The former Miami-Dade County Commission candidate, Sophia Lacayo, has been taken into custody over allegations of campaign finance violations. Lacayo, a past commissioner for Sweetwater, has previous legal entanglements, including a 2020 perjury charge for purportedly failing to fulfill the city’s residency requirements to run for office.
The recent arrest of the former commissioner, Sophia Lacayo, 45, took place on a Tuesday and was predicated on charges relating to campaign finance violations. The apprehension of Lacayo followed an inquiry by the State Attorney’s Office Task Force. The accusations are rooted in alleged transgressions of campaign finance regulations, as conveyed by CBS News Miami’s affiliate, the Miami Herald.
Lacayo has a history of legal confrontations, including a perjury charge in 2020 for allegedly not complying with the residency criteria set out in the City Charter for holding office. In the aftermath of her perjury charge, Lacayo conceded to step down from her role as Sweetwater commissioner as part of a plea deal, thus avoiding incarceration.
The current arrest is linked to Lacayo’s preceding campaign for a seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission. The Miami Herald disclosed that Lacayo professed to having invested $1,000,000 of her personal funds in the campaign. The specifics of the alleged fraudulent campaign records that triggered her recent arrest remain undisclosed. Further details about the charges are expected to be unveiled at a press conference at the State Attorney’s Office in Miami on the subsequent Wednesday afternoon.
Sophia Lacayo, a past contender for the 12th district of the Miami-Dade County Commission, was arrested on a Tuesday afternoon. She now faces 21 charges concerning the source and application of funds from her political campaign. The arrest took place at Miami International Airport, after which she was taken to Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Jail. Her bail for the campaign finance-related charges has been set at $14,500.
During Lacayo’s campaign against the then Doral Mayor Juan Carlos Bermúdez, questions surfaced about the origin of the $1.9 million Bermúdez had amassed. Examination of Lacayo’s campaign finance records exposed that a considerable portion of the funds originated from loans she had advanced to herself.
Furthermore, companies owned by Lacayo contributed the maximum allowable sum of $1,000. Some of these companies had been recipients of federal government aid via the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) during the pandemic. A Political Action Committee (PAC) voiced concerns about the donations from these companies that had previously received government loans.
Lacayo denied any inappropriate use of funds for her campaign and accused Bermúdez of levelling desperate allegations as his polls showed him lagging behind. In the August elections last year, Bermúdez clinched the race for the Miami-Dade Commission’s District 12 with 66 percent of the votes, while Lacayo garnered 34 percent.
Sophia Lacayo’s legal troubles are not a novel occurrence. After being elected commissioner of Sweetwater in 2019, she was charged with perjury for falsely declaring her address. She was later subjected to a year of probation. As part of her 2020 plea deal, she agreed to vacate her position. Despite her lawyer’s initial request to keep the case records sealed, they were made public.
