Oscar Rivero, the developer at the center of Miami-Dade County's affordable-housing scandal, was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Friday after admitting he used more than $700,000 from a county loan to buy a house for himself in South Miami.
After a judge refused a request to dismiss the charges against him, Rivero pleaded guilty to one count of theft and also agreed to provide evidence to prosecutors in other corruption probes. Rivero's sentence could be reduced, depending on how much reliable information he turns over.
Rivero, 38, was one of several developers who received millions of dollars in up-front loans from the Miami-Dade Housing Agency but failed to build any homes. Police arrested him in August 2006, a month after his housing deals were exposed in The Miami Herald's House of Lies investigation.
''He was the one that promised the world,'' said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle.
Rivero will finally provide some affordable housing under his plea deal, which requires him to build six houses with Habitat for Humanity after he is released from prison. He also must serve one year of probation.
The county loaned him about $806,000 in November 2004 to finance a 54-unit apartment complex for low-income residents in Little Havana. The apartments were never built.
Just two weeks after receiving the county loan, Rivero withdrew $711,000 of that money to purchase the South Miami house and to install a pool and appliances. He and his family lived in the home while they built a sprawling 11,000-square-foot Mediterranean-revival estate with an elevator, wine cellar and billiard room.
Rivero's attorney, Lilly Ann Sanchez, said Rivero was supposed to use the county loan to pay off a mortgage on the Little Havana land. He later took out a new mortgage on the South Miami house to pay off the other loan.
''He basically made good on what he was supposed to do, only seven months too late,'' Sanchez said.
On Friday, Rivero, standing before the judge with Sanchez at his side, offered an apology for his actions.
''I fully acknowledge the mistakes I made,'' said Rivero, a lawyer who once served on the Miami Parking Authority and the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority. ``I can't stress enough how much I regret making those mistakes, and I guarantee it won't happen again.''
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Ellen Venzer called Rivero a disgrace to the legal profession and said she would have rejected the plea deal as too lenient if Rivero had not already paid the county $1 million restitution.
''You have taken from those in the community who needed the most,'' she said. ``You have disgraced yourself and your profession.''
Venzer actually sentenced Rivero to 10 years in prison, a sentence she will reduce when he surrenders for prison on June 6 -- after he spends the next month giving information to investigators.
Prosecutor Richard Scruggs said he was prepared to file additional charges against Rivero for his role in other deals, but agreed not to arrest Rivero in those cases -- which Scruggs declined to describe in detail -- as long as Rivero agreed to cooperate as a witness.
Scruggs also dropped a pending fraud charge against Rivero as part of Friday's plea deal.
In the years before his arrest, Rivero had forged strong ties among the power brokers at County Hall. After working as an aide to then-County Commissioner Alex Penelas, he became golfing buddies with the former head of the county's housing agency, Rene Rodriguez, who steered loans Rivero's way.
Rivero also was a friend and business partner of Alben Duffie, a former lobbyist who was on the board of a nonprofit housing agency created by the county that has drawn the scrutiny of investigators.
Another Rivero ally, Reynaldo Diaz, is awaiting trial on charges that he used bogus documents to obtain a $940,000 loan from the housing agency. Diaz has pleaded not guilty. He was also the title agent on Rivero's South Miami home purchase.
A third developer, Raul Masvidal, is also awaiting trial on charges that he siphoned money from a county-financed construction deal to buy a giant watermelon sculpture for his home. Rivero once was a partner in the project, called Hometown Station. Masvidal has also denied wrongdoing.
Miami Herald staff writer Larry Lebowitz contributed to this report.
