Jackson Health contractor arrested on forgery charge

A Miami contractor was arrested Friday after authorities said he forged a document to land a contract with Jackson Health System worth over $484,000.

Ricardo Villaverde was charged with forgery and uttering a false instrument.

Villaverde is the president of CT Mechanical Company, which has several contracts with Jackson Health. In this case, his company bid to replace an air handler unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

He was awarded the contract in which he agreed to subcontract out at least 10 percent of the work to a minority-owned business. But an investigation by the Miami-Dade County Inspector General’s Office found that Villaverde lied about hiring a company to help with the work, according to a press release.

According to Miami-Dade prosecutors, Villaverde submitted a document with the forged signature of the president of that minority-owned company, RC Construction.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Jackson Health contractor arrested on forgery charge."