As suspended Miami city commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla faces criminal charges, campaign contributions for his reelection keep mounting — and a firm linked to David and Leila Centner again is among the top donors.
A key aspect of the public corruption case against Diaz de la Portilla centers on Pristine DE, a Delaware entity. Between 2020 and 2022. Pristine DE allegedly laundered $245,000 in illegal campaign contributions from the Centners to political action committees controlled by the indicted elected official, according to an arrest affidavit.
The Centners are a Miami Beach power couple who have earned national attention for implementing controversial anti-vaccine policies at their Centner Academy private school in the Miami Design District. In exchange for the political donations, Diaz de la Portilla allegedly steered a no-bid deal for the Centners to build a $10 million recreation center at Biscayne Park in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, state law enforcement officials allege.
And Pristine DE’s political generosity kept flowing just in time for Diaz de la Portilla’s reelection bid. Despite facing multiple pending felony charges, the longtime Miami politico is running to keep his commission seat in the city’s November election against five challengers.
Between March and May, Pristine DE contributed an additional $130,000 to Diaz de la Portilla’s Proven Leadership for Miami-Dade County committee, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Florida Elections Commission. The committee has roughly $1.4 million in its war chest to support Diaz de la Portilla, finance records show.
Leila Centner and Jamie Mandel, president and general counsel of the Centner’s DLC Capital Management, did not respond to multiple email requests for comment. The Centners have previously denied any criminal wrongdoing.
In an email, Diaz de la Portilla’s criminal defense lawyer Ben Kuehne said Pristine’s political contributions are “completely lawful and entirely authorized as part of its legal and allowable political engagement.”
“The politically engineered prosecution against Alex Diaz de la Portilla will evaporate when Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla gets his day in court,” Kuehne said. “We are looking forward to total vindication and his return to serving the public. “
Criminal charges don’t include 2023 contributions
Last month, Diaz de la Portilla and Miami-based lobbyist and lawyer William “Bill” Riley Jr. were criminally charged with bribery, money laundering, criminal conspiracy and unlawful compensation. Both have pleaded not guilty. Riley allegedly formed Pristine DE and listed himself as the company’s sole director, an arrest affidavit states.
Bank records obtained by investigators showed that Pristine DE accepted wire transfers totaling nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the Centners’ Perpetual Love Trust. Riley then wrote checks in various amounts ranging from $20,000 to $50,000 paid to Proven Leadership and another PAC controlled by Diaz de la Portilla between 2020 and 2022, the affidavit states. At the time, the two committees were supporting Diaz de la Portilla’s younger brother, Renier Diaz de la Portilla’s campaigns for county commissioner and county judge.
During the same time period, Centner Academy has been in an expansion mode, adding new school buildings near Midtown Miami and adjacent to Biscayne Park, where the Centners won the no-bid license agreement to build the recreation center on the 7.3-acre city-owned site at 150 Northeast 19th Street. The contract is with Perpetual Love Trust.
Between October 2020 and April 2022, Diaz de la Portilla pushed city officials into making a deal with the Centners without disclosing his conflict of interest. And he did not abstain from votes tied to the recreation center, in violation of state law, the affidavit states.
However, investigators did not probe the origin of the $130,000 that Pristine DE contributed this year to Proven Leadership, a source familiar with the public corruption case told The Real Deal. The Centners provided sworn statements only weeks before Diaz de la Portilla and Riley were arrested, the source added. The affidavit also does not mention the Pristine DE contributions made this year.
Reached on his cell phone, Riley declined comment. His attorney Kendall Coffey did not answer his cell phone, and did not respond to a text message.
Kuehne, Diaz de la Portilla’s lawyer, denied Pristine DE’s contributions violated state law.
“All contributions were publicly disclosed and were made in full compliance with the law,” Kuehne said. “Nothing here is secret or hidden.”