Paramedia USA Inc. was supposed to help MIA drum up business overseas. While the results of that mission have been questionable, an investigation shows the company did succeed on another front: Bilking the county airport and the traveling public for thousands of dollars in a scheme undetected by county officials.

As part of its contract for overseas work, Paramedia placed ads in European trade journals touting Miami's airport as a strategic location between Europe and Latin America. The airport reimbursed the company for what was supposed to be the exact cost of the ads.

Instead, Paramedia submitted at least half a dozen falsified receipts, records show. The Herald uncovered the discrepancy by comparing seven bills Paramedia gave to the airport against the actual invoices from the magazines that published the ads.

While the amount discovered - $5,682 - is small in the world of airport contracts, the findings raise questions about tens of thousands of dollars in other expenses billed by the same company, some with little or no paperwork to support them. And it shows how companies can earn millions from MIA without a rigorous review of what they do for the money.

In one case, Paramedia submitted a 1997 invoice showing the company bought a full-page ad in the Airline Ninety Two magazine for 483,890 Spanish pesetas, the equivalent of $3,456.36 at the time. But a copy of the original invoice voluntarily provided to the Herald by the magazine publisher, based in Madrid, showed a cost of 182,700 pesetas, or $1,305.00.

Four companies gave the newspaper invoices. Others refused or could not be reached.

Paramedia was hired as the airport's European marketing firm in 1994, even though it was not the top-ranked firm. Since then, the company has been paid nearly $3 million, with the money flowing from the airport year after year even as county auditors pinpointed repeated problems in the company's financial records.

This year, Aviation Director Angela Gittens abruptly terminated the contract, saying it brought no "discernible benefits" to the airport. Presented the Herald's findings last week, Gittens said: "We will pursue any funds that they may owe us."

The county's inspector general, with help from the state attorney's office, has since launched a criminal investigation into Paramedia's finances after finding numerous improprieties in an audit. The company is owned and managed by Billy Freixas, a lobbyist, former Miami zoning board member, businessman and political fundraiser. He and his father José ran the company together until the senior Freixas died last year.

The son refused repeated requests for comment and responded to written questions about the invoices with only scrawled fax replies.

"I have no records of this, " he wrote. "I did not run the company or submit invoices for payment. . . . I have only run this company since my father's death."

But Freixas was intimately involved in the company's day-to-day operations from the beginning, records and interviews show.

His ability to win government contracts - for himself or clients he represents - has paid him well. Until a recent divorce, he lived in a four-bedroom Coral Gables home, drove a Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar convertible, and frequented the world's finest hotels.

Freixas, his family and close business partners provided at least $47,515 in campaign contributions to county races, including at least $4,500 to County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, who has voted for his deals, and $3,700 to Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who has traveled overseas with him twice on trade missions.