Relative’s Miami business helped former Broward Health director get kickbacks, feds say
A former director of Broward Health used his position as an equipment buyer to request kickbacks that included World Cup tickets and vacations to Walt Disney World, the Bahamas and Cancun, federal prosecutors say.
The indictment of Brian Bravo, a 46-year-old Pembroke Pines man who made his first appearance in Fort Lauderdale federal court last Friday, charges him with two counts of bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, one count of extortion and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
“It was further part of the conspiracy that defendant Bravo concealed kickback payments by funneling the payments through Computer Tech and/or Denalix,” the indictment said.
Those would-be companies based in Miami’s Little Havana area that state records — and his own federal indictment — say were run by Bravo relative Brando Aguilera. Neither indictment specified how they’re related.
Aguilera has been charged with four counts of structuring transactions involving domestic institutions. He is scheduled to make his first appearance on Friday.
As for Bravo, Broward Health Vice President of Corporate Communications Jennifer Smith said, “Mr. Bravo is not an employee of our system and has not worked for our organization in over five years.”
The alleged system of bribes
Bravo was Broward Health’s corporate procurement officer and director of materials management for a decade, 2005 to 2015.
“Bravo’s duties included contracting with vendors for the purchase of goods and services for Broward Health,” the indictment said.
One company that Broward Health bought from, the indictment alleges, paid Bravo cash kickbacks during trips to South Florida from 2008 through 2014. In 2014, the indictment says, Bravo increased the cost of getting Broward Health’s business and asked the firm to start paying by check “because the cash payments were becoming too large.”
So, Bravo directed the company to send the checks to Computer Tech, which Aguilera’s indictment says repaired computers and printers among other services for Broward Health.
After depositing the check, Aguilera would, Bravo’s indictment said, “withdraw cash from all or part of the kickback payment and pay the withdrawn cash to defendant Bravo. During 2015, [Aguilera] structured some of the cash withdrawals so that the cash withdrawals did not exceed $10,000, in order to evade the cash reporting requirements of the Internal Revenue Service.”
Meanwhile, the indictment says, Bravo got another company wanting Broward Health’s consumer affection to give him two tickets to the 2014 World Cup, which was held in Brazil. They were worth $2,556.29.
“During in or about 2014 and 2015, Computer Tech also paid for vacations for Bravo and his family in Cancun, Mexico, the Bahamas, Walt Disney World and a cabin in North Carolina,” Bravo’s indictment said.
Shifting companies and cash?
Early in 2015, the indictments say, Aguilera didn’t want to use Computer Tech’s bank accounts for Bravo’s kickback paychecks anymore. The indictments say they created Denalix, which state records show as being registered in March 2015 and using the same address, 306 SW 12th Ave., as Computer Tech.
Though Aguilera is the only listed agent or officer of Denalix, Bravo’s indictment says Bravo created a Denalix email account and password and got a card allowing him ATM access to Denalix cash.
The indictment says in June 2015, “Denalix received wire transfers and checks from vendors of Broward Health,” including a medical supply company and the company that once paid bribes to Bravo in person and in cash.
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