‘Suspicious’ car rental, other payments by mayor’s campaign not criminal, probe finds
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office investigated payments related to the 2016 mayoral campaign of Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, finding a “suspicious” car rental and some “haphazard” accounting but insufficient evidence to prove any criminal activity, according to a memorandum that describes the probe.
The investigation delved into whether Gilbert’s rental of an Infiniti QX80 constituted an unreported campaign expenditure; whether Gilbert instructed the Miami Gardens city clerk to falsify the date on an amended campaign treasurer’s report; and whether he directed his campaign to make improper payments to a for-profit company and to incorrectly label those payments as donations to a nonprofit.
In each instance, prosecutors said they couldn’t prove the case. In a close-out memo dated May 5, Assistant State Attorney Nolen Andrew Bunker said the investigation had been closed into whether Gilbert engaged in money laundering or false statements — both third-degree felonies — and whether he committed a campaign reporting/expenditure violation, a first-degree misdemeanor.
“[T]he State cannot prove beyond, and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, that Mr. Gilbert knowingly and willfully violated the campaign reporting statute, made a false statement regarding a matter within the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of State, or laundered money,” the memo says.
Gilbert has been the mayor of Miami Gardens, a northern Miami-Dade suburb of about 113,000 people, since 2012. He is serving his second and final term due to term limits and is running to replace Barbara Jordan on the Miami-Dade County Commission in District 1. Gilbert’s opponent for the seat is Sybrina Fulton, an activist and the mother of the late Trayvon Martin.
He won reelection as mayor in 2016 with 69% of the vote, defeating two challengers while pulling in about $150,000 in campaign contributions.
Gilbert declined an interview request from the Miami Herald, but in a statement provided by city spokeswoman Tania Francois, Gilbert’s attorney, H.T. Smith, pointed out that Gilbert’s 2016 reelection effort “was run by family members and friends” who worked part time on the campaign.
“They all have a personal relationship with the Mayor and were working to present a bold vision to the voters of the City of Miami Gardens,” Smith said. “Any errors made were errors of the heart and not of the head.”
Now, Smith said, Gilbert’s county commission campaign is being run by “political professionals who handle his campaign’s accounting, record-keeping and compliance services.”
Gilbert also placed blame on a political rival, former Miami Gardens councilman Andre Williams, for bringing allegations about his campaign finance reports to the attention of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, which turned the matter over to the state attorney.
“This is a classic case of sour grapes,” Smith said of Williams, who served on the council from 2006 to 2012 and lost runoff elections in 2014 and 2016. He is running for a council seat again this year. “The accusations by Andre Williams were not only politically motivated but also legally baseless.”
Williams told the Herald in an email that he believes Gilbert should have been criminally charged.
“The facts of the investigation speak for themselves,” he said. “If Gilbert were a regular person, he would probably be under arrest for money laundering or civil theft. Another example of the flawed and biased criminal justice system in Miami-Dade County.”
The ethics commission closed out its corresponding case on June 10 after reviewing the state attorney’s office findings and determining there were no issues within its jurisdiction to pursue further.
A spokesman for the state attorney’s office declined to comment on the investigation beyond the 15-page close-out memo.
‘Suspicious’ rental car
The close-out memo describes the circumstances surrounding Gilbert’s June 2016 rental of an Infiniti car as “troublingly suspicious” — including payments for the car, which were made by the head of a local company who helped the campaign and, later, via a credit card belonging to Gilbert’s mother.
The rental car wasn’t explicitly reported as a campaign expenditure, even though an executive of the auto company, Warren Henry Auto Group, was under the impression that the vehicle “was being procured as part of the 2016 Gilbert mayoral campaign,” the memo says.
Gilbert told the Herald the car had indeed been used for the campaign, but that the expenses were reported as part of a broad invoice for “campaign services.”
Warren Zinn, the owner of Warren Henry Auto, met with Gilbert and suggested a particular car might fit his needs: an Infiniti QX80 that had previously been used by the legendary Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula in his capacity as a spokesman for Warren Henry Auto Group.
The car had substantial interior damage when Shula returned it, the close-out memo says, but Zinn said he could lease it to Gilbert for $500 a month to help the company “recoup the unexpected depreciation” of its value. Gilbert had approached Zinn about leasing a vehicle that was big enough for several passengers, but Zinn said he didn’t recall Gilbert mentioning his reelection campaign.
In an email on June 2, 2016, Erick Day, the chief financial officer at Warren Henry Auto Group, told Gilbert and others that the monthly car payments “can be billed via the campaign’s credit card if it has one.” But ultimately, investigators said the evidence didn’t conclusively show that the rental “was intended to be of service in Mr. Gilbert’s 2016 mayoral election campaign, or that Mr. Gilbert received a discounted rate because of the campaign.”
“There is not sufficient direct evidence to prove beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt that the payment of the rental invoice for the Infiniti QX80 was an unreported campaign expenditure,” the close-out memo says.
Investigators found that Kendra Bulluck, a friend and business associate of Gilbert who handled some financial aspects of his 2016 campaign, wrote two checks to the rental car company: one for $500, which was cashed, and one for $2,616.11, which was never cashed because Bulluck forgot to endorse it.
