prosecutors Say: Former Hialeah mayor and Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Julio Robaina was already in big trouble with prosecutors for allegedly taking $300,000 in secret loan payments from a buddy running a Ponzi scheme. Now he might just be in even worse trouble with his wife and co-defendant, Raiza Robaina. Julio and Raiza Robaina were charged together last May with evading taxes, failing to report income and lying to authorities about their off-the-books, high-interest loan business. The case grew out of the criminal trial of Robainas friend, Luis Felipe Perez, who is charged with running a $45 million Ponzi scheme. What Raiza didnt know, prosecutors say, is that Julio asked his friend to personally give him most of the payments from the loan so he could spend them on an extramarital affair. The problem is that the Robainas insisted on being represented by a joint attorney, and that prosecutors worried that news about the ex-mayors mistress could taint a jury pool. If the prosecutors are right, the ex-politico comes out looking far worse than when he seemed to just be a loan-sharking Ponzi scheme profiteer. Amidst his illegal enterprise, he systematically lied to his spouse, they say. Raiza Robaina could use evidence that defendant Julio Robaina concealed cash interest payments from her both to minimize her involvement and/or knowledge of that portion of the scheme and to argue more broadly that he kept her in the dark about the criminal activity generally, they write. The Robainas trial is set to start on April 10.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:14:58 +0000
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