Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz signed a contract with the firm of her personal friend Israel Reyes —the same former judge who swore her in when she took office— allowing that law firm to keep up to 35% of the assets seized from businesses and individuals, according to an investigation published by WLRN.
The contract was signed approximately six months after Cordero-Stutz took the oath in January 2025. It is an agreement that sets contingency fees on the assets actually recovered. The firm receives 30% of the first million dollars, 25% of the second, and 20% of amounts above that. If the owner formally disputes the confiscation, the commission on the first million increases to 35%.
The agreement also includes an additional 5% when appeals are filed or further actions are required to enforce a judgment. Although the office only charges these fees if the assets are successfully recovered, the Sheriff's Office must cover the costs of investigation and litigation, even when the proceedings do not result in any recovery.
A problematic arrangement
Louis Rulli, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, warned WLRN that "the conflict of interest undermines the foundations of our justice system, neutrality, and the pursuit of justice. The ability to seize without charges and then maximize recovery based on contingency fees is a very concerning area."
In the two months following the signing of the contract, the Sheriff's Office seized over 45 million dollars in assets and bank accounts of local companies, in legal proceedings managed by the Reyes law firm.
The most striking case is that of SH Americas, described as the largest authorized distributor of Samsung in South Florida: the Sheriff’s Office confiscated 42.5 million dollars, leaving it without liquidity to pay salaries and on the verge of closing down. The company has not faced any criminal charges.
Reyes claimed before the Miami-Dade circuit court that he had identified 2.6 billion dollars in additional confiscable assets —which would earn him over 500 million in fees— although the court determined that those funds were outside its jurisdiction.
The revenues of the Sheriff's Office from fines and seizures increased from $396,000 at the beginning of the term to $9.6 million in the following fiscal year, a rise of 2,325%. That money does not go to the county treasury, but is recorded as income for the department.
How does the legal mechanism work?
The legal mechanism that makes all this possible is civil asset forfeiture. This is a procedure that allows authorities to judicially claim assets allegedly linked to criminal activities. In Florida, the law sets forth requirements and exceptions for their seizure and does not necessarily require a criminal conviction of the owner.
Rulli explained it this way: "In civil forfeiture, we operate under the fiction that the property did something wrong, not necessarily the individual, and that's why it is not necessary to condemn the individual for a crime."
The seizures are part of an investigation into an alleged money laundering network linked to two Chinese nationals, but none of the affected electronics companies have been criminally charged.
The defendant companies, represented by attorney Lisandra Guerrero, claimed a violation of due process. Circuit Judge Ariana Fajardo Orshan denied the disqualification of Reyes, arguing that the Sheriff's Office retains the decision-making authority over each case; the companies appealed to the Third District Court of Appeals of Florida.
Other controversies facing the Miami-Dade Sheriff
The controversy adds to other recent scandals involving Cordero-Stutz. In October, her office spent $132,000 on cowboy hats for her deputies and eliminated the security program that protects the mayor and county commissioners, amid a budgetary clash with the county administration.
Neither the Sheriff's Office nor the Reyes law firm responded to WLRN's requests for comment.
The position of sheriff in Miami-Dade had been abolished in 1966 precisely due to the widespread corruption that plagued it.
Cordero-Stutz became the first elected sheriff in nearly 60 years by winning the November 2024 elections with 55% of the votes. Companies appealed to the Third District Court of Appeals in Florida the decision that allowed the Reyes law firm to continue intervening in the seizure proceedings.
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