Miami city attorney investigated by Florida Bar over ties to alleged house-flipping scheme
The Florida Bar is investigating Miami City Attorney Victoria Méndez and her close connection to companies that purchased homes belonging to vulnerable Miami residents at well below-market-value and then sold them — sometimes the same day — at a large profit.
The investigation, which has not been previously reported, has been open since at least last April, according to an email sent at the time from Rick Courtemanche, deputy general counsel of the Florida Bar, which was obtained by the Herald. A spokesperson for the Bar told the Herald the investigation is ongoing, but provided no further information.
A Bar investigation signals deepening problems for the city attorney. Méndez has been sued by a man who says he was convinced to sell his family’s home in what he called a “conspiratorial scheme to enrich the city attorney and her husband.”
It is the latest smudge for a city that has seen one commissioner criminally charged, a second hit with a $63 million judgment for harassing a nightclub using city cops, and the mayor facing multiple investigations. Méndez was effectively ousted from her post at City Hall in a commission vote last month that terminated her contract early. She will remain city attorney until June, making over $340,000 as the city’s second-highest paid employee.
Reached by reporters Friday, Méndez revealed the subject of the open Bar inquiry — information that is not otherwise made publicly available until after the initial investigatory process is completed.
Méndez said the investigation was sparked by the lawsuit brought against her and her husband, Carlos Morales, who owned the company allegedly involved in flipping elders’ houses, as well as against the city of Miami. She said the probe is also focused on reporting by WLRN, South Florida’s public radio affiliate.
The WLRN investigation — which Méndez described as a “hit piece” — detailed how the city attorney’s family profited from a county initiative, called the Guardianship Program, by selling the homes of seniors and other incapacitated Miamians to cover the cost of their future care and living expenses.
The investigation is pending the resolution of the civil case, Méndez said. She called that civil case “bogus.” Méndez was scheduled to testify in a virtual hearing in the lawsuit Monday morning.
READ MORE: See how Méndez described the Bar investigation and responded to the Herald’s reporting
The existence of the Bar investigation came to light as Méndez faces a new, separate complaint filed Friday by local documentarian and film director Billy Corben, who filed the complaint under his legal name William Cohen. He shared a copy of his complaint with the Miami Herald.
In it Corben accused Méndez of unprofessional behavior and violating Bar rules when the city attorney interrupted public comment at a recent commission meeting to accuse Corben of being a paid by unnamed people seeking to damage her reputation. She provided no evidence. During his comments that day, Corben had referred to her as a “mob lawyer.”
“You are a vile little man,” she told Corben from the dais. Her comments were broadcast live as part of the city commission meeting.
Corben turned up at the next commission meeting in a t-shirt reading “Vile. Little. Man.” “I am going to vile a Bar complaint,” he declared during public comment in a play on words that went viral on social media.
The complaint included an excerpt from a deposition in which the same businessman Méndez accused of financing Corben swore under oath that he did no such thing. The deposition was taken by the city’s outside counsel. Corben alleged the city attorney was “well aware” of the sworn statement at the time she made her public comment.
Florida Bar rules indicate that if Corben’s complaint passes an initial review, Méndez will be given 15 days to provide a response. At that time, the Bar will decide whether to dismiss the complaint or move forward with an investigation.
Méndez did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment regarding Corben’s complaint against her. But in an email Friday, she admonished reporters against writing about the investigation already underway.
“I am cautioning you writing about a Bar review that is not a public record and trying to damage my reputation,” Mendéz wrote. “Please govern yourselves accordingly.”
