Prosecutors close inquiry into ‘phishing’ allegation against Gables commissioner
The inquiry into an alleged “phishing” scheme involving political surveys in Coral Gables is over.
The matter reviewed by Miami-Dade prosecutors relates to a series of political surveys that were sent to residents in 2023 and 2024. The State Attorney’s Office said it reviewed two complaints alleging that Commissioner Ariel Fernandez was involved: one sent by Coral Gables Police Chief Edward Hudak after the City Commission voted to investigate the situation, and the other sent by Mayor Vince Lago.
The State Attorney’s Office this week announced that it has closed its inquiry and will not launch a formal investigation into Fernandez after determining there was insufficient evidence linking him to the surveys.
Even if he was involved, tracking the respondents’ answers “is not a crime,” according to a close-out memo written by Tim VanderGiesen, chief of the office’s public corruption unit.
“The memorandum issued by the State Attorney’s office is unambiguous: the allegations against me were baseless,” Fernandez told the Miami Herald in a statement. “There was no wrongdoing. None. This is not a matter of interpretation, it is a matter of fact.”
The survey emails were sent to residents from People Count USA, a group that no longer has an active website and is not registered in Florida corporate or political committee records. The batch of emails was sent using the survey platform Mailchimp and began circulating in August 2023, about four months after Fernandez and Commissioner Melissa Castro were elected, beating opponents who were supported by Lago.
Details about the alleged phishing scheme were laid out in posts by the anonymous Aesop’s Gables blog and a lawsuit that was filed by a Gables resident who sought to unmask the identity of the person behind the surveys.
The gist of the complaint “is that Commissioner Fernandez, in his official position, ran anonymous polling, illegally tracked respondent answers, and destroyed or withheld public records relating to the same,” VanderGiesen summarized in the memo.
The details raised enough concern last year for Lago, Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson and Commissioner Richard Lara to call for an investigation into the matter. Commissioner Melissa Castro, who, like Fernandez, is often at odds with the other commissioners, did not support launching an investigation that relied on an anonymous blog.
In a statement to the Herald on Friday, Lago stuck to his guns.
“The State Attorney declined to pursue criminal charges. That is not the same as a finding that nothing happened, and Commissioner Fernandez knows it,” the mayor said. “He has spent over a year refusing to deny that he was behind these surveys, because he cannot.”
The findings
The State Attorney’s Office, with assistance from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, began to gather information to see “whether the allegations rise to the level of a reasonable suspicion of crime” before formally launching investigation efforts, such as subpoenas to identify the pollsters.
On Tuesday, after months of reviewing information, prosecutors determined that there was “insufficient evidence of criminal activity to warrant further inquiry” and that no laws were broken, according to the memo.
“This matter is now closed,” VanderGiesen wrote.
The prosecutor, in the memo, laid out three reasons for his determination:
- “First, in response to the allegation that the pollsters violated ‘anti-phishing’ laws. There is no anti-phishing criminal offense in Florida,” he wrote, explaining that while there is a law that prohibits activity “involving commercial electronic mail message,” it was not the type of email involved in the incident.
- He also found no evidence that the polling in question qualified as a public record under state law or that Fernandez “used his official position or City resources to conduct the polling.” The prosecutor explained that even if Fernandez had done the polling, there “is nothing that prohibits a public official from conducting polling in his or her capacity as a private citizen,” and in that situation, he would not be required to produce the records.
- “Finally, if the person(s) conducting the polling did track the respondents’ answers, that is not a crime. There is no allegation that the captured data was used in a criminal manner.”
The closure of the State Attorney’s Office inquiry is a win for Fernandez and his attorney David Winker, who now plan to ask the city to drop its own inquiry into the matter. It comes at a good time for Fernandez, who is still deciding whether to run for reelection in this year’s November election and has repeatedly had the phishing accusations hurled at him by Lago during commission meetings.
Lago, who recently sponsored an item that passed with the support of Anderson and Lara to condemn and crack down on anonymous political polls and surveys, says he’s been the victim of slander and other attacks from anonymous fictitious organizations like People Count USA and has publicly pushed Fernandez to say if he was, or was not, involved with the surveys. Fernandez never answered.
Now, Fernandez and Winker are speaking up, blasting Lago, Anderson and Lara for what they’re describing as a political witch hunt.
“Mayor Lago has a pattern of making statements that his political enemies are under criminal investigation and then lobbying the Coral Gables Police Department, FDLE, and the Miami-Dade state attorney to initiate such investigations,” Winker said. Lago has previously made similar public statements, accusing Fernandez of whipping up allegations against him.
“It is a good thing when [the mayor’s] accusations are proven false in close-out memos like this, but it is important to highlight how his false accusations against fellow commissioners and the residents he serves destroy civility and our ability to get things done in the city, but more importantly how they distract from the important work of these agencies in fighting actual crime,” Winker added.
Lago, in his own statement, chastised Fernandez for what he framed as a “massive violation of public trust and disregard for resident privacy.”
“Sending political surveys to constituents through a fabricated civic entity, with hidden tracking links tied to their real identities, is deceptive and unethical regardless of what the criminal code reaches,” the mayor said.
Fernandez didn’t mince words in his statement and accused Lago, Anderson and Lara of using authoritarian tactics to silence and hurt those who go against them. He also called the outcome “a permanent indictment of the anonymous blog Aesop Gables, its operatives and collaborators,” describing it as a platform that is not credible and is meant to “defame, intimidate, and destroy the reputations of anyone who does not align with the political agenda of Lago, Anderson and Lara.”
For Fernandez, the decision by prosecutors is vindication.
“The rule of law exists not to shield those who orchestrate smear campaigns against political opponents, but to protect those who are unjustly targeted by them. That protection has been affirmed here, unequivocally,” Fernandez said.
The person behind Aesop’s Gables, in a message to the Herald, referred to the outcome as “mildly disappointing, but unsurprising” and said they disagreed with the interpretation of the public records laws. He described Fernandez’s comments about the blog as “typical Ariel, to wit, hyperbolic counter-accusations, with a heavy dose of projection, in place of any engagement with the facts.”
When asked about the outcome, Anderson said it was “good news for Coral Gables that the State Attorneys Office has closed out this matter” and said it should “serve as a word of caution that people need to be careful when clicking on links in emails.”
“In this case, the link just led to a poll, but others may lead to a computer virus,” she said.
Lara told the Herald he “fully” supports the decision by the State Attorney’s Office, noting that the “standard for bringing criminal charges is appropriately high, and allegations involving elected officials warrant especially careful scrutiny.”
“Let’s continue to focus on what is best and right for the residents of Coral Gables,” Lara said.
This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 12:30 PM.