But when the car was returned on March 2, 2017, the name on the rental agreement had changed from Gilbert’s to his mother’s, Kirklyn Gilbert. The total rental charge of over $5,000 was paid — except for the $500 check written by Bulluck — via a credit card in Kirklyn Gilbert’s name.
Kirklyn Gilbert, who is in her late 70s, told investigators in a December 2018 sworn statement that her memory wasn’t good, and that she didn’t recall paying for a rental car for her son. Two months later, however, she submitted an affidavit saying she “was aware of the transaction charged to her credit card from a rental car agency,” that she had authorized her son to use her credit card, and that she was reimbursed for the purchase.
“[T]he evidence regarding whether Mr. Gilbert unlawfully used Ms. Gilbert’s credit card to pay the final invoice for the Infiniti QX80 is internally contradictory,” the close-out memo says, “and insufficient to prove beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt that Mr. Gilbert unlawfully used Ms. Gilbert’s credit card.”
‘Haphazard’ accounting
The investigation also focused on four payments that Gilbert’s 2016 reelection campaign made to a local company, Champion Learning Inc., that was run by Bulluck and closely associated with a not-for-profit, Sisters for Abundant Living Ministries. Bulluck did work for Gilbert’s campaign and was also the registered agent for Gilbert’s personal law office, Eden Law Services of South Florida.
Bulluck said the campaign wrote checks to Champion Learning, rather than to her directly, because she did “everything through Champion.”
Two of the campaign’s payments to Champion were marked as donations to a 501(c)3 nonprofit, even though Champion is a for-profit company. Political candidates in Florida are allowed to donate surplus campaign funds to nonprofits, but only after the election is held.
The payments to Champion — including one for $14,000 the day before the 2016 election — were supposed to be used for campaign purposes. Investigators found that they largely were, but they still couldn’t account for $2,930.
Ultimately, the close-out memo notes, Bulluck’s accounting was “remarkably haphazard and inept.” Her judgment, investigators added, “appeared to be clouded by her alternating and overlapping long-term close personal and professional relationships with Mr. Gilbert.”
Because of sloppy record-keeping, the state attorney’s office couldn’t determine, for example, whether the $500 payment Bullock made for the car rental constituted a campaign expenditure.
“[T]his investigation was unnecessarily complicated by, and prolonged because of, Ms. Bulluck’s poor judgment, disorganization, and inept accounting,” the memo says.
The state attorney’s office declined to bring third-degree grand theft charges against Bulluck because they couldn’t prove she ever used, or intended to use, campaign money for personal purposes.
Bulluck couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Monday at the Champion Learning offices.
Amended campaign report
The state attorney’s office also examined efforts to amend the stated purpose of the Gilbert campaign’s $14,000 payment to Champion Learning on Aug. 29, 2016.
In June of 2018, the website FloridaBulldog.org reported that Gilbert had acknowledged his campaign was under investigation by an undisclosed agency in connection with the payment, whose stated purpose was “donations of funds to a 501(c)3 firm,” even though Champion is a for-profit company.
Sandra Saint-Hilaire, the deputy campaign treasurer, told investigators she chose unilaterally to describe the payment that way. “She decided that Champion was likely a not-for-profit organization based on her own research,” the memo says, noting that no one, including Gilbert, told her to do so.
According to investigators, an inquiry from the Florida Bulldog on May 23, 2018, is what prompted campaign officials to correct the report to say the $14,000 payment had actually been for “election day and campaign services,” rather than a donation to a 501(c)3.
But the date written on the amended report by Miami Gardens City Clerk Mario Bataille was March 20, 2018 — two months before campaign officials said they were even aware of the error.
Bataille first told investigators in May 2019 that he had no reason to believe the date he wrote was incorrect, and that no one had asked him to back-date the report. Either Gilbert or Jeff Cazeau, the campaign treasurer, had likely hand-delivered it to him, Bataille said.
But in July 2019, when two investigators met Bataille outside his home, he said he had recently spoken with Gilbert and realized he may have written the wrong date on the amended report.
“During this conversation, Mr. Gilbert informed Mr. Bataille that the date on the amended report was incorrect and he gave the amended report to Mr. Bataille on a different date,” the close-out memo says. “Mr. Bataille told [an investigator] that, after thinking about the date and speaking with Mr. Gilbert, he believed that he may have made a mistake regarding the date on the amended report.”
Asked to explain what happened, Gilbert’s spokeswoman told the Herald: “Mayor Gilbert can’t speak to Mr. Bataille’s memory.”
Bataille told the Herald on Monday that he realized his mistake not only through a conversation with Gilbert, but also from his initial meeting with investigators.
“This was honestly a clerical issue on my part,” Bataille said, adding that he wasn’t sure on what date the amended report was actually delivered to his office.
The state attorney’s office concluded it couldn’t prove that Gilbert “solicited Mr. Bataille to knowingly and willfully falsify the date” on the report, nor that Bataille “knowingly and willfully did so.”
This story has been updated to attribute statements to Gilbert’s attorney, H.T. Smith, rather than the city spokeswoman who provided them. Gilbert clarified after publication of this article that Smith wrote the statements.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 10:31 AM.
