County Employees Accused Of Fraud Remain Jailed
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A pair of former Miami-Dade County employees remained in jail Friday morning despite having their bonds reduced Thursday.
Jesus "Jay" Pons and Bruno Diaz face charges of defrauding taxpayers out of millions of dollars saw their bonds dropped to $750,000 each during a court hearing Thursday.
Pons' sister told the court she'd be willing to put up both cash and properties she owns with her husband in order to get her brother released from jail.
Pons and Diaz both face a slew of charges including racketeering, fraud and dozens of counts of official misconduct. Pons' wife, Diana, was also arrested and charged in connection to the case.
Pons and Diaz both worked for Miami-Dade County's Internal Services Department until last year when they resigned. Investigators said Pons used schemes ranging from bogus invoices to ghost employees to cheat taxpayers out of at least $6 million.
Prosecutors said he accepted kickbacks from an IT company contracted by the county. Prosecutors said pons lived a lavish lifestyle on the taxpayers' dime and now they plan to seize his home.
