Former Wynwood BID director stole $192,000 of public funds, state attorney says
The former interim executive director of the Wynwood Business Improvement District was arrested Tuesday for siphoning nearly $200,000 in public funds to pay for vacations, bills and meals with the stolen cash, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
“When an official diverts public money for personal gain, they absolutely betray the people they were employed to serve,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said during a Tuesday press conference.
Florentino Antonio Diaz is facing 29 charges — including grand theft, scheme to defraud and forgery — in connection with a series of unauthorized wire transfers from the Wynwood BID general fund to his personal bank account, Rundle said.
The Wynwood BID was formed in 2013 as an autonomous municipal board, which represents more than 400 property owners within the 50-block Arts District in Miami. From September 2024 to May 2025, Diaz served as the interim executive director of the Wynwood BID.
Miami Police Department detectives started looking into Diaz after Wynwood BID Vice Chairman Daniel Whyte reported that a final interest payment from TD Bank from the general interest fund went missing while the agency was transitioning to Banesco USA Bank for a higher interest rate, Rundle said. Diaz was supposed to spearhead this transition.
Diaz had allegedly submitted to TD Bank a letter that was on official letterhead, signed with Whyte’s forged signature and requested the final interest payment of $46,336.41 to be released directly to him.
Surveillance footage from May 23, 2025, showed Diaz depositing the cashier’s check in his personal account inside the Coral Gables branch of the Banesco USA Bank, Rundle said.
Investigators subpoenaed all of Wynwood BID’s bank statements since 2023 and found irregular transactions initiated by Diaz.
An extensive review of the bank records showed there were 26 questionable wire transfers that totaled $146,216.60, originated from the Wynwood BID general fund account and were diverted into Diaz’s personal bank account from July 2024 to May 2025, Rundle said.
Diaz is accused of covering up his tracks by presenting altered bank statements to Wynwood BID’s bookkeeper by superimposing the names of vendors over his own name to make the wire transfers appear legitimate. He claimed he was sending thousands to vendors such as Cox Radio and McClatchy Media Company, which operates the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald, but was allegedly pocketing the funds.
The Wynwood BID general fund was made whole by TD Bank, and Diaz will likely be on the hook for restitution, Rundle said.
Diaz, 45, of Coral Gables, was being held on a $46,000 bond at the Miami-Dade Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, jail records show. He did not have an attorney listed yet.
Some people believe “somehow they deserve the money that doesn’t belong to them even knowing that they are stealing,” Rundle said.
While Diaz was being taken into custody, former Miami-Dade School Board member Lubby Navarro was being sentenced Tuesday to 14 months in prison for spending up to $100,000 on her district-issued credit cards for luxury trips, secret tracking devices and fake pregnancy bellies.
Navarro’s actions were “sadly familiar” to Diaz’s actions in this case, which “erodes the public’s trust,” according to Rundle.
