FORMER ASSISTANT AVIATION DIRECTOR
AT MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AND WIFE ARE SENTENCED

Edward N. Stamm, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Jose I. Marrero, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division; Carlos Alvarez, Director, the Miami-Dade Police Department; William P. Tompkins, Special Agent in Charge, United States Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General, Atlanta Region; and Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Dade County State Attorney, announced today that Ricardo Mendez and Mirta Mendez, were sentenced to Federal Prison for their public corruption scheme involving Miami International Airport contractors.

Ricardo Mendez was sentenced to 48 months imprisonment, followed by 2 years supervised release, fined $75,000, and ordered to pay over one million dollars in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and Miami-Dade County, for his 34 counts of conviction on mail fraud, bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, money laundering, tax evasion and filing false tax returns.

Mirta Mendez was sentenced to 5 months imprisonment, followed by 2 years of supervised release, that includes 5 additional months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, fined $30,000, and ordered to pay over one million dollars in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and Miami-Dade County, for her conviction for conspiracy to commit bribery.

Ricardo Mendez, an employee of Miami-Dade County for approximately 25 years, was the Assistant Aviation Director, Facilities Development, in the Miami-Dade County Aviation Department. The convictions and sentences arose from the awarding of contracts to clean contaminated soil at Miami International Airport and the awarding of service orders to provide three dimensional computer simulations of the facilities at Miami International Airport, in return for bribe payments from contractors at Miami International Airport.

Mr. Stamm commended the investigative efforts of the Internal Revenue Service, the Miami-Dade Police Department, the United States Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General and the Dade County State Attorney’s Office. The case was prosecuted by the Chief of the Criminal Division Thomas J. Mulvihill and Assistant United States Attorney Anita J. Gay of the Public Corruption Section.